Sunday, April 29, 2007
The Pile of Rocks
It all started with a mystery pile of rocks in my driveway....
Ok, it was a mystery to my wife until I told her how they appeared and why.
So we started the day by digging out a bunch of overgrown filth, putting down landscaping plastic and piling up the rocks. We added a few ornamental grasses, including a blue fescue of which I am particularly fond, and a small juniper shrub. The idea is that we don't want anything that will drop little pellets of compost in the pool. This was the end of day one:
Axl and Whitney got in on the action with Aunt Katie (aka Uncle Dorkboy). They planted some French rosemary and some cilantro in the freshly weeded herb garden. They enjoyed smelling the sage and the chives which seem to be doing well already this year.
The end of day one was celebrated with tuna steaks, a couple of smoked chicken breasts, bacon-wrapped asparagus, red skinned potatoes, and of course some beer and wine. Exhaustion provided a comfortable, buzzy segue into day 2.
Labels: decorative rocks, herb garden, landscaping, ornamental grasses, yucca
Big Pile of Rocks, Day 2
Day 2 started with steak and eggs, followed by Whitney and Dorkboy's departure. The remaining 3 of us went right to work on "the football." Anybody who has ever been in my backyard has seen that nasty little rats nest. Basically, it was a football-shaped slot in the middle of the patio about 8' long and about 6' wide. It has always been filled with vegetation of some kind, most recently grass. Grass needs mowed, and mowing makes compost....which blows directly into the pool. So, we (I) dug out all of the sod, poked a couple of holes in the dirt for a few plants and started with the black plastic sheeting again. We outlined the football in some paving bricks that Menards had so conveniently had on sale. Then, more rocks. We transplanted a baby yucca from one of our front-yard beds and added a couple of ornamental boulders to the mix. As you can see, we added a couple of extra ornamental grasses and VOILA!
This might not look like much to some of you, but to anyone who has ever seen the jungle in my back yard, this is just a foretaste of what is to come. All rocks, limited vegetation, a couple of weeping pea trees and that's it. Goodbye maintenance, goodbye dirt, goodbye hastas, and goodbye wolf spiders.
Labels: decorative rocks, herb garden, landscaping, ornamental grasses, yucca