Long day today, but it was nice out, so I didn't mind. Worked on the wicking bed. I did a lot of it trying to film with my video camera but I need to sit down and actually read the directions. I'm really not good at electronics!
Shoveling a bunch of gravel into my wagon and rinsing the silt out.
I needed gravel for the next layer of the bed. So I got a bunch from the kid's play yard area. I made furrows in the rock and threw some charcoal slivers in it. I really wish these were bigger, but, whatever.
Not draining. What's a bulkhead? This is a bulkhead. I basically needed a water proof drain, to set in the pond liner, for this bed.
Draining well, with the yellow lid as a spacer on the inside.
I tried adding landscape fabric in front of the bulkhead fitting (this is the drain for the wicking bed, set low so I can flush it when I need to. You really have to think this project out because once you add layers you can't fix anything you messed up underneath.
Anyway, the fabric wasn't letting it drain so I took a lid from a can of spray foam (that I had left over from last Christmas. It was still on my porch. I'm so behind.) and drilled a bunch of holes in it. Put that over the bulkhead and laid a piece of fabric over that.
I cut an opening in one of the drain tiles and slipped a piece of pvc, cut at an angle (with landscape fabric zip tied to it to keep any sand from migrating down around the inlet tube.)
I cut this with a ratcheting pvc pipe cutter. It shot the extra piece off across the room. (Just so you know to be careful.)
Then I got stuck. I can't set the drain height because I need a fitting that I can use with the bulkhead (that I already installed and glued in place.) I found a hose that will work, but I need to buy it. The garden hose I intended on using didn't fit. Which was frustrating.
Then, because it's nice out, I drove size t-posts in around my garden for fencing and some support for my Marionberries. I used a sledge hammer on T-Posts taller than me. My arm is killing me now. I need to buy a post driver next month.
I came in and made everybody dinner and I took a shower. I am spent. I have until mother's day to get everything "big" accomplished. It gets too hot after that to try and spend several hours in the yard.
However, I'm losing weight so... yay! That's always a good thing! I created a list of to do things. I organized them by length of time spent in the heat, so that I can get the stuff that will be impossible in 100° heat, done, and save the small projects for the rest of the summer.
I am Thor in my garden... Whimper. Maybe not so much anymore. I tell you what: trying to do stuff I could easily do in my 40s, (today in my early fifties) is not always possible. My muscles get tired, and my arms and fingers are like noodles at the end of the day. I can't grasp cups or forks. It's irritating.
I'm very aware that even as I build muscle: I can tear down more than my body is rebuilding. It's time to start being a picker not a planter. Hopefully, I will finish this stuff and sit outside, with the hose end mister running, and enjoy my beautiful garden for the rest of the summer!
Meet you out in the garden to build giants projects in a hurry before the heat sets in!
Crazy Green Thumbs
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