Garden summer

I have seeded the bare spots in the back and side yard today that were created by pulling out the pile, at long last, that was created by uncovering the hidden patio in the back, and then spreading that dirt into the worst of the hollows in the side yard so that I don't have to worry about turning an ankle heading for the hose.  (The elders came and took care of that task.) The grass seed was weirdly bright blue because it's coated with fertilizer, but it's easy to see.

The hose is on the opposite side of the house from the garden plot.  Naturally.  And no, you couldn't do it otherwise.  The space from the exterior wall to the fences are 10 feet on the street side, 10 1/2 on the north/interior side, and 12 feet to the back...the back is probably only ten feet to the fence from the walkway that runs across it, and down to the back gate that opens onto the sidewalk.  The raised, already-there section on the street side (remember, we're on a corner) has the sunshine with a southern exposure plus the empty space of the street and intersection, and puts the planting ground above ground level.

It really was airless in this room where the computer is, while we had a warmer than normal summer. The window in here won't open, and when we open the kitchen window once the heat diminishes, it still doesn't help. I completed all my Nauvoo Times schedule, but headed for the living room with our only fan when I could. 

Otherwise, I was outside in the sunshine, watering, checking, not weeding enough.  It's been a tremendous lift to my sense of well being and capability, to be involved in growing things.  I ran out of children, I do think that's a part, and needed to nurture something.  I also needed in ways I didn't realize to bust out of some personal ruts.

When some plants arrived two hours before I had to leave for the airport to go to Utah in April, my friend Joyce came the next day to get them in the ground for me, with Hubby.  She started digging into the space that showed that something was underneath here.  I came home and looked at it, and 'sometime' became compellingly now.  It itched at me.

Looking towards the back corner; the cinder block in the lower left corner runs along the walkway to the basement stairwell.

The foreground was what showed, the background was where the digging-out began.
 


At the far end, there was only a half-inch of grass covering the pavers.  At the end near the green chair in the picture, it turned out that there was four inches.                                                          

Interesting, there was one paver missing when I got it all uncovered.  The stain line on the left shows the boundary of what actually showed before we tackled it.  The back walkway is visible along the left edge.

This shows how high the removed turf was, and how uneven the whole thing is from an absolute perspective.

I got out the shovel.  I can't use a shovel with gusto, because my back is totally unable to leverage and hoist.  I didn't know how deep the other end would be, but I started into the spotty bits by cutting small squares, about eight inches on a side, and separating them...since I could quickly hit the solid surface, there wasn't much force required, and if I separated each bit from the surface, it didn't take much to lift it away.

You can see how high the pile was that I removed.  You can also see how uneven the surface is after who knows how many years.  We mowed over the top of it, there were tufts between the spots nearest the house and walkway that showed, but we had no idea if it was just a square to set a planter on.  There's one of those in one corner of this, raised.

As you can see by the pile, I didn't lift it far.  Lifting it at all did require bending, though I consciously put as little strain on my back and shoulders as possible.  I would go out, cut and remove two or three squares and then go away.  I might come back and do it again a few hours later.  I strained by back somewhat because of something else, and had to leave this alone for a full week, I didn't dare work on it.

It took me a month, but it gave us a place to go out and eat dinner in a cooler place than inside on a number of hot days.  It gave us a chance to do that tonight, because it hit 90o today (Saturday).  It would have taken a strong young man an hour or two, but that didn't matter at all.  I did it and made a difference, and it led me into doing more than I had last year, and more than I thought I would be able to, with this new place.  It was pretty cool.