*arbor day*

 Yay!  My new [old] arbor is in!  I love it.  It was made by a couple of local guys who used scrap wood they had lying around; they wanted to flesh out a design and see how it would go.  This is the prototype, so it's not fancy, not pressure treated, but I couldn't be happier.  There's an optical illusion with the slope of the ground that makes it look a little higher on one side, but they put a level to it on all sides and she's as plumb as can be.  

 Once I get the clematis and sweet peas planted on either side, you'll never even notice the off kilter vibe.  Once it gets cooler, I'll start the stone path from the arbor to the pond, and if there's enough stone, I'll make a small pad for the iron bench.  Now to get someone in to help get my alpine garden started...

Let the games commence

 And by games, I obviously mean "projects I've been putting off all summer and suddenly need to have done before snow flies".  

My first project was to reclaim the lower patio.  Remember when I created it without edging and blithely declared that I wanted to be a part of the landscape, not apart from the landscape?  What a maroon.  Two years later and the landscape had basically begun to swallow my patio whole.  

It was obvious this would never become the hub of summer activity I'd hoped, so I decided to revamp it as a simple fire pit area.  I gathered all of the tools I would need and many I wouldn't, and began reclaiming the overgrown edges.

So I wouldn't have to fight back the weeds and grass, I finally conceded to a concrete block edging, since I have an abundance of block on hand.

 

 

All that was left was to purchase caps for the cinder blocks and add the fire pit and furniture.

The fire pit was picked up off the side of the road free, and I might get a few months out of it before I'll need to buy a new one.  I like being able to cook over a wood fire, and with some items I had on hand I was able to finagle a grate out of a couple pieces of rebar and the racks I grabbed from my mother's old stove when she had it replaced.

The fireplace insert and grate will come in handy as a firewood holder and table or plant stand.  Next year I plan to get a small gas grill and set it up down here, as well.

I purchased some landscape adhesive to glue to the block caps down, but I'm not sure if I'll do that or not.

Now, on to the next project.  I plan to put in a path from the patio to the water feature using the bluestone I have on hand.  If there's enough stone, I may just make a small area to set the iron bench on, so I don't have to move it every time I need to mow.  Obviously, from the length of the grass, I don't mow it often.  This is a troublesome little area that needs some TLC.  Off I go!

Never let me calculate aggregate

 I ordered 5 yards of bank run gravel for the base of my lower seating area this weekend.  Once it was spread, I was finally able to get a feel for the area.  It's one thing to visualize it, it's entirely another to experience it.  It was thankfully a fairly easy job to spread this load using Reputa and my little york rake, with some hand raking in between.  There was a much larger area to work in with no fear of driving over a cliff edge, like with the upper seating area.  

A few people have asked why I don't use some kind of edging along the rest of the area, and my idea is that I want this to be a part of the landscape, not apart from the landscape.  I want the edges to blur, to feel as though this has been there for years, and that any moment the yard might take it over.  It's part of my grand scheme...

Once that was spread, I headed down to the landscape company and ordered 4 yards of round pea stone to top it.  Well, that was about 2 yards too much.  Once I had half of it spread and realized my error, I had to figure out what to do with the excess.  I put some in the low areas of the upper path, some in the water feature and around the rock edges, and quite a bit on the lumpy little road my tractor guy and I had carved out of the brush behind the two houses.

And still...

I barely put a dent in the pile.

I'm going to create a little off-shoot area for my iron fireplace insert that I'll be using as a fire pit, so I can lose some in that.  I may end up putting in a little edging and making a path that leads to the upper area, I'm not quite sure yet.  These are the times I wish we had a little tractor with a loader to make moving this sort of material easier!  Someday...

In any event, this is the last thing I needed to complete before the final push, which is the cat fence.  Next year I'll concentrate on establishing my perennials in the lower area and getting some trees and bushes planted.  I have other projects I'd like to get to before snow flies, if possible.

Backyard Project #1 - The Gravel Patio

 After much hemming and hawing, I decided not to have a deck built off the back of the house just yet.  Instead I've decided to create a pea gravel patio.  There's a long, narrow spot between the house and the edge of the leach field, so it'll work great on that area.  I did lots of reading about creating gravel patios, and figured it was something I could tackle. 

SO!  The patio.  

The first thing I had to do was remove the masses of weeds and clover that had taken over the newly excavated area in the last two years.  I tried using Reputa and my little york rake, but that didn't get down into the soil enough to rip the weeds out by the roots, so there was much hoeing and chopping and forking and swearing, but I got the area fairly knocked out.  Once things were loosened, I was able to drag the rake over the area and clean it up a little.  I tried not to get too far into the soil, because I was told not to take any soil off the top of the leach field, and try not to compact it too much by driving over it.  Well, I kind of adhered to that.

I let it sit for a few days and bake in the sun, then raked it one last time by hand to clean up any residual debris.  I then marked out the area I wanted to use, made my adjustments, and laid down some landscape fabric.

My research led me to understand that the best method of laying gravel is to use a larger aggregate with a binding material, which creates a more stable surface.  I went with 3/4" crushed gravel, and on top of that I would put a layer of pea stone.  The area is roughly 30'x15', so I needed about 3 yards of each, give or take.  I called the local gravel folks and told them what I needed, and set up a delivery.  In the meantime, I combed the interwebs looking for the perfect edging.  What I wanted was the new fangled, no-dig edging.  Let me tell you, pounding in the pins for the landscape fabric had me swearing all over again (hello, soil with mostly rocks) and I knew I was taking a gamble on that type of edging, but I wanted it to be secure.  I found some that was described as 4 1/2" tall and purchased a couple rolls of it.  It arrived the day before the gravel delivery and I was horrified to discover the 4 1/2" was the length of the edge that gets bent inward and fastened to the ground to the top of the actual edging, meaning that the actual edging was only about 1 1/2" tall.  I was figuring on 4" of stone, so this clearly wasn't going to work.  In a panic I called about six different places that sold landscape supplies, went online again and searched, but kept coming up empty.  There was a thin pound-in edging, but I had used it before and I wasn't impressed with it.  At the very last minute, staring out over the back yard and desperately trying to solve my dilemma, I noticed a pile of stones at the edge of the pasture.  These were the stones that had once been a field stone wall that we had to remove for construction, and I had piled them up knowing I'd use them for something else.  Oh, happy day!  I would use field stones for edging!

I didn't need them to be some perfect wall, I just needed them to hold back the aggregate, so I lined them up and will add to them later.

A very blurry (but the only one) picture of the crushed gravel.

And it worked!  I kept the ends open so that once I got the bulk of the pile spread by hand, I could drive Reputa over it with the york rake and move it around a little.

The pea stone was delivered the next morning, and since it was ridiculously hot and humid, I waited until the cool of the evening to spread that.  I did it by hand, and rushed the job because we're supposed to have some rain tomorrow.  

The rain should really help settle everything in.  I've left it fairly thick on both ends because I need to stone it in, then I can really work on leveling out the humps and making it pretty.  The end behind the mini split compressor will be the sitting area, since that's the most level spot.  

Once I've finished this, I'll be working on the wildflower meadow in front of it.  It's almost surreal to think I might actually have my own yard by the end of summer!