The last three weekends have been spent trying to get my backyard flower beds pretty. I have let them go over the years and last summer with the drought and heat I totally ignored them. Luckily I still have some perennials that survived the drought and the weed infestation.
This is the first time I have ever tried to condition my dirt and get my flower beds totally weed free.
I used my garden tiller that I ordered from Amazon.
It is really a great tool for breaking up the dirt and helping to weed the flower beds. The bad thing is it only lasts for 20 to 30 minutes and then the battery needs charged for 8 hours. I started with the flower bed that had the most weeds and Bermuda grass that had crept in.
The dandelions took over and choked out the ground cover I tried to grow.
It took me both Saturday and Sunday last week. The weekend before I removed all the dry stems from last years perennials.
You can see the ground is hard and dry and full of dormant Bermuda and weeds. Plus under all the rocks were thousands of little ants. My son enjoyed spraying Raid on them.
Our soil has a lot of clay in it and it doesn’t drain well. I was told to mix Gypsum into the soil to improve it. One of my patients said it is good to use on your lawn too, so I spread some over the grass with a fertilizer spreader.
I also added some soil mender soil mix. Click on the image if you want to read about it.
I had bags laying all over the backyard.
I bought new perennials and my husband bought some mulch, but it was only enough to cover one bed. Looks like we have to buy more and then I will take some photos of all my hard work. I will let you know if the flowers flourish in the improved soil.
Have you started on your yard work yet? Do you maintain everything year after year or did you let your beds go like me and now you have to pay the price?
