Apologies for taking so long to tell you the rest of the story — this last month has been crazy! When last we spoke, the mess of tangled vines, shrubs and small trees had been cut down but was waiting for good weather to clean up. I still had a sense of humor about the weather which was preventing the project from moving forward.
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Eventually, we had a few days of dry weather in a row and the guys were able to come back and start cleaning up the mess. Luckily, we have a dumping area for garden waste at the back of our property so we didn’t have to pay to have it all hauled away. We only dump organics back there, branches, weeds, brush trimmings and the like and the critters love it. You’re almost guaranteed to see wildlife whenever you go back there.
At this point, the rain closed in again and work stopped for almost a week. My sense of humor began to evaporate. My goal had been to have all of this completed by Memorial Day weekend, which was fast approaching. This had been communicated to our contractor repeatedly but he did not have the same sense of urgency about it that I did, and honestly, I can hardly blame him. The rain put all his projects behind and most were paying better than I was, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to find myself as low man on the totem pole.
This caused a bit of tension between us but eventually he delivered the 5x5 cedar timbers for the raised beds and the project got moving again.
About this time, they stopped work again and I had to get a bit snippy to get them back on the job. I really, really do understand how tough it can be for contractors. My Dad did construction work all his life and nothing screwed up his schedule like unrelenting rain. Them not showing up didn’t piss me off half as much as them not calling to say they weren’t showing up. If you don’t have the common courtesy to communicate with your customers, I don’t have much use for you.
Long story short, I finally had all my raised beds built and filled with really good garden soil.
Our next goal will be to line the paths with cardboard, then pile on wood chips to keep the weeds down. In the photo above, on the bed closest to you, we’re going to attach a cedar trellis that has been languishing in the garage for years. We’ll cut out the grass between the raised beds and the garden on the right so there’s a smooth transition between them. That’s a project for next month, though.
Here’s a few close ups of the planted beds.
The empty area to the right of the bed in the last photo will eventually have a small flower garden where all my rescued daylilies will live.
Whew! So there it is — my garden wish come true! So far, I love these beds. I can sit on the edges comfortably and reach everything without stretching too far. I have room for all the herbs and veggies I could want and still have room to scatter flowers among them.
As an update to a comment I made in a bucket last week, my Darling Spouse is pretty well recovered from his terrible asthma attack that put him in the hospital for 8 days, 5 days on a ventilator. He’s doing all the stuff he did before except for smoking — he has given that up. I’m so glad there have been no serious lasting effects, except for a tendency to forget words sometimes, but, heck — I do that, too. :)
Merlin, our cancer cat, is not progressing as well as we hoped. While the tumors have been dealt with — the doctor can’t find them on the ultrasound anymore — cancer cells have shown up in his blood work which is not a good sign. He’s also getting very weak and having trouble walking. We have an appointment Friday with his vet to see if there’s any point in continuing his treatment or just go with palliative care till he passes. Wish us luck.
How’s your summer progressing? Mine has been far more exciting than I would have wished for!
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