before and after

It all started out when I noticed that the tiny white pines I dug out of the back woods a few years ago are now about 15 feet tall and casting a shadow on all the plants that once looked so good around them.  I had no room to put these poor light-starved plants in a better spot, so I started digging to make more flower bed space.  Here's the before:

Here's the trapped plants:  iris, day lily, and other sun lovers that stopped blooming:

As I did the back-breaking labour of taking off the sod and wheeling it away, I found buried treasure.  An arrow, shot at least 10 years ago by my son Dylan, had been covered like archeological ruins.

After days of digging out the sod and shaping the curves, I had an expanded bed with lots of space, which was quickly filled by transplants from my other bursting at the seams beds.

I'm pretty happy with the result.  Who wants all that grass anyways?