You know you've been working hard when...

You know you've been working hard when the head of your sledgehammer flies off the handle. The term "flying off the handle" has a literal meaning for me now (hee hee). I was swinging away at the "acres" of concrete slab I have to remove, and voile! The head flew right off. But never fear. After a quick trip to the hardware store just around the corner, I had a bright and shiny new hickory handle to put the sledgehammer head on. It's so nice swinging that new handle now. The other one was pretty warped (I don't know if you can see it in the photo at right).

You also know you've been working hard when the muscles in your thumbs ache. Who knew I had muscles there?!?! And just to set the record straight... just because I'm able to swing a sledgehammer at concrete like an insane woman doesn't mean I'm in great physical shape. I'm a short chubby woman with lots of determination and stamina who gets a twisted sense of satisfaction from hard manual labor. So if I can tackle this ridiculous task with all my physical issues, anyone can. You just have to be a little crazy (okay... maybe a lot crazy).

Speaking of crazy... you know you've been working too hard when filling up the two-wheeled wheelbarrow with the "smaller" chunks of concrete seems like a good idea. Trust me... it isn't. I had to empty the wheelbarrow by hand, flinging the chunks into an empty flower bed, before I could move the thing. I must have been delirious with endorphines from swinging the hammer too much when I thought up that bright idea.

You also know you've been working hard when suddenly you realize that a whole week has gone by since you last posted to your blog! Oops! How did I lose track of a whole week so easily? Does that happen to anyone else once they get working in the garden? I certainly hope I'm not the only one.

Anyway... without further adieu, here's what's blooming and growing in the Rosehaven Cottage gardens right now. Enjoy!

You can view any of the images larger by clicking on them.

Above left: The first bloom on the Our Lady of Guadalupe rose that went in this year.

Above right: The blooms of the Cherry Parfait are more spectacular that I could have imagined last year when I put it in.

Above: The Golden Showers climbing rose is the perfect backdrop for the pond waterfall and birdbath in the back garden.

I can see this gorgeous rosebush from my studio window.

Above: The Japanese water iris, New Zealand flax, and aloe look great against the backdrop of the Golden Showers rosebush too.


Above: My favorite gazanias ever are all in bloom under the Princess Di Bower Vine on the front pergola. Isn't the color beautiful?!?!

Before and After: The Drainage Project

I have mentioned many times before that our home sits at the low point of our street with everyone's water from both directions heading toward us in a big rainstorm.

A few summers back my brother came between semesters at his university and, with pickaxe in hand, dug a massive trench in the hardened clay soil. He lined the deep trench with river rocks and dubbed it "Trenchy" (said with a heavy French accent... emphasis on the "ee"... just because my brother said it that way).

"Trenchy" became the main dry river bed (or "arroyo") that led all other drainage efforts to the back corner of the property where a large county storm drain sits just on the other side of our property line. Each successive drainage project was heavily dependent on "Trenchy". One hidden drain system next to the house was even dubbed "Trenchy Junior".

As I've gone out during winter storms and observed the flow of rainwater since "Trenchy" was dug, I knew that there would be further adjustments over time once I figured out what we were doing with everything else back there. Last summer, I got into "Trenchy" and removed all the river rocks that had lined its banks. Most of the rocks were buried in layers of silt and their beauty was wasted with them buried like that. Since I was demolishing a large concrete slab adjacent to "Trenchy" it made more sense to remove all the river rock and replace them with large chunks of recycled concrete. Then the lovely river rocks could be used decoratively elsewhere around the garden, including filling the head of "Trenchy" with a bed of river rocks that supports the new flagstone sitting area that I put in next to the pond just last fall. The river rocks are great for draining the water out of the hidden "aquifer" that is under the flagstones built with crushed concrete, pea gravel, and sand. You can see the river rocks against the flagstones in the photo at right.


Once all the river rocks had been removed, I lined "Trenchy" with the concrete blocks at the same time as I demolished the concrete slab. I'd sledgehammer out chunks of concrete and then fling them into "Trenchy", going back later to more carefully arrange them.

Once "Trenchy" was lined completely, I installed large diameter french drains (those cylindrical white things in the photo at left) with branches going up mini trenches to take the floodwater away from the areas around the pond when it floods in heavy rain and quickly divert it down "Trenchy". The drains sit at a slight incline to shed the water toward the storm drain and they sit at the lowest point down the center of the trenches. I then took more chunks of recycled concrete and fill in up the sides of the french drains.

When that was done, it was time to hide everything under a thick layer of pea gravel and make "Trenchy" into "Super Secret Trenchy". We had 3 cubic yards of pea gravel delivered to our driveway from the local landscaping outfit, and I hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of gravel to the back to fill the foundation of a new garden shed as well as "Trenchy". The few wheelbarrows' full, my back was gone so Hubby kindly came out and finished up the pile for me.

With the pea gravel in place, the trench and french drains are now completely hidden. All you can see are pretty gravel paths that meander toward the back of the garden past raised planters made from recycled concrete where the dogwood (far right in the photo) and the olive (left foreground in the photo) have found their permanent homes.

Rainwater will now drain through the gravel into the french drains and be diverted to the county storm drain so we have less flooding under our house after heavy rainfall (hopefully I will be able to alleviate that all together with a few more minor tweaks farther up toward the house).

And the big bonuse is that I'll be able to walk around in the back garden without any difficulty even though it may be pouring rain. Before, it was like crossing multiple fjords back there. Now I won't even have to think twice!

