A Long Awaited Project

I have been waiting to start this project for a little over two years. I have drawn up plans, made lists of flowers, looked on line for a special peony.  And last Sunday Mark decided it was time. Part of the process involved moving two good size burning bushes. And let me just tell you ...it is not a fun job. We just kept putting it off and putting it off, I think in hopes that the garden fairy would move them for us. Well, she sorta did...but we had to have a total collapse of our line to the septic tank (read all about it here) to get it done.  We were worried about a small bed right where they would have to dig. Before getting into position to begin digging..."Joe Shmo"  lifted  two boxwood hedges and some hosta with his little machine like he was cutting into butter.  And after they finished the big job that they were being paid to do, Mark talked 'Joe' into digging up the burning bushes.  I know for a fact that they would have never been moved them if had been left up to us.  And this flower bed would have never come to life.

First, one of our favorite jobs, removing the sod.  We got a lot of practice doing this in WI.  But we usually had my gardening, Ms Yvonne helping.  We missed her sorely today.  And I mean sorely because we both knew that that night we would be sore.  There were two holes left from the burning bushes....and you can see that we got a little rain the night before...making everything twice as heavy.

It took most of the day to dig out this little section.  We'd work and take a break and plan the next  attack.  Mark made three trips to the landscaping business dropping off truck loads of sod.

After dumping his last load he picked up a few smooth flat river rocks for me to stack.  My neighbor came over and started laughing.  She said that she had never seen me so dirty...and where was my camera for a picture for the blog...thanks Ms Renee.  I was dirty, muddy, sweaty, and really tired.

Ready for the next step.

Ethan and Luke were great helpers.  They unloaded the rocks from the truck and then listened very intently to the instructions for plant placement.  I was just too tired to get up and down a million times.

Three bee balm, a butterfly bush, clematis, a pink knockout rose bush...so far.

phlox and  with hosta behind that.

We still have lots of work to do because it has to be just perfect.  You see, it is my Sarah Beth Garden.  She is my 'neice' that fought a long and hard battle with cancer.  It will be all pinks and purples...those were her favorite colors.  We will add a pole for the clematis to climb, a little fence of some type, more dirt,  a Sarah Napier peony, some laripe and some dark mulch.  I think she would love it because it is pink and purple and that we had kids working together with us to get it finished.

You can read her amazing online journal of her journey thru her fight at LoveYourGuts.