Late yester-day after-noon, Ian and Stephen came back to take out the over-grown rock garden. You can see by the "Before" and "After" photos above that we have gained a lot of light, space, and air in our garden. (The shrub on the left, which is just to the right of the brick path, is the same in both photos.)
Now that those two huge conifers have been taken down that sort of separated the front lawn from the side garden, and now that the rock garden has been dismantled and its overgrown conifers carted away, we had to decide what to do about what remained for the time being. We asked the fellows to widen the path on the right side of the flower bed so that from the right-most edge of the front lawn, one can walk into the side garden more easily. (Before, the already narrow pathway was so crowded because of the overgrowth, that one practically needed a machete to get through.) Ian suggested that we could use the larger rocks from the rock garden to raise the flower bed that remains between the front lawn and the side garden. This would allow them to put all the leftover soil from the rock garden into that front bed until we decide what we'd like to do with it. As Ian said, it is good soil and could be used again. Once they had shifted the rocks and then the soil, they smoothed over the place where the rock garden had been. That way, if it rains heavily, the rain will drain through and not create a mud pit! We talked briefly about laying down more white stones but we have run out of time so that will have to wait until we return.
Yesterday afternoon we took delivery of the decking that is being installed as I type. Peter Bryson came this morning to get to work on that. We haven't been happy with the look of the concrete surfaces on our verandah, front entry porch, and back stoop and had toyed with the idea of putting ceramic tiles down. Tile would add a bit of colour and class but we were concerned that it might also get quite slippy in wet and frosty weather. We looked at the decking the Inneses and the Raes have on their porches and entryways and quite like the way it looks. So we contacted Peter, the fellow who did the Raes' work earlier this year. He expects to get all the work done that needs an electrical source (for his saw and power drill) before we leave on Thursday late morning and will finish the job by the end of the week.
Bit by bit we are making The Rowans our very own.
Now that those two huge conifers have been taken down that sort of separated the front lawn from the side garden, and now that the rock garden has been dismantled and its overgrown conifers carted away, we had to decide what to do about what remained for the time being. We asked the fellows to widen the path on the right side of the flower bed so that from the right-most edge of the front lawn, one can walk into the side garden more easily. (Before, the already narrow pathway was so crowded because of the overgrowth, that one practically needed a machete to get through.) Ian suggested that we could use the larger rocks from the rock garden to raise the flower bed that remains between the front lawn and the side garden. This would allow them to put all the leftover soil from the rock garden into that front bed until we decide what we'd like to do with it. As Ian said, it is good soil and could be used again. Once they had shifted the rocks and then the soil, they smoothed over the place where the rock garden had been. That way, if it rains heavily, the rain will drain through and not create a mud pit! We talked briefly about laying down more white stones but we have run out of time so that will have to wait until we return.
Yesterday afternoon we took delivery of the decking that is being installed as I type. Peter Bryson came this morning to get to work on that. We haven't been happy with the look of the concrete surfaces on our verandah, front entry porch, and back stoop and had toyed with the idea of putting ceramic tiles down. Tile would add a bit of colour and class but we were concerned that it might also get quite slippy in wet and frosty weather. We looked at the decking the Inneses and the Raes have on their porches and entryways and quite like the way it looks. So we contacted Peter, the fellow who did the Raes' work earlier this year. He expects to get all the work done that needs an electrical source (for his saw and power drill) before we leave on Thursday late morning and will finish the job by the end of the week.
Bit by bit we are making The Rowans our very own.
No comments:
Post a Comment