making progress....slow but sure

See that pile of dirt over there? The one behind the greenhouse frame? It's about half it's size right now......

 I've been hauling it since friday, and I've made a sizeable dent! Where is it going, you ask?

Why, here, of course.....

Into those nice raised beds that will be used for veggies and the like. I have the three big ones done, moving on to the smaller ones that will probably go faster. I should finish today, if the weather holds out like it's supposed to....
Yesterday, we started assembling the greenhouse. All the parts are still sitting on the front porch, so the idea is to finish today and start working on the deer fence that will go around the veg garden. We're off to lowes here pretty soon with a list and a plan.

The next step,  once the boxes are full of dirt, is to cover all of that black weed block with cedar chips for the paths. Hopefully, I'll be able to get most of that done this week, weather permitting. I'm hoping the cedar chips are lighter than the dirt.

We made a field trip yesterday and bought some blueberries and a brazelberry raspberry. They'll be a great addition to the garden. All 3 of the blueberries are dwarf bush types and currently loaded with blooms. The raspberry is intended to grow in a pot, so we'll still be getting the "real"ones as well.

We had good news and bad news on the landscaping front this week.....good news, the contract is signed, deposit made, and we're on our way.....bad news.....they probably won't be here until april 22nd. ARGH! I NEED to get planting.
Some of these things can only hang out in pots for so long before they need to go in the ground. I'll have to make an alternate plan and take some of my new dirt to make a holding bed for the peonies and daylilies at least. The peonies won't be happy about being moved in april, but they really don't have much of a choice. Hopefully, they'll forgive me.....

you gotta love a guy with a bulldozer

So, monday turned out to be a relatively dry day, and it ended up being DIRT DAY!!!!!
We've been pushing for the dirt to get done for a while because we couldn't do ANY other landscaping until the city signed off on the "post construction soil amendment plan".
On monday, our favorite bulldozer guy turned up with this nice little toy....

 

Next up were the 4 truckloads of "special" compost. (don't ask). He spent the day spreading and digging in the compost. Once that was done, it was inspected by the city and deeemed "done". This is a HUGE step. Now we can proceed with our landscaping and planting, and not a moment too soon.

 

Without further ado.... here are the before pics...

 

Left side yard, this will be our veg garden area. That black lid is the cistern that we will use to water it.

 

Right side yard. We'll put up a chain link fence between us and the neighbors and this will be paths and perennials. Back in the corner, I'm planning on planting a moon garden.

 

 

back yard and deck. There will be SOME grass here, but not much, the rest will be paths and perennials as well.

 

We had a really nice break in the weather yesterday and we were able to build our little hearts out.

We did raised beds for the garden and the foundation for the greenhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

Love the dragonfly corner!

Today, it was supposed to be dry again, but it's already raining. We have one raised bed we need to finish, and we were hoping to start assembling the greenhouse, but that's probably not going to happen. We'll probably go buy supplies for the next project instead. That will be building a deer fence around those boxes and a strawberry tower..

 

This week, I have a meeting with the "real" landscapers to go over the plan, add a few things, and see where they are with their schedule. They'll be doing the dry stream in the front, the rock work around the fountain, and all the paths and patch of lawn. Then we'll see what we have left.

 

 

 

rain, rain, GO AWAY!!!!

We were pleasantly surprised on wednesday this week, when bulldozer guy made a bit of a unexpected visit. We've been waiting for our dirt project to get done, and we THOUGHT this was going to be it!
He started by delivering and spreading a couple of loads of gravel to widen the driveway and parking area. (turned out great) The rest was supposed to happen on friday. Mother nature had other ideas, though, and, after quite a few mostly dry weeks, we had nearly an inch of rain on thursday, turning the whole acre into pea soup. Needless to say, the dirt didn't happen. Today, the sun is shining and it's clear and dry, although still muddy. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same, so, we're HOPING to finish with the dirt project by the end of THIS week now.

The dirt thing is SO important because it's our last step with the city. After this, we'll be done with them and we can go on with our landscaping. I have an appt with the landscapers on the 14th of March to go over the plan and get put on their schedule. They'll be doing the paths, small lawn, dry stream bed, and the rock work in the front. The labyrinth installer will do the labyrinth. We get to do the garden, all the fencing, and all the planting. I have to have SOME fun........

Another winter project that I had was to clean up the greenhouse from the other place. The polycarbonite panels had gotten moss growing in the little cells, and they were quite dark. After a  local tool place offered the SAME greenhouse for around $200, I declared "uncle", and just went and bought a new one. We've already bought the lumber for the foundation, so, as soon as the dirt is done, we'll be out there assembling.

We also made a couple of aquisitions this week. Two nice espeliered trees. One is a six way apple, and one is a three way asian pear. The pear is ready to bloom. They're going to be great additions to the garden.

So, today, we're going to measure the garden space so that I can draw it out and make a plan for the deer fencing and raised beds. Hopefully, dirt guy will be back monday or tuesday and the city will inspect it quickly so that we can move on.

Come ON spring!!!

flower show, crummy weather, and the start of a great collection

The big event this week was the seattle flower show. Love, love, love the flower show. It always gives me the WORST case of spring fever, and then you come home, and it snows a week later......

This one was no exception, and a raging spring fever has taken over. I'm starting to collect, dig, beg, borrow, buy, all kinds of plants for my acre of dirt.

