It was all work and none of it fun. VPH, SS2, and I got started outside at the crack of noon. First the three of us worked together to move the massive stone from behind the shed to in front of the raised veggie bed. It was so heavy and the moving of it so scary that I didn't take any photos of the process. Then I set SS2 to moving bags of mulch out of my car to their destinations and VPH to digging a hole for the big ass stone. I headed into the veggie garden to plant. But it turned out VPH needed help with the big stone, so the only thing I planted today was the Black Prince tomato plant to replace the Hillybilly one I broke the other day:
Then I helped VPH flip the stone in and out of its hole, got it leveled and flush with the ground and then evened out the leftover soil and spread grass seed. The stone is still covered by some soil and probably will be until the grass starts to come in, but it's nice to have it all leveled out and a dry clean spot to stand while I play in the bed:
Then while SS2 watered the veggies and I started planting the fingerling potatoes (also not completed because I was called away to help with something), VPH started the brick project. I know, Mom, that you are dying to see what we were using the bricks for, but I'm not sure the end result will be worth all your excitment. I present our brick and mulch platform for the double-lounger. Bricks because we had them on hand, mulch because it's cheap and the soil here is very thin, so as the mulch breaks down it will enrich and add to the soil vs. another inexpensive option: pea gravel which would just add more rocks and you know we don't need those:
You can see in the photo above that VPH and SS2 set to work mulching the veggie garden. Doesn't it look great:
We excused SS2 after 2 hours because we're nice like that. And VPH and I went back to the bastard garden (otherwise know as all the shit behind the shed). He's been throwing branches, leaves, and whatnot back there for years, even Christmas trees before we started gardening. I figured there's a few feet of great compost back there and I'm sick of buying potting mix. He wasn't so into the idea, but he loves me, so he grabbed a shovel. I bought a few feet of 1/2 inch hardware cloth ages ago to build a compost screen to place over our wheelbarrow, but I haven't gotten around to building the frame for it yet. I can tell you it worked just fine laid over the top of the wheelbarrow. VPH shoveled onto it as I lightly pushed the compost through, saved the big fat worms, and removed all sorts of debris ranging from large sticks to rocks to broken glass -- you bet I was wearing heavy rubber gloves as I did. Here's the hole we made today:
And the trash can full of finished and sifted compost. We would have filled it all the way to the top, but we could barely carry the can at this level:
We did manage to get it over to the end of the veggie garden by the potatoes with the top safely on. I'll try to remember to open it up and wet it a little every once in a while so the worms don't die, but hopefully the potatoes will grow so quickly that I'll need it before too much longer:
There's still some more mulching to do, and in fact I think we will need another bag or two before we're done. Clearly we could spend a lot of time digging and sifting compost. But I want to get some fun stuff done tomorrow too or I might not be able to motivate myself to go out to the garden.
You accomplished a lot! And everything looks so nice. :)
Posted by: Nancy Bond | May 16, 2010 at 09:22 AM
Oh, for Pete's sake! I never would have guessed - but I do think that is an excellent way to utilize the bricks and mulch with future benefits.
Nice going with the rock. Did you do what what Atlas did?
Posted by: mummer | May 17, 2010 at 01:50 PM
Nancy -- Thanks!
Mom -- I know, you were so far off. As I told you on the phone, I think the rock was at least 200 pounds, but others in the know estimate 125 -- either way it was heavy!
Posted by: Heather's Garden | May 20, 2010 at 11:13 AM