LysmachiaMoon's blog: Cliff Jungle Garden progress

I've lost track of what day I did what, but sometime over the past week I finally got off my duff and dug a hole and set the little preformed pond into the base of the hillside beside the deck steps. That went pretty well...it was a lot of heavy digging and hauling, but overall, not too bad. I was a little disconcerted to realize that the base of that steep hill was mostly broken old bricks from somebody's ancient chimney. I knew the entire hillside was fill dirt (mostly because I had to haul most of it myself, barrow at a time), but I really did not know that the entire "core" is old bricks. At any rate, the dirt removed from the pond's hole is now spread around in the woodland and I'm sure the acidity of the bricks will be a good thing down there (moss, etc.)

the day after I got the pond set in, I spent a couple hours laying in the "dry stream bed" from the edge of the deck steps down to the pond. Had to do a bit of "stealing from Peter to pay Paul" to get the slabs of rock that I needed, but it looks OK. I put down heavy plastic, then chicken wire, then pebbles on top of that. I'm not entirely pleased with the pebbles...too small... but I can fine tune it as the summer goes on. The next step will be to actually get UNDER the deck steps and do some excavating etc. I want it to look as though there is a spring coming up from under the top of the deck steps and running thru a little ravine, down down down, into the new pond. I've already got a lot of the rocks etc. in place...mostly it needs a lot of fine tuning. And planting of course.

I was away for 2 days to Johnstown, PA, for Polka Fest and family get together. It was fun, but honestly, I was glad to get back to my hotel room (which was AMAZING). Two of my nieces are "old enough to know better" (40s-50s) and don't....their brand of humor gets a little wearying after a couple of nonstop hours. Anyways: the hotel room. I was late getting a reservation and I thought it was a bit more expensive than I expected because it was weekend, event in town, etc. I was sent to the top floor (5th floor). I was expecting a double bed and a bathroom but when I opened the door....OH MY STARS. I got a suite. A top floor suite. Sitting room, bedroom, kitchenette and this HUGE JACUZZI.... separate shower, THREE sinks. It was amazing. And what a view! I had to satisfy myself with a shower in the enormous luxury shower stall because the Jacuzzi was so huge it would have taken an hour to fill it and that just seemed too wasteful for one person. My first impulse was generous: I thought, I'll tell Kris (my youngest niece) and maybe she can come over and soak in the Jacuzzi. She's a single mom. She needs a break.... Then the evil little devil whispered into my left ear: "Keep your big mouth shut and ENJOY the peace and quiet for a night!" *LOL* So that's what I did. *hangs head in shame.*

Today and yesterday, I've been trying to get out and do much needed weeding, tidying, deadheading. Nothing too strenous. the weather is pretty nice, but unfortunately my "May Vacation" is over and the work is piling up alarmingly on my desk. I'm trying to get at least one thing planted every day and at least a few yards of garden bed cleaned up every day.

Which is about what I should be doing now...so off I go.

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