Yesterday's hour or two was spent creating a little trench to help manage the wet area of the yard. The digging was easier than I expected, as what I was scooping up was basically composted mulch. I added that to the raised bed. Now I would like some stone to fill in the trench.
The raised bed is full. There is a layer of yard debris on the bottom, topped with four bags of "raised bed and garden soil". On top of that is some spent potting soil from containers I found in the shed. Then came the composted mulch and four more bags of bagged soil. I'm waiting for those layers to settle before planting anything in the bed.
This is the bagged soil I used:
And this is why I chose this particular brand: no peat. The peat would make a lighter mix, but it decomposes over time. I wanted a fill that was basically dirt but better dirt than my heavy clay.
My order from Burpee arrived: strawberry plants, garlic, and echinacea. The latter is on the deck, soaking up water and hardening off. The strawberries plants and garlic are in the refrigerator, awaiting that settling I mentioned above. I'm not sure how well the strawberries will do in such a tall raised bed. Specifically, I'm worried how the plants will winter over that far from the ground. But I guess that is what a winter mulch of straw is for.
Today's activity was spraying weeds, mostly Creeping Charlie; there is a crazy amount of it in the yard this year. I also attacked the yucca that won't die and the random mulberry trees that pop up endlessly.
I didn't spray all the Creeping Charlie, as it is one of the few early plants that pollinators appear to depend on. Which got me wondering about what else I could provide as an early source of nectar. An online search led me to Tag Alder, something I had never heard of, a shrub that likes it wet. I was thinking I could plant one by (or in) the rain garden... but it has a suckering habit, which means it would spread. Not sure I want to go there.
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