Thunder and Frustration

Thunderstorms rolled through last night and we got a half inch of rain.

Today it is 80 degrees, with threatening skies and rumbling thunder continuing, driving me inside instead of outside on my hands and knees moving rocks.

That's a good thing. I need a break. I am incredibly sore, so frustrated, and I was starting to get angry about how hard this project is. I worked for a while this morning before the thunder cranked up at noontime.

There is some progress, but at such a cost in hurt muscles, chapped knees even though I use kneepads, and blistered hands inside my gloves. And I am losing my mind over this.

The area to the right of the upright stone doesn't look too bad now that I fixed it per yesterday's analysis. But to the left in the middle of the wall it all looks like rubble.

I stack, wobble and rock each piece. With the protrusions on each surface, the rocks only touch points on top of each other at one or two spots, and I can't get a section to stand without knocking it all over with the placement of the next rock.

I know backfill will stabilize it from front to back, but I can't get to that point while I am still constantly tearing down what I just tried to stack.

The stone selection is poor. All the reasonably straight edged larger stones have been used and all that is left are a few hard to move huge irregular stones, and chinky small ones.

There is a heart shaped stone I want to incorporate, but with the lack of any suitable stones to continue the upper courses, this may be folly. It's such an amateur construction, who am I kidding with heart accents?

I think I need to fix the center section, and I need to start with the lower layers where two rocks tip downward.

Ummm, now that I look at these photos in detail, maybe move the heart to this dipped area? It will sit an inch or two lower, and it might fit that niche. You think?

I am hoping a short break will restore me. It's been six straight days of back breaking work to clear the strip and start laying the rocks. Jim is a huge help, but he is in such pain that it worries me.

And it bothers me how angry I am. I don't know how to do this and it is very difficult labor. I am tearing out every section I try to build, handling and moving every rock about twenty times before discarding it in frustration. Over and over.

I am angry that the stoneyard man made it sound like a project we could do. I am angry that we accepted his blithe advice so easily.

We will finish it somehow, and it will be ok. Rustic, not perfect, and that will do. But it will not look the way I envisioned and I am thoroughly discouraged and hurting.

The thunder has stopped now.

Not my frustration, though.

Rockin' Rocks

A clammy, wet day today. Overcast and cool, then drizzle in the afternoon.

At least it kept us cooler while we worked on this incredibly overwhelming stone wall project. Cooler, but wet and dirty and dragged down with soggy clothing that got heavy and hard to move in. Gloves were wet inside, but you can't handle stones without them.

This is physically demanding work and neither of us knows what we are doing.

Jim worked hard to figure out the slope of the strip and get the stone dust tamped even so the first course of stones would sit exactly level.

As soon as we started to lay rocks, the painstakingly even and level base was destroyed. You have to rock the rounded stones into place, you have to dig out a well for the uneven sides to sit in, and then you have to move each one multiple times to try it out, rock it level, then try another, then try a third stone, squishing the gravel dust every which way.

I just used slightly bigger rocks at the lower end to the left. We'll try to even things out as each layer is stacked up.  Apparently the whole rock laying thing is 99% art and "feel" and only 1% careful preparation and measuring.

The base course got laid today, I managed to get some rocks on top, and I tried a vertical accent that I'll have to build around. It's a start, but so much more to do, and I am frustrated.

I don't like the rocks to the right of this upright stone. One is canted down, and I had to stack two on top of each other immediately next to the upright, and that looks weird. I may have to redo this area.

It's a rustic stacked wall, so it won't look fitted. It will look rough. But I am beyond confused about how to get them stacked at all. It's impossible to put any rock on top of any others without it rocking and tipping.

I thought there would be more flat(ish) rocks to work with, but about 3/4 of the whole pallet, small and larges sizes both, have somewhat uneven topsides but very rounded irregular bottom sides, so they will not stack on top of each other. They rock. I've already used what evenly flat rocks I could find, and now am trying to fit increasingly rounded tippy rocks over them.

The shapes have so many corners sticking out at odd angles, that I can't place them side to side. I am not trying to get a fitted look, but I want the stones to touch at least in front.

I shim with small stones underneath, but there's a limit to how much chunky rubble you can stuff under every stone and I am already running out of small stuffer stones.

I have no idea what I'm doing. I am incredibly frustrated, Jim's back is killing him, and I am sore all over.

This is not a project that two amateurs who have never laid stone can do, and it is so physically challenging that I am at my limit. What was the guy at Harken's Stone thinking when he looked at us and said "You can do this yourselves, sure." WTF?

Getting Discouraged

Another morning spent digging out the trench for the stone wall. We need to lay down 3 inches of crushed gravel for the base, but it is a challenge to get that much soil out of the area.

It is still cool, in the high 70s and overcast, but very humid -- well over 60%. So work is sweaty and hard and slow. We took another two cartfuls of soil out back, then Jim had to mow and I pooped out.

This is nuts to try to do this kind of work in late summer when the conditions are so uncomfortable. I should have waited till fall.

We will lay down what we can -- maybe two inches of gravel or less in some of the higher spots. It will be okay. This wall is going to be very low, only a few courses of stacked stone, to a height of less than a foot I think. How much of a base does it need?

