Garden on a Roll: Preparation

Did you get much done in the garden over Easter? I had a lengthy to-do list in preparation for delivery of the Garden on a Roll, which will be arriving on our doorstep next weekend :)

First job was buying compost, as advised by the GoaR website, to help the new plans get nice and comfy in their new home. On arrival at the garden centre I found myself faced with bags of compost AND topsoil, both looking the same and with packaging claiming to do largely the same thing. Which should I choose?? On the basis of a 10 second google I plumped for topsoil (not sure how wise that was), and lugged home 8 bags of the stuff. I don’t even know if I’ll need that much, but the packaging was pretty unhelpful in terms of how much area coverage you get out of each bag, so will be reporting back with how massively I over/under-estimated!

Next was getting rid of the junk dumped at the bottom of the garden by the previous owners, including a baby bath, bricks, and a broken hedge trimmer (seriously, who leaves their crap for others to clean up?), as well as bags full of fallen leaves we collected last autumn. Whilst this job might not sound too onerous to some, we don’t actually own a car, and therefore trips to the dump/garden centre require organizing vehicle hire, schlepping to some distant spot to collect it, then getting it back again before our time is up. Fortunately two trips to the dump at breakneck speed was all it took to clear the rubbish just in time.

Final job was starting the preparation of the fence bed for all the new plants that will go in it. As per instructions from the parents I cleared all weeds and turned over the soil (apparently to expose slug eggs which will dry up or get taken by birds). I also dug up a nondescript shrub planted there by the previous occupants which didn’t seem to do much other than look unkempt. This turned out to be a Photinia Red Robin, and is apparently is a hedging plant, so what they were thinking putting it in a flower bed is anyone’s guess.

So we’re largely set for the big planting up of the Fence Bed with the Garden on a Roll next weekend. There are still three old rosebushes in situ that have been saved from the big shrub massacre planned for 2 weeks’ time, as I’d like to bring them back to their former glory (I don’t think they’ve had much TLC in the past). It’s going to be quite a day’s work, but I’m ready for it :)