A little Canadian Red rhubarb plant that was half off. I've been wanting some kind of fruit but haven't quite figured out where I could put raspberry bushes. A rhubarb plant seemed like no problem. Then I realized I had no idea where to put it. It would eventually take up too much space in the kitchen garden. If I put it anywhere in the backyard it would have to be in a bed, with fence or block edging of some sort, or the dogs would run it over. I was envisioning a trip to the garden center for blocks and fence and compost, when it finally dawned on me. It could go here:
This is the neglected flower bed on the side of my house. It's home to lilies, hostas, irises and weeds. There's only about 10 feet between my house and my neighbor's, so it's pretty shady, but that very front corner faces south and gets a fair amount of sunshine. That very front corner, however, is full of irises. All of those irises, and a bunch on the other side of the bed, started with three rhizomes I pilfered out of a neighbor's yard about 10 years ago. They've done very well, but it was time for them to give up their prime real estate.
I started by trimming the irises and pulling all the weeds in the bed. I had a whole wheelbarrow load for the compost pile.
Then I dug out all of the irises in the front of the bed. Nothing like a little quality time with a spade and a pitch fork.
I had a huge pile of irises on the sidewalk. This is just a fraction of them:
I was able to replant most of them throughout the rest of the flower bed. With any luck, they'll grow well enough to fill out the whole bed and choke out the weeds.
With all of that done, I was able to put the rhubarb in its new home.
Now the bed looks like this:
A little less messy and with the promise of rhubarb pudding. :)
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