May 25, 2012

Scored a wood chipper from a craigslist ad. Great price, great seller. It looks like some kind of weird musical instrument. Xooxahornaphone or some such thing. Paint it blue and give it to the Blue Men.

This root amazes me. It indicates to me that the stump I pulled up was still sending out roots after the tree was cut down. Why do I believe this? That patio edge is an extension from the original. It was poured after the tree was felled. So that means that that root reached out from that stump and followed that edge long after the tree was supposed to be dead.

In the process of buying the wood chipper, the seller gave me some ruined bags of concrete. They were left in the rain and had solidified, which means that the contents have acquired the shape of the bags. I'm going to unwrap them, paint them to look like pillows, and place them around the yard as seats.

The compost pile is significant. This is the only area in which I will use a tiller. I'm not sure how many years it's been, but organics have been piled and spread in this area on a regular basis. On this one spot is the soil the way it's supposed to be. The sod is so thick that I can't penetrate it with either my spade or shovel.

The railroad ties I acquired from my brother's yard. I think I might use them as a border. Not sure.

Another example of how much growth has occurred. With that much growth, one would expect healthier soil. Organics should be building up and contributing to microbial health. Obviously, not the case.

The highlighted area will be a reference point for the height of this terrace.

The next two images are basically before-and-after pictures. I finally had to make the effort to level out the 2nd tier. So far, it looks as if my planning is accurate. It went surprisingly quickly. The biggest obstacles were the clumps of dead grass and roots that kept clogging my steel rake. I eventually had a pile that I had to constantly move around to keep them out of the way. The sandy, lifeless soil, once again, worked to my advantage. It was light and loose, making it easy to move around with the steel rake.