Edging the Patio...

We finally got to our project of adding some landscaping to the edge of the patio.  Not only does it make a nice little transition but now its a straight line from the flower beds at the back of the garage so makes it even easier to mow!  =)   We had bought 2 of the plants over a month ago and they were hard to keep watered since they were getting root bound in the nursery container.  So this is the "before photo" - I had already marked with landscaping paint where we needed to dig and got the edging I had leftover from other projects.

So the digging starts....  Mo worked on digging up chunks of sod and my job was taking a hand cultivator and getting off as much of the good soil as I could.  Mo then took the clumps of sod and put them out under the pasture gates where the goats have worn the ground down.  As I was knockin dirt off I could hear Mo screaming "They are eating the chunks as I lay them down...  they are picking them up and moving them GRH!"

As I'm getting the soil off the clumps I'm finding all sorts of soon to be Japanese beetles - they aren't in grub stage anymore but they aren't full beetles either.  I saw about 3 different stages... I just had to take a picture of it.

Unlike in films and such where they say "no animals were harmed in this production" - I can honestly say they were harmed because I smashed these guys flat after takin the photo... 5 less beetles to eat my roses!

Once we got all the clumps of sod out then we were ready to put the edging down so the patio pavers won't move into the bed since its not hard compacted soil anymore... now its light and fluffy.  But we didn't have enough edging to do the full 18' - so we had to run to Marion to go to Lowes.  I got the edging and real metal spikes to use instead of the crappy plastic ones that normally come with it.  We picked up new lighting to put in the bed and 10 bags of mulch (for this project but mostly to finish the front of the house).  After we left Lowes we decided to try out the new fozen yogurt place in town - Groovy Spoon.  Was really good - interesting way they do it - all the soft serve is along the wall - you serve yourself and then they have a bar of toppings - fresh fruits to  syrups to candies.  You pay by the ounce.  Was more than we normally spend at the little dairy bar in town - but was a nice change!  I had all sorts of fruity yogurts and Mo went with a choc/peanut butter/vanilla/coffee combo. 


So back home and we install a full line of the paver edging and start putting some plants in.  Really starting to look good!   This photo has one half of the plants in the ground.  We picked 2 different dwarf  grasses that won't get too high as we want to be able to sit on the patio and watch the goats be their crazy selves!  We picked a dwarf maiden grass called Little Kitten (Miscanthus sinensis) which should get 1-3' and a dwarf fountain grass called Piglet (Pennisetum alopecuroides) which should get 18" .  Along the side of the pathway in the middle are 2 Threadleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata 'Zegreb') which should grow to 12-15".  

As Mo figured where the plants were gonna go, getting proper measurements between the plants based on the nursery labels...  Mopar decided he would like to try to help in the project as well!

Once we got everything planted Mo was having fun with the hose and squirting the patio off since we were messy and had gotten lots of dirt all over it!  We noticed some of the muddy water coming back onto the patio so I took the trowel and made a small 'gutter' along the edge.  That seemed to fix that problem.   Next we added 1.5 bags of mulch and the pathway pavers.  Watered some more....  added the lights and BAM - Done!   We started this at 3pm when we went to the nursery to get the grasses and finished up around 9pm.  Figuring 2 shopping trips (and stopping for ice cream!),  we got this done pretty darn quickly today!