Ron Kiefert's croton landscape photos

I know the Church...;) I took a picture of it when Cookie and I were driving around the hood.:MeanWeed
IMG_9903.jpg
 
Wow, Ron, is that your new area that you've been working on? I love the bed and the rock wall! Great work, that's beautiful! Looks like you have room to expand forward if you need to in the future, too. Thanks for showing us.
 
Wow, Ron, is that your new area that you've been working on? I love the bed and the rock wall! Great work, that's beautiful! Looks like you have room to expand forward if you need to in the future, too. Thanks for showing us.

Ana - thank you for your kind words.

Yes, this was one of the areas I was working on. 40 crotons were added as the bed was expanded westward.

My wife Pam likes the rock wall as you do. Unfortunately the rock is what constitutes the majority of my soil. I had to do something with it so stacking it to hold in the bed's mulch seemed like the thing to do. The Moose Land top soil typically is only 6-12 inches deep then bang, almost pure limestone with a few pockets of sand. The pockets of sand are from where the limestone has eroded.

There is room to expand forward but this bed is done. If expanded further it would be way to busy to the eye so the open space will remain. Its my last open space in the garden and one of the few that needs to be mowed. It's only 33% the size of the open space when I started my planting efforts in 2006.

The expansion of this bed required two truck loads of mulch which equates to about 200 bags of mulch. The holes were dug very deep. The removed soil was sifted to remove any rock more then 1" in diameter. Then the native soil was mixed with peat moss and compost. The amended soil is comprised of 75% native with 25% organic amendment. This ratio seems to work the best for me. There were many hours invested installing these new additions. Hopefully a few specimen cultivars will be the result in a few years.
 
Impressive effort Ron! How big is your yard?

There are times I lament not having a larger yard, then other times I realize I've got more then enough to keep busy with what I have. Had an opportunity when I bought this property to purchase one three blocks away. The largest in the hood, a builder's acre. It was only $35,000 more than this one. Really tried to squeeze the numbers to make it happen. Just couldn't afford it then, barely could afford this one. I admit when I drive by that same lot there is some regret that I could not swing it. $35,000 was just a bit more then pocket change then. Need to remind myself be happy with what you have.
 
Top