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Monday 23 May 2022

More Yard Work

Next week has mixed reviews... again. One site says rain and one says nice, sunny, hot weather. I'd prefer the later only the cashier at the nursery told me her boyfriend is a roofer, dependent on the weather, and VERY accurate and he says it's going to rain. Hmm... thankfully Saturday and Sunday were sunny and I got a lot of work done in the back yard. 

One of my neighbours is now working at the nursery and she said her partner was feeling bad watching me shovel rocks. He thought he should help. I asked her to thank him for me and tell him that I actually enjoy doing this kind of work and it's good exercise for me but I'd call if there was something too heavy. I didn't. I called my son instead and traded chocolate cake with whip cream for help moving a BIG rock and a tub of dirt and - of course - a hug.

I don't call him very often. I'd say that I'm saving points for my old age but it wouldn't be true. What is true is that I am very independent and I know what I want and it's much easier to just do it myself than try to explain it to someone else.  That means that when I do call, he knows that I really do need help. 




The only full sun spot in my yard is the far corner of the upper patio so that's where I put the tomato plant. It looks a little sad at the moment. Hopefully, it'll perk up now that it's in a pot. The strawberries are in a great location for me but I'm not sure it's a good one for them. I don't think they'll get enough sun. It was the only spot ready so I'll try them there for this year and see. 





The dirt is... well... dirty so I'm trying to get all of the walkways finished and contain it. The rocks on the stairs will get moved down once I get my next bag of gravel and can put a base layer underneath them. The big rock you see in the left picture at the bottom right of the walkway is the one I needed help with. I called it a rock when I called my son and he said, this is a boulder when he got here. He pulled it up out of the hole it was in and moved it over to where I wanted it and I was able to fussy shuffle it around on my own once he left. I'm okay with big rock.

I'd hoped to grade the walkway from the stairs down to the deck but it's too steep so I've added two steps using some bits I removed from one edge of the existing deck. I like re-fashioning in the yard as well as in the studio and I landscape the same way I create - start, respond to the developing yard, keep going until it says it's finished although it won't be finished this year. I've decided to wait on the wooden deck and hope wood is less expensive next year. 





The picture at left is at the top of the stairs. Once it's all filled in, you won't see the wood and the planter will be even more buried in the gravel. I think I'll put a bleeding heart in it. I have another one further up the walkway and this is the first home I've owned where I can have them; it's always been too hot. The neighbour can see that pot from her deck and she says she also likes them so win-win.

The "fence" is a headboard I'd been keeping in yard-stash. On the other side of it, I created a rock wall with some shrubs that will eventually be visible up top. The far side of the headboard is screwed to a  treated wood post that was left from my contractor building the stairs. It extends into a hole where I put gravel at the bottom and then filled it with an expanding fence post product - cement-ish - that my contractor left for me to do this year. You mix the two parts and then it grows and oozes and fills up the space. As it was doing that, I put more rocks on top so they'd also get cemented in and hold that corner very secure. It doesn't wobble at all when I push on it. 





This section is below the shrubs. You can sort-of see the curved line I've drawn with the hoe. That will get outlined with rocks. Again, I'm waiting for the gravel to fill the base. Once the rocks are in place, I'll plant the hill with shade lovers like Hosta and ferns and create a nice lush green space.

From my last house, I have a battery operated, outdoor, light fixture I want to somehow hang near an outdoor curl-up chair in that space for reading and/or writing. Right now (Sunday afternoon) I'm sitting on the upper patio, feeling the warm sunshine, listening to the creek while I type and it's amazing. Such a gift. 





These pots didn't do very well last year and I discovered why. I forgot to punch out the drainage holes although I'm not sure why they don't just punch them out at the factory. Hopefully, this year they will do better. This location is temporary since geraniums prefer more sunlight. I'll shift them forward once I've finished the walkway possibly right beside the strawberries where there is an ugly air conditioner to hide somehow. I love what it does; I don't like how it looks. These pots may be part of the solution and they'd get more sun there - hopefully enough. 





And this is the mess. Instead of carting all the tools back to the garage every day and getting dirt everywhere, I've been storing them under the upper patio along with my porch swing which will eventually have a frame and face this space so I'm thinking about how to make the view more attractive and the space still accessible. It was great last year for storing the yard furniture over winter. It's a similar problem to the air conditioner. 




Two things happened inside. I hung up this sculpture in the upstairs hallway and it's visible from the living room below which is double nice. This was the longest UFO I've ever had. I started it in fall 2004 and finished it mid 2019. I like it there.

For the carpet bag-ish fabric, I ended up stitching a 1" grid with dark purple thread. It's subtle like I wanted. I also prepared and cut out the lining and I'm ready to create the pockets. I'd planned to clean house today only I have a coffee date at 11:00 which may have been enough time but - just in case - LOL - I've put it off until tomorrow and I'll play in the studio instead. After all the yard work, that sounds like a great idea. 

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a beautiful yard

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