Landscaping 105

I'm finally done planting the 'Creeping' Myrtle on my backyard hillside. I'm doing this to provide a simple ground covering so I don't have to deal with weeding or mowing the hillside plus it will keep the hillside from eroding. I acquire the Myrtle from the side of the road out by my parents house about 30 miles away. It grows wild out there so I just dig it up and replant it here. This is the main reason I have planted it in so thick ... it's free. It usually sells for about $9.99/ft2 at Home Depot. If I was paying for it, I definitely would have planted it in more scarcely but since it is free, I felt why wait for it to fill in over the years ....

Landscaping 104

I woke up this morning to find this going on in my back yard:

Apparently the deer like eating the myrtle I planted. Now if only I can teach them how to use a shovel or a rake.

Landscaping 103

My friends, 'Clover' and 'Uncle Cracker' were kind enough to offer their assistance in some backyard chores on Sunday morning. We made one Home Depot run and did some limited yard work but retired early because it was too damn hot outside.

Plan B - Wine tasting 101

Back Story: Every year my father makes homemade wine with his buddies. They buy different grapes to make different reds and whites. It takes them about 7 months, from start to finish, to make the final product. This year, they produced over 1,200 bottles of wine. This is a serious endeavor to these guys. Anyway, I help out by procuring empty wine bottles for them to reuse ... either from the club I used to work at or from my and my friends own consumption. As pay back, I am given my own stash of fresh bottles of wine.

So this year I was given 26 regular bottles and 6 magnum bottles of wine; 3 different reds and 1 Zinfandel and 1 Chardonnay.

I've been waiting for an excuse to dig into this collection to sample this year's wine my father and his buddies made. Sunday afternoon was the perfect time.

'Clover', 'Uncle Cracker' and myself ended up 'sampling' (read:drinking) 3 bottles ... two reds, a Valdepena and Malvoise, and the White Zinfandel. All of them excellent.

Needless to say, no other yardwork was completed that afternoon.

Landscaping 102

Happy Independence Day. I just moved over 800 lbs of stone today. 800 lbs of Landscaping Retaining Wall Stone ... from the Home Depot shelf into my stationwagon ... from my stationwagon at street level, up the 8 steps in front of my house and around to my backyard ... and I'm only about 2/3rds of the way done with the FIRST wall.


ugh. I asked plenty of people last night if they wanted to help me today ... I even offered free suntans ... no one took me up on it (probably better because the sun never even came out today)

So far I'm pleased with the progress.
Slow ... but I'm getting there.
I'll be so happy when I can plant grass.

Landscaping 101

The big project of the summer. Another 9 hours logged into working on my backyard* this weekend.

*Back story: When I bought my house, it came with a backyard consisting of 2' x 2' concrete pads on the level part and then a hillside with bushes planted on it in no particular order and concrete steps leading up the hillside that you would hurt yourself trying to climb. I've been working on my backyard since May of this year and I think it is coming along nicely.

This weekend I moved and stacked more of the 2' x 2' slabs of concrete that layered the flat part of the yard. I did more digging in preparation of the retaining wall I'll be building and I did even more raking rocks from out of the dirt so I can plant grass in the fall. I also planted some Myrtle ground covering to help keep the soil from eroding and I tackled removing shrubbery from the hillside, roots and all; Four bushes down, four to go.

Comparison from August 2006 to June 2007:

The Steps I rebuilt, before and after:

I rebuilt the steps completely from materials I found in the backyard; Cinder blocks and concrete pads. I installed $10 plastic trim along the sides of the steps to keep the dirt from washing down onto them.

Progress as of today:

I'd pat myself on the back but I have sunburn.

Just kidding ... I'm not that sunburnt.

I also woke up early and went to the flea market this morning. It was a slow day there, not many vendors out. I didn't find anything of great interest. I bought socks, beef jerky and Amish cookies. Yeah, I know, thrilling. I almost purchased a framed oil painting of the Pink Panther sitting on the toilet. I thought it would go lovely in my downstairs bathroom. Maybe I'll pick it up next week if it is still there.