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Shaping A Flower Garden By: Danyel Fields

Making a pile of rocks into a flower garden

By Danyel FieldsPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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I am a person with vision and love to work with my hands. I know that not everything can be done with only my hands but with dependable tools as well. The picture above way day two of a two week journey that I made beautiful. As you can tell there are a lot of rocks that had to be removed before I could start my art. You can also see that large pile of what looks like leaves and sticks. I will tell you those aren't your average leaves you see; that is a huge pile of poison ivy. So, not a job for the everyday Joy to go out and take care of. Plus, all those rocks piles you see and didn't really know what I was getting into until I started pulling all the ivy out. Then rock after rock seemed to be endless as the days went on. After day four was over I finally got most of it cleared out and the ivy pulled back to a pile in the woods behind the house.

Now, was when the real work began. I had to move rocks back and forth to build my design and see where the garden plastic was going to be laid. Going through design after design in my mind on what would look best in the yard. I finally came down to it had to be a double tier garden. This is when I started to cut the lines of where the top and bottom tier would be. and began the design.

I turned the soil by spade shovel to be able to move it from one area to the other helping to lay out a better map of what to do next. After moving the soil to where I wanted the cut line to be between the gardens. This is when the garden plastic came into play. Carefully unrolling and unfolding the plastic and moving it to where it would have to be. I placed some of the rocks on the outside of the lines of the garden to hold the plastic in place. Than I grabbed my sewing scissors to cut the form of the garden from the plastic. Sewing scissors cut so much smoother than the average garden scissors any day of the week.

The next step is to start arranging the rocks along the edges. Now, this might sound simple to some but really it is harder than some may think. Let me explain that not everything is flat and I had to build rock walls that would last outside and inside the garden. Then mid way through the owner's of the house decided they wanted a waterfall within the flower garden. So, my already amazing design just became a little harder to complete but okay I'm down for the challenge. The outside edges and walls were going to stay the same the only thing that needed to be changed was the inside wall which would now be hosting a waterfall. Good thing was that if there was a waterfall there would have to be a pond and used the dart from the pond to craft the waterfall.

Getting into the waterfall was no easy task, with it bring right between trees the root systems were quite heavy in the area. Once it was planned out on where it was going to go and using a kiddy pool for the pond. I got my handy dandy sewing scissors out again and cut the plastic for the pond. It took a spade shovel and an axe to make the hole big enough for the pool to fit into. I used the dirt from the pond to start shaping the hill for the waterfall and also shaping the smaller top pool for the running of the fall.

The whole shaping and making of the waterfall and top pool took a lot longer than planned. I worked for almost a week getting everything just right to where I could say it was a piece of art. With each stone placed in the right spot, to the sloping of the sides so the water didn't overflow. I even had to go back a week or so after because of everything settling down. Then BAM things were flowing like they should and the water was pumping up to the top pool with ease.

Now was the time for planting all the flowers within the garden. This to me is always a fun step because it means that the job is almost complete. Sorting flowers from which ones needed more sunlight than the other and which ones needed more shade. In this garden the flowers that needed more light went up in the top garden. With the house facing the south the top would get more of the sun. The bottom garden on the other hand had a large bank on the south side of it allowing more shade to the bottom along with the trees shade that casted over it.

Planting the flowers in the right places meant that I would have to cut through the plastic that I had laid over the gardens. The plastic adds to less weeds growing throughout the garden. Organizing the plants on where they would be planted and making sure each one had enough space to grow, it is time. Time to grab my handy sewing scissors to start cutting my triangles for the plants. Moving one by one with gardening shovel in hand planting each one as I cut the plastic and dug each hole. It may have taken a day to do but in the end my masterpiece was done.

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About the Creator

Danyel Fields

I have fell on hard time's many times but the things that keep me going are the songs, stories, and poems that I write within. They can make me smile on dark days or they help twist dreams the dreams I have.

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