Hey friends today on Gardening with Creekside today we are beginning to work on a project
I would say is a new project but it's not it's a project that had been put on hold and
now we are coming back to it uh obviously there's a lot of Machinery going on Jackson
is on the little Bobcat Jerry is in the big bobcat but to give you a perspective of where
we are we are right here to the entrance of our house and the nursery do you remember
when we put in the new fence and the berm we talked about how we were going to be developing
this whole bed as a flower bed and that is what we're continuing that project today it
has always been a big goal of mine even before we had the nursery just as a homeowner I always
wanted to develop this area because we have these beautiful hardwood trees lots of Oaks
in here the vast majority of them are Oaks and so it's cleared out I have kept it cleared
out underneath so there's no Briars there's no weeds all the little small trees are gone
it's just a nice big beautiful trees that are here I wanted to develop this into a garden
for the we've been here 19 years so basically the whole 19 years I've wanted to do this
and of course it just keeps getting you know pushed down the list as life happens and when
we put in the fence it just made this perfect little Nook that we are going to create a
flower bed so what we are doing right now is some of the irrigation lines were still
open for when Jerry trenched and then obviously the beautiful thing is you have these trees
and the bad thing is you have all these trees the main goal for today is Jerry is filling
in all of the irrigation lines that were left open we need to make sure everything worked
and basically do grading so he is coming in here smoothing out the lumps and bumps for
me and then we are going to bring in some additional topsoil because of these massive
tree roots again when he was trying to put in the irrigation lines The Trenches he said
it was some areas were just really really difficult to fill in or to actually dig out
rather because of those big huge roots so we are going to be doing grading we're going
to be moving in some soil getting everything prepped and ready that way I can go ahead
and get some plants in here before hopefully too very long I might even be able to do it
this week it just depends on how today goes but it would be awesome because I've had a
lot of these plants at least uh for gosh for a while they've been hanging out in Jenny's
corner and so as soon as it gets graded and he gives me the all clear then we can start
planting any words of wisdom yeah I think it'll be fine um I took the big bobcat okay
just busted up that stump and just went ahead since it's got those big teeth on it and kind
of loosened up that back area right there where the fence is that's what I was working
on there just trying to smooth that back out and get enough dirt around our valve box yes
I think we take our extra dirt we'll go down and go grab that and kind of fill in this
hole right here and that hole that we talked about up there with that big tree where the
um extra fence post hits excellent yeah and then fill in any of the trench lines as we
go
and then after that then we'll be ready to plant I think after that we should be ready
to plant yes awesome all right so the goal is not to plant today that is uh Jenny's tired
I'm just going to tell you Jenny's tired so we're not going to plant today but this way
he can get everything prepped and odds are when we do plant because we're going to be
planting some shrubs they're like three gallons there might be some that are like a five or
a seven gallon but we definitely are going to be using the little Bobcat with the auger
when we do those holes yeah all up in here would be safe to do yes we'll be good to go
with all that okay yeah it's amazing how dry some of this is with all the rain we've been
getting that just shows you just how that sun bakes this area yeah um because I know
like a lot of landscape jobs that we have planned we just can't even get on their yards
because it's too wet well if you go down closer down towards the creek down there I was walking
up out there and it's just a soupy mess yes we have a house we think we're going to do
tomorrow and that's just because
there's a driveway and then there's gravel and beds all everything that's being created
we don't have to get on someone's lawn yes otherwise we you just won't be able to because
we have had so much rain which is typical for us this time of year yeah this is what
we do all right so do a little test today it is a good little test well that and then
how does the tree soak up yeah yeah very good all right so we're gonna go get some go get
some soil let's go down there and look at that and grab some soil and then um yeah okay
sounds good so we are down here at the nursery really like at the shrub lot so that gives
you an idea of where we are and we have got two well one really nice good sized pile of
soil right here and this is what we are going to use to supplement up there in the flower
bed but all of this is native soil so this is not like soil that was brought in it is
completely different texture than what is up there at the top of the hill top of the
hill is very much red clay and this has obviously a lot more organic material in it more Sandy
but that is what happens when you live you know along a creek all that good topsoil over
the years has kind of made its way down here so when we were doing you know moving the
shrub light around and you know trenching lines this was all the extra soil that Jerry
just piled up right here so we're going to take this good nice kind of Sandy rich and
organic material soil up to the red clay that is really compacted and then that's what we're
going to use as a fill so we've got the big bobcat I think the plan is use the big bobcat
to scoop it and run it up there and then once it's up there Jackson will be on the small
bobcat and can spread it out and fill in any kind of little gullies and holes that have
been up there
all right so Jerry is doing a little bit of the final grading for today um all of this
will just like you go you do all the final gradient right so you can get all the holes
filled in all the trenches filled in but then we know we're going to come back in here with
that same small Bobcat with the auger and that'll make somewhat of a mess not not horrible
but once we get the plants in here then we can really come back through and smooth everything
out and then add the mulch this is definitely going to be a rustic Woodland flower bed this
is not going to be like a highly manicured high maintenance space whatsoever super excited
because we're going to use some fun different plants that some I've never used before some
I have so we're going to use the father Gilla father Gilla is a great native shrub the variety
that we're going to be using is Mount Airy really fun nice spring flowers and then in
the fall gorgeous fall colors so we're going to use that and then we have got some petite
Oak Leaf hydrangeas ruby slippers we've got four of those we had them in the fall brought
them in and they were just stunning with their burgundy red brilliant foliage y'all gobbled
them up so we're going to put four of those in there and then I have got a whole variety
of different Camellias that I've had for almost a year in a container that need to be potted
I mean need to be planted so I'm going to to choose which ones I want to put in here
with that so those are kind of like the main shrubs that are going to go in here right
now and then what I'll do is I'm going to supplement with you know things that I find
as we go along and I want to put some shrubs in there great this space right now is very
deceiving because you're like Jenny it is a full sun and you're talking about like a
woodland shade garden remember all the leaves are off of these Oakland I mean off the oak
trees and we are dealing with winter sun so in the summertime it's very different although
at the front of this bed like right here at the driveway it does get really intense hot
afternoon sun so that'll give me some great options if I want to plant some really drought
tolerant heat tolerant plants I can do that and then as we go further up into the woods
then I can change that more to those shade plants but I could do Eucharist in here since
we have irrigation I could even do like some containers and then run the drip to the containers
so really the possibilities are endless I'm just ready to get especially those father
gillas and the ruby slippers and then some of those Camellias in the ground because they
desperately need to get in the ground like I said hopefully maybe we can do that this
week we're supposed to get more rain this week so if we can work around the rain showers
get them in and get them happy and get those roots growing before we get too further into
the season I do have my jonquils that were planted here last year and Jerry and Jackson
were being very kind and gracious and trying to work around the jonquils but basically
the jonquils run the whole kind of lower Edge right here of the flower bed and go all the
way up so you can see maybe they got run over just a little bit but it is what it is they
don't have their buds on them yet so I think they'll be okay um but again this is where
you think long term we've got to get in here and do this work so if they don't Bloom as
exceptionally well this year it's all right I know those always be next year and then
of course this fall I can always add more bulbs in here serious ignoring me when I talk
about adding more bulbs into the flower bed so a lot of fun this is going to be an area
that I'm going to play with for a long time and constantly be adding plants in here so
we're gonna uh we're all tired people I'm not gonna lie we're some tired puppies around
here so we're going to go in and have a nice evening afternoon coffee and as always thanks
so much for going with Creekside we'll see on the next video have a great day bye friends