My Adventures Where in the world is ….

Last week Carl finished the rock wall project.  He dug a ditch that was about a foot deep on one end and two feet on the other ending in a dry well.  He put in a layer of gravel which he had been collecting as he had screened dirt in our garden the last two years.  Then he laid a drainage pipe and more gravel so if water melted and ended up below the rock wall the wall would not fall.  He put cloth on the back of the wall to keep the weeds out but allow water through.  The pictures show the beginning of building the wall.  Before the rocks had been stood up on their sides.  He laid them down so the wall would be more stable.  It took some time to fit them all together.  The first layer is rocks he could not lift himself but could slide if on a wood piece so he would lever them up onto the wood and then slide the wood into place.

After digging the ditch and digging a dry well, Carl used the gravel gleaned from dirt in our garden over the years to fill in a layer and then added a drain pipe. Then more gravel until it reach the top where he was now ready to start building the rock wall.

Starting to put the first layer of rocks in.

The finished wall. It is nice in the picture and even nicer in person. Carl honed his skills in New York where we also had lots of rocks to build with.

Now the fun part.  Our potentillas are starting to bloom.

This Potentilla has the most blooms but they are all beginning to bloom now.

Unfortunately the blue flowering vines behind are weeds and we are digging them all out.  There are also some in the trees in the back of our house and we will leave those.  The flowers are nice but they are short lived.  Our potentillas should bloom all spring, summer, and fall.  All ten are doing well so we hope they will survive our dry hot summer and then winter and keep progressing as the years go by.

This was a lot of work for Carl but he did such a nice job.  Our neighbors have all commented on how lovely it is.

The secondary water was finally up to enough pressure to test the system this last week and so Carl filled in the trenches.  It is nice to finally have all the Potentillas planted. We look forward to seeing them in bloom.  The day lilies continue to grow and may not flower this year but they seem to be established so hopefully next year.  My kale was up in both spots and I transplanted one where there were three, but now there is only one place where kale is growing, there are two plants, one purple and one green.  I have replanted the other spots.  Hopefully I can end up with two plants.

Finally, this week the secondary water was on with enough pressure to test the new sprinklers. Carl filled in the trenches and we were able to plant the last two Potentillas. Now all ten are in the ground and yesterday we noticed that the yellow ones are starting to bloom. We are excited to see them in full bloom. Hopefully the pink will soon start to bloom as well.

The next project will be to tear apart the last of the rock wall and then build a base for the new wall.  That includes sorting rocks, a big job on its own.

The rock wall disassembling includes sorting rocks by size. Here is a far away view.

Close up here are the medium sided rocks.

This is the smaller rocks with lots of debris which Carl will sift out. These will go on the bottom of the trench he will dig to support the wall.

These two piles are divided with the line on the driveway. On the right are the rocks that Carl cannot lift but may be able to push. They will be on the bottom. Then on the left are the rocks he can move with two hands and perhaps some help. They will go on the next level.

On the left, near the dirt pile, are the rocks he can easily lift with one hand that will fill in the gaps as he builds.

Finally, here is a closer view of the remnants of the old wall. This was before he had taken out the last of the weeds that were growing there. We bought some landscape cloth to put up so that hopefully weeds won’t grow through the new wall.

Carl also bought some pipe that has holes on one side.  He plans to put that in the bottom of the trench so that if water comes up it won’t take out the wall but be funneled down into the gravel trench underneath.

Hopefully, this will soon be a beautiful memory of all the work he has done.  It is almost time to start turning over the soil for our garden and then he will work on the area where we had the trees trunks mulched so that we can move the Yucca plants from the front yard to the back.

It is all a work in progress and certainly fills Carl’s days.  I am so grateful he has the ability and inclination to work so hard to make our yard so beautiful.  Truly I am blessed.

So after the water sprinkler was installed but while we were still waiting to test if there were any leaks, we started planted our potentillas.  The secondary water – which we use to water our lawn and garden here – has not yet been turned on.  They say April 19th but as of the 24th it is still in process.  There is some water in the reservoir but not enough pressure yet.  So we wait. Prior to that planting, there was lots of dirt to move and other dirt to sift through to make it appropriate for planting.  There are so many rocks here (perhaps because we live at the base of the Rocky Mountains?) Carl sifts the soil to get the larger rocks out and then combines the soil with peat moss to loosen it up.

So here is the ongoing progress of our planting – I do help some with the actual planting but the bulk of the work is Carl – and he is so good at it.  I am very thankful for him and all his labors.

Carl digging a hole for the third of the five pink Potentillas we are planting. The other two we will have to wait to plant as they will be too close to the trenches for the sprinklers.

Here are the three pink Potentillas we are planting. If you look close you can see two posts where the other two will go just behind the large wood piece.

Carl worked on getting the dirt ready for the yellow potentillas to be planted.

He actually got four yellow potentillas planted in one day. The rocks in the front will be moved to become part of a wall somewhere else. They were in the soil as were the two brick pieces sitting on the wall.

Five yellow potentillas now planted, some of the rocks Carl has dug out AND the arrival of the stump grinder.

