Garden Bed V.02!
 

As part of a way to erase ANY of my doings of my relationship with Emi, Emi has started to take apart the raised garden bed I built a couple of years ago. When in bloom, it looks pretty darn good. When people walked by, they always commented on both sides of the yard. (the bed was on one side of the side walk, the house and garden on the other...) Over the next few months, I'll be hauling this rather heavy building stones down to my parents. I'm building a new at their house. Funny thing is, it's gonna be right next to a path also!

I find gardening (as well as beating the crap out of people's yards aka yardwork) theraputic or something. There's something wonderful about creating a workspace, planting, watching it grow and to see if you can nurture it. And if the plants don't work out, then you try something else or plant it again!

13 bricks. My car can't hold many more cuz these things weigh quite a bit. I thought they were were 12 lbs but I can single curl a 12lb weight. These feel closer to 30. So while 13 have been transfered, I have 4x more to go or so.


Of all the plants I wanted kept from the old bed, Emi was kind enough to keep my black mondo grass and my blood grass. I didn't realize Blood Grass went dormant (ie; the grass dies and comes back) so I was pulling them out cuz I didn't think they rooted. But it turns out they did! These will be the border of the bed.

I did research years ago on how to do this. The way I'm following, I turn over ALL the grass and create a new stable foundation for the stones. BUT this bed will be different in that it has to be RAISED off the ground to be flush with the path. This is different than just doing it on level ground. The ground is NOT level so... This is the border.


Leveling the 1st corner. Notice that the bubble IS in the middle! lol! Seriously, I have to raise the ground a bit to be flush with the path. My parents will at a later dirt bring in new dirt and make the whole area level with the path. And yes, a rototiller WOULD help to an extent.


Tools of the trade. What does Thomas's wheelbarrow have to do with it? He was helping us move gravel earlier. You can see the location of the 1st corner WITH bricks. I am using the old grass to raise everything up.

The idea here was to break up the dirt a bit after digging the grass out. But in the end, I changed my mind. I started filling the raised border with the old grass clumps at this time. Then using a 10lb stamper to compact it a bit. The bricks, which will be 3 high, will help pack it down too.


Test corners. There are different ways to do corners. You can 45' them like this so it takes 3 bricks to make a corner. But what I decided on in the end is to do make the base a 90' angle. This actually made the 2nd layer of bricks set up better. Unfortunately, my battery was dying and I forgot to take pics.


Continue on the right side of the screen and I actually leveled it all out and have the base layer on 1 side good to go! The extra bricks, I built up so it's 3 high. Part of it is experimental too to see how I like it.


I'll have more next week since I'm hitting my parents again this weekend. Thomas gets to go trick o treating down there! :D

Looks like you have just started. Im sure it will look good when you are done :D

landscaping
 

looks great

You are a decent guy. I'd be more inclined to throw those bricks through her window.

Pretty awesome G

So I messed around with things a bit over the weekend. Due to my father's back being bad (from lifting septic tank lids; my back didn't hurt quite as bad when lifting them...), I'm having to do a lot of yardwork for him. The garden bed is my thang but moving gravel, digging out stuff, digging up stuff and moving rhodi bushes...

Last edition, you saw I was throwing the corner bricks at 45 degree angle, but I changed my mind. Due to the weird way the bricks line up, EVEN tho they are level, 3 are at 90 degrees and 1 is at 45 (back corner so people can't see it as easily). I worked the foundatin all weekend and with the exceptoin of 1 brick, I have the bottom layer set. So the next bricks, all I have to do is build up. It took about a half yard of dirt to JUST do the foundation. To fill it up, it'll take a yard or so. Anyway, here's how it looks now.

I'm only transporting about 13 bricks a time and well, that's several hundred pounds in the trunk so...

AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you making a flower bed or is it a cunningly disguised Cobra fort for your dio stories? Its looking good either way.

it'll be a garden bed. it'll have some seasonal flowers... Like the old bed I had... it'll be bordered by bloodgrass and black mondo grass. I'll do delphiniums and another flower that escape my name later on. Delphiniums do late spring/summer while what i want are summer. just need to build it up 2 more levels and put the dirt in. I want to get the basics done before winter

Gotta agree with you there G, there is nothing as relaxing as getting out into the garden. We've been in our home thirteen years now, and it's taken me the whole time to get the garden looking how I want. The people we bought it from were definitely not keen gardeners, so it's been a long haul, but I've loved every minute of it...well, except for lugging hundreds of paving stones around I guess! :)

Craig, my parents been in there house for... Well, just a bit longer than you. They've redone it a few times, but something always comes up where we have to deal with 'big' stuff.

The most recent are the additions of sewers to the town. That meant, they had to connect a sewer system to EVERY house because everyone was on septic. Now, instead of taking out the 3 tanks, they disconnected them and the plan by THEM was to fill them in with dirt. But my parents said, "Leave it! You'll destroy our yard!" So father and I, a few weekends ago, broke down the concrete risers that held the lids (don't mind that we had to dig down to 'em). We were gonna break the lids they gave us and use the originals (which we KNEW fit the holes). But we used both the originals to seal the crap AND then used the new lids to cover. (we broke down the concrete risers and threw them into the tank with a bottle of bleach in EACH tank)

BUT this summer, there was an irrigation problem. So my parents had a professional company come out, dredge out a ton of stuff and well, the amount of river rock from the original soil... That was the easy part. THe hard part was that Kody and I had to gather all the irrigation and river rock and pile it up for my mother who plans on using it in OTHER places in the yard. What does this all mean? There were parts in the backyard where the water wouldn't flow (due to clay as well...) and it was like a swamp. So wet it was, it choked out some of the plants that LOVE water! Not good.

