Saturday, July 10, 2010

Progress

As the world turned, Friday, July 09 2010 was a unique and productive day of babysitting.

It began by taking Nikki Dee and her festooned bike to daycare for Bike Day. ↓↓



And continued with an impromptu breakfast at the local breakfastery. ↓↓



It was our first time to have Zach out by himself for such an occasion, and he seemed pleased with the undivided attention. ↓↓



For another first, we brought him to our place for his nap, during which we were able to continue our garden addition. You will recall that the bordering rocks were laid down a few weeks ago, but things really got cracking yesterday. We outlined the inside border with pound-in-edging. That being done, I stopped to read the paper. ↓↓



That bit about reading the paper was just a little joke. Very little. What I was planning to do was to lay the paper over the grass as a vegetation barrier before topping it with soil. First we wet the papers. ↓↓



Then we lay them. ↓↓



Ahem. Are we done laying papers yet, AC? ↓↓



Finally done with the blasted paper, BAC (Bald Anvilcloud) poured the soil: twelve bags in all. ↓↓



Unfortunately, we were running out of bags, time and weather before we could finish the job. ↓↓



In this last photo ↓↓, the last three bags were about be be dumped after which it was time to call it a day. We had run out of soil; it was beginning to rain; and, Zach was getting ready to get up and rumble.



Despite not quite finishing the job, it was great to finally make such progress with this vision that has been in our minds for more than a year now. With any luck, part of which will be if I and my back can still move after yesterday's exertion, we'll finish the job today.

12 comments:

Donna said...

Morning Ac! You mean you don't have to dig up the grass on the lawn first? If that works, It's a Wonderful method!!
Can't wait for Part 2!!
Quit playing around and get busy!!Hahahaa
hughugs

Anvilcloud said...

It works, Donna, and is especially useful when you have to raise the bed anyway because of the plethora of underlying rock.

Diana said...

O.K. I am VERY interested in this method! I have used wet newspaper before with excellent results however I had to use several layers. Now my question is this, it appears that you did this right over the top of the grass, I thought that you had to take the grass off first? It also looked like you mulched under the paper or am I seeing this wrong? Please explain as this is what I wish to do around my front porch!
Love Di ♥

Anvilcloud said...

Perhaps I'd better write a blog about this although it's pretty straight forward. Stay tuned.

Kila said...

I love, love, love Zach's hair :)

Really enjoyed the photos of your project! Like the others, would enjoy hearing more.

Anonymous said...

Well, first of all...love the pics of the kiddos. Especially that beautiful curly mop !
My grandmother used this technique with her strawberries. Worked every time.
(RE: Kids' Bikes: Have you seen the running bikes? No pedals. Kids push. Gain balance. Riding bikes at very young age.)
~sWaMpY~

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Heard about the using newspaper to act as a weedblock, but it doesn't work well for us here. The weeds are so persistent that they even find their way through cloth weedblock. But since you have rockiey soil conditions, it will most likely work better for you.

Enjoyed the grandkid pics too.

Mara said...

I might have to use triple paper, but it looks like it's quite easy to do.

Looking forward to seeing the end result!

Bernie said...

Great lesson A/C....I have a strip of grass in my back yard (it is mostly deck) I would love to do what you have done and plant wild flowers......:-) Hugs

Lorna said...

Had to read back from July 1st to catch up---photos and musings as enchanting as always. I'm glad to be back, eh?

Lorna said...

Had to read back from July 1st to catch up---photos and musings as enchanting as always. I'm glad to be back, eh?

Ruth said...

I dreamt last night that I was at a tea party with your grandkids. They are so familiar that it is like I know them personally, lol! Your energetic gardening efforts are to be admired. It is too hot and humid here to work that hard outdoors.