Garden Updates

July 2011

While our remodel was going on Josh and I tried to stay on top of our little garden.  It was hard, the hoses were often missing and our free time was often non-existent.  But, we had spent three weekends making our raised beds and were determined to get some sort of a garden out of it.

 

The good news was this is Oregon and well, life just wants to happen.  After a slow start our garden eventually started to take off.  And then in a few short weeks completely overwhelmed us.  We had tomato plants that were 4' tall.  We were making squash the size of footballs!

At the same time, we also tackled some smaller projects out in the front yard.  When we first moved in there was a large gravel pit next to our driveway.  I am not sure what the thinking was (I believe it was for garbage cans).  Whatever the thought, it was horrible, the pit was so deep you couldn't roll anything and all of our neighborhood cats had decided this worked as a great litter box.  Gross.   Back when we did the trash bin area (see earlier post) we dug all the gravel out and reused it back there.  Then for several months this became a hole we ignored.

In the early summer we tried to create a hard surface area which included buying some expensive and beautiful slate pavers and some sand to lay them on.  It was a disaster.  The pavers were not made to be walked on... or apparently anything on, and quickly broke and chipped.  We hadn't compacted the sand so we also had issues with some areas sinking... and the cats were still at it.  By July, we decided this had to be fixed! Josh went to Lowes and bought some ledge stones about 200 to be exact and some mortar.  We decided to set them in mortar and use the sand as a filler between the stones.  On a sunny afternoon we removed all the slate stones, slopped some mortar in the area and I quickly set stones in the mush.  It was exhausting, but pretty fun.  It was kinda like tetris as we picked through the unevenly sized rocks to try and create a tight fit and an interesting layout.   I will have to post a better picture soon.  This is the only one we have from the time.

The result was pretty sweet.  It was hard, attractive and cat proof.  It also allowed us to roll out garbage up to the street.  We added a few plants to the surrounding bed and called it good. The only issue was now I wanted to do this to our all of our pathways!