Of course the planting bed became more of a drainage project when we figured out that the rain barrel could only really be set up with the overflow port on the side that faced uphill.
Of course, I saw this overflow conundrum, and I said "I just need to dig out a little ditch and everything will be hunky dory." But then I back filled with loose dirt. This of course didn't work out very well during the rainstorm we had - the dirt got pushed out of way at the bottom of the cement drain guide and then just flowed directly to the cinder blocks. So I knew it had to be fixed - and of course this is all dumb because while I was backfilling with dirt I thought to myself "oh this isn't going to work out well... I should really back fill with rock." And lo, the woman, she is brilliant.
So this last weekend, I re-dug out the area by the plants I had planted, and then made a much more defined drainage ditch and backfilled everything with rocks instead of dirt. You read that right. Me. Not the husband and me. Just me. This is because he claims that if I had left the grass alone it would have been fine and I was making a mountain out of a molehill, why do I have to go redoing the perfectly adequate yard, yada, yada, yada. Of course it didn't help matters that to do this part, I cannibalized the rock bed at the other end of the yard. It's in my plan, but apparently the husband is incapable of reading a plan. And thus he promptly fuh-reaked out when he came out after I was done hauling rock back and forth.
My yard - my own personal "Hideous Bed."
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| From the front |
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| From the side - the drainage ditch makes a V shape so it waters the plants I have planted in the rocks (Brazos Penstemon, Blue Penstemon, and Hummingbird plant). |
8 comments:
You did a helluva a good job there although it looks like the rain barrel might be sitting every so slightly precariously on top of the cinder block platform. Are you confident that it is stable? I'd LOVE to put a rain barrel in place but lo, I have no gutters. I do have a rain barrel and if I cannot put it in place to collect rainwater I am playing with the idea of turning it into a compost bin.
Two rain barrels or even three joined together will get you even more water! or will the H freak out?
I really like the rock a lot. Good job tackling the project yourself!
Good job, Girl.
It looks good.
The rain barrel we have on cement blocks is little crooked. It has sunk a little on one side. We'll deal with that when it's empty.
It's amazing how little rain it takes to fill one of these up.
Maybe that will open some eyes....
At this point, yes, adding more rain barrels would make him freak out. I think I've decided the problem is that I'm doing too many changes in too short of a period of time. He doesn't have a chance to like something before I'm onto the next project. So if I get a pathway put in on the left side of the yard relatively quick like and then do nothing except plant plants, maybe he'll get better.
If only you knew a civil engineer that could have foreseen that problem, I say in jest.
I have a lot of smooth, colored river gravel left over from a former project if you want some. Let me know if you do and I'll fill some buckets up and you can have them.
@Bob - I know, If only. I saw the problem when he set it up but figured if I stuck my head in the sand it would all work out. yeah...not so much.
What do you mean by 'colored' and what size is it (pea, quarter, etc)? I'm not sure that I have a use for it, though...
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