Fabric and Final Chores

We have spent the last two days getting all of the gardens ready for the landscape red cedar rock stones which will be delivered tomorrow morning.

Yesterday Rick put the edger stones around both of the palm trees in the front yard.  We debated on if we wanted to do that, but in the end, we chose the extra work.  It will make the front yard look more complete.

Edgers ring the two palms in the front yard.

Today was our fabric day.  Although lining gardens with landscape fabric does not sound like a difficult task, we DID encounter a few challenges.  The first problem was that we had to lay the fabric flat while cutting around all of the plants.  Since we just planted a total of 34 plants, that effort took a bit of time!  And, of course, once we rolled out the first little bit of fabric, the winds decided to pick up just to make the job even more of a challenge.

We did the back garden first.  It was somewhat protected from
the wind, and being smaller, it was a good place to get our
"technique" figured out.

We worked from 7:30 until 11:30 just getting the fabric down and pinned into place.  After lunch, we finished the back corner garden.

The hibiscus awaits stone to make it complete.

Then Rick tackled the edger stones around the hibiscus I purchased a few days ago.  Come to think of it, the hibiscus makes 35 plants that we purchased and planted...  At any rate, out came the transit again so we could get this final little outline in place.  We lined that area with fabric, and we were finished... or so I thought.

The next thing I saw was Rick hauling out the saw horses.  We needed to cut a little piece of fencing that we could put under an opening by our back gate so that we can hold the stone in the south garden.  Of course, a simple job was complicated because Rick had to chisel out some cement from around the post so that the fence piece slipped into place.

The front garden was the most challenging since it
has 14 plants that we had to cut the fabric around.

We finally were finished and everything was picked up by 3:00 p.m.  So much for trying to finish by noon.

Now we are watering.  We have both hoses going, one watering each plant in the front yard and another getting moved from plant to plant in the back of the house.  Now that the plants are in the ground, we have to keep them happy.

We both are exhausted.  Rick's back is killing him, and I have a pulled muscle in my right leg and a very sore left knee. We discussed the fact that when we started to remodel this house, we were seven years younger.  Although we have tried to keep active and in shape, our bodies are letting us know that we are not as young as we used to be.

Tomorrow we are having four tons of rock delivered.  If this is my final post on this blog, you will know that shaveling and hauling rock were the death of me in the end!