This was only about half the pile of dirt that we had delivered! Total was 20 cubic yards, about 19 cubic metres. It was delivered as two truck loads, several hours apart. We moved perhaps half the first load before the second one arrived. The man of action is my neighbour Denny Deal, whose house has the flag flying out front.
The view looking SW out of my bedroom window. See the nice, brown dirt in the gardens. No rocks, and doesn't require a pick to dig a hole! Unfortunately there is just a few inches - generally less than 100 mm.
The view looking SE from my bedroom, showing the rest of the backyard gardens. You can also see the Deal's bird house on the pole in the far left of the picture.
Yes, I have been to the nursery, and bought some plants. They are, from left to right, a Camellia Sasanqua, three Viburnum and two Barberry bushes. The latter have small thorns. The rocks in the background are what I discovered while digging holes or just moving dirt. They are all over the place here. You can't dig without hitting one.
The side lane between my house, on the right, and the Deal's on the left. Note the nice looking concrete path! You can also see the block wall I built last year, and which just turned into the dirt. And also our living fence. The shiny black material to the left of the trees is a type of fabric which stops the weeds growing. It requires a covering of bark to be very effective. My experience is that a couple of inches of bark is quite good at stopping weeds on its own.
The material ready for moving into the side lane, which is just to the left of this image. The blue tarp is to cover the dirt supply and keep the rain out of it, thus preventing it from becoming water logged and much heavier. It was mostly effective,, although some did run underneath. The other piles are the cement blocks for the wall to allow Denny to level off his side.
After a couple of days work, the side lane has improved enormously in appearance. The area between the block wall and the path is small gravel, the rounded stones so common around here, and a sign of the presence of glaciers. Since this photo was taken, I have also put the same material down the right hand side of the path, between the foundations and the path.
The view looking over my patio, still with waiting plants, over the block wall and into the Deal's back yard. Note that the block wall has been finished. My original plan, which I started building last year, was to have the lower two rows of the wall curve around the edge of the garden, but I decided I didn't like that idea very much, so the wall was straightened to head toward the back fence. I also bought the extra blocks needed to finish off the top row.
The first plant to go into the ground. This is a Nandina, a type of bamboo, but very attractive, with new foliage being red. The other plants are still in their containers - this really was the first shrub to go into the back yard.
The plants are in! They are, from left to right, Viburnum, Barberry and Nandina. There is still a row of Azaleas to go along the front, but I haven't yet found any large ones. The white pipe protruding from the garden in the lower right is for watering. There is one in every garden area, and they are hooked up to the sprinklers, so that the gardens are watered too. The gardens use drip irrigation, which means a tube is connected to the pipe you see, and where you want water to come out (because there is a plant there!), punch a hole and insert a dripper. So I no longer have to water the garden either!
A view of the garden against the back fence, looking SW. (I took this photo from the Deal's back yard). All but one of the shrubs are rhododendrons; the exception is the camelia, second from the right, not counting the cypress tree in the far corner.
The lilac bush is planted.
The two, lonely, hydrangea bushes against the western fence. Note also that the posts in the fence have been cut off to the correct height. Next step is to put a decoration on top of them, to match the fence along the back.
1999