Yard Project

On Saturday, I went to town early to get in on a sale before it was sold out. It was a One Day Sale, While Quantities Last, and I didn't know how much quantity they were talking about. I've seen good sales like that advertised and it turned out there were only 4 or so items, just enough to be able to put that in the flyer to get people flocking in to the store in hopes they would still buy something else while they are there. In this case, they had lots.

The sale was on Top Soil, 30 liter bag for 99 cents. Now how can you beat that? You can't!! There were a lot of people there, buying up a lot of bags of soil, and I was one of them. I bought 20 bags, though a lot of people were buying a lot more than that. I was going to buy more, but talked to Sherrie, one of the gals working there, and she advised me to get 2 bales of peat moss and mix it in with the top soil for putting into my raised bed gardens. I took her advise as it appears that she knows a lot more than I do about this sort of thing, and right now I don't really have time to do a lot of research on the topic. Once I got that truck load home and cleared out a path in the carport for moving it, my back was so sore I could hardly walk. I wanted to unload at least some of it, but first had to get the bales of Peat Moss out, and that is huge. I ended up tipping one out into the wheelbarrow just to discover that the wheel is flat. I hope it just needs airing up, but it could need some repairs too. I'll have to figure that out soon. Anyway, I ended up having to phone Dan and ask him to come help me. Sunday morning before I had to go to church, he showed up here and unloaded it for me, putting it all into the carport, right where the pellets for the stove go. I have one month to get the dirt out of there so I can start to fill the space with pellets again while they're on sale.

Today I got a call that the used bricks are available now. On Freecycle, this fellow had advertised them, but they were not available for a few days. So today he called to say they were ready. He's doing a reno on a restaurant at a local hotel, and I went in there to get a load. They are used red bricks. I was fortunate, in that a gal that works there helped me do the loading, so that saved a lot of time as well as saving my back a lot of wear and tear. That poor little truck of mine was definitely loaded!! I brought it home and unloaded it into the front yard. I'll have to move it all to the back yard by wheelbarrow once I get the wheel fixed. Tomorrow I will go for a second load and hopefully will get it all in. I don't want to have to go back for a third load unless there is enough to make it worth while, not just a half a load or something like that. With gas prices you have to make it count, lol.

My plans for my yard include a patio in the same area as the raised bed gardens. I'm thinking patio and some walk ways between the gardens with wood chips right around the gardens too. Also some plants in large black pots, maybe old tires stacked up with a pot on top, to make it a bit higher, or the pot planted part way into the ground. I'll see about that as I go along... first things first. I have to decide exactly where the beds are going, prep the spots for them, build them, fill them with soil once the two kinds are mixed together. Then start on the pathways and pots and etc. I'll have to haul wood chips... and haul sand for putting between the bricks. Just thinking of it makes my back wish I had about 5 big strong men to help me. Any one want to volunteer??

I'll soon post some photos. I took some today of the bricks but must get to bed now and will post them ASAP.