Before that, I had to help father redux tiles around the patio.

So now? The whole neighborhood is having some trees pulled out and new ones put in. The trees now, they are HORRIBLE for those with allergies. EVEN people without allergies are effected! So father and I dug out 3 rhodis (1 was trashed) and then the heathers. Next weekend, Kody and I get to dig out the old crap dirt around the tree. The tree pepole will plop the new one in and once again, Kody and I will put the new dirt in. Believe me, when in bloom, the yard is terrific.




Now, THIS is all on top of the redux of the 'yard' on their rental property in Seattle. I had a tiny bit to do with that, but they had a professional deal with it. I have yet to see it, honestly. Anyway... I'd love to be a gardener. I have no idea why, but I would...

As it stands now. Another 13 stones. I might have to find the half pavers to fill in that corner. It won't be consistent but it'll at least work.

The real kicker is this. WIth all the rain NW Washington has received, there's been a bit of flooding...








Over on the left side in the nook, that's where I shot a lot of my shots both S6 and small scale! Now it's covered by rushing water!

garden
 

Its really looking good Graham. Looking forward to seeing when you get more of it completed. Im just waiting for it to dry out a bit to do some shots with the new radar dish i built.

UPDATE!

Ok... This plan has gotten bigger and more fun. The backside of the flower bed, I'm going to be adding a layer of something-or-other to level it out. I'm gonna make a rock river bed on the back side with some sort of stepping stones. Where am I getting the filler? See next post.




Ok, so... I added 2nd layer of bricks. My father was using a couple to keep... Uh... Let's put it this way, my parents have mole problems. The trap they were using, you put a cover over the hole and then a heavy 'object' over it. But uh... I started adding filler dirt to level out the area AROUND the flower bed. Mother wants the ground on the other side of the path to be level....

A weekend ago, Kody and I had dug out the roots of, iirc, a Sicamore Tree that was going to be taken out. These trees have HUGE leaves that gather pollen and makes people with NO allergies suddenly HAVE THEM! Anyway, Kody and I had holes all around it, the company came, ripped 'er out and then shredded it and filled our holes (Frak me!)

Due to the flooding in my parents area, they were going to fill the back of the S10 (it's an OLD chevy s10, craig... we're talking 1987???) and ship it to a farm that needs filler soil. BUT mother decided that the filler would JUST use to make the area around the path level. So Saturday, I spent HOURS trying to fight with crap dirt, ROCKS (that were the size of river rock), and roots. I gave up, moved to the front and started digging up the debris from the tree.

Trust me, when you work as slow as I was (alone), you need something to make you feel like ya's getting somewhere! Digging up the debris was soooooo much easier and managed 6 wheel barrow loads to add the area AROUND my flower bed. On top of that, I also helped move branches for a neighbor who cut down 3 trees!







What's next? In 2 weeks, I take another 10-14 bricks to make the 3rd layer. And over Thanksgiving, Kody and I will dig out the old sicamore tree spot so a new one can be planted. And yes, I'm tired and my back is killing me...

Why did the company fill the holes? What does it say on the sign? Looks like your helping out both your parents and your neighbours now. Good going.

A different tree will be planted there in a month or two. Supposedly, the company that did it all felt it 'neater' to fill in the hole than take the tree away. Gotta read the fine print next time! The sign says something like, "Please do not plant tree. Please talk to homeowner." Basically, I need to dig all that crap out, bring in the new dirt (without the rather large rocks!), plop the new one in and fill again. My parents said they could just drop the tree on the yard or wherever.

Ah nutz. I just realized that I gotta replant the rhodis too eventually. Guh.

Lil update. I didn't show off what I had done a week ago but I added 24 more bricks to the bed. I'm still digging out the hole in the front yard and well, I started to fill the bed with some of the crap dirt. I'm still trying to level out the ground around the bed too. For the most part, the bed is about 90% built. THere are still 30-some bricks to bring up but the plan was for this to be only 3 stones high. I don't know what I'll do with the extras.

You can see in the corner I need a half stone to fill in that gap.

Update:

I guess it's been 2 months. The bricks making up the bed are in place, it just happened to snow really bad and then rain and well, I didn't really touch it.

If you guys remember the digging out of the roots from a tree (from last year) that was taken out, I gathered a lot of the rocks that littered the dirt. With all those rocks, I'm creating a river bed type of thang. Tho, it's not quite as pretty as those found in properly landscaped yards, gardens and parks. But hey, it works for me!

Hopefully next weekend, I can get a yard of dirt and fill the bed in. Then I can plant the Black Mondo Grass and Japanese Blood Grass. If it stays as 'warm' as it is, I might be able to plant Dahlias for the summer! :D

It coming along quite nicely G!! Cant help but to think of how many scenes are going to involve that setting in the future after there are lots of plants and growth...

Lil update


Started building the walkway. I was hoping for a certain look but we'll see how it works.


Another shot of the continued river rock bed.


I planted stuff 2 weeks ago. Not much there but there's $60 worth of plants in there including the stuff Emi had dug up from my original bed back in Nov/Dec. Hard to tell if the blood grass and some of the black mondo grass will come back. I bought salvia, lupine, and some other tall plant to go in there. There are a couple of dahlia tubers in the ground in which I have those lil plastic tab/stakes to mark their position. And of course, there are hen n chicks to act as ground cover! :D

Looking sweet G, I can see plenty of dio opportunities there already! :)