"I have Decomposed Granite stuck in my Teeth"

ESPatch Jul 25, 2008 0 comments

I really do!

Yabadabadoo! The rocks have arrived Wilma!

My delivery arrived earlier than scheduled, which was good because
I wanted to take full advantage of the cooler temperatures.

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go;
I owe my soul to “Custom Stone”.

I actually got only a ton of my favorite variety, moss boulders. I have used this variety all over my yard, I find they blend in pretty well. I am eying a couple of massive ones to be the backbone of my front yard, no lifting these! I will save this endeavor for a cooler time of year.

The moss actually turns green and grows when it rains. Time to start shoveling…now, where is my iced turban! (see earlier post for explanation)
If I can’t plant something, then I shall dig!

Here are a couple of shots with the earth cleared, messing around with bed shapes and curvy pathways.

I deliberately didn’t scrape through the earth as I just know there are some latent Bermuda grass seeds, still lurking and sculking down there, hatching an evil revenge plan.

“A billion seedlings”

….and the rocks go in. Some of these were about as big as I could handle,still a few short, but it is a good start.

and then here we go with the decomposed granite

Metal always works well with the color of the granite, kind of farm-like, silos?

View looking back toward the house. The small round shrub in the distance is a Barbados Cherry. The fruits are considered beneficial to patients with liver ailments, diarrhea and dysentery, as well as those with coughs or colds. The juice may be gargled to relieve sore throat, although I have never tried it.

I will post pics of the finished yellow brick road in my next entry (after I buy some paint). I am thinking that the flagstones I took out from the “transition area” will be better utilized up against the pond.

Other raging show-offs spotted:

When it comes to showing off, this red passion vine (Passiflora coccinea) is definately not shrinking violet.

In both color and form it is always a crowd pleaser. This plant has been really dependable for the last 4 years, it dies to the ground in winter then quickly hops back up with these amazing jewels.

In 1620 Catholic priests in Peru saw a religious symbolism to this plant. The name ‘passion flower’ is said to derive from a resemblance of the blue passion vine’s flower to the crown of thorns placed on Christ’s head. Others say that the parts of the plant symbolize features of Crucifixion, known as The Passion of Christ

I don’t think it could be more over the top.

I wonder if H.G. Wells had one of these in his garden?
– very “War of the Worlds” looking.

Passion vines are good at climbing using their tendrils to wrap around any support.

“And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?”
H.G. Wells

Stay Tuned for:

“A Breath of Fresh Air”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

"A Walk Down the Garden Path"

ESPatch Jul 23, 2008 0 comments

I did a couple of odd things today, I fed my madness and potted yet another 70 Agave pups (under the excuse that Hurricane Dolly had dropped the temperature a little) then I got creative with some bags of decomposed granite I had left over from the potting frenzy. I dumped them in my wheelbarrow and carried them down my yard. I paused at the point where my granite path dissolves into pine bark. I screwed some fresh eyes into my head, raised an eyebrow, and glanced over at my short pronged rake that was now screaming like a Mandrake root from the interior of my shed.

Mmmmm, something was happening here and
although my stomach was rumbling, eating
would have to wait.

Okay, okay, I know this insanity needs to stop – I think I am up to around the 200 mark.

Maybe just a few more . . . . . . . Arrrggghhhh!

I began to scrape back the pine bark, at first in a little area…

So here is the transition area between granite and pine bark.
I was never happy with this, but for some reason I just kind
of lived with it. What was I thinking?

Then I dumped my 4 bags of decomposed granite into the area, which naturally didn’t go very far, but it gave me an idea for a much bigger plan.

“I will have paths, lots of them, and they will
be great and wide, and people will stroll down them!
Down with the transition area”.

I began raking like a madman, everything falling into place. Beds were defining themselves, pathway lines came naturally, as if I were channeling their contours from another life. I had no concept of time, which usually equates to something good happening.

Before my raking madness and after. The bark mulch was raked into mounds that then defined the shape of the walkways…very effective. These flagstones will be removed in my new master plan.

And so I continued…

I decided to create a cross-roads in front of my Post Oak, one path leading to the brush pile, the other to my shed. I am thinking a wooden sign may take advantage of this junction.

you get the idea.

The best thing about defining these walkways was that they, in turn, defined the future shape of my planting beds. It was kind of there before, but lacked definition….not anymore.

I initially contemplated running a pathway in front of my raised pond.

But then I decided to run the decomposed granite right up to the edge of the raised pond for standing/sitting stability. The rocks will be removed and the wooden platform recessed into the granite.

It was about now that I realized I needed a lot of decomposed granite and a lot of moss boulders to define the edges of my new pathways…
1411 Custom Stone!

A Thirsty Visitor:

Stay Tuned for:

“I have Decomposed Granite stuck in my Teeth”

All material © 2009 for eastsidepatch. Unauthorized
intergalactic reproduction strictly prohibited, and
punishable by late (and extremely unpleasant)
14th century planet Earth techniques.

ESPatch

"I have Decomposed Granite stuck in my Teeth"

“A Breath of Fresh Air”

"A Walk Down the Garden Path"

“I have Decomposed Granite stuck in my Teeth”

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