My yard has looked more or less like this for over a month now:

In limbo.

I’m not necessarily what you’d call a happy camper.

Earlier I alluded to a setback involving a tamper. Well that ruined a couple weeks, between added work and the paralysis of sheer dread at the work involved. We also took Fathers’ Day weekend off to spend with our fathers. We were supposed to make a big push this holiday weekend, laying the gravel and sand, putting up the posts and hanging baskets and generally getting the patio completely ready for the very final step. And then two things happened:

First, the Stone Center of Georgia delivered the sand and not the gravel. Note that the sand goes on top of the gravel, so we really couldn’t do a thing. Thanks a lot guys (I’d also like to mention that this is actually the third weekend we’ve lost to communication and delivery problems with the Stone Center).

Second, the top of a good-sized tulip poplar in our backyard failed, bringing another equally large chunk of tree along with it. So we found ourselves borrowing a chainsaw and chopping up wood. Oh fun.

We still had to find other ways to busy ourselves besides working on the new patio. We ripped up our old, lumpy patio and covered the footprint with free compost from our local dump. Shoveling compost in the hot afternoon sun… ugh.

Patio: before.

Patio: unpatio’d.

Crooked and cracked retaining concrete is removed and mostly hauled to the dump. (The first trip was 900lbs!)

Next, we used a block saw to cut the stone for the lower patio and get that all ready to be filled with dirt. Now that’s all ship-shape! PLEASE NOTE: If you ever plan on using the BelAir retaining wall system, do not make our mistake! The corner blocks are larger than the other stones, and it will throw off your math!

Additional level.

We also put the finishing touches on our berry trellis for our six blackberry and raspberry plants. That was tiresome, because it was in the hot sun and it was somewhat high off the ground. But we persevered.

Doesn’t look like much now, but hopefully one year, it’ll be bursting with berries!

Built to last.

This week the gravel arrived, so hopefully this weekend we can actually accomplish some of the things we had hoped to get done last weekend. I am really looking forward to getting past this part, because it will involve a lot of shoveling, which I hate, and because when the posts are up I can get the hanging baskets started. I am thinking of going with cacti and succulents for low maintenance, drought-friendly design.

I hope everyone had a more relaxing weekend than I did – it seems like absolutely everyone I know went to the beach!