Planning for this day

April 2008. Not a speck of dirt, just clay and rock. But I wanted to grow clematis here. Wha? Am I nuts? Well, OK, a little.

I dragged out the pick ax and began to attack the ground under my newly attached reclaimed lattice. It was laughable, and soon I had the help of Super Dave. We dug down about a foot and encountered a huge boulder, half of which was under the retaining wall. Since we couldn't get that boulder out, we moved the lattice over and continued to dig.

We added good soil and plants and developed patience.

It was worth the wait, the digging and the planning.

These iris were here when we moved in, but not in this spot. I moved them from a shade garden on the westside of the pond and now in the full sun they are blooming properly, and spreading into a huge clump. White, peach, yellow, purple and soon to see, pink. I am encouraged.

Last night at cocktail time the light on the pond showed the clear waters from the recent rains. The fish are just floating around and so visible. Our littlest water lily is reaching for the surface and will do much better this season since we had Mike remove the overtaking rushes last October.

Deck wall progress:

O man! This is way more than I had expected. Now I hear that this wall is going to get stuccoed. Imagine that. I told Dave that if I had presented this as my original plan, he would never have OK'd the idea. Heehee. Sometimes it pays to keep my mouth shut.