Fifteen Months in the Life of a New Lily Bed
in Jonathan's Backyard,
Iowa City, IA

Click any image to see a larger picture:
Summer 2008	November 2008 - The "jungle" of bushes at the far end of our yard were removed, and....	...the new bed slowly began to take shape.
But Winter was on its way, and.......	....by the next morning (November 28), it looked like this!	Snow covered the site for the next two and a half months! (You've got to like living in Iowa!)
What a mess!	Fast forward to March 2009 - over a ton of Anamosa limestone is delivered, but how to get it to the backyard?	A fortuitous late snowstorm on March 29 (and a sled) solved the problem! (photo taken at 8 AM)
11 AM on the same day!	3 PM on the same day!	Brother-in-law Tim builds the wall in 6 hours!
		Note the raised beds in our neighbor's yard.
	The bed was filled with soil, and....	....the surrounding area was prepared for seeding
	Covers promoted grass seed germination.
A few weeks later, ...	... the bed was prepared for seedling planting.
Removing the covers revealed the new grass.		475 seedlings grown since December under lights
	Planting begins!
Susie begins work on the upper bed, watched by Scooter, our Yorkie.	200 seedlings were planted in the lower bed.
	By May 28, the task is complete!	Time to finish planting the top bed!
The top bed gets planted.	June 12	June 22
July 7	July 9	July 19
July 19	July 19	July 19
July 19	July 19	July 19
July 27	August 11	August 15
September 1	September 23	October 7
October 10 - A small taste of things to come!	October 24	October 24
October 24	October 24	October 31
November 7	Susie puts in a request for snow.......	.......and, on December 12, her request was granted!
	December 27 - Snow keeps coming!
January 7- No end in sight!	Enough's enough, .....	....forget the lilies, let's play ham radio!