Creating a new 'Red' border

[JohnB]

I've been away from the forum for quite a while, as an email from George just reminded me!  I thought I'd start sharing some details of a project I currently have underway.

In the last couple of years we had the pleasure of visiting some of the great gardens in the UK and while at Hidcote, the Red Border there really make a big impression. I've decided to create my own variation on that theme in a sunny spot we have in our garden on Bainbridge Island, Washington State.

Right now I'm in the 'tear everything up and prepare' phase. I'm taking an area where we have a border and dramatically widening and extending it. Here are a few pictures from the past months on the development.

Late Winter and this is a central area of the new border that is going to get cleared:


A wider view of the same area:


Let the games begin!:


The new tractor is proving to be a wonderful back-saver:


Late summer now, the grass has been cleared, the ground rototilled and a load of compost and manure dumped in - ready to be forked into the glacial tilth (basically sand and rounded rocks):


A further section of the border:


The central part of the border:


A lot of work with the fork, extracted 5 wheelbarrow loads of stones and I'm about a 1/3 of the way done!


As you can see, it's extremely dry here in the Pacific NorthWest -- a little unusual for late September/early October - we've really only had one rainy day since early July.

As things progress, I'll post some more.

[NightHawk]

It's great to see you back on the Forum again John.

George and I have been getting really concerned about the fall in member participation lately, hence your email    Thank you for your response 

You certainly have a big project on the go there.  Your VERY impressive array of heavy-duty excavating equipment lends itself nicely to the saying 'boys and their toys', and judging by the size of your garden from those photos you definitely need them.  (I'm already exhausted by just looking at the scale of work involved - phew!  )

The project is well documented and we look forward to seeing how it progresses, accompanied by more photos of course 

Well done.

Laurie.

[JohnB]

Thanks Laurie.

We have a 5 acre property and when I discovered that John Deere were offering 5 year interest free financing on their tractors I jumped at the chance to get one. I'm not getting any younger and this has really provided a great improvement in productivity. Simply using the tractor to load up my new trailer so I could spread 45 yards of 'Moo-Doo' (composted cow manure) was a great help - it mean't I only had to move it once by hand as I did the spreading.

Here's that pile:


This gallery has some more pictures of the garden from Winter through Spring. I didn't take much in the summer as my wife and I were travelling back and forth to UK handling some family issues.
http://johnandkathb.smugmug.com/Gardening/2012-WinterSpring/21899257_bPhk2c

[JohnB]

I've managed to make some more progress on the border. Right now, the work is predominantly turning and amending the soil. I'm using a mix of a fine-grind composted mulch and fish compost. So far I've probably incoporated about 18 cubic yards and have got about 2/3rd's of the way through.


This is looking to the broad end (West) of the border, the bald cypress at the end is just starting to show fall colors. I took these very late in the afternoon and it was getting a bit dark, so the focus is not that great.


This is looking the other way (East), towards the house. It's narrower and still to be worked on.


This is the middle section and now mostly amended. I may terrace this, rather than leave it a slope. I have quite a few Douglas fir logs from a downed tree that I might use.

I've taken a short video on my cell phone that I'm currently posting to my Smugmug site that I will try to create link to.

Click the picture, it should take you to the video...

[ideasguy]

Yes, the video works fine John. Its nice to have company in the garden with a couple of mans best friends!
That's a big project you have undertaken, but I'm sure it will be well worth the effort.

[NightHawk]

Nice little video there John.

Thanks again for sharing that with us.

[JohnB]

Happy New Year!

In early fall, I used the backhoe to turn in some compost to the very compacted soil. It made a nice change from having to hand dig. This video shows some of that activity (click on the picture). Once I'm still finishing up the narrow section of this border by hand -- which hopefully will help narrow my expanded waistline.



In the last couple of days (early January now), I've made some progress on the red border, still getting the soil prepared. The last few days I've started on a terrace wall to get rid of the big slope on the widest part of this border. I had a couple of Douglas Firs that came down -- one deliberately, the other, not so much...  I cut these up into 3-4' logs and have used them to create this terrace.

Firstly needed to get the logs to the workspace:


Then had to dig a trench and start placing the logs:


After placing the logs, I've started re-grading the soil in front of them. The days have been quite cold recently, so the top surface is frosted, but luckily not frozen too deep:


Now, I have to put some landscape fabric behind the logs, as well as put in some strapping to tie the logs together so they don't shift, then backfill and re-grade behind them. I suspect a bit more compost needed to amend that soil above the logs. I'll also probably even up the tops of the logs once they're locked in place -- some chainsaw magic needed!

[ideasguy]

Those are great man toys John 

Seriously, I love the video.  I can see you are enjoying that mini digger. It stands up well to digging deeply into that hard packed region. Do you hit many tree roots?
That would have been tough work with the good old fashioned pick and shovel! Its also a very versatile piece of equipment.

Take care with that chainsaw Theres a lot of winter warmth buried in there. Looks like you have a good supply of material around your property!

[JohnB]

The backhoe on the tractor has been a great boon. We have 'hardpan' here, in someplace just a few inches down which can be very hard to dig into manually. There's really not a lot of roots in it as most of the Western Washington native shrubs and trees are fairly shallow rooted -- to stay in the more fertile topsoil. The biggest issue are glacial rocks - whenever you dig down and the fork hits something, you pray it's not the top of a hidden mountain peak!

In the narrow part of the border, I dug mostly by hand except when I did hit a large boulder which I had to get the backhoe on to get out!

Last Monday, I finally finished all the digging, amending and grading -- woohoo!!!! The dry spell we had was a great boon.


Here's a small video tour of the new space (click to play)


I'll have to get the irrigation in place and start the planting...

[ideasguy]

Well done John.

Its going to be a pleasure to plant into that well prepared soil!
I can imagine how much you are looking forward to choosing the plants for that new border
Have you already decided?