Big Things Afoot

We have been in major landscaping mode the past few weeks and have gotten a lot accomplished. We had 10 yards of top soil delivered a couple of weeks ago and have moved about half of it to the backyard. We will finish moving and distributing this weekend and get grass planted all around the pool area. This is going to be a huge improvement for the backyard, which was previously peastone gravel. We will also make a patio area, but that will have to wait until spring most likely.

In addition to the dirt, I also created a new rock border around the garden bed in the pool area, which I'm very happy about. It's bigger and better than the last border, and should do a good job of dividing the grass and garden areas.

Yesterday we ordered 2 large pallets of cut moss fieldstone, which will be delivered next week. We will use this to build borders around the new beds in front of the house. We tilled up most of the soil in these beds last weekend, and I got one of the beds built up with topsoil, cow manure and peat moss week. After we build the borders it will probably need to be built up more, but at least we're getting there.

My bulbs and plants from van Bourgendien will be delivered in the next couple of weeks, and I'll also be purchasing the Nova Zembla. I need to get everything planted by October 15, that's my cutoff. But I hope to have it planted by end of this month so it has a few weeks to harden and establish before the first frost. Fingers crossed that all my transplants and new stuff make it.

Here are a few pics of what's happening in the gardens.

Aster novi-belgii Sloopy:


Sedum spectabile Autumn Joy:





New stone wall around pool bed:



10 yards of topsoil: