The few hours that I did have for garden time were dedicated to working on the oval circle garden update. Mr. Much More Patient and I spend almost two hours laying out the whole plan. Since it’s meant to be symmetrical, being precise was important. But precision in an oval is difficult, especially when the original oval wasn’t perfectly precise.
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| You can see the layout for one of the paths marked by yellow paint. It continues across the center of the garden. |
We spent hours with a tape measure, stake and landscape marking paint drawing lines and dots, to the point where we forget which dot was which. (Not to self, always have at least two colors of landscape paint for these projects).
We got it all laid out and later I came back to start moving things around. The first step was heeling in all the chives from the areas that will be changed. For the most part, the outer rim of chives can stay where it is, but those along the paths had to be moved. Since I knew where the new paths are going to be, I forked over a segment between them, doing my best to root out any weeds and then just heeled in chives from other areas. The soil in that segment of the garden, which was originally used for tomatoes, is so lovely to work in, it really wasn’t difficult to do. Then I started popping out the cobblestones on the inner ring of each segment.
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| Chives moved and new paths marked. Good thing we also marked the grass or the lines would have been lost when I dug out the chives. |
I’ll be widening the paths from the existing 16 inches to a much more realistic 24 inches, so there’s a fair amount of moving to be done.
As I took out some cobblestones I came across the dreaded landscape fabric. Yep, I put that nasty stuff down under the pea gravel paths and that was all well and good until weeds started growing in the paths a few years later. I’m wondering now if that fabric will make pulling up the pea gravel easier or more aggravating. I’ll find out soon enough.
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| A funny little garden full of tufts of chives. |
Still lots of cobblestones to move and then that nasty pea gravel to deal with. As usual this project is progressing a snail’s pace, but there’s nothing to be done but keep on plugging away.
Can you work the gravel into the soil for drainage or do you want to reuse it?
I certainly could. I never really thought about it. What do you think?
Do you have trouble with the chives spreading out all over? I like the look of the chives but I have heard that they pop up everywhere.
Oh the dreaded landscape fabric…..previous owners had it everywhere and however many years later we had to use the big tractor to drag it out from under inches of soil and weeds on top. What a mess. I swore never again…..but now wish it was under stone walks around the raised veggie beds.
I found the landscape fabric to be more of a pain that it was worth also! I thought it was the perfect solution when I first bought my house, and it was great the first year. My pea gravel paths were beautiful. But then like you said, the weeds began to grow on top of the fabric. I just don't use it any more.
I am really interested to see what your plans are for this chive convention!
🙂 gwingal