Donkey work

Spring is starting to show what has survived.  Here, the planter that I did up last fall is finally giving me a little cheery colour, narcissi and a dark viola with the gold sedge, some heuchera and a variegated lingonberry. Of course, with the move and stuff still in boxes, I have no idea what I did with the labels. Maybe eventually, I will be organized and will be able to rescue the correct names from somewhere.

(update August 19, 2014: found labels. Narcissus "Tête à Tête" -- planted by my former housemate and her mom; then, Viola cornuta 'Black', Carex oshimensis 'Evergold', Gaultheria mucronata "Variegata', and the Heucheras are still a mystery.)

The planter was one that was here when I arrived last fall. My housemate and her mom had planted it up with a few things, the only surviving things being the narcissi. They are lovely. I moved them around a bit to accommodate the things I added last fall.

Can you see the pea shoots going crazy?

So, an afternoon's work and between my upstairs neighbors and I, we got the soil shifted.

The Plan is that Marla and Steve will put their veg into the first bed, and I've been allocated the bed towards the back.  Both get a fair bit of sun, Marla and Steve's in the morning through until the late afternoon, mine being completely in the sun from just before mid-day to early evening.

Marla is a beginner and quite nervous, despite my assuring her that I've killed a lot of plants along the way...Maybe that's not reassuring!

Under the spruce, there's a dead spot that I layered with compost, cardboard, soil and bark mulch. Into it, I moved the bits of sedum and stuff that the previous tenant had left behind in the planting boxes, and also my own lavender from my pots. The front of this bed gets lots of sun for most of the day and is very dry in the rain-shadow of the spruce.

To border the bed, I repurposed the driftwood that had been stacked up in one of the veg beds for some reason or other.

Now, to recover! Shifting that heavy wet soil has been back-breaking! I'm pretty sure I am going to be sore for the next couple of days at least!