As soon as the landscapping crew finished leveling the area between the houses, the homeowners began their landscapping.
When the retaining wall for the planting bed was built the previous summer, they had piled a lot of dirt around the tree near the house. This was bad news for the health of the tree and for drainage with the new building in place. Water must channel around the building and out to the driveway so we dug a shallow channel to help it along.
It was fun to select the plant collection to grace the foundation of our new building. The sunny and shady patterns on this property are challenging for the gardner. This spot gets sun when it is directly over head. There are enough additional sunny hours next to the porch to chance planting a sun-loving 'Morning Star' double white althea near the porch. Nearest the porch is a 'Firepower' Nandina. Then there's a couple of Sandanqua Viburnums with two Cast Iron plants between them. Tucked in at the corner is an evergreen Autumn Fern. This picture was taken August 17th, the day after planting.
On the north side of the building we planted (left to right) Autumn Fern, Japanese Cleyera, Cast Iron Plant, Sandanqua Viburnum, Indian Ginger, Emperor Ginger, Moss Fern (sometimes known as Arborvitae Fern), and Japanese Pittosporum.
Thursday, August 26th was a very big day for us. The picture at right was taken at 10:30 in the morning. And they had already delivered the pallet of St. Augustine sod that we had ordered the previous day. By that time we had already put the white border bricks in place around our planting beds on the north and east sides of the building — a normal full day's work for us. We had 24 hours to get that sod in place if we expected it to grow!
How's that for a day's work for a couple of old folks?
Actually, the new grass in the area pictured above continues in a strip 3' by 15' up the walkway.
Next, we'll finish the landscaping.
