Light rain is forecasted here in our area for today. Gosh I needed a break from garden work anyway and it is a bonus for not having to water the newly planted flowers, shrubs and vegetable plants. The month of May is always busy for me but the last two weeks I worked nonstop and I am not done yet!
The new concrete driveway looks great. The concrete expert came twice a day to water it for two days after pouring. Then Benno took over with watering four times per day for the next 3 days. After that we got some help in the form of rain for a day. The reason for doing that watering is to strengthen the concrete in a slow drying process after the chemical process between cement and the aggregate had kicked off during the first 24 hours after pouring, according to “Garth” our concrete expert. The wooden forming was taken off after two days and the stress release cuts were also made. I spent almost a day to clean up the gaps between the grass and the concrete of debris and then I purchased a dozen bags of 25 lb. of black earth from Rona (Lowes Canada) to fill the space with. After that I seeded it and I keep watering every day hoping for the grass to grow. This will be the end of the concrete story. J
We decided that a perennial flower/shrub berm would look nice opposite the little flowerbed that we already have at the water meter, which is located at the end of driveway. So off I went to shop for edging stones. That was quite a load and I am glad we have a pickup truck to put those in. Next the question was how much soil would it take to fill that new flowerbed and buying that in 25 lb. bags was out of the question. Benno hooked up our utility trailer and we went to a local wholesaler to purchase a little more than a yard of topsoil, basically the whole utility trailer full, that we both shoveled into the circle of edging stones that I had placed onto the grass.
As I did with the two other berms that I had created, I purchased a heavy ornamental rock to place onto the middle of the berm. Again, I am glad we are having a utility trailer, as it was loaded with a forklift onto it and then back home the trailer was positioned so that we used the ramp at the gate of the trailer for Benno to wrestle the rock down right onto the berm.
The fun part was going out to all the nurseries to shop for plants, flowers and vegetable shoots. I did that several times, although time consuming, to find what I was looking for. It seems because of the cool spring some of the shrubs and flowers have not arrived yet or are still very small.
Some of the radishes are ready to be harvested I surprised a rabbit as it was going to nip on the buds of the Azalea
that is probably why it has only so few blossoms
In the meantime Benno built a new post for the electrical and water outlet for the RV, which will fit even under the open slide. He wanted to use cedar wood and none of our local stores had any. We ordered online and went all the way to Wallaceburg to get it, quite the drive for a piece of wood. The new post was painted, although the wood looked also nice unpainted, but this way it is even more weather resistant. We are waiting for a solar light with “Bengal Blue” LED light to brighten up in the dark, shipped from Amazon.
Our truck was allowed to drive over the concrete a couple of days ago and is back in the garage. The travel trailer, however, has to wait a while longer (about 28 days after pouring) before it is coming home to its new pad.
Hopefully some of my perennial flowers and shrubs will have some buds or blossoms to show in my next post. Thanks again for dropping by.