It depends for me too @Palustris. In the last year I have planted a new rose bed including some clematis, other shrubs and some bulbs and hardy perennials. To my dismay and that of my arthritic spine and knee, there be rocks and large stones buried down there so it feels more like quarrying. Having had some of the roses and clematis in large pots for 3 years they needed large holes and lots of manure working in and hole watering before and after planting so some took 2 hours.
Similar performance when I decided to do a Japanese maple and other shade lovers bed along the north side of the ruin - easier soil but just as much quarrying and again this last month when I've been planting a new bed one the west side of a stone walled barn.
It turns out that previous owners demolished another old barn and, rather than skip it all away, the buried the stones and all the terracotta roof tiles here there and everywhere. The potager, on the other hand, is on former pasture and once the beds have been marked out, cleared of grass and improved with manure it takes me anything from 10 seconds toa couple of minutes depending on whether I'm planting garlic cloves, onion sets or brassicas that need firming in well or pumpkins, soft fruits etc.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Am jealous, have finally got 3 in the garden. Yes, its a cae of "How long is a piece of string", we are on caly, its like a brick. 2018, I planted new shrubs and perrenials, so difficult to keep them watered, they were tall ones at the back of the border. I have half a dozen plants to go in go, but am waiting till it gets cooler.
Posts
Similar performance when I decided to do a Japanese maple and other shade lovers bed along the north side of the ruin - easier soil but just as much quarrying and again this last month when I've been planting a new bed one the west side of a stone walled barn.
It turns out that previous owners demolished another old barn and, rather than skip it all away, the buried the stones and all the terracotta roof tiles here there and everywhere. The potager, on the other hand, is on former pasture and once the beds have been marked out, cleared of grass and improved with manure it takes me anything from 10 seconds toa couple of minutes depending on whether I'm planting garlic cloves, onion sets or brassicas that need firming in well or pumpkins, soft fruits etc.