Clearing The Daisy Bed

This is my rain barrel. Just one of those light weight "wooden" but really plastic planter barrels from Lowe's with a wooden plank screwed to the top. The plank has a hole drilled into it and the pump is bolted to it. Then a PVC pipe from the pump hanging straight down into the barrel. I have a mesh net over the top to keep debris and pups out of the water, but as you can see, the big pup Edison has pushed the net down in the back, rotten pup. You have to "prime" the pump first so I always leave a little water left in the watering can to use to prime with the next time I water. It has worked pretty well, but after doing some reading on GardenWeb, they have some great ideas on rain barrels, I think I will modify.
















I spent the afternoon a couple of days ago clearing out this section that will become the Daisy bed, I picture this full of hundreds of Shasta Daisies. First I had to clear out all of this darn black landscaping fabric. I had planted a few Iris bulbs, about 25 I think, last fall. I had to poke holes into the fabric and push the bulbs into the ground through the holes. Then of course the next day Edison had to dig in the bed and find out what cool things I was planting. So, only about 6 or 7 iris came up through the fabric. This guy in the pic had his poor roots all interwoven in the fabric, but he made it!

The landscape timbers are just there right now to define the space, so I could visualize how big I wanted it. I will lay down cardboard and cover with mulch to get rid of the grass over the winter. Winter sowing will be used to start the Shasta Diasies, and a little white picket fence is going to enclose them, so they can spill over the fence, and use the fence as support. I can hardly wait for spring. I may move the rain barrel to the front yard since it is kind of a cute feature, and use it to water the roses in the front. I am considering using a larger barrel and putting a spigot and running a irrigation hose into the daisy bed, and around the side of the garden shed where I will plant Sunflowers.