The Mound of Dirt That Ate My Driveway

Look at all the foxtails just waiting to dry out and be snorted up by my dogs...


Thursday morning, bright and early, the compost and shredded bark was delivered. I'll give the guy credit -- he managed to back a dump truck through my gate with about two inches on either side. I can't even back my Civic through that gate, although that says more about my backing skills than anything else. Anyhow, after he managed to fit the compost on the driveway and the bark mostly on the driveway and partially in the alley, he stood around for a while which made me wonder -- are you supposed to tip the dump truck driver? I mean, there was a delivery fee, after all. I hate this whole tipping thing. If he really was waiting for a tip, he eventually gave up and drove away.

Then I went to the lumber store. In case you're wondering how much you can fit in a Civic (with all the doors, windows, and trunk closed), the answer is: twenty-four six-foot 2x6" boards, plus another twenty-four three-foot 2x6" boards. And I still had room to sit in the car comfortably. It does, however, drive a little differently when loaded like that.



After unloading all the lumber and getting most of the shredded bark out of the alley, it was time to take a nap. Or it should have been. But I knew if I started down that road I'd still have a pile of compost sitting on the driveway at the end of summer. Also, I couldn't close the gate because a mound of compost and bark was in the way and people walking down the alley might see the state of the garden. So I did some physical labor for while.

I put together one whole raised bed and filled it with compost. Luckily, the rest of the M-braces hadn't been delivered, so I had an excuse to go sit down after that. Unfortunately, my neighbor came over to deliver the M-braces that evening, but since it was almost dark at that point I felt justified in not going back to work.

Friday morning I woke up and realized that at the pace of one raised bed per day I was going to never finish because my attention span is about three days at most. So Friday I managed to put in two more raised beds.

On Saturday I still had this much left,

which was a little depressing, but my shoveling muscles were getting stronger. Basically, I kicked ass on Saturday and got down to this:

Oh, and the garden, that was coming together as well:

Of course, the camera angle is carefully chosen so that the remaining weeds aren't shown, but you can't have everything. Anyhow, in three months or so I should have the world's most expensive salsa.

But the important thing is that the gate is closed again.