Starting small

Part of what made this summer so crazy and hard to describe is the fact that all of the projects were intertwined to some degree. I found myself staring at the backyard frequently, trying to figure out what to do first. Since I want to document my progress, however, it's time for me to start telling the stories, so today I'm starting with a small project.

One of the overarching themes for the summer was "The Wall". I've lamented its condition many times. This is a view from on top of the wall in summer 2016.

One of the many problems with The Wall was that the top area was completely covered with large river rock. To me, this is one of the most insane things I've ever seen anyone do. The only way to keep this area clear of weeds would be to spray it with weedkiller constantly. Given the number of noxious chemical-containing bottles in the garage when we moved in, I'm sure that's what the previous owners did. Not something I'm willing to do.

Also, this is a pretty big area that gets a decent amount of sunshine. In 2016, I grew tomatoes up here - you can see the cages in the above picture - and I want to make the area useful. In order to do so, I needed to get rid of all of this rock and then dig up the awful landscape cloth under it.

This post isn't about that whole process, however. This post is about something I dreamt up while trying to figure out what to do with so many tons of rock. See what I mean about everything being intertwined?

The flower bed that runs along our driveway had a juniper bush on each end of it. I've posted pictures of the bed before, but I scoured my photos and couldn't find one that showed the awful junipers very well. This old photo shows one of them in the top right corner.

They've been on my hit list since we moved in because they are awful. They grow too big for where they are located, so they have to be trimmed to stay out of the way. They drop sharp, nasty needles, and they really don't look good.

My hesitancy to do anything with them, however, was that I didn't need another empty spot in the garden. I have enough areas that need plants. I also figured the roots would make it hard to plant anything else there. While I was contemplating river rock, however, I realized I had a "two butterflies, one net" situation.

On a day that was way too hot, I attacked the first juniper. I was too focused to take any "before" and "during photos". This is what the area looked like when I had it all cut down.

I edged the area with bricks, like I'd done the rest of the bed.

And then I filled it with rock.

I didn't put fabric under it, because I detest landscape fabric, so I know I'm going to have to keep the area weeded. I did this in July, however, and didn't have any trouble keeping the areas clean all summer.

Funny thing, while I was writing this post, I realized that I never took "after" pictures of the other spot, so I ran outside in my pajamas to snap a couple.

I'm very happy to know that I never have to trim junipers again and that I don't have to worry about my bare feet or any dog feet finding those nasty, prickly needles.

One eyesore out of the way, and several bucket loads of river rock off the wall. This was just the beginning.