More landscaping
This weekend we had another good and busy weekend. Last weekend we planted the majority of plants in the ground and got a little bit of mulch and edging done. This weekend we focused on finishing up the planting and then we cleared out more Brazilian pepper trees.
Loro-what?
Sunday morning we started with planting the gardenia and loropetalums by the street on the north side of the north driveway. Loropetalums are a purple leaved shrub that grow to between 3-4′ tall and have reddish colored flowers. They’ll make a nice hedge along the driveway. Putting the plants in the ground is pretty straightforward, but as we don’t want them to die, we opted to install some sprinklers to keep them watered. To do this we wound up trenching out a good 60’ of sand loaded with banyan tree roots. The banyan tree – the gift that just keeps on giving.
New bush axe
This weekend though, I brought a new tool to help with the trenching – a battle bush axe. Tom let me use his a few weeks back and I liked it. It’s basically a cross between a machete and an axe with a heavy hooked blade and a long axe handle. It worked wonders for slicing through the banyan tree roots including those that were still in the sand. Similar to the machete, it dulled up after a few whacks in the sand but a with a flat file I was able to keep a keen edge on it. Like always, it was dig a little, whack a few roots, dig some more, whack more roots, until we made it to the end of the driveway.
Sprinklers!
With the trench dug, we ran the irrigation piping from the corner of the house down towards the road. I had left a stub out on the irrigation piping we ran previously for us to be able to tie into. That worked well. Based on the layout of the plants, we opted for 2 sprinkler heads. With the connections made, we tested the system and adjusted the sprinkler heads. Good. We backfilled in the trench and raked the sand smooth.
Mulch run in the rain
Next up was to continue on with the landscape fabric, edging, and mulch. We only had one roll of edging left and were out of mulch so we did what we could with what we had. After getting rained out twice, we opted to make a Lowe’s run while it was raining pretty heavy. Depot was still out of the edging and Lowe’s showed they had a similar product in stock. We picked up 30 bags of mulch and another 60’ of the edging. By the time we got back to the house the weather had cleared up.
Working til daylight is gone
We resumed the trenching and edging installation and were able to wrap up the remaining areas on both sides of the house. By this point it was after 7 so enough fun for one day. It’s definitely starting to get darker earlier.
More Brazilian peppers
Monday morning we got into clearing out more of the Brazilian pepper trees. Only one thicket remained on the north east corner and it was time for it to go. The downside is that this is right at the street and by clearing out this area, it’s noisier and there’s less privacy. We were able to put our new pole saw and saw extension to use. I’d care to say that we broke it in since we ran it for nearly 4 hours straight! With the extension on the pole saw, I’m able to reach branches that are 15’ up in the air. That’s great.
Cut and drag
I’d cut for a bit while Oceana drug the branches and then I’d start dragging as well. We made a pile nearby in an area that was previously overgrown and has since been cleared out. We cut and drug our way to the back corner of the property and we were able to locate a Sherco (local surveying company) corner pin. Very cool. We cleared out over to the edge of the carport and called it a day.
Where’s the other pins?
With the corner pin located, we tried to lay out and locate the pin behind the shop but to no avail. Since we’re looking to fence in along the back of the property, I’d sure like to locate the property boundaries to make sure we build the fence on our yard, not someone else’s. I’ll have a conversation with Sherco this week and may see about having them out to do a boundary survey. That’s all for this weekend. Thanks for following along and have a good week!
So much progress on the outside this week. The house looks like a sweet little cottage! I liked the pic of Oceana planting the Loro with the blue sky and blue lake in the background. It’s a beautiful view! The directions with the bush axe are so funny; someone with a sense of humor composed that. It’s definitely getting dark earlier, and for us that means winter is on its way. 🙁 With all the clearing and planting you completed this weekend the property looks much tidier and 10X improved. Keep up the GREAT work!
I look forward to your posts and pictures. You need to do a before and after shot one of these days. Just a few weeks until I can see it in person and meet you all.