Connecting the Dots

Another project that I would put in the "major" category is underway. There is still so much to do, so when David said he was game to rent a sod-cutter, I got excited. That means crossing another item from the big list. But now I'm saying "What the *&%$!!** did we do?"

Before last weekend, we had sod. OK, weed/sod but it was green at least. I have a vision to connect the labyrinth garden (the circle you see in the deep-middle of this photo) with the gravel garden in the main portion of this photo. The vision is to take up the sod in between and create large sweeps of ornamental grasses and possibly low-growing wildflowers.

 Here's a very early before photo from November. That was simply ages ago.

 Give David a power tool and he's off and running. He did all of the sod-cutting; what a guy.

 I rolled it up as I could or raked it into piles as much of it did not roll. It's fairly poor grass so it crumbled into little bits. I was not surprised.

 Here you can just make out the boundary line where the grass has been cut but not yet removed. To the left most of the sod has been removed but the strips of un-sod-cutter cut grass -- grass David missed with the sod-cutter -- David is still removing in a process he terms "mohawking"....so he has been mohawking the final bits all week.

Although difficult to make out (a sea of brown isn't exactly photogenic), this is the area between the two aforementioned garden areas. You can see David mohawking behind the tree. He has plenty mohawks here in the foreground. He loves his shovel.

Dirt to accommodate these: The last of the plant prison inmates. Grasses from the old house, from blogger friends and purchased last year.

I already had an idea how I wanted these to look so this was the fun part, laying it all out.

 David says the rolled sod reminds him of the sausage rolls he enjoyed recently in Australia. (what??)

I have a vision in my head of light shining through these so they are placed at an almost north-south direction so both the morning sun and evening sun can shine through.

 Here is the first bunch planted with morning sunshine. What I have planted here is Amsonia in front, then Anemanthele lessoniana 'Sirocco' (the orange one), then Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah'. There are 14 plants in all right here, and the soil was so hard that each one took about 15 minutes. I'm not joking. Plus, there was a layer of river rock about an inch into the soil, so I had to remove that happy fun mess.

Here it is with a cat for scale.

OK two cats sampling the buffet that I planted just for them.

 And Hobbes complaining the lawn is gone. I have a lot more to plant but that's all I have had time for since last weekend. I have a truckload of compost being delivered today, that will help indeed. The only good thing about this soil is believe it or not, it's well-drained so I am hopeful that with the addition of good compost in time it will be better. I still have many other grasses to plant such as Miscanthus 'Little Zebra', Panicum 'Cloud 9', Pennisetum 'Moudry'. I will have to carefully consider where to place them as I only have one or two of each. What to go in between? I have my sights set on Carex pansa or California meadow sedge. I need quite a bit and it will be expensive to fill in, so I think I'll only be able to to chunks at a time but it will be worth it in the end. It is then at this point that I'm saying "What the *&%$!!** did we do?" as we'll have to look at dirt for quite a while. 

So why get rid of the grass at all and why Carex pansa? Carex pansa is native to the West Coast, it has a shaggy look and doesn't need mowing so much. I like the wild look and I feel it connects this land with the surrounding landscape much better. I also wish to eventually remove more lawn beyond what we have done here and begin to grow a meadow at the outer edges of this land. I may also do some modified version of a shorter meadow between some of these ornamental grasses....time will tell.

To keep us all going, we've indulged in the Nepeta or cat mint. Hobbes actually discovered it for the first time this week. I think he likes it, don't you? Now it will be easy to keep tabs on him while we're out digging grass-holes or mohawking grassy strips.

That is what's happening this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always, thank you for reading and happy gardening!