Pieris Bed
At the top of the garden on the South side of the house was a huge bed of Pieris.
Next to it was the remains of a bed with a huge tree stump at one end. The stump was too big to remove. So I dug it over.
It seemed more sensible to remove the Pieris and make a bigger bed.
It was easier than I thought as the shrubs had fairly thin branches.
That still left the roots to be removed. I marked out the size of the bed we wanted.
Then I began the task of digging out the roots. Again easier than I had feared. The roots were fairly shallow and the soil quite soft.
The branches and roots I took to the recycling yard.
I marked out the shape of the bed with a lawn edging turf and began removing the turf.
The turf was stacked elsewhere to turn into top soil. The bed did not take long to clear.
I began to dig it over. Very soon I found a lot of large roots from the felled tree. These I removed.
It did take a few days to dig it over as there were some very thick roots which had to be cut out. Eventually it was done.
The next job was to hoe over the soil to make a fine tilth.
Finally the exciting part, planting it up. We have put a prostrate Ceanothus to eventually cover the stump. At the far end we planted a Magnolia.
Now all we have to do is wait for the things to grow and fill out the space.