So sometimes after we moved into our home two years ago we found a picture that showed some trees along the little road going up the hill by our house.  Those trees have been taken down but two of the stumps remain.  They are kind of a problem in the middle of the garden.  We decided to have them ground down after Carl tried all he knew to get them out.  They are too big for him to dig out.

Here are the two old tree stumps.

The young man we hired setting up his stump grinder.

Here he is grinding down the first stump. You can see the pieces flying and we could hear the rocks he hit.

You can see there is not much left.  Unfortunately, he hit too many rocks and had to take his grinder in for repairs. He came back later that day to finish the job.

He came back and finished the first stump from the other side.

Here he is finishing the second stump. It went much faster and was easier. Less rocks I think.

Close up of the mulch.

Since the secondary water is not yet on we are still waiting to plant the last two Potentillas but while he waits Carl will be sifting through and sorting and moving the mulch.  We have some yucca plants in the front yard that are not doing as well as they might as they are quite shaded so Carl plans to move them to this sunny area.  He will be busy much of the summer I think.  Soon it will be time to dig up the garden to plant tomatoes and corn, but that soil should be easy to turn.  I seems like a never ending job to regain control of all the overgrown areas of our yard but it is wonderful to see it when Carl finishes it.

Sometimes in life you choose your jobs and sometimes they are chosen for you.  We had talked for some time about changing the “rock wall” and garden area near the driveway and Carl had dug up the area and we had planted some daylilies that Rhonda had given us and some bulbs we wanted to relocate from another part of our yard.  He put in a lot of time last fall to prepare the area and we planted them all there.  We had recently removed the mulch we had covered them with for the winter and the day lilies looked great and the bulbs were starting to grow.  Then a week or so ago our doorbell rang and we learned that a car parked in our neighbors driveway had taken off and landed on the rock wall, stopped mostly by the rebar post that was holding up a sprinkler head.  Thanks to our neighbor up the hill the car was able to be moved off the wall and although it is probably totalled they did drive it back across the street.  At the least we needed to fix the sprinkler head that was destroyed and fix the wall and garden.  So poor Carl was forced into a labor he had not planned on.

Here are some pictures of the accident.

A surprise visitor. Our neighbor’s car traveled on its own across the road to our garden.

Our neighbor checking out the damage and assessing the possibility of moving the car. It is actually on a rebar post that was holding us a sprinkler head.

Our neighbor up the hill just happened to have a back hoe and was willing to come and lift the car off the wall so it could be moved away. The rock wall suffered as did the railroad ties but the day lilies survived.

The first step was to get Andrew and Matthew to give us some counsel on what was the best way to resolve the sprinkler issue.  We wanted to have a sprinkler head up on the hill more as the one that was taken out had been watering the hill and the grass and was really wasting a lot in its cycle.

Then we decided to move the day lilies first.

They are now planted in an area up the hill on the first tier from the top above our garden. There is lots of room to clear and expand as they take root and settle in or as we acquire others.

Carl then cleared the area on the bottom tier from our garden to the railroad ties and we bought Potentilla bushes (five yellow and five pink) to put in.  Since they bloom all spring, summer and fall and do well in hot dry weather they are perfect for our garden here.  Here they are waiting to be planted.

The white buckets are pink and the black ones are yellow.

These are all yellow. In the middle is a section of garden with kale I planted from seed. It is already coming up. Yeah!

Then on Friday, Matthew came over to help Carl dig and prepare the area and set the pipes for the new sprinkler extension.  Carl had already dug some of the trench but that morning our computer had a glitch that he had to deal with which delayed him finishing but with Matthew’s help the trench was quickly dug.  (Andrew came by mid day and he was able to get our computer up and running again – what would we do without the help of our children – they do so much for us.)  Here are some photos of Carl and Matthew working on and in the trenches.

Clearing the trench. Notice all the dirt they have removed.

This is the extension beginning by the driveway at the base where the old sprinkler head was.

The extension that goes behind what was the rock wall – which will be rebuilt in time.

More of the extension behind the wall.

An extension in case we want to add a sprinkler up the hill behind where our bushes are going.

Clearing a space so the extension fits better.

As happened in New York and happens all to often here, they ran into a large rock.

Trying to pry out the rock.

Almost loose.

Matthew moving the rock.

So here is the rock that stalled the digging. You can see it is very large. We could not believe that Matthew lifted it out – he is very strong. It is destined to become part of the rock wall when it is rebuilt.

So that is what is filling all of Carl’s time right now.  Today he is moving soil so we can plant our Potentilla bushes and get them going in the ground.  We will not cover up the new sprinkler line until we can test it for leaks.  The secondary water comes on in a week or so and so sometime after that we will test the line and if it is leak free Carl will fill it in.  He plans to use some of the gravel he has dug out along the way under the pipes to give them a secure base.  It is a good way to use the gravel which we have lots of.  Much like New York there is no shortage of rock here and they tend to grow over time as well.  The good news is that mostly of the dirt Carl is digging up is quite good for gardening and plants.

So that is our early spring activity – mostly Carl’s – I just am there to take pictures and lend support.