Before and After

Yesterday was spent finishing the weeding in the split rail bed and second shade bed.  I planted 10 sedums to complete the row, as well as 1 additional white rose bush.  No easy chore since that particular bed is akin to digging in a midden (archaeological term for garbage dump for anyone unfamiliar with the word) -- I have found leather soles from old boots, old milk bottles, tons of broken glass, unidentifiable bits of iron tools, old bricks, etc. as I have expanded this bed.

As many of you know, our house was built around 1860 and was a sizeable dairy farm at one time, as well as a small inn at the turn of the century.  It's easy to find the old rubbish sites (there were no "garbage services" until fairly recently) and building foundations based on the amount of stones and junk in the ground, as well as the types of plants that flourish if left to their own devices (such as sumacs).

At any rate, after much digging, pruning back wildly growing bittersweet vines, and weeding out a ton of small sprouts, nettles, etc., the beds were mulched and finally completed.

Before clean-up

After