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.