A hot Sunday in the garden

For many years, I have enjoyed building things as an outlet for my creativity – Often, my projects begin as a means to solve an issue, or even in this case as a result of simple clean up. For some time, my dog Theo (a tall 110lb Labrador) has been a digger ~ which is a massive pain in the ass for someone like myself, who thrives on keeping a zen, neatly manicured garden. This weekend, while removing some dead plants that had fallen victim to my pooch – I got the idea, to build a simple and small patio which would insure no more holes in this particular spot – as well as to create a neat new spot to sit in a seldom used corner of my garden.

So I went down to Diamond K – a great stone yard and landscape supply outlet in Lafayette – and picked up about a 1/3 palette of Kentucky blue stone. Of course, I brought my little boy, who loves to watch the forklifts set or dump materials into the back of daddy’s truck!

I then proceeded to spend much of Sunday, digging out the area, and leveling a spot where the little patio would go. Using natural stone is always very fun – the shapes and thickness are all varied, so much of the work is in finding patterns that allow the stones to sit side by side in whatever shape you have in mind.

I was not too worried about getting the stones too tight, as I intend to plant moss in the dirt grout lines – This adds a bit of green in between the blue stones, and also makes the patio soft to the touch for bare feet. Another trick, is there are certain types of durable walking path mosses – that actually release a really nice scent when stepped on.

So in the end, I am very pleased with how it came out. It was about 95 degrees today – so I am bit sun beat and tired – but other then that, very pleased with my Sunday project – and hopeful that I have outsmarted my dog.