Jim asked, mid-shovel, "did the pioneers lay down gravel when they built all those miles of stone walls all over New England? Did they dig a base down three inches or more? Did they?"

I am getting discouraged. But I have to remember there is no rush. We can take as long as we need to get this silly project done.  I hope it's going to be worth it.

Slow Progress

Another day of hacking out the strip where the new stone wall will be built.

It was cool and damp and overcast, so not too hot to work this morning, but the humidity is high. The temperatures stayed in the 70s. But after just a couple hours in the morning digging and transporting soil, we called it a day.

Progress is slow.

We still have more to dig. Already we have taken cartloads and trailerfuls out back, and there is quite a mound of excavated dirt -- all from this little strip. There is more to do to widen it to accept the irregular forms of the stone.

I think I had envisioned narrower stones, more like the width of pavers or bricks, and we would only need to dig less than a foot back into the rise.

But these stones are varied, irregular, and quite large and flat. We need to dig out plenty of space to fit them, and then backfill with the dirt we took out.

Before quitting today we started sorting the pallet into piles by size and got half the stones sorted. The really huge ones won't fit into this 10 inch high low wall. Those I may use in back by the bridge for stepping stones.

This is NOT a Small Job

After all the rain it is now sunny and lovely, but definitely warm and humid -- more typical of August than the long stretch of cool dry weather we have had. The temperature is in the 80s, and the humidity makes it feel more like August should.

I got all hopped up when it was so cool to do some major projects. And off we went to Harken's and got a pallet of stones to build the low wall at the top of the driveway where the thyme was.

We asked about hiring someone to do it, and they have plenty of guys who do stonework, but they said our job (20 feet long, 10 inches high) was too small. They said we could do it ourselves.

Really?

First, it is too hot and sticky now. We can only work in the mornings when it is shady by the driveway.

Second, the grass clump at the left corner was utterly impossible to remove. It took me a couple hours one day to get this far and it would not budge.

The next day Jim worked on it for the better part of an hour with crowbars and shovels, and he did get it out. Not easy.

Third, once the grass had been manhandled out of the dirt, the rest of the soil removal turned out to be major work. The bed of the John Deere trailer broke. There is a lot of dirt to dig and move. The thyme is entrenched in there pretty firmly and each little bit has to be clawed out before digging can even start.

We got this far, and there is so much more to dig. Then we have to dig down 3 inches to receive the gravel bed, then  . . . I'm exhausted.

This is NOT a small job that two amateurs in their mid 60s can do in a few days. But we will struggle along, dig a little each morning before the heat and sun make it unbearable, move the dirt away a bit at a time. There is no rush.

I think this is the hardest part. I am hoping placing the stones will be the easy part.

It Falls From the Sky

Well, it rained overnight.

An inch and three quarters.

This has been such a strange summer for so many reasons. In prior years I would record each rainfall of three tenths or maybe a quarter inch, and the rain would come in fits and drips, with an occasional badly needed inch rainfall now and then.

This year, although we recently went 18 days without any real rain, we got a soaking once a week earlier in the summer. And by soaking, I mean almost two inches at a time, or much more!

Last night it rained gently. When I woke up I expected maybe half an inch, but it was 1 3/4 and everything is very well watered now.

Strange Summer

Cold and damp today, very overcast, rain coming. In the 70s. What on earth has happened to August?

The weekend was gorgeous, with cool, dry, top-ten sunny weather. But overcast or sunny, it has been oddly cool this August.

We need rain. The river birches are turning yellow.

After so much rain all spring and summer, it has now gone far too long without a drop. The clethra looked crispy and curled today, with limp, browning leaves. The yellowroot looks stressed and other plants do too, despite running the sprinklers.

I hand watered, but that is never enough, and it is never sufficient once the leaves have dried and browned at the edges.

This year has been strange. One thing I have noticed is that whole stands of perennials that made up a big portion of the gardens just did not appear this year.

The physostegia Miss Manners used to be a big patch of tall white spikes in Meadow's Edge. It simply did not show up this year. There were plenty of red cardinal flowers filling the area, but the contrast with the white Obedient plant would have been nice.

This was Miss Manners Obedient Plant in 2011. In 2013 I didn't see any at all!

In 2013 the cardinal flower was nice, but some frilly white spikes with it would have been nice.

I already mentioned the deep purple lobelia, Ruby Slippers. It has come up, and there are about 6 plants, a nice enough little area, but they are shorter and barely seen above the top of the patio wall. In previous years they toppled over.

Last summer, in 2012, the rich purple lobelia towered over the patio wall.
This year they are not even up to the height of the birdbath.

The pink evening primrose, an aggressive spreader, was nowhere at all this year.

The Chocolate Joe Pye Weed is there, but hidden by the sedums around it, barely 10 inches high this summer. It blooms in September, so I will keep an eye out for it, but it is looking very puny.

But the gardens still look good even without these plants. The comptonia looks wonderful, the dahlias and chocolate cosmos were stars. The fall anemone is beautiful.

Black eyed Susans look great.

