THE SITE 1.0: The Peonies Cometh

Saturday morning I was informed that we were soon to recieve a shipment of 20 peonie plants that are to be divided into 80 plants.  Since we now have "dirt" we can also anticipate the re-location of existing peonies from another site here in the valley - probably another 15 plants that will be divided into another 60 plants.

Lots of peonies.

We need a space to put them. A temporary space on the new site.

The challenge is to put them somewhere that will be minimally impacted by the construction we are anticipating in the spring.  A bit of a tough issue as we have not really started the design, although I do have and idea of where things are, and that we need to prepare to install utility conduits to different structures on site from a central supply point.

All this to say that the first shovels of dirt were turned Sunday morning to being to prepare the site to recieve new plant material.  Peonies.

To be fair, peonies are not the only plants we will have.  We have saved seeds from columbine, penstemmon, lupine and other plants.  There will be native color on site as well as a few colorful companions. 

The first pile of dirt we tackled was against the garage.  We sifted the dirt to remove roots, gravel and other undesireable material prior to stockpiling the dirt in the sandbox to mix the sand in with the dirt as well as soil ammendments.

We used a heavy gage 1/2" x 1/2" galvanized screen mesh stapled to frames.  The frames were made from studs harvested from the trailer we are de-constructing and the screen mesh was attached to frames with staples I removed from the aluminum panels that were attached to the trailer that were re-cycled.  Sustainable re-use of materials.

It is always significant when the gardening starts.  It marks the beginning of the reclamation of the site and comes with a fun anticpation of what we can do with this site.  Gardens, plants, vegetable raised beds and a lot more....to come.

The shovels, pitch forks, rakes and even the roto-tiller will be put to good use.

The peonies cometh.