Flower garden before weeding.
Saturday we finally took some time to attack the weeds in the newest flower garden. I had hoped to make this my bulb garden, but none of the tulips that I planted survived the first winter in this spot. Fortunately I did not actually move all of them, and they are growing and blooming in the original spot. The irises on the other hand did manage to make it through the winter and even bloomed fairly nicely this spring. The problem, though, was finding them after the grass began to appear. I have included a few shots of what this place looked like and what it looks like now. 
I have a small picture of the pile of grass and weeds that we pulled out, but it is not all of it. James had another pile of what he took out of the iris end. I ended up grabbing the pitchfork to lift the pile into the wheelbarrow. It nearly filled it up. Good grief!!
View from the iris angle after it was cleaned up.
It was a great help that James did the weeding in the iris part. I started on the north half, which is closest to the concrete walkway. The iris bed is at the bottom of the driveway and touches the grass. We had planned to extend it all the way to the end of the driveway, but never took the time or effort to dig up the last of the sod at the end. This area used to be some of our best grass, but when I was looking for a place to plant the bulbs so they would get more sunlight, I figured it would make sense to do it here where it would seem like we were squaring out the sidewalk beside the driveway. Perhaps it is the soil more than anything that killed off the bulbs. I suppose the seeds germinated after we watered it. My new plan is to put some roses in this area. I would like to fill it with a couple of climbers, but I think I missed the window of opportunity for purchasing any this year. Maybe I could transplant a few of the wild yellow roses that grow at my mother’s house. The mower person is always trying to contain that patch anyway. Hmmmmm maybe if I sneak over there in the afternoon when no one is around, they (my sisters) might not catch on.
Right after we finished the weeding, it was a bed of dried out dirt. The picture above makes it look like the bed is all nice and clean. Today when I stepped out to get the final picture, I noticed it is filling in with morning glories. We added a makeshift bird bath, which I contrived from an unused tomato cage and a tossed out fry pan. Technically it is a stove top wok, and it was great until someone burned something to the bottom and it was all scratched in the cleaning effort. I did see some little sparrows taking advantage of it the first night we set it up. I even found this little wire fence in the shop when I was digging around for the stand. It was a bugger to get installed, but patient persistence paid off. We also purchased some solar lights to wrap around the pole, but have not gotten those in place yet. I hope to enjoy this garden more as the summer goes as this is right below my bedroom bow-window and I can sit in the window and watch. Roger enjoyed the view with me on Saturday night.
lucindalines 