OK ... I will.
When I bought my house, everything was covered in snow. Yes, I knew I was going to be gardening on several levels because the house was built on a slope, but I truly underestimated how labor intensive that would be as this is my first in-ground garden. I had only owned a condo before and had only done container gardening.
I also didn't know what was under the snow ...
I thought I was going to be removing lawn. When I came up for the closing of the escrow, this is what I found:
I also didn't know what was under those rocks ..
The native soil under the rocks was/is what we call glacier slurry up here. Tightly compressed small rocks with clay and silt between them. Although it has perfect drainage, I couldn't dig a hole even with a pick. The soil was dead.
I actually thought I could plant a rose garden there.
Someone once told me it takes twenty years to create a garden. I think it will take me a bit longer. I am at the eleven year mark and have all of the roses planted, but need to complete the beds because I don't want a mono garden.
I didn't know you were supposed to prepare whole beds, so I dug rose holes. Over the years I've made beds and improved the soil by hauling in a lot of organic material that was never dug in because I didn't want to wreck the drainage. I can now dig in the beds with a trowel. Also, the soil inside the beds is very alive with lots of worms and soil bacteria and fungi.
This is a photo of part of the house pad garden taken in May, 2014:
This is a photo taken last month:
The bare dirt you see between the beds is the native soil I found under the rocks. It can grow some weeds and grass if it gets water.
I do have a rose garden. I have about 100 roses planted in various beds on the house pad, the top tier in front of the house and a rose in a bed on the street level.
I still have a LOT of work to do.
Smiles,
Lyn
