Day 105: Paving the way (aka yes, we're still alive)

One part decent weather.
Three parts work and school getting seriously busy.
Four parts hosting friends.
Two parts taking-a-break-after-moving-and-getting-everything-ready-for-ecoENERGY.

Mix vigorously.

Just in case you're ever looking for a recipe for nearly 3 weeks of silence on the blog.

We are, indeed, alive and well and enjoying life with a yard. If you were wondering where we were, you probably should have checked out back. Although we decided to take something of a break from house renovations the first few weeks after moving, we've kept busy outside getting the garden ready for veggies and generally cleaning things up. There are a few things to update on, including the Great Plant Identification Project, but this post will be about our new garden path. Well, more re-laid than "new."

Here's a simple diagram showing the garden area as inherited:

The house is towards the bottom of the diagram. South is roughly to the left. Chain link fence on the right side of the diagram.

As you can see, the paving stones occupy a lot of space, as do the flagstones (the circles in the diagram). You may recall that we built our impromptu yard waste containment facility on this paved area when we did our first round of cleaning up in the garden. This paved area, being the patch in the garden that's the farthest from a tall fence on the south side of the yard, is also the sunniest area of the garden. Valuable real estate for veggie growing.

These two shots should give you a better sense of what it all looked like.

A decent existing path runs along the garage.	A poured concrete path cuts the garden in half. Lots of precious garden space occupied by pavers and flagstone.

From the path that runs along the garage, you would step down onto a windy jumble of paving stones, flagstones, and a random marble slab. Wouldn't it be nice if the path continued straight to the poured concrete path that splits the garden in two?

So began the project to reclaim a sunny patch and create a nice and neat path into the garden. We started with the good workout of clearing away the pavers that had sat there for decades. Some of the pavers were actually cinder blocks, many of which had broken in half after years of freeze-thaw action, leaving us with a big pile of heavy concrete scraps to deal with. There was also a small section of poured concrete cutting right through the patch we wanted to use for planting. Thankfully, it was poured right onto sand and dirt so Garrett was able to break it into two manageable pieces and we hauled it away with the dolly. The coolest part of the clearing process was the intricate network of ant nests and trails revealed with each block we lifted off.

We could watch them all scrambling to save the eggs. It was pure chaos.

Look at the fear in those eyes.

Once we got all the stones off, the first task was to build a solid platform for our rain barrels. There was a fundraising sale a few weeks ago so we picked up a couple of new ones - one for the front porch and another for the garage. They come with handy overflow hoses so we've now got a nice system going for the garage.

New barrel on the right, with cover and filter basket, overflows into the old one that came with the house. The cover for the old one is MIA so we'll need to fashion something new to keep that barrel debris free.

With the rain barrel platform in place, we started on the path. We wanted the path to be level with the thin pavers that line the edge of the poured concrete path. The string level that came with our chalk line finally got some use. We roughly laid out one line of stones to figure out how they would all fit. Turns out that we wouldn't need to get any cut (or go searching for suitable broken pieces) but we had to dig down to put in the last row vertically for a snug fit.

String level in action.	Working our way from the poured path toward the house.

I'll spare you any more details about the quite straightforward (and lengthier than necessary due to someone's *cough*me* perfectionist-ing) process of laying out the path and jump to the finished product:

Filling the watering can. Add to shopping list: short hose extension for rain barrel spigot.

I thought it'd be nice to add an extra step since it's a good 8" drop from the path along the garage down to the new one. Garrett, ever so practical, decided that a step would be a good way to "store" the few leftover pavers we had in that size.

Overall, we're quite pleased about the transformation from this jumble of pavers and stones...

...to a nice wide, stable path that will handle a wheelbarrow well and a reclaimed patch of sunny garden area. Here's a wider shot that also shows the composter, which conveniently fits perfectly at the end of the poured concrete path.

Check out the happily transplanted rhubarb to the left of the composter. More on that soon.

I will admit that I quite liked the look of the organic-feeling flagstones compared to the more serious, straight edge (ha!) pavers. We've kept the stones and will probably use them for small paths to provide access throughout the garden and delineate areas for different veggies. Stay tuned for another photo filled post on the greener aspects of the yard work we've been digging into.