Flowerbeds in front of the old building (3/9)

Facing west and in front of the old building, this is what the flowerbeds looked like after the dead leaves were removed, just to get to the stones. Aside from weeds and grass that can be seen amongst the rocks in this picture, the only green of plants is an overgrown clump of irises about halfway down the building. There were actually three such clumps of irises along this building and none of them had been tended in 20 years so they were stunted, with roots on top of roots on top of roots.

My first task was to remove all of the stones from in front of both buildings. This was all done by hand, using a wheelbarrow to move the rocks to the back of the building, where they were piled for later removal. All told, there were at least three or four tons of rocks that were moved.

The next step was to dig up the clumps of irises and to separate them. This was a huge task as the clay soil didn’t yield up the tubers easily. Besides what I kept for replanting at the church, I ended up giving away four large boxes of iris tubers; about 70 pounds worth.