autumn gardening

there is a spot in the garden at the shack that's been covered with black plastic for...hmm, 3 yrs! this week i decided to finally do something about it. it was also time to empty the composter for the first time.

we (well, i did) started the composter about a year ago and it seems that most of has been put in there has become soil. i was actually quite surprised how "earthy" everything was, even egg shells. but i would advise not to put dog hair in a compost, nothing happens to it...







i took out a whole wheelbarrow of soil. the compost has been working great, it did freeze in the winter but that was no wonder in the very arctic weather we had last winter







the eyesore wasn't even in hiding







took all the plastic out. the plastic was there to kill whatever might be growing in that patch. it'll be interesting to see what will come up in the spring, despite the effort to "kill" everything beneath







to make sure there won't be too many unwanted plants i placed fabric-like material that will let water thru...







...before dumping and spreading the soil from compost and some peat







i had decided on these, the muscari being certain someone's favourites







planted the tall tulips in the back, the dowels are there to mark the are where i placed the bulbs







to finish i spread bark mulch on top. had to stop here for a few days, the nursery i bought the bulbs from had no perennials i was interested in







yesterday after work i bought some sedum







and phlox







i hope the sedum and the phlox will survive the winter. i took both of them because of "easy maintenance", could be that the soil here is too rich for them...we'll see.







next week i really have to start making apple sauce in earnest!