Currently in development

Happy Wednesday!  I should've titled the post ~playing with dirt & rocks.  2 yards of screened fill, 1600+ lbs of boulders and 1 yard of black lava rock.  Thankfully I parked my car on the street before delivery ;).  Usually I have it dumped in the street, but considering the effort pushing the wheelbarrow up the sloped driveway - I thought why not give myself a break?

I was waiting on the tree service to get our street tree (Chinese elm)  trimmed & laced up "aggressively". 

I'd say they understood the assignment! So much better.

To work I go! Except - I thought I was prepped for this, but all that stuff in the middle has got to go.

No, that's not going to work. I spent most of the afternoon finishing up prep work that I should have already had done. I should've just cleared everything from the start - it's too hard to work around plants that "might" stay.  

While I was removing more plants, I came across this insanely loooong bender board.  It just kept going & going.  

I found a photo from the way back days, yep.  There it is, before I dug & flipped the grass.  Clearly I missed removing a board!  *Actually after looking closely at the photos, I think the found bender board was further back, who knows why it was buried there?

Spent the next day moving all the soil, it sure doesn't look like 2 yards (actually more - I mixed in half of the lava rock to improve drainage). 

And realized I may need a plant or two... and more rocks.  I had a stash of plants in the back, but it wasn't going to really fill this new planting area out.  So, a drive to American Soil & Stone, Flowerland & Berkeley Hort was in order!  

The girls have always wanted to visit the Perfume Museum so we snagged some tickets to that as well. The Aftel Archive of Curious Scents.  It was a funky little place.  

The owner, Mandy Aftel has been perfume making 30+ years.  Her husband and son also run the museum alongside Mandy.  *She was constantly loudly yelling for her husband "FOSTER!", which we found hilarious. He wasn't hard to find in his all purple outfit.  It was a fun afternoon 😀.

Success!  Ivan expertly packed the car.  He did his signature trick of putting the heaviest boulders nearest the trunk liftdoor so I could slide them off the cardboard into the waiting wheelbarrow!

Things are moving along - lots of work still to be done.  For the time being, I left the "weed trees"as I like what they're doing. 

The roughly 4' Podachaenium eminens (Giant tree daisy) is an experiment, I don't know how it will react to winter temps.  I think the leaves are so pretty.

Tithonia diversifolia, tree marigold.  It is so dang tall!  Again, an experiment.  I can imagine felling this at some point. 

At the moment, it's a plus - helps fill in the area while the other plants deal with adolescence.  

I'm dancing with the devil by planting a small Leucadendron argenteum, and Eucalyptus caesia 'Silver Princess' (in the front row sandwiching the silver fluff of Phymaspermum acerosum)  Of course, they look awkward now - but fingers crossed they take off.  Behind, Grevillea 'Ivanhoe', Banksia speciosa, Grevillea 'moonlight' and Leucadendron Safari Sunset.  Way in the corner triangle is a Dais cotinifolia, Pom Pom tree.

I did treat the top of the soil with Preen (to discourage weed seeds from germinating) and Sluggo Plus (slugs, snails & earwigs).  And a smattering of fast acting sulfur pellets to boost the acidity in the soil for everything in the Protea family.  Plus a nice drink of water with a little citric acid thrown in.  I sure hope I didn't overdo it.  Thankfully we got a good rare October rain on Monday. 

The front garden development is simultaneously in the works.  I'll update on that next post!