I got tons done in the garden today and as a result my back is aching! Can someone buy me a dux bed??? Anyway, yesterday I went plant shopping with mi madre at Gro-rite in Lincoln Park. I picked up some herbs and plants for pots as well as a bunch of shade loving perennials for the yard. I spent too much money but they were hard to resist! On my way back to my apartment I stopped at the Home Depot Zoo to pick up some manure and peat moss to prep my dirt. I also got an azalea since they were $5!
I spent about 5 hours in the garden today. I got a lot done but with all the rocks in the soil pretty much everything is back breaking. My main focus was clearing out the back corner to prep for the vegetable garden. I had to move all the bits of concrete and pile of rocks that I had sorted yesterday but that wasn’t even the hard part! I ended up doing a bit of a raised bed since the yard slopes down toward the buildings. I will probably put in another smaller bed for herbs next to it as well. So here is the before and after photo of that piece of the yard. It probably took about 3 hours to do all of that. I also mixed the manure and peat moss in with that soil so it’s ready for planting.
Here is a closeup of the soon-to-be veggie plot
I took a little break from the vegetable plot to do 2 container plantings. I bought 4 of these 18″ pots at target for $7 each. They are basically serving as a wall to the stairs down to the first buildings’ basement. The other 2 have railing next to them and I don’t want any one to fall down that one. Originally I was going to try to find/build a box, but I figured $28 was worth the money. So these have these cool purpley daisies, a spike, a vine and some petunias. I think they will grow in well.
And finally some shots of the other plantings I did. I stole some baby daylillies and hostas from my moms house. I also bought a flat of some gorgeous coleus and a bergamot plant.
the daylillies
the coleus, hosta, and bergamot plants (sorry its a little blurry)
