Japanese Maple

I decided to enlarge this planter by the width of my little shrub rake. The top photo is my mark. Excavation of the gravel screenings was very easy with the garden spade. I added extra material which I took from areas on the patio where I rake the screenings up for use in projects like this. It is my little quarry.
I ended up with a base for the new wall which is much improved over the previous.

Japanese Maple Planter

Today I tackled the Japanese Maple Tree planter. I enlarged the brick wall around the planter and re-defined the gravel screenings patio to complete the improvement.

Fall Plans for Front East Side

There is visible the concrete tread of the former driveway about a foot from the wall. Grass grows over it in patches. I was figuring to leave it. I did not have peace with that decision. Peace returned when I decided I would remove all the concrete from this area and anywhere else I find it. When the yard is clear I will call the rubbish man and have it hauled off. I am resigned to having a large, growing pile of concrete rubble for a year or two. The ability to build what I want in the place of this obsolete concrete is worth the trouble.
The fence has ended the use of this area as a drive. The concrete strip hinders development. With the concrete gone I can develop this area which has splendid morning sun. My fall work plan is to construct a bed along this wall about two feet wide. Included here are improvements around the gate. My improvements will not be of a permanent nature as this wall, and the porch need to be demolished and reconstructed. I will do that when I have the money.

Used to be something, soon it's detritus

The concrete track on the right goes all the way to the gate. This is a favorable spot for a planting bed and the concrete track has to go. Chunks of concrete jut out of the ground between the tree and the corner of the porch. This creates a hazard for the lawnmower and inhibits the growth of the lawn here. As part of the fall rehabilitation of this planting bed and this area, I will have to pull up the concrete from the gate to about the first crack in the drive in the front yard. That will do for now. Eventually I want to get rid of this drive when we have a carport in back. The property line runs down the middle of this drive. I could see having a hedgerow or a short picket fence here, or maybe both. That will be something for the next year's fall projects.

Sidewalk Yard Change of Plan

I am not satisfied with the way this project is turning out. The final grade is still an inch and a half too high. I am trying to go too cheap by re-using the old sod. The turf being a mixture of different grasses, mostly weeds, is not uniform. Also, even though I have been very careful cutting and removing the sod, I end up being short about 1/3rd to fully re-sod the area. So the resulting turf is uneven and patchy and mostly weeds. I think that the small amount of sod required for this effort would not be a budget buster.
I think I should go ahead and cut down the rest of this area recovering the excess soil. Then, I will pull up all the sod I have put down, regrade the whole area and then put down some decent sod to cover every square inch.
One good thing is the rich top soil this effort is producing. That aspect of this project is on track. I also found a 1941 silver quarter screening the dirt.

de·tri·tus

de·tri·tus de·tri·tus [di trtəss] n
1. debris: debris or discarded material
2. geology rock fragments: fragments of rock that have been worn away
3. ecology organic matter: organic debris formed by the decomposition of plants or animals
[Late 18th century. < Latin < past participle of deterere (see detriment)]-de·tri·tal, , adj
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

You always have this when you work in the dirt. There is a substantial quantity of concrete around the property that serves no purpose. I am going to have to get rid of it. I already had to pay to get a pile of detritus hauled off. I get hesitant to get out the stuff because of the trouble and expense. But I have made up my mind. I am going to get it all out of the yard. When it is all up I will call the man back and he will make it go away. I will write him a check and that will be that.
I am thinking that I will construct another screen to screen the smaller chunks to get some large gravel. I can use that for fill under walk ways and other projects.

Bob's Quarry

I decided to build a plant that makes processing dirt, compost and gravel easier and quicker. I set the steel pan on a stack of bricks. The screen is much easier to work with it up high like this. I can slide the screen to the side on one of it's long handles and easily dump the screenings out of the way on the ground for later collection or into the wheelbarrow if I want to put it someplace specific. I place the wheelbarrow under the end where I can dump in the screened material from the pan. I no longer have to stoop to shovel out the material. Plus all the material goes out when the pan is dumped, so it is not like scraping out a bowl. Grading and separating material is simple. I can switch from one material and grade to another with no problem.
My first fall project is cutting down the grade of the sidewalk yard. I am half way through with my first execution of this plan and I have accumulated this pile of dirt from that work so far. Much of the work I have planned for the fall involves cleaning out and enlarging the existing beds, and building some new beds. All of that requires processing different types of organic materials in this manner. I also have a couple of construction projects in mind that require gravel. This means that I will mine the patio area to screen and separate the gravel and fine fill. I have an abundance of that material. It is like having money in the bank, or my own little gravel quarry.
When I was a child I liked to pretend I was the County Judge. I would play in the dirt outside the kitchen door with my matchbox cars, trucks and heavy equipment. I built roads and bridges. Eventually my imagination created a county with a city and the surrounding country side with lots of happy people driving in their cars and I was the big boss of it all.