japanese garden rotation - wk 4

Today's rotation day is a group effort in a large bed just down from the main gates. Some big trees were recently removed from the bed and needs some new soil added before replanting a large amount of Helleborus that have been dug out and put to one side. Today the team of willing workers consists of (the multiple lovely) Kath, Jeremy, Adam and Daniel...... (and if Margot was here she would definitely be lovely too!) 

Adam arrives with a load of top soil.

Where the large trees have been removed there are now some depressions in the soil level that need levelling off,  so we climb on to the back of the ute and start shovelling into the wheelbarrows. After three ute loads and multiple wheelbarrow loads, the soil is spread and the surface raked beautiful (Kath is a pro on the rake and show us how it should be done!) An even surface is important as the bed is on a slope and the irrigation may pool in the dips and make muddy wet patches instead of spreading evenly down across the bed.

Helleborus for replanting.

Now it's time to begin the large re-planting effort and I start to transport the heavy sections of mostly Helleborus orientalis down to the front of the bed in the wheelbarrow. Kath then marks out an curved area that we will being to fill in. We get into a nice rhythm where mostly Kath digs the holes and I select and plant a Helleborus to match it. We try and evenly mix the colours and large and small specimens so it looks as even as possible.

A beautiful white Helleborus orientalis.

My favourite colour is the deep burgundy. 

Planting notes include using a safe back when lifting them, making sure I support the root ball, being very particular about the holes soil level matching the plants soil level and back filling carefully without too much compression. The watering in will remove the air pockets and settle everything nicely.

Getting to the end of the planting.

This is obviously not the most ideal time to transplant them as they are in full flower at this time of the year but we have to get the bed repaired now and Kath ensures me they are quite tough and will cope with the shock of being moved just fine with a little TLC. 

Today's planting team finishing up.

It's now time for a clean up and Jeremy mans the hose and start the large job of cleaning all the tools and restoring the path behind the bed to it's former glory after having to dump soil there for easy shovelling.

Jeremy has the path and beautiful stone wall behind looking immaculate.

A big job well done and the large drift of Helleborus look great now we have finished. Kath hasn't quite decided what else will go in the bed with them yet but has a few ideas she is thinking of, in line with the surrounding Chinese collection. I will check back later to see how the Helleborus recover and what else finds a new home here.

The finished bed looks great.