Eight months after Drew Corps “finished” landscaping around the Red House, an operator returned to the site last week to repair our washed-out driveway, install new drainage pipes and replace an old culvert. Hopefully, this work will reroute the overflow of water next spring and prevent erosion.
Below: operator Kyle smoothing loam over eroded section of field below the driveway; a load of gravel to be spread over the washed-out parking area; the repaired driveway; and a drainage trench dug to catch water and send it into the culvert under the driveway.
Unfinished business: The stone on our front walkway was never compacted last fall, causing a hazard for the snowblower in winter. Kyle tamped the stone down using a heavy duty roller that shook the foundation of the house as he worked.
Our carriage house sans birch tree. The tree’s roots were growing through the granite block retaining wall that supports the old structure. Barn wrights will come in later this summer to shore up the carriage house’s foundation, replace the roof and make sure it will stand a few more decades.
The excavation work followed a week of intense garden design and installation, completed with the help and artistic sensibilities of our friend Cynthia, and Nils’ elbow-busting efforts to wheel in the soil and compost we needed to plant two expansive flower beds in the front yard. Our desire to support pollinators was immediately affirmed by a bee that buzzed in to drink nectar from a native meadow-rue in flower.
Kyle was a wiz at moving big rocks around. He placed one on the slope overlooking the new gardens. The rock serves as both a visual focal point and a seat on which to rest and look at the facade of the house.
This time of year growth is supercharged – vegetables, flowers and wild blueberries!
Feeling grateful at the end of the day.
Magnificent!!! I’ll hope to stop in later in the summer, or fall. I’ll give a ring when I’m back in the hood.