I knew this was coming, but not when, until the trucks showed up today. They dropped off the giant manhole thing and left a backhoe in my front yard. They come back tomorrow to dig up a broken pipe and put a manhole under my sidewalk.

It is good and necessary work, but I am of course worried about what plants will be damaged. I hope the red maple is not impacted too severely. They think they know where the pipe runs, along the edge of the flower bed, but they cannot be entirely sure until they dig. I did dig out a few things on that side of the bed in the spring.

They seem like nice guys, and I told them I wanted to dig up anything that was threatened. They said they will help. I am going to prepare two garden carts with a layer of dirt, to hold plantings out of the way. It should be done in only one day, so I could replant – but it will be in dug-up clay, not the topsoil I was developing. While they work, I will fill a trash can with compost to dig in before replanting.

I do have the opportunity to expand the bed into the area they dig up. I am going to try to wheedle from them a truckload of mulch to spread, instead of having them reseed it. I will make an edge, layer on newspaper and cardboard, then mulch heavily, Not plant much until next year, when I can add more compost.

(The MyFolia thing that lets you select the beds and plants that are discussed is not working, nor is the widget that lets to say what is blooming. I will come back and add that later.)