I first spread a tarp on the ground above the bed and shoveled all the screened soil out of the bed. Then I laid a layer of landscaper’s cloth on the bottom of the bed and up the inside of the stone wall being sure there was enough on each end to wrap up the stone there as well. Once the cloth was in place, I shoveled enough soil back in to hold it in place. Next I added three bags of composted cow manure with humus and raked that out to mix with some of the soil. Then another layer of soil was added. Then half the 3 cubic feet of peat moss got shoveled on and raked in. Then came more soil, more peat moss, more soil and the last two bags of composted cow manure and finally the last of the soil. All the while, I was raising the stone wall a layer at a time and sending Terry to find some appropriate rocks for the back ledge of the bed. When all was done, I placed some of the left over hay from the lawn project on top to keep the clay from baking in the sun or washing away in a real heavy rain.
The best thing is that if I decide to build another bed up the slope. I should be able to use the top level of the back wall as the bottom edge of the wall. (It wouldn’t be part of the bottom row, I would put the new wall back into the slope so it just overlaps the edge of the stones already in place..)
Anyway, I do have lots of stone left which will be used on the next plant bed that will be built. This one will be done with a minimum of digging because the telephone/TV/computer line runs beneath the soil somewhere in the vicinity. It will go just to the right-foreground of this telephone pole. (A remnant of the previous owners wind mill project I believe.) I’ll have to do something to beat the weeds back. That won’t be easy as there’s a good sized multiflora rose sitting front and center and those things have got thorns to rival the blackberry canes.
1 comment:
It looks great!!
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