We decided it was time to work on the backyard this weekend. He has weekends off now and I was scheduled off also so we decided the timing was right. Other than it was hot. First order of business was to take down the swing we had put up years ago when we built our kids a fort. It was a good thing, too. The support beam the swings were attached to split when it came down and it was dry-rotted inside.
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| Support beam for swings |
The post in the foreground and its buddy were also removed. After going to dinner with some good friends who were in town we called it a night.
We started the next part of excavation after church the next day. Our oldest daughter was here and able to help but again it was hot. The first order of business was to dig up the forsythia, lilac and yucca that were in the way for pushing dirt around. I hadn't planned on keeping the forsythia. They're rather large and I figured would be a beast to dig up. Hubby had a moment of sanity and decided to dig them out with the scoop on the tractor. Brilliant! Since we weren't going to keep them what could it hurt? They came out beautifully. So nice in fact that I decided we could try to keep them after all. Now where to put them?
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| Forsythias new home |
The yucca came out okay and I have other starts of it if it doesn't make it, but the one I was dreading even touching was the lilac. Again using the scoop and tractor hubby dug it up as gently as he could. I thought the poor guy would burst into tears when it fell out of the scoop rather than resting into it like the other 3 plants did. Not really but he did let out a loud moan. One more try and it was picked up and on its way to its temporary home.
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| Lilac and yucca |
We put them in a mostly shaded area so they wouldn't get the sun beating down on them to add to the shock. Keeping them watered well, which is not my strong suit, will be the next order of business. Hopefully they won't have to in these tubs very long.
After the drama/trauma of moving the plants, hubby started pushing the dirt piles around. We were able to get the dirt for free since the county was digging out the drainage ditches along the road and are happy to give it to you so they don't have to drive it to the landfill. We found several HUGE rocks in some of it and after getting those out, with the tractor of course, he was able to smooth things out pretty good.
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| Starting to smooth out the dirt piles |
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| All smoothed out |
There will be some refining on smoothing it out that needs to be done and then I can finalize where the plants are going. We're also going to put a patio out there and put in my pond I got a couple summers ago. We've got the next two weekends off to get it all done. I think senility just set in again.
