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Bonus,
A friend of mine called to tell me that he cut another field for some more asparagus and he was dropping another load of rock in my yard. He has his migrant help go through and pick rocks out of the fields before planting. It is kinda neat the way it works. When he cuts a new field the rocks that come are large and very large. When the field is working the rocks come mid size. When the field is established the continual rock picking is of a smaller size.
The beauty of this is I get my rocks sorted and dumped in my yard at different times and at the sorted sizes.
Part of this load will go for a wall that is on the south side of the house and as usual it is another unfinished wall from a while ago.
Another great thing about my friend is that he is a farmer so he drinks like a Kennedy.
Dinner & booze barter.
He comes to my place and dumps the rock then we go downtown to the local dive. I stay for about an hour or so catching up on old times while he is getting liquored up.
I grab the tab at that point (I made the mistake of grabbing it at the end of the night one time. Jesus this guy can drink) then I go home and four hours later the girls at the dive call to tell me Paul is trashed. I go get him and put him down for the night in the spare bedroom. At about 3:30 in the morning he sneaks out and drives back the 30 miles he came and goes to work in the fields. He does this daily. This is how he lives. Drinks himself to sleep and up working at the crack of dawn.
This is how it has always worked and is the norm in case some of you are thinking that's nuts. It works for both of us. We get to see each other regular and catch up. In fact it got to be too regular and I had to cut him off for a while. I had rocks coming out of my a$$. I couldn't get in my drive he was piling them everywhere. I had to give some away to people who needed them. Alright I'm rambling.
I'm thinking it has a couple of nice trees for a hammock so I graded it down to a slope towards my future lawn. In the middle I put some stepping stones to get up to the perfect spot for a hammock between two trees. Just gotta hide that nasty propane tank.
On the top I sloped it to the left towards the lawn and brought in soil. On the top far back, I have not figured out what to put as a carpet going down the slope. I want something soft but I don't want grass that I will have to cut up there. I'm thinking Wooly Veronica (stepables plants). There is a company down in Berrian Springs, MI. that grows these plants that require that you step on them to keep them low and solid. I used the wooly under a weeping cherry and they grow fast and are very soft. They are pretty neat and they have a wide variety of stepables.
To the left of the steps on the top portion I planted a row of yucca's & spread what few remaining little hosta's the deer ate throughout out the years. They don't get very big & won't flower but they keep coming back every year the size of a salad plate so I had to let them live.
I put just a few carpet bungle weed from the other bed that the deer ate and this stuff is going crazy.
I transplanted a silver mound from the same deer eaten bed. It use to look beautiful but it looks pretty sad now. It's hanging in there so I keep it hoping it will get full again.
At the end of the slope I transplanted what was left of a holly bush from the parking pad. This was really nice at one time. Damn, In Michigan you use the words Was, Had and Use to
way to often because of deer.
To the right of the steps I repeated the same.
Yucca, Hosta, Carpet Bungle weed.
Down at the foot of the wall I transplanted spider wort (nice looking weed) from around the property and planted yarrow and Shasta daisies. This was continued the length of the wall.
I didn't have much Shasta left but these will take hold and thicken nice. Same thing with the spiders wort, they look real nice when the get bunched up. I need to read and find out what type of plants or moss I can jam between the rocks. I think it would look good with growth in the crevasse's.
I planted 30 yarrow a friend gave me and right behind me a chipmunk turned them into stubs. Strange thing, I haven't ever seen him again. The yarrow is coming back now.
Continuing up the wall I have started to carve out a little spot to sit or whatever. I have not thought about how it will go together but I think I will continue the wall all along the dugout and put some type of water fountain or some kind of water action.
I have a long way to go but a good start. I also have a lot of room to play with on this wall. I need to sit down and figure what types of plants to really fill this area and what to do fountain wise or small fish pool. I don't know. Post a comment with your thoughts please.
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