This is my collection so far......most of the pots you see there are my tree peonies, moved and replanted from the other house. I go over there every once in a while, just to see what's coming up. There's some pretty cool stuff over there that I've collected over the years, and for the most part, it's coming with me. Just gotta find it. I've already collected most of the bush peonies, some of the oriental poppies, and the daylillies will be next. Before you think that I'm totally ruining the yard over there, I paid for it, and mostly, I'm dividing what is a bit overgrown, and leaving some behind. After all, most of those started from small root cuttings anyway......

The garbage cans are not for garbage, they're for potatoes!!! If you've never grown potatoes in a garbage can, I highly recommend it. Ours are started now,  and by the end of summer, there could be up to 100 lbs in each of those 3 cans.....gotta love that.

This week, dirt guy has PROMISED that he'll stop by to get the scoop. We SO need to get the dirt thing going. I can't even make a temporary holding bed for plants until the dirt is done. ARGH~~

So. following me home from the flower show.....2 deep red peonies (*bush), a cool green primrose, a gentian (think giant blue flowers), a green envy coneflower, and a serious case of spring fever.

Fingers crossed we can get our dirt thing done this week and get the greenhouse up!!

it was a wrestling match

See that bottom leaf there? It weighs about 600 lbs. No kidding. The cast iron bath tub in our new house was lighter. We had a heck of a time getting that bad boy out of the truck a year ago, and we were dreading moving it from its "landing" place to its final home.

A couple of weeks ago, we were at a local nursery and they had the exact same fountain set up. It inspired me to want mine in its rightful place. So, saturday, was the day......

We got out the furniture dollies and the plywood. There was NO lifting that guy...we had to "rock" it onto the dollies and then roll it onto the plywood (it would have sank in the mud). We'd roll it to the end of one sheet and then move another sheet of ply forward. Once it got wheels, it wasn't too bad, except that little hill we had to roll up. We managed to push it to it's rightful place and get it set down. The other pieces were much more manageable, and, after a brief break for lunch and to catch our breaths, we finished stacking it.

We still need to add a pump, and obviously some landscaping around it. The plan calls for river rocks, But I'm also thinking a hardy banana would be cool behind it, and some black mondo grass would look really good in front of it. The good news is, it's there. I think anyone would be hard pressed to steal it, it weighs a TON.

We also have two matching benches that will go out around the labyrinth. Dirt guy SHOULD be here this week. That will finally finish us up with the city. We can get our bond back and move on with our landscaping.

Just in time for the flower show......I can hardly wait!

settling in

This week marks two months of being in the new house. Doggies are settling in nicely....

Their kennel is being finished as we speak. I can hear the pounding outside right now.

Today we made an early trip to home depot for lumber to finish the kennel and do the foundation of the greenhouse. We're digging out the panels so that I can clean them this week. Bulldozer guy has reconciled the dirt problem (finally), and he'll be here either the end of this week or the first part of next. Either time would be perfect, because we're supposed to be on vacation the following week, so they'll be some time to put up the greenhouse, call the landscapers, and start building the deer fence and raised beds for the garden. (that'll involve MUCH more dirt).

We've not heard a word from our MIA contractors. (thanks for sending those kennel quotes, NOT!!)
I emailed the flooring company and they told me that they had issued credit to our contractors for the returned flooring. We're pretty sure that's money we'll never see. Not enough to sue, just enough to be frustrated.

Next week, we're off to the seattle flower show.I look forward to it every year, but this one is going to be especially fun. Imagine having a blank slate.......I've been pinning some pretty cool plants on pinterest, with heavy emphasis on the black. If my garden turns out half as cool as my pin boards look, it's going to be pretty darned cool.

Yogi agrees....

the doggies will like their new house!!

This week, we made an early saturday morning trp to the hardware store to pick up the rest of our chain link stuff. After some planning and gathering of stuff, we came home and DH started to work on the fencing for the kennel. This is really all we have left of the "building" of the house. The next phase wil be landscaping. See all that dirt there? It's just a tiny, tiny patch of the giant acre of mud that currently surrounds us.

I'm starting to really get the itch to landscape and start working on it. We're stuck, though, waiting for the "special dirt" so that we can waste spend a whole bunch of money to do pretty much nothing.
I really want to have topsoil and mushroom compost delivered so that I can build a holding bed for plants that I purchase now, but there's no good place to put it. ARGH!!!

On a happy note, the old house has been showing nicely, probably about 20 serious folks have looked at it, and we had one friday, three yesterday,  and one appointment scheduled for this morning.
Fingers and toes crossed that our plastic jesus-saint guy does his job. (a gift from the in-laws - why not?)  I'm not terribly superstious, but hey, whatever works!!
We know that it's the same group of people looking at the same price range/type of house, and it just takes one to say "hey, I love the corian, clawfoot  tub, yard, location........." or D, all of the above.
We'll get it.

So, on to finish the kennel, replant the tree peonies,  and clean up the greenhouse panels.....
The flower show is in 3 weeks, and I can hardly wait to use those tickets I won!


Oh, and PS, our contractor sent us their "final" bill. Not a credit in sight. I guess we'll just be glad to be done with them. They did a good job, and there was nothing unscrupulous, but toward the end there it all started to fall apart like a house of cards. Promises that weren't true (we've ordered your kennel materials), NO communication, (we're still waiting for you to mail us those kennel quotes you promised us on new year's), and just a general feeling of frustration. I think I might call the flooring place though, and see just what happened to that hardwood flooring we returned, and the nearly 30 sq yards of carpet that the installer left in their warehouse. If we're not going to get credit, I want it back!