Awesome Mary Ann, I know its hard work, but its done. Time to do the happy its gone dance. It will look great once the irises you have planned are planted and they are blooming.

Look at all that pretty dirt! Nice clean iris ready dirt. Woot woot! Can I plant some of mine in there?

I want to walk through it barefooted first, Leslie. Great job Mary Ann!!! I know Bermuda and its challenges. I know you feel as great as the new area looks.

Haha Leslie -- no you cannot -- that real estate is spoken for!!!

Hmmmm -- walking through it barefooted sounds pretty good.........................

Thanks guys -- I'm pretty stoked!!

Justifiably so.

DO go barefoot through it. My new bed along the back of the house has been all new garden mix soil so I have been planting all the iris in my bare feet. So much easier than getting dirt out of your shoes later. Nice soft lovely dirt it has been.
But Mary Ann I bet there are some of mine you would allow on that real estate!!!

I'm sorry to hear of your back troubles Mary Ann. I hope your get better quickly. The cleaned out area looks amazing!!! You deserve to be proud!

I've been fighting bermuda grass in the field where I'm planning to plant my irises for about 3 years. I'm finally winning the battle. Just a few more small sections waiting to be dug out. It will be so nice to finally have a place to plant all of my potted irises!

Marilyn, once you have 'won' the battle and have your irises planted.... don't turn your back on the Bermuda grass. If you have left one little half inch piece it can take over a field again in one season. Congrats on getting your new space cleared!

Oh please don't show me, Leslie!! I'm struggling to find room for what I've got now. I'm still not able to use much of Iris Lane -- that has to be my next project.

I have room in the new fence section for fourteen Irises. Last night I went through the Irises that are in the *temporary* bed next to the garage -- and I narrowed it down to 22 *must haves* for that area.

I have come to the conclusion that I have to start culling. But where oh where to start????

Let me know what you figure out--I'm going to have to do a little culling myself next season and a direction in which to start would be nice.

Can't you get two rows of iris in that section? You should be able to squeeze in at least 16 TB's, or more if you plant some medians or dwarfs in the front. They can be spaced a bit closer together.

Just trying to be a good enabler here.

If it's 8 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, you can make three rows if you stagger the rows. Eight in the back row, 7 in the middle row and 8 in the front row.

X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X
- X - X - X - X - X - X - X -
X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X

X= iris - = space.

People used to plant corn like this, they called it a "Check row" planting as you could cultivate diagonally as well as down the rows.

And 8 + 7 +8 =23, so all the 'must haves' will fit....with room to spare

yup, then she can quickly order one more!

LOL -- you guys are sooooooooooooo BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do stagger them, and make three rows. But -- the back row is five, the middle row is four, and the front row is five. This leaves me plenty of room to step in-between in order to do weeding, etc. in the beds -- and it also leaves enough room so that I'm not having to dig up clumps every year.

In an ideal world I would plant like Mary Ann. In my world of rhizomes needing homes, I plant like Tom and Arlyn diagram!

Today I finished the fourteenth section. Finished. The. Fourteenth. Section. Boy -- does that sound good!!!

This morning I brought a load of dirt to add to it. Removing all the Bermuda grass and the poor rhizomes buried in all of that, lowered the soil level considerably. It needed to be built back up. The dirt comes from a pile that is rife with weeds -- including the dreaded Johnson grass -- so it all needs to be sifted to remove every single piece of roots -- otherwise, I'm just trading Bermuda grass for Johnson grass. So in addition to shoveling the dirt, it needed to be sifted and then leveled.

It was very hot outside today. Felt like 110*. Probably was only 109* or so.............. And humid.

So once I had the soil level built back up, it was time to plant Irises!! Problem was that before I could plant the Irises, I had to dig them up from the garage bed, and trim them up. Did I mention it was very hot outside? I got about halfway through -- and I had to quit. I was spending more time mopping sweat off my face than I did gardening. Went into the house, turned on the fan, drank water and rested.

After finishing up my barn work this evening, I went back and finished up the bed. Planted the fourteenth Iris about 7:00 tonight. Did it!! Got er done!!!

I was too damned tired (not to mention hot) to take any pictures -- that'll have to wait until tomorrow -- but I wanted to share the good news!!

Omigosh -- it's finished!!!

Congrats, Mary Ann
Looking forward to the pictures.