Daylily Haiku Thursday (Monday) | Creature of the Night

With crispy cool air
on my nose, I feel the fall-
Stinging. Reminding.

I took this picture of H. 'Creature of the Night' at Diane Pruden's garden just before I left Michigan for the last time.  I visited there with my daylily buds Joel and Nicole on a hot summer Sunday in July - the pending move weighing heavily on my mind.  It seems ages ago now.  But it was just about 8 weeks...time sure flies when you are wishing for more.  I'm racing against Jack Frost now and I must get most of these plants into the ground ASAP.  We won't think of how many I will lose over the winter if I don't...

The progress here on Pheasant Court 8 weeks later is slower than I had hoped, but it is moving forward.  We got word that the entire lot will be tilled, grated and seeded this week.  HOORAY!  No more dirt lawn.  I really miss the lush green grass, and walking through it barefoot.  Can't do that now...it's a mess out there!  Anyway, 20 tons of top soil, 5 tons of compost, a ton of rotted manure, and lots of shoveling later...there are signs of a real island bed out there.
 
Before the trucks came with the top soil we had to till the terribly hard and baked fill dirt... then the trucks showed up!  There's me wrestling the huge tiller.  I'm deep in concentration- trying to not cut off a foot.


   
On top of the tilled ground, trucks dumped 3 5-ton piles of riverbed-harvested topsoil (shown in second picture above.)  We spread those together, roughly shaped the beds and THEN, on top of the 6" of well-tilled topsoil, we put the compost and rotted manure.

The beautiful black-gold amendments are shown in the third picture, ready to be tilled in to the new bed.  Also shown in that pic is the new Eastern Red Bud I picked out for the corner of this bed.  I have always wanted a Red Bud, and this one had such a perky shape, I had to have it.  Notice all the potted daylilies in the second picture have been moved (again) to allow me to see the "view" of the new bed.  I think I've touched these pots four million times now.

All the goodies finally got spread out, tilled together and I stared at it for a few days before I started planting.  I have really taken a ton of time with the plans, looking at the big picture, the short term enjoyment, and the long term growing situation.  I thought I had thought of everything.  I was ready to plant.  I actually started planting! 
And then the rains came. 

My oversight was revealed to me in the form of a large lake at the crook of my l-shaped bed.  A rather deep lake, actually.  Oh, nuts!


I built a dam.  SIGH.  I didn't even think of the drainage from the house!!!  We have central drainage from all the gutters in the neighborhood and apparently the grade of our house slopes right into the bed I just created.  I'm glad I didn't have the boulder edging installed already, or that would have to be torn into to install the drain.  So, now I'm learning to install a drain.  A big drain. 

More on that project later...


2 comments:

~~Rhonda said...

Nikki, I hope you've been able to get out and do some daylily work today. The weather is so beautiful! Oooo...too bad about that dam! Glad you found out now rather than later.

One word of caution re: your redbud tree and flower beds. Plant them too close together and you'll be digging out redbud seedlings forever. They love to sprout in mulch. Ask me how I know... :) Our beds are full of them. It is a constant battle. But that doesn't stop us from growing more redbuds. We love them and have about 20 on our 3.5 acres. Such a beautiful tree! I would have been happy to drop off some little ones, if I'd know you were wanting some. They grow so fast! From seedling to first bloom and taller than I am in usually four years.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/christmasnotebook/4503227730/

Happy gardening! ~~Rhonda ::who has enjoyed your daylily posts!::

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