THREE YEARS LATER...

Oh, my poor garden blog, how I have neglected thee!

2014 was the year of the Deck of the Apocalypse, and 2015 and 2016 both pretty much got devoured by writing...so much so in 2016, in fact, that I barely touched the garden at all, for which I kind of kicked myself later in the year. So many missed opportunities for gorgeousness. SO this year I am determined to soldier out there and reimpose civilization, especially in the backyard, and I've missed having the documentation of my efforts. SO.

The deck went shockingly smoothly, all things considered - more on this in another post to follow momentarily - and the results are utterly magnificent. It's the best room in the house. And it adds a dimension to the garden, too, because I could never sit outside at night past the point in May where the mosquitos come out, and there is now a delightful spot from which to observe bats, stars and fireflies.

This project created a new planting area that's going to need filling up, namely along the front of the deck, mostly the shady back corner under the apple trees. I could *maybe* add some indestructo shade plants around the a/c unit, too, but I don't want to obstruct it (or any handymen who need to service it) so that area will probably just get some decorative rocks. Another attendant project will be mostly redoing the stone circle, which - alas - was just not up to having a bobcat driven back and forth over it in the course of digging the piers. (The interlock path through the side yard, on the other hand, did not so much as wrinkle, except in the one spot where the base had been disturbed by fence-related digging.) I have a pile of stone dust languishing beside the a/c unit, so maybe I'll add that to the base. Not totally sure how that's going to work...I may have to pull up the whole thing and relevel it all from scratch. Bleh. Hoping I can get away with just doing the half that's been churned up.