As part of our program of returning rainwater to the ground rather than the drain, I put in a raingarden on the northern side of the front yard, between the herb spiral (herb wedding cake) and the mulberry tree. It looks good and works well and to even things up I decided that I wanted to put a similar fixture on the southern side of the herb spiral, although it would not have access to a rainwater downpipe so it would not be a true raingarden.
It did, however, assist with my long-term project of delawning the front yard as well as providing growing space for edible, and attractive, species. These species consisted of –
Flowers – Specifically two types, daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) and dianthus (dianthus sp.) both of which produce very attractive flowers that are edible.
Fruit – Dwarf nectarine tree (prunus sp.), which has been in place for over fifteen years and has been the only tenant of the area up to this point, and
Spice – The cinnamon tree (Cinnamomum cassia), which was originally in a pot, was transplanted into this area.
The process was relatively simple,
The first part was to mark out the area to be converted using a few bricks. Most of it was already bounded by the brick lined path in the east, the herb wedding cake to the north and the asparagus wicking bed to the west, so it just needed a few bricks between the herbs and the asparagus bed and between the asparagus bed and the path, job done!
The second part was to remove the top layer of soil and grass (the grass being composted and soil removed for use elsewhere) using the hoe. This included removing the plastic barrier originally around the nectarine tree.
Once this was completed, it was just a case of arranging the flowers and the cinnamon so that they fitted in well and worked with the nectarine tree. Given the choice I probably would have moved the nectarine over a bit, but it was well established and not really worth the effort for me, or hassle for the tree!
Once I had decided on the positioning, I was able to dig cinnamon tree into place. At this point I also decided to install a deep pipe waterer next to the cinnamon tree to make irrigation easier, which I did.
I then installed the mulch, which I decided would be a crushed white rock rather than an organic mulch, which would mirror the similar rock mulch I used in the rain garden.
With the mulch in place I then made some holes in it for the flowers, dug them in and used the mulch to cover them.
It has been pretty hot and dry there for a while, but everything seems to have survived so far and just recently we have started to get some rain, which has made the plants VERY happy! The cinnamon tree has suffered due to the hot sun and some of the leaves have died off, but it appears to be recovering nicely.
