This is a shout out to my friend and mentor, Michelle, whose blog descriptions of getting her show garden ready for the SF Flower show inspired this one. The show opens tommorrow, check out her blog Garden Porn
Michelle has been an inspiration for me for many years and has influenced my career's trajectory more than she knows.
Thanks, Michelle.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
#11 Sites & soil
This morning, on another project, they started digging for a pool. Before development 30-40 years ago the area was a known for its rose growing industry so when the excavator dug his first hole we found a layer of ash (from wood burning greenhouse heaters) and wonderful clean soil. It's a problem for the pool, but wonderful for filling in deep interior areas that will be augmented with a custom planting mix and will ultimately become the planting pockets in the rockery. Off I went with a full dump of this brown gold, 10 miles away to the Mansion in May site. This saved the soil from being dumped in some land fill and my pockets from having to buy and truck soil in later.
Notice how grey the soil is--its the ash from the greenhouse stoves.
Notice how grey the soil is--its the ash from the greenhouse stoves.Monday, March 10, 2008
#10--Oxymoron
Okay, I was in a hurry, talking on the phone and obviously not paying close attention when I went to the hardware store on Saturday to buy the marking paint. The law states the area must be marked in white for the utilities mark out if you can't give the dimensions from the street or the house. As I already said, the paint didn't work too well in the pouring rain.
I went to mark out the space today--still no good. Why? It was CLEAR MARKING PAINT. Isn't that kind of like girlie man?
I went to mark out the space today--still no good. Why? It was CLEAR MARKING PAINT. Isn't that kind of like girlie man?
Saturday, March 8, 2008
#9--Downpour
The day started out grey and by mid morning became one of the worst rainstorms I've seen in a while. Pouring, pouring, pouring. Dan Lupino and I had an appointment to tag stone for the arch and figure out just how we're going to build it and of course it started storming about 15 minutes before.
I stopped to pick up some carpenter's crayons thinking they'd be waterproof and damned myself for leaving the brolly at home. The gravel drive to the mansion was a washed out mess and Dan, the stone man, was already there when I arrived. When I signed in the operations staff referred to us as the Druids, which I thought was a hoot. I promised to light a bonfire and dance around the garden naked on the night of the opening gala.
We attempted to mark the site boundary for utilities mark outs but the paint was useless in the rain. I'll have to go back when it's a bit dryer. We did discover the beginnings of a sinkhole about 20' from our area and will have to deal with that next week--you could hear underground water rushing through it. Retreating to the car for a dry meeting of minds, we fleshed out some of the details for building the first stone pile. It won't really be a pile because the arch has to be seated soundly. Dry stone construction relies on a solid base, so the area cannot settle or the arch will ultimately fail. So we figured that one out and hopefully arch construction will begin on Wednesday.
I stopped to pick up some carpenter's crayons thinking they'd be waterproof and damned myself for leaving the brolly at home. The gravel drive to the mansion was a washed out mess and Dan, the stone man, was already there when I arrived. When I signed in the operations staff referred to us as the Druids, which I thought was a hoot. I promised to light a bonfire and dance around the garden naked on the night of the opening gala.
We attempted to mark the site boundary for utilities mark outs but the paint was useless in the rain. I'll have to go back when it's a bit dryer. We did discover the beginnings of a sinkhole about 20' from our area and will have to deal with that next week--you could hear underground water rushing through it. Retreating to the car for a dry meeting of minds, we fleshed out some of the details for building the first stone pile. It won't really be a pile because the arch has to be seated soundly. Dry stone construction relies on a solid base, so the area cannot settle or the arch will ultimately fail. So we figured that one out and hopefully arch construction will begin on Wednesday.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
#8--Start Up
The weather has been iffy so hopefully, if all goes according to plan, I'll meet the crew and the excavator at the mansion today. The main goals will be to tag boulders for specific use, identify inhabited burrows and move the inhabitants, and generally mark everything out so we can begin getting it together. Weeds may or may not be removed depending on how thawed the ground is or isn't.
We start so far in advance because it's a volunteer effort and this work gets mostly done in between the paying work. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow so we have to get started asap.
Later that day...
Moving the granite medallion to a safe place
The 1/2 weird granite thing isn't a planter at all--I don't know what it is
Beginning deconstruction
Further Deconstruction--some of the boulders are massive
Today's drama included the fact that someone had moved boulders before we got there (the property owner) to remove tree stumps and I freaked out and the stakes marking the proposed placement of the gala tent--in the middle of where my pool will be, and one of the excavator operators almost tipped the thing over moving a boulder.
The day's goal was to sort boulders and to try begin to see what is going to go where. Tomorrow we'll mark out the basic shape of things and start placement.
We start so far in advance because it's a volunteer effort and this work gets mostly done in between the paying work. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow so we have to get started asap.
Later that day...
Moving the granite medallion to a safe placeThe 1/2 weird granite thing isn't a planter at all--I don't know what it is
Beginning deconstruction
Further Deconstruction--some of the boulders are massive
Today's drama included the fact that someone had moved boulders before we got there (the property owner) to remove tree stumps and I freaked out and the stakes marking the proposed placement of the gala tent--in the middle of where my pool will be, and one of the excavator operators almost tipped the thing over moving a boulder.The day's goal was to sort boulders and to try begin to see what is going to go where. Tomorrow we'll mark out the basic shape of things and start placement.
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