I Disappeared Again

 Life has been hectic.  There was a lot of health issues.  And in fixing some of the health issues I was able to get more active again.  I keep waiting for the body to issue one of it's stop notices, which it likes to do without warning.  But while it's willing, I'm going to tackle the to do list that has gotten insanely long.  So I've spent a lot of time, and I do mean a lot of time, working on the yard.  I honestly wasn't thinking much about this until someone asked for a lot of information on what and how.  

I'm already a giant chunk of the way through the overhaul, and I didn't take before/after pictures.  So I am going to take before/after pictures as I overhaul the section I'm working on now.  Because while it all looks so pretty afterwards, and seems so easy, it actually takes a lot of work to get it from A to Z. I'll put the after pictures of the other work on another post, but it's hard to show just how much work went into doing all of that. Those areas had raised beds and trellises in them and everything had to be stripped out.

I'm working about an hour each morning.  My body needs that time for a variety of reasons.  And that time has been helping my health and sanity, two good things to keep going in positive directions.  All in all, I spend 6 to 7 hours a week working on the yard in one way or another.  On the weeks I have to mow, about 2 to 3 hours of that time is handling the lawn.  Otherwise, it's the yard getting overhauled.  At my speed.

Start of day

This current project actually started on 8/17.  When I finished mulching under the last of the currently unused vegetable beds, I started this.  Step one, which I can't show you, was getting all the cardboard that I had laid down out of the space. I didn't take pictures so I can't show you that.  But the cardboard did what I needed it to do.  It kept the weeds, the spirea, and the sweet autumn clematis from taking over until I could get back to this spot.

So here are the raw photos for the area I'm working on for the next little while.  It will all be stripped back to bare earth and then rebuilt from there.  And there were a few surprises.

The cardboard did a good job of keep the weeds down.  But when pulled, it because obvious that some of the more stubborn things, like spirea and sweet autumn clematis, were trying to make a comeback.

Start of day

The actual first job was getting everything out of the way.  So those two rather large planters you see above had to move to a new home.  Each planter is an 18" square.  They are planted with Arp Rosemary.  Eventually those plants will get an in ground spot, but for now those pots are their homes.

Then was picking up all the small bits of accumulated random trash.  It was an interesting pile, and fortunately small.

That's when things got interesting.  If you look closely at the pictures, you can see sections of black plastic edging.  That edging has been there for 20+ years.  It's actually in pretty amazing condition for something that old. But that also meant that it was a pain to pull up.  And pull it up I had to, because it was going to be in the way of the new plantings.  Basically, the original garden bed had been planted way too close to the house.  The new garden bed will be correctly spaced.

Start of day

That black plastic actually goes/went all the way across the front and wraps around the side.  I started with a shovel.  That failed quickly.  So the mattock came out to work.  As of 8/18, most of the black plastic in the front has been pulled.  The side will be another day.

In pulling up the black plastic edging, I discovered that way back when, someone had placed plastic bags from soil/rocks/whatever as mulch cloth.  I don't do this for multiple reasons but I have to say, the bags held up pretty well.  It was a challenge to get most of them pulled out. But they got pulled out.

And I had to hand weed the random plant volunteers, including the goldenrod and the sweet autumn clematis.  That spot will be watched carefully to see if I'll have to resort to Round Up.  It is the core spot for most of the vines that I've been fighting the past few years.

End of day 

I also had to pull out the loppers.  I love those loppers.  I used them to get the bits of stump that were still aboveground.  And the small pieces of spirea that were still trying to come up.

I'm not worrying about stumps beyond killing them thoroughly.  They are actually all too close to the house.  Most of them will be buried under the new mulching.  And since I really don't want them coming back, there will probably be a few extra layers of cardboard over the spots that were still showing signs of life.

End of day

 

By quitting time for today, things were starting to look different.  Empty.  Blank.  That won't last for long, but it's the starting point for the new garden bed.

End of day

And this is just some of the plastic that was tucked under the soil.  I'm also finding lots of rocks.  I'm guessing that the original mulch for this area was rock.  That's okay.  The rocks can be reused in another spot.

So, am I going to disappear again?  I hope not.  I'm actually hoping to just keep right on trucking along on here.  There have been quite a few folks that have opened my eyes to a few things.  I keep forgetting that I've learned things that other folks haven't.  So maybe if I put it here, that knowledge can pass on to the people who need it.  Maybe before they need it.