Progress in taming the bank

Considering how much time I spend on it, it is amazing this is the first time this has made the blog, but I have a long term project that has been going on since we moved here in 2004. This project is the reclamation of a flower bed that stretches approximately 100 feet along the side of a bank. It has become The Bank, and I have spent countless hours slowly getting it into shape.

This is a picture of the bank in September of 2004 during our first visit to this property.

We moved here in December of 2004, so my first observations of The Bank were in the spring of 2005. There was a stretch of various irises that pretty much ran the length of this area. There were also gorgeous daffodils, many of them double daffs with fascinating blooms.

The bank in the summer of 2005. Yucca surrounded by grass and crown vetch. Fabulous.

Later in the summer a string of gladiolus revealed itself, again, running the length of the planted area. In between there was also some larger material, a mimosa tree, two trees that appear to be apples, but still haven't fruited to this day, and a crepe myrtle shrub. The majority of this area was completely overgrown in sod. I'm not sure if it ever was anything other than sod, but by the time I first saw it, it was mainly grass. Oh, and the one end had been planted in crown vetch.

Ah, crown vetch. A wonderful plant introduced by Penn State scientists (how's that for irony!) as a bank stabilizer originally used along new highways. It works great as a bank stabilizing plant because it forms a massive network of roots. When it blooms it is actually quite pretty, but it is not the look I wanted for The Bank. So began my war against crown vetch, which I am still fighting. With so many positive features to its credit and because I didn't want to mow over that slope, I decided to turn the whole bank into a flower bed.

In case you haven't figured this out by now, I often bite off more than any sane person would think a person could chew. But I really love digging in the dirt and have had a lot of fun on this project.

Which brings me to the real subject of today's post: the pathway. I like rocks, and back at our first house we built this great little corner garden with a rock pathway and steps that I just loved. There we lived right along a creek and had an endless supply of rocks. Here, not so much. But, the previous owners brought some river rocks in to make some beds around trees in the yard. These beds needed reworked because the trees have grown and it was just time. So a couple of years ago I decided that 'one day' I was going to pillage rocks from around the trees and make a pathway on the bank. Brian and some buddies took a weekend fishing trip to West Virginia in September. So I decided that was a good time to start my path because I wouldn't be pulled away to do something else. In the first day I cleared the path and laid about half of the rocks. Over the last two weeks I have finished laying rocks, and I am so pleased with the result! A nice path that will help foil the crown vetch, allow me to access more of the bed for weeding and planting, and most importantly, allow me to walk through the flowers to take photos and just generally enjoy the sights and smells.

Looking up the bank from the edge closest to the house at the end of day one.

Looking down the path at the end of day one; lots of progress, but a ways to go yet!

It just so happened that this sedum was in beautiful bloom that day.

The entrance to the completed path at the top edge of the bank bed.

A little longer perspective of the completed path. Sorry for the straw mess - work in progress. I mulched the day after I finished the path, and I haven't made it back out there with a broom to clean up my mess. (The straw is a new anti-vetch strategy...we'll see. I weeded and planted tulips in the area beside the bench, then covered it with straw. This area has very little current vetch pressure. On the lower side of the path, where the vetch is much worse, I sprayed it and will cover it with newspaper and straw in a few days.)

Back to the path...this is the highest point, and it features a mosaic stepping stone I made several years ago at a girls' weekend with my college girlfriends.

Looking up the path.

It sure feels good to complete a project I've worked so hard on!

Oh, the rest of the bank? Well, here are a few pictures of what it looked like this year.

Early spring. Ah, it looks so clean and weed free!

Early spring from the other end. The area around the bench was newly added to the bed last fall (yeah, I made it bigger, it was too hard to mow that little narrow piece of grass behind the old bed).

Spring in full bloom during May.

The end close to the pasture.

The end close to the orchard. The mimosa and the crepe myrtle both had some frost damage this year and had to be trimmed.

Most of my flower pictures posted over the summer were taken at various spots along the bank, but I obviously did not capture the full length during each season. There's a new goal for next year.