That's some fancy digging there, Laura! I really like the shape of the bed. Keep that shovel sharp; I'm going to put in a dwarf conifer hillside next Spring. You are a woman of many talents LOL.

And I quite like the cottonseed hulls. Did you buy by the bag or truckload?

Thanks! The shape of the bed was actually necessitated by the utility lines and tree roots around it. I'm planning on putting the climber Harlekin at the front & center of it. I know it's probably counterintuitive to put the tallest rose at the front of the bed, but I want to make sure it doesn't cast shadows on the other roses.

The easiest way to dig and get the sod out was a trench-digging shovel. It has a V-shaped point, and it's only about 4 inches wide. Made easy work of getting the sod off the top, and the trench around the edge.

I bought the first batch of hulls from Thornridge farms in Mechanincsburg. The farmer's wife works at my company & I found them via ADM's website, as a broker/dealer for hulls. They sell them by the bag. Their price is $11 per 45 lb bag. Three weeks later, Mike found them at a feed store in Litchfield for $9 per bag. He thinks that most feed stores should carry them; farmers use this as feed when fields go fallow around this time of year.

You did a really good job, and your dog is beautiful.

Thanks! Here's another plus for the hulls over regular wood chips: the hulls do NOT get stuck in dog fur. Puppy has that dense chow undercoat & always gets wood chips stuck in her fur. It's been nearly a month & that bed has no fence around it. Seen all kinds of pawprints where she's been nosing around in it, but not one bit tracked into the house yet!

Great job! A beautiful garden bed. You have to be sure to send us pictures next summer when your new plantings are in bloom. We use cottonseed meal as one of the organic products in the rose fertilizer our rose society mixes. It provides good nitrogen and it helps to lower the soil's pH - something we need with our high pH limestone soil. Nice work, Laura!

Great job flaurabunda! I like the shape of the bed also.

It is very good places to grow roses, and i think it will grow well.

Here is a link that might be useful: cheap mbt shoes