Garden Transformation

Hello there! I’m working to transform my garden, this page will be the continuously updated record of my progress. Here are some images before I began, taken mid April 2021.

Got some great players, just gotta shore up the bench.

April 25th, 2021:

The first big thing is to put a pathway through our flower garden and take down the cinder block bed the previous owners left. Here we go!

The bed we dislike (but the alyssum is pretty so we’ll preserve that)

The path begins! Barley can barely contain his excitement.

Lucy got so worked up she had to walk away.

So I tried to do a fun patchwork path but realized that these cinderblocks don’t really accommodate that kind of design. There would be weird angles and big gaps. So I settled on a straight path that could wind through. Here are the results from day 1!

I wet it down to get the soil in the gaps to settle.

It was fun! Making sure cinderblocks line up and aren’t tippy was an interesting challenge. Glad I’m making progress and excited for the next step. I should make faster progress now I know the type of path to build.

It will die a slow death. Piece by piece. We really hate this bed.

See you tomorrow!

April 26th 2021:

Well today started a little more rough, I was getting a large bin to move dirt around and disaster struck. I spilled paint all over my shed and extension cord. When I put the cord on the lawn to clean it up I stepped right in poop. Like really stepped in it. Like on both shoes hanging off the side stepped in it.

So after some light screaming and cursing I cleaned myself up and got to work. Unfortunately I was too angry and forgot to take pics of my misfortunes, but I’m sure you can imagine.

I didn’t get as far as I wanted, but was able to make some progress.

Barley’s trying to pretend he didn’t notice what happened to me.

I started turning the path to hook around that little bush in the top middle. The blocks can be challenging to work with but I’m getting more and more used to it.

It’s liberating knowing that I can fill the holes in between with dirt. It give more room for space between the blocks. Which was a major concern previously.

Another issue is what to do with all that dirt I’m pulling out. I was able to fill some holes that Barley had dug (he’s just a gem) but I needed a new solution now that those are filled.

Then it hit me, I’m going to need a ton of soil to fill my garden boxes. So why not start? Without further ado:

There’s a lot of room to fill. Thank goodness.

So that’s where we’re at for now! Steady progress day by day will get it done.

Ah but I can’t forget:

Count your days heathen, for thou shalt not see many more.

That’s it! See you tomorrow friends.

April 27th, 2021:

Today saw some great progress! Before that though…

Scene of the crime. The wire ended up being ok, but my shoes are still recovering from the trauma.

I hauled quite a bit of dirt out of the garden today, learning the hard way that I can’t overfill my big bucket or it’s insanely heavy.

It felt like more when I was carrying it…

Lizzie joined me outside since it was so beautiful.

Barley thinks he’s helping. Lucy knows she’s not.

I snuck some of the blocks directly under the alyssum out, which was tricky but less destructive than I thought. Alyssum is going to make excellent ground cover.

I’m getting faster at leveling and arranging the blocks so I was able to lay quite a few more than yesterday! Drumroll please!

I’ve been digging up so many stones that I’ve started collecting them for reuse in our yard. Probably to fill up an area that tends to collect leaves and look bad. Here’s that progress:

Where do they all come from? Who’s to say.

I’ve also found stomping on the blocks is a great way to settle them into place. I’ll start doing that more which should speed up production even more. I’m about to reach the next tricky part, curving the path around the central bush. Stay tuned for that tomorrow!

But before I forget:

Nothing can save you now. You will become dust and memories while we celebrate your demise.

That’s it for today, but before I go there was a beautiful sunset.

See ya tomorrow!

April 28th 2021:

No physical progress today, but I talked with my friend Brian who told me I should be thinking about drainage, so I’m going to get some sand to lay down under the path.

I spent the evening on a walk with Lizzie, making risotto and catching up with my old friend Natalie. Great night, but not much to post, so enjoy this pic of the trees that extend over our yard.

See you tomorrow!

April 29th, 2021

Not too much to report today since I haven’t gotten the sand yet, but I kept on digging! This time I had a little help:

Lucy is embarrassed

Barley doesn’t care, he’s a little machine.

I also moved some more dirt out of the cinder bed, slowly but surely filling up the first metal bed.

I think tomatoes are going to go here, gonna be a delicious summer!

I was going to dig out the rest of the path but with the pups digging away I gotta hold off until I pick up the sand. Luckily my dad has some leftover bags he’s not going to use so I’ll snag those soon!

I realized I haven’t mapped out the rest of the path for you all. I’m thinking of curving it around the small bush and then splitting it. You can see below where the big rosemary is, that’s where I’ll split it right towards the cement bed area, and left towards the lawn.

We have a ways to go, but our will is strong.

Finally we found a few more stones for our bucket:

Imma fill this sucker up, just you wait.

Barley has been getting a strange habit of chewing on rocks. I caught him dipping in the bucket. He’s feeling bashful about it though:

He did drop it I just missed it. He’s got cheeks like carry on luggage.

And that’s about it! But before you go:

It was a gorgeous night. With weather like this in April it’s gonna be a hot summer. One last shot of the sky before I go:

Oregon skys are incredible, they consistently amaze me.

See you tomorrow y’all!

April 30th, 2021:

Today was a long day at work. Due to rising Covid cases my restaurant is shutting back down for at least a few weeks, so I had to process a lot of paychecks for the temporary layoffs we’re doing. Not fun, hopefully it’s the last time we have to do it.

As a result, I made no progress on the yard. Instead here’s Barley at the tulip festival! It makes me smile during these tough times. He’s such a happy boy, I’m grateful for his innocent joy.

He goes bananas for treats (which is what he’s eyeing up). He would definitely eat us if he could.

It’s the weekend! Let’s see what I can get done to show you. See you then!

May 1st & 2nd, 2021

I probably don’t need to keep including the year huh? Ah well, it looks nice.

We have the sand!

So I had to go through the unhappy process of pulling up all the stone work I had done thus far.

Sad to see it go, but it will be better than ever!

Starting fresh! Barley loved the sand, I had to shoo him away a bunch.

It was tricky, I had to make sure the ground was the right height below the sand which caused a few redos. Then the actual laying stones on the sand was harder than expected.

I was moving more quickly but I think it looks good.

When I was laying the stones on the dirt I could stomp them into place and the dirt would form to the stones shape. Sand wasn’t as forgiving, which I suppose it the reason it was suggested by Brian. It will create a permanent layer that water can drain through.

None the less I got better at smoothing the sand as I went along. So here’s the product!

I think I’m going to push the stones together to make a tighter path. But we’re also thinking of planting some ground cover which these gaps would work well for.

The pups had a good time helping me dig:

She’s crazy, and he’s crazy.

So there you have it! There weren’t too many changes to the bed-that-shall-not-be-named so I didn’t grab a pic this time. I did find a ton of new stones though. It’s amazing how many are scattered in the soil.