Re: Easy Street
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Easy Street
- From: r* <t*@catskill.net>
- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 18:11:16 -0600 (MDT)
Gardenhous@aol.com wrote:
>
> I hear you all talking about adding new beds and I have to wonder if these
> hve been on your properties forever and weedless waiting to be planted in or
> if you are creating them. I am breaking my back tilling and eradicating
> little rocks, hauling dirt and building bed walls. Oh, I know where to find
> all those rocks to hold down heaving rhizomes now. So is it just me or is
> there an easier way?
>
> Kids here are not into manual labor they are all affluent or have better job
> offers.
>
> Doreen McCabe
> West of Boston with creaky back and dirty hands
Hi doreen--
I live on a 7-acre parcel with a big old farmhouse (that's what's left
of a 300+ acres farm)in the Catksills. The soil is very fertile and
very very very stoney. My yard kid takes the top layer of grass off wit
a rototiller (a blessing) and then I dig and pull not just roots but
tons of rocks with which I line the beds. By the time I'm done I have
to haul in topsoil to level it off. And then after planting, the mulch
if it isn't bearded iris.
It's taken me several years to do not that many beds. Tough work and I
often wonder when I'm doing it if it is worth it. But I remember what
it all looked like back last spring and the rewards of so many in bloom
I just keep on going. But I tell myself that this will be the last
bed. I swear it will. Funny, I said that about a month ago, and just
finished another one yesterday. perhaps next year I'll do raised beds.
It would be so much easier.
Rima terra@catskill.net
upstate ny zone 4
