planted beautyberry and loropetalum

Today I planted the Japanese beautyberry and the Ever Red Sunset loropetalum. I will say that while I was trying to dig the hole for the 3 gallon beautyberry I remembered why I had planted mainly 1 gallon plants in this area... the soil is pretty hard. I did run into some rocks from the driveway, but not too many. It was slow going though when I got into the hard, dry clay soil. I got the hole dug finally and actually dug a little deeper than needed, then ammended all the dirt with the Moonure. The beautyberry was pretty root-bound, so I spent some time trying to loosen up the roots and bit, then finally got it in the hole and got it filled in and mulched.

After that, it was pretty quick and easy to dig the hole for the loropetalum, as it was the hole the pieris had been in, so pretty much I was just removing backfill. I did enlarge the hole a little bit and tried to dig out more of the bermuda grass, as it was constantly growing into and around the pieris. Hopefully I got the area a little clearer. On Sunday, I may go back in and clear out some more grass in this whole area and try to mulch in more of it. I did want to plant some spring bulbs in this area, so that might work.

After a trip out to Lichetenfelt Nurseries to see what hydrangeas they had (none that I was looking for though I picked up a variegated Japanese Iris and a small hellabore both for 50% off), I stopped off at Lowes on the way home to buy another bag of the grass starting soil. I also got a bag of Black Kow and a bag of mulch as I still have more planting to do this month and both are handy to have around when you need them. I filled in most of the laundry post hole with the dirt left over from planting this morning and then added the little bit I had left over from planting Mini Penny last weekend. I topped it all off with the grass starting soil, and tried to mix it all together and mix some of the grass soil out into the dirt I had kicked out around the hole when I was digging. I then seeded in the entire area with some grass seed, then covered it all with some straw. The straw bale wasn't staying together too well any more, so right now it is dumped along the fence line next to the edge of the camellia bed. I'm going to spread it out along the fence line, then let the leaves pile up in that area. Once the shack is torn down I am planning to extend the camellia bed, so right now I'll just start trying to add some organice matter to the soil in that area, maybe it will be in good shape when I am ready to plant (probably next fall).