Exhausted, Tired, Worn out, Pooped, Drained. . . .

Well, you get the idea.

Scottie has been gone since last Tuesday, and I've done nothing but work. No - no one made me. My bright idea.


After living in our house nearly a year some of our original ideas have changed. We now plan to attach a car port to the house rather than build a free standing structure. So, the area where that structure was to go - and which we had covered in road base and compacted - will now become plantable.

So, I've been digging up and moving gravel and road base. Scottie's shed was always surrounded by mud, the slippery, icky kind that comes from clay. So about half of what I've dug up has gone in front of and on around the side of the shed. That's where he washes his bike, so he can now do it without being ankle deep in mud.

To the front of the photo is a grass I planted 2 of, both on the berm that we do water, that will get 5 - 6 foot tall and stay green and fresh in the summer when much here turns brown.


I left a gravel path that runs essentially from the back door to the steps that go down to my shed, aka the garden shed. Although it doesn't look like much in the photo, the two lines on the sides of the path were dug and roto-tilled (thank you Mantis) through 4 - 6 inches of rock and dg, then planted with about 50 little plants from 6-packs. May not look like much now, but it will be quite pretty when they take off. The little sprig visible to the right of the path is a ceanothus, aka wild lilac.









This is the overview. Ceanothus and 2 lilacs on the left. Either Scottie or I will build a low fence with gate to hide the garbage cans and propane tank. At the back is a small triangular bed with flowers in it, and not visible are the sweet peas I planted some time ago now coming up on the fence. To the right are two blue fescues that essentially mark the front of the plantable area. The large triangle in back gets veggies, and there are small flowers planted along the top of the bank just before the small rose bushes that I planted a while back, and which, by the way, have buds!

And, I'm sure you are wondering about the topiary form in the center. . . . Well, I was given the form from a friend who used to grow a formal ivy on it. I don't do formal. In the pot are 3 tomatoes that will cover the first big globe. The intermediate globe now has screening material and soil planted with nasturtiums, which will cover it, vine up over the top globe and hang down. Pretty creative, huh?
I ran out of energy, and am waiting for Scottie to get back to help with the planting area between the topiary and the fescues, which is where I need to move my herb garden. I planted it before we changed our minds about the car port, and it's now in the way of where that structure will go. Lesson learned: I should slow down. Will I?? Don't count on it.