And the sweet autumn clematis that I planted last fall is looking so nice, and is fragrant. It is still small -- I wonder if it will go rampant all along the deck railing, or will it disappear like some other pretty no-shows in my garden?

Cool August Days

These pleasant, dry, cool August days are making me think it is fall, and they are inspiring me to get cracking on all the projects I want to tackle.  But it is still August!

The mornings are sweater weather, 58 degrees, chilly and very still.

The day was sunny and dry and fine. The temperature only got to the high 70s today with very little humidity and a breeze. Almost chilly in the shade.

Some leaves are starting to turn. I am a little worried about the Aesculus pavia. It is crisping and coloring and losing leaves. It is still so young, and when we hit this dry spell it seemed drought struck. I have watered it, but for a brief time when it dried out, it seemed to really stress.

I cleaned up the daylilies by the driveway today, and took the shovel to the hybrid daylilies out in the chevron garden. I only want the plain ditch lilies there, so the hybrids were dug up and tossed in the meadow.

Then I clipped away the woody twining stems of the trumpet honeysuckle in front (no small job) and moved it into a pot by the deck.

The new Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle was then planted where the trumpet honeysuckle had been taken out.

Digging and planting and shoveling in August -- can you imagine? I got warm and sweaty but it was not at all uncomfortable.

And now this weather has me cranked up about projects. I have completely revamped the To Do list, and all the plans have changed. For example, the rosa glauca may not be moved, it looks great now with its colorful orange hips. If I get more rhus aromatica to fill in under it, it may stay in the Drive By garden, where it is adding interest.

The panicle hydrangeas are blooming in the Drive By garden and they look great now.

The Bluebird hydrangea serrata is a complete disappointment -- no flowers. I think a late spring frost must have nipped them. A few on the inside of the shrub did bloom, but nothing on top or on the outside.

It's just a big round mound of foliage, and nothing at all like the gorgeous Bluebird specimen we saw at Chanticleer. How I would love for mine to look something like this:

But it doesn't. It's just foliage.

With this nice weather I got so hopped up about getting projects underway, that Jim and I went out to Harken's and bought a pallet of stones to be delivered Monday, plus crushed gravel and a little bag of mortar! We are going to start the low stone wall at the top of the driveway.

We'll do it ourselves. 21 feet long, and only 10 inches high, just a little strip of stone. The underperforming creeping thyme will be dug out, although a few of the more healthy tufts may be left to drape over the wall where they are not browning out.

I can't believe I am digging things up, and thinking of moving stuff, and starting a big project and here it is still summer. Wow.

The Porch is Done

August continues to be just fine. Yesterday the humidity rose and it was a hot day, but the air has dried off again now and there is a breeze. It is sunny and in the high 70s, just lovely.

We could use some water though. It hasn't rained at all for 10 days and only a quarter inch in the past two full weeks. Some things are looking stressed now.

The porch is finished and it came out better than I had even envisioned. Here is my post about it on my main blog. I am really happy with it.

For my birthday this week Jim gave me a cordless electric hedge trimmer. I tried it out on a couple projects -- it really can't get through the dense goldenrod and thick weeds in the meadow where I tried trimming, but it did a great job shaping up the hollies on the berm.

They had sent out random shoots and looked unkempt, and with just a minute or two of work I had them reshaped into nice pyramids again. It's a job that used to take an hour to do all of them by hand with pruners. Really, it only took a minute with the hedge trimmer!

Chris from Bartlett was here today, and he suggested moving the Swiss Stone Pine. It is in too much shade at the back of Meadow's Edge.  In early spring it is out in the open but as everything around it leafs out, the little pine gets shaded.

I'll put that on the list to do next spring. It is still small enough I can move it. But where? --- it will need to be in a full sun spot.

I have made further tweaks to the list of Plans as I reconsider where to move things. It always changes.

My Problems With Vines

I have such troubles with vines.

Now that I scored the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle in Ft. Collins, I plan to take out the red lonicera sempervirens that is growing in the spot where the Kintzley's Ghost will go.

That spot was also home to the misguided attempt to grow golden hops. This rambunctious vine was too dense, not golden, too rough looking for what I wanted, and it grew into a heap. I took it out and tossed it away.

Attempt no. 1
The golden hops were removed

This time, when I remove the red trumpet honeysuckle, I do think I want to find another home for it, rather than tossing it into the compost bin.

Attempt no. 2
Nice enough, but not what I thought I planted

I've thought of places the red trumpet honeysuckle could go --- scrambling up the Austrian pine? But the fairly thick foliage of the vine might shade out the evergreen branches and cause some dieback.

Up the sweetbay magnolia? The magnolia has an open framework and the vine would be seen. Nah. Maybe. I put it on yesterday's list of where to move stuff, but I am rethinking that.

How about in a container next to the tool shed, letting it climb the deck railings? It's a twiner and would need to start up the little pyramid in the pot, then reach for the railings.  Would it twine around the deck railings?

Look at this idea:

from Stately Kitsch

I might try that. The climbing annual Blackeyed Susan vine that is in the container now hasn't done much. Why not move the trumpet honeysuckle to that container and see if it grows well scrambling over the railing?

Will the pot be big enough?