Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Yardening 8 April 2014 "Better late than never", 1 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
speedie---

This bed was there long before the fence went up--which was, maybe, two years ago.
That is when my Pakistani neighbor decided to put it up all around her yard.
Seems that is how they garden back in their country.
Since the fence had to go on the property line--it ended up being smack against
MY property line--all along the ome side of my YUK bed.

Some time in the early 70's, he put a telephone pole edging all along that sides
of my YUK bed. It is still there-- just pretty rotted by now--falling apart is more like it..
He akso installed a split rail fence was along the perimeter of the whole YUK bed.
When my husband (then), who was an engineer, built all the bed borders around the beds
he allowed 10" easement on my neighbor's side. I guess that is a common thing.???.

Back then--"openness" between neighbors was IT. I love split rail fences--b/c it defines
one's boundaries without making it look like a barrier.
Some of the supports of my neighbor's 6' fence sit tightly adjacent to the split rail
fencing -posts. See pic. 2 above.

The "doomed bed" started out as 2 wood whiskey barrels sitting side by side.
They sat right on the ground...with pretty flowers planted i them.
I was not all that gardening-smart back then yet...putting these on the ground????

After one year--the Maple's thin feeder roots were already inside these barrels.
By year 2--I could not even stick a shovel in it...Not sure how long I put up with this--
must have been a few years....as when the stays on thew barrels sagged and
the slats started rotting out, I asked my DH to take apart the rotting barrels
and build a bed around the mounds of soil left standing. He did--and edged this bed
with landscape timbers 3-high. Could not plant much of anything in there anyway,
as now this whole bed started filling up with serious roots. YUMM! fresh soil!!!

This is the bed my Northern Sea oats lived in for a few years--as they grow anywhere--
until their seeds started growing everywhere in my YUK bed. It took years to eliminate
the Oats as well as the roots of them in this bed. That is whenn it became a "doomed bed"...
I wanted to save the Gooseberry bush--so I dig that out this spring.

I just went out and looked--and the 3-high edging of these ties in the back side
of this bed look pretty good--at least from the outside.. Stuck my camera down
there and snapped a picture... Hmmmm....a new kink!

IF the ties are still solid--I may just dig down to their level and put some new edging in
the front--remove as much soil as needed, and then level it out and put the pavers on top.

What now surrounds this "doomed bed" are the remnants of landscape timbers
that i want to remove and take to the land fill. I have already removed some of the
front ones as they are so rotten they are crumbling apart.

Gonna go outside and see if i can take some pictures of some of this...so you can visualize it.
Everyone else--if you are bored reading all this--just move on.....

1--Old Telephone pole edging along W. side of my YUK bed. There is one on the
other side as well. The split rail fencing poles sit right against the pole-edging--and the neighbor's fence poles sit right against my fencing poles...

2--The other side of my YUK bed and how badly these Poles are rotting.
They are, literally, hollow. Gotta watch my step there...DL coming up nicely!

3--Rotting remaining landscape ties in front of the DB (new acronym)-for "doomed bed"...

4--Blind shot of the back edge showing 3-high landscape ties that appear OK???

5--Ties i have already removed...have to wait till I do something with the soil in
the DB before I remove the rest of them. Also--they are still held together with
long spikes, which make it a bit difficult...

Don't things look just "lovely"???? UGH! G.