Making the Bed

We're getting kind of tired of that enormous stack of retaining wall blocks in the driveway, so today we spent some time working on getting them put into place around the deck to make the planting beds.

So Noel hauled a bunch of the blocks to the back yard in the morning (keep in mind that these are 65 lbs each, so that is a lot of hauling).

You can see that the gardeners had started weeding out the mess I made of that bed, and I did some more work on that as well, carefully hand-weeding around plants. No, I do not know what I was thinking to put plants in there with no weed control.

We stacked the blocks where they will keep the planting bed from being in contact with the house -- this is to avoid making routes for termites or mice or whatever else might want to get into the house discreetly.

Then the hard part: we moved a pile of chipped wood into the bottom of the bed, then piled sifted soil from one of our mysterious yard lumps. Then we spent a bit of time digging and sifting compost out of the chicken yard, which was more work than it sounds like. We did about seven wheelbarrow loads of dirt and compost, and then I planted the large salvia I've had in a pot in the middle of it.

There are still two other large beds around the deck to fill with soil and compost, so this joy can continue for quite some time.

In other news, we've hit the final stages of the first phase of junk removal at our friend's house. We've hauled off 2.5 tons of garbage, and now we are working on half a truck full of donations. I was hoping to just perform a minor miracle and recaulk his shower the other day, but it turned out to have more serious problems and needs a complete replacement, which is kind of a bummer. Fortunately, he's not an obsessive perfectionist like me, so I bet we can replace the bath surround in a weekend or two.

posted by ayse on 02/23/13