Happy Victoria Day!

Well, we have finally been enjoying some warmer weather here in Calgary - up until the long week-end, that is. Yes, in Canada it is Victoria Day long week-end,traditionally THE week-end to put in your bedding plants and clean up the yard. So you're pretty much guaranteed that the weather won't cooperate. Even though it was cool, we did buy annuals and rose bushes - the hardy, shrub kind (no tea roses for us here - too much work!) as we wanted to put these in our side garden. Hubby had expanded it and cleaned out the few struggling plants that still remained there and it was all ready for the new roses to be put in. But...


Apparently more dirt was needed to replenish the existing amount in this area, so we did what anyone would do who needed dirt. No, we didn't go to the garden centre and haul a bunch of bags of soil home. Hubby ordered 2 bags of dirt on-line.  How easy is that? You order the type of soil you want, you pay on-line, they tell you when it will be delivered, you put an X on the driveway where you want it dropped - done deal. No fuss, no muss. The dirt arrived on the day promised and earlier than I would've thought, which was great.
But ...


How much dirt did we really need for that side garden and the planters that we use every year? I guess a bag of top soil and a bag of potting soil should do. But I'm not talking the kind of bags you pick up at the garden centre. I'm talking the big 1-cubic-yard-of-dirt kind of bags. Wow, I had no idea how big that much dirt could be. I don't think my husband knew either! Well, the top soil would go to good use as we needed to replenish the side garden and we wanted to plant some grass seed over another part of the lawn, but how much potting soil do you really need? Apparently not as much as we thought! After I filled all the containers and planters, we still had about 95% of the bag full. So what were we going to do with all this good potting soil? Well...

Now we needed to construct a box to contain the potting soil so we'd have it for next year.. and the year after... and the year after. Well, you get my drift. So, today hubby and eldest (and only) daughter (seen here with her brother pursuing their favourite activities) spent the day constructing a box for the potting soil. Luckily there was still enough wood left from the playhouse we constructed last year to use for this, so it would match nicely. Finally, several wheelbarrow-fuls later, the box was full. 


BTW, the rose bushes did get planted, but the annuals are still in their pots waiting for warmer weather before I plant them in their containers. Maybe next week-end?