The view from the back of the garden looking up toward the pond and house is now one of my favorites. The shadows lacing the path are being cast by the huge white oleander and the cherry and apricot tree conglomeration that I call "The Thicket" because the birds love to hang out in there where they feel safe. You can see the newly planted olive tree on the left in the raised planter with narcissus coming up around the base.

At the right is a 150 gallon horse trough that I used to house the goldfish for a while during renovations to the pond a couple of years ago. The horse trough will eventually become a part-sun water garden with a small recirculating waterfall in it. I'm really excited about that because up until now the only water plants I've been able to have in the pond are full-sun water plants. It will also serve as a nice little oasis to just sit and relax in the shade when the summer temperatures are scorching hot and soaring over 100° F (38°C).

But for now, I have more concrete to demolish, more planters to build, more paths to install, as well as a shed to assemble (well, Hubby is going to handle that part).

If I Had a Hammer... (actually I have two!)

Over 15 years ago, my brother acquired a double-bit axe. He loved it so much that he named it the way a knight names his sword. He even wrote the name on the handle of the axe (in Sharpie pen). The name, you ask? "Testosterone". Yes, "Testosterone". With the name on the handle, my brother could say that his double-bit axe had testosterone written all over it. I always thought it was funny, but really didn't "get it". I figured it was a "guy thing".

Well, after swinging a sledgehammer at concrete for the past few days, I now "get it" (light finally dawns on marble head!). I don't know if I can actually express it in written form, but I "get it".

There is something visceral about the repetitive activity of breaking up concrete with a trustworthy tool like my sledgehammer. I depend on it to be strong and sure. I depend on it to help me crack the concrete in the least number of swings possible. The hammer becomes an extension of my arms and my strength. Without it I would be unable to crack a thing. But with it, I feel like She-rah Woman Warrior, able to do anything! Well, not quite "anything", but it feels like I could after I've conquered a big slab of concrete. [Insert grunting gorilla sounds here akin to Tim the Tool Man Taylor from Home Improvement.]

Now in the title of this post I mentioned that I have two hammers. My other trustworthy tool is this snazzy pick hammer I splurged on at Ace hardware just for this job. I am constantly amazed as how powerful it is just because of its design and the strength of my swinging arm.

When Hubby emerged from his home office after being buried in meetings yesterday afternoon, he came out to see my progress. He happened upon me when I was "taking a break" (that's code for sitting down) and swinging my pick hammer at the edges of the slab to entertain myself. I told him I felt like one of the seven dwarves with this nifty little hammer. Hubby laughed and said I was the eighth dwarf. I had the song "Heigh Ho" going through my head for the rest of the time I worked out there yesterday.

"So what the heck are you doing?" I can hear you asking.
Well, I mentioned in yesterday's post that a 20' x 20' open-sided lanai/shed/???? was here in the back garden when we bought the house. We know it was built in 1961 because someone etched the year in the concrete before it set up. The half walls on three sides of the structure were thick slabs of concrete with massive non-indigenous rocks and abalone shells set in them. The owners before us had boarded it all up with plywood which we removed shortly after moving in replacing the front siding with white plastic lattice so air could flow through and a wild rose to grow up it while leaving the sides open and the back intact. Even with that air flow it still got about 125°F (52°C) inside there during the height of summer. The pad of the structure was not well planned and over the years had heaved and cracked with huge cracks splintering the pad. Some cracks were split open up to 3-4 inches! Then add to that our drainage problems in that area of the garden, and we had a nasty mess.

After we determined that the structure was unsalvageable (it took us about 6 years to come to that conclusion), we decided that we should take it down and put a smaller pre-fab shed in its place and then use the rest of the precious real estate it was taking up for raised planting beds. My pick hammer helped me to extract the rocks from the half walls fairly successfully as I broke up those last summer. Late last summer we removed the corrugated tin roof, recycled it, and then dismantled the lumber that was badly suffering from dry rot and termite damage making the whole thing very unsafe.

The only problem was how to resolve the drainage issue. The time right before I go to sleep is the time when I churn over such problems searching my brain for a solution. It eventually came to me one night that the new shed should be built on a raised bed too! All I had to do was take the concrete from the pad and build a raised bed just like the smaller planter beds I've built around the garden and then fill the whole thing with pea gravel. That way the water will just drain right through and head down the "french drain" trench that I am also completing simultaneously with the recycled concrete chunks and chips from the demolition of the pad.

Just today I completed the construction of the base of what will be the raised bed for the shed. I'm pleased as punch with how it looks! It was like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle with very heavy pieces except there wasn't any "right" way to do. I could just improvise as I went.
I know that the lizards and lots of other critters will love hiding in all the nooks and crannies of this base after we have everything done. I can't wait for them to move in!


A bonus that happened during the process of doing all of this was that I figured out where to finally plant the dogwood tree I inherited and how to do it. Using some of the recycled concrete I built a planter around it after sinking it into the ground over a foot. I was even able to leave the little grape hyacinths growing at the base undisturbed.

Pretty cool if I do say so myself.

I think the dogwood will be very happy in its new home because dogwoods like moisture and this one is snugged up against the trench that will be the major "french drain" that carries water from the rest of the garden to the storm drain in the back corner. And there's more hidey-holes in the dogwood planter for lizards, frogs and other small critters!

I am so glad I'm getting all of this done now when it's cooler outside because there is NO WAY I could do this in the summer!