The Reluctant Gardener and the Mattock

I took advantage of today's brief respite from the wretched heat and humidity to do a little work on my landscaping. First I set about breaking up the soil (I use that term loosely) in the broad area where I took out the hollies. I tried a variety of tools but the only one that would make a dent in that sunbaked, compacted clay was a mattock. (I didn't have a jackhammer handy.) It's incredible that those hollies could grow so huge in that muck.

After managing to break it up maybe 3-4 inches deep and acquiring a blister on my thumb in the process, I headed to Home Depot for half a dozen 40-lb bags of topsoil to "amend" the existing dirt. Finally dug a hole as deep as I could -- which, believe me, isn't very deep -- and transplanted the hydrangea that's been sitting in a pot by the front walk for, oh, maybe 6-8 weeks? I had to build up the topsoil around the plant because the hole wasn't deep enough. So it looks like I've started a de facto raised planting bed.

There are still six azaleas and three daylilies waiting their turn for planting; maybe tomorrow I can get them in the ground and mulch the whole bed. Maybe. After that hydrangea I was finished with planting for the day. I did mix up some weed killer in my sprayer and douse the patches of clover and other crap that my lawn is full of because I waited too long to weed-and-feed it this spring. The more I look at that lawn, the more I think about flower beds, Blue Rug junipers, and ground covers that don't need mowing.