Three Days of Work

On Saturday we began installing a brick path from the parking pad to the office door.  I wanted something that is more informal than the front sidewalk and more relaxed.  

Everything we used was recycled.  The cobblestones lining the edge were left over from the parking pad and sidewalk.  The bricks were from the massive brick bar the previous owner had built in the basement. The oral history is that Mr. Hyder, a former DC policeman, had brought all of the bricks down in his car from the Georgetown police station when it was demolished in 1978.

The first day we laid out the sides then dug out the soil.  If you notice the tree that is on the left side, you will appreciate there were lots of roots that had to be carefully cut out of the way.

The second day I hauled up all of the pavers from behind the basement, carrying them up by hand.  David leveled the base, and laid them out.  It was fussy because the bricks were hand made, and varying sizes and thicknesses.

Yesterday we finished laying out the bricks below the steps into the office, and spread the sand to hold everything in place.

We have done enough of these kinds of projects that we know how to work together. Now we are talking about how to landscape all of the open ground, to fill it with plants.

Thanks Sis!

Several years ago my sister gave me a packet of seeds from her garden, so I could try them out.  She had been collecting seed from a particular pink/magenta flowering Celosia.  Over the years she had been weeding out the white or pale pink flowering plants, to attain an intense color.  

Over the last years the plants have self-seeded throughout my garden.  I have continued selecting the same color, even though an occasional pale plant shows up, like the one in the middle of this picture.  This year is the best I have even seen them for one specific reason.  The deer have not been eating them down.  I lost the tops of several of these plants back in June, when some deer wandered through and chewed off the tops.  But for whatever reason, no other deer have been through since then.  

It cheers me up to see this wild abundance of blooms when I am feeling stressed with what is going on the world.  But I do need to go out and pull out that pale pink one before it sets any seed.