aspenhill's blog: Making Berms

Sunday
There is always a construction zone somewhere with the many projects taken on and dragged out for way too long over the years. I think putting the greenhouse in is probably the last of the projects that will cause major upheaval. It has been thirty two years of building the house and making improvements, and projects are finally winding down.

The south side of the house has been torn up and a muddy mess since the April timeframe from the greenhouse project and to a smaller degree, the grotto project. Mike finally got around to doing something with the excavated dirt piles. Some was used for regrading and shaping around the greenhouse itself, but there was quite a bit of dirt still left to deal with.

I came up with the idea of making berms. Berms really do add a nice design element to the gardens. Mike can move dirt around easily with the various pieces of machinery that he has, and he has a true aptitude for it. On Friday he made two long berms for me. One is along the upper edge of the Gazebo Garden and the other is along the wood line. The berm along the upper edge of the Gazebo Garden will help control water flow and the berm along the wood line will be a perfect location for relocating the Epimedium Walk. I've been pondering a better location for the Epimedium Walk ever since I went to see Garden Vision Epimediums in Massachusetts in the spring of 2022. When I saw how epimediums perform in the right conditions, I realized that my collection was in too much shade.

Mike will get a load of topsoil/compost mix for topdressing the berms. He was all set to do that on Saturday, but the rains started overnight and it was just too wet. I have a whole pallet of mulch that I can use too. That should keep the mud at bay for the winter. I doubt I'll do any epimedium relocating or other planting on those berms until spring.

I sure hope to finish the cleanup of the south side of the house before winter. We still need to get another load of gravel for surrounding the exterior of the greenhouse. Mike also brought a concrete ramp home from some job site that he will set leading up to the greenhouse door. Kent should have the stonework completed on the reconstruction of my dad's grotto soon, so that area can get cleaned up too. With the irrigation system repaired and construction zones all taken care of, things are really shaping up for a stellar 2024 gardening season!

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