So feel "cheated" it is a blessing to be able to garden, even if in containers. I love my containers too. We can pull weeds out of them too...

OK, Rick... YOU have way more mattoxes than are healthy... have you talked to someone about your addiction?

Renee, the hollies were tall enough that I had to stand on a stepladder to trim them (I'm 5'1"), and so close to the house you couldn't get behind them to do any maintenance. I dug out five by hand, over the space of 2-3 months (I waited until fall, of course), and SOAKED that GA clay before starting to work on it. There were another 7 that my neighbor came over and ripped out for me with his F250 and a chain.

>> YOU have way more mattoxes than are healthy...

Probably so!

>> have you talked to someone about your addiction?

Only while shopping for even more mattocks, axes and hoes. ;-)

My next acquisition might be a wider-bladed hoe so I can pull more soil in one swipe while mixeing in amendments for the next raised bed.

Maybe a power auger ...

What I really want is an antigravity projector. Then I could deep-turn an entire field at a time.

You gonna get tired, drilling all those holes , even with an auger....Wait til you hit a rock!!

Broken auger!

I would LOVE a power auger! Actually, I'll settle for that attachment that goes on a drill... Each fall I plant about 200 bulbs -- not on purpose, but they keep following me home from the store, and once you have them, you have to plant them.... right?

My method would probably make "real" gardeners gasp in horror. Step 1 - open all the bags of bulbs and dump them together into one box. (daffys, hyacinths, crocuses, usually). Step 2 - dig a trench. Step 3 - grab a handful of bulbs and scatter throughout the trench. Step 5 - cover this trench, and dig another one., repeating all 5 steps until the box is empty and your back is on fire.

Every spring is a surprise for me, as I wait for the bulbs to bloom. Sometimes my yard looks like a rainbow with all the different hyacinth colors.

Sounds good to me. All except for the back on fire part. Been there done that. Toooooo many times.

I bet it is beautiful in the spring. Well worth the work....

Here's what a portion looked like in spring 2010. It's all the same portion, just getting progressively closer to it. BTW, that bed they're in didn't exist when I bought the house.









(of course, I feel compelled to add: click to embiggen)

Oh so pretty Mary! I'm jealous.

Great job...Beautiful...

You guys are so good for my ego


Thanks!

Really nice bulbs, Mary! I especially like the "line of color" . Like God drew his finger along the turf, or a fairy flew over it, whichever you prefer.


Hi Charleen!

>> Wait til you hit a rock!!

Too true ... I would never have to wait more than 4-5 seconds.

What a beautiful property! That planting method sounds easier than digging one hole after another, dropping one bulb in, covering it, and repeating the whole process a bazillion times. Smart one, you are!

I like the God drawing a finger, Rick, but thanks for being sensitive in case I preferred another option. What a gentlemanly thing to do.

As for rocks, sometimes I think part of Stone Mountain is buried in my yard (it might be -- that granite outcropping has to travel underground quite a distance, doncha think?

I *think* my game plan is to outline the beds with bulbs -- at least the street-facing edges of them. Since some of those beds just got defined this spring, I see another bulb-planting extravaganza this fall. (just don't tell my back, ok? Then again, I have that awesome massage therapist now -- maybe by October my back will be up to it)

KyWoods said:What a beautiful property! That planting method sounds easier than digging one hole after another, dropping one bulb in, covering it, and repeating the whole process a bazillion times. Smart one, you are!

Oh, thank you! Can you please tell my mom? She had a different word for it that started with L, ended in Y, and had a Z in the middle somewhere.

But she's an now, so she finally sees the real me.

When I found this house, besides falling in love with the house itself, I fell in love with the front yard -- it was totally a blank slate.

>> I *think* my game plan is to outline the beds with bulbs

Cool! Like highlighting or underlining.

I read about a suggestion for detrmining whether your big lawn needed more lime or a particular nutrient. Take your fertilizer spreader, and spread lime or phosphate down only in one big word " L I M E " or " P " . Later that summer, if you can read that word in greener grass, you need more lime.

>> thanks for being sensitive in case I preferred another option.

Thank you! I just know that I don't know. I would say that It is a lot like gardening: bigger and grander than one person or any one description can fully encompass. I just hope that It is patient with my ideas about it!

P.S. For once, we've drifted back on topic. After all, the thread title is "OMG!"

RickCorey said:>> I *think* my game plan is to outline the beds with bulbs

Cool! Like highlighting or underlining.

Or like having soemthing blooming when nothing else is, yeah.

I read about a suggestion for detrmining whether your big lawn needed more lime or a particular nutrient. Take your fertilizer spreader, and spread lime or phosphate down only in one big word " L I M E " or " P " . Later that summer, if you can read that word in greener grass, you need more lime.

What a cool idea! I pretty much don't worry about my lawn, though... I have a 10ft strip by the street that is mostly henbit deadnettle, but the rest of it is a rich zoysia that seems to be in great shape, according to my favorite neighbor who mows for me. I might do that just for the wow factor, though. I could use the lime to spell out 'hi" for instance.

>> thanks for being sensitive in case I preferred another option.

Thank you! I just know that I don't know. I would say that It is a lot like gardening: bigger and grander than one person or any one description can fully encompass. I just hope that It is patient with my ideas about it!

P.S. For once, we've drifted back on topic. After all, the thread title is "OMG!"

Tell you what, I'm a big fan of the concept of a higher power, even as I consider myself a traditional Christian (ummm... some of my friends would say I'm a very UNtraditional Christian). But I can look back over the last 50 years and see exactly how things from my childhood led me to the yard concepts I have today, like an inexorable progression with only one possible outcome. It fascinates me (should blog about that, someday).

Sometimes when digging holes here I fell like i'm on a mountain too, but not Stone Mountain, that is one beautiful Bald rock. It's been a while since I've been up there but it sure is worth the trip.
Rick I have hit some rocks with my tiller and it bounces all over the place....

Ridesredmule said:Sometimes when digging holes here I fell like i'm on a mountain too, but not Stone Mountain, that is one beautiful Bald rock. It's been a while since I've been up there but it sure is worth the trip.
Rick I have hit some rocks with my tiller and it bounces all over the place....

I have a little Mantis tiller, and it does a St Elmo's dance when it finds a largish rock ("largish" = fist size?). But it sure can tear up that red GA clay, as long as it's not August.