The Renovations Begin

 Last week Monday we began the task of tearing up parts of the goofy-named Pachyberm.  (How 'inventive' of me to come up with the silly title for a pile of dirt in the middle of our lawn in 2009.) 

The name came from a satirical article I'd read years ago by a garden critic who, loosely quoted, stated, 'Berms look ridiculous in landscaping, especially if the rest of the garden is on flat ground.  I suppose they could be useful, however, in the unlikely event the garden owners needed to bury an elephant.'  

Later on we had a garden visitor also question our reason for having the odd hill, so even though we didn't bury a pachyderm in our yard, I nicknamed it the Pachy(b)erm as it has been known ever since.

 The first rock leaving the vicinity using the old hand-crank wrecker hooked to the back of my late father's tractor.

There we are, 51 years old, posing with the big rocks that were dumped on our lawn back in 2009.  The same rocks we are now hauling out. 

The dwarf conifers have grown so much since then and the rocks have been hidden under them. Back then I wanted 'planting spaces' to put flowers in, now that I'm older, solid rock sounds good.  Or lawn.  

 Below is the same view as above, August 21, 2024.

We began removing the rocks from the west end of the berm the way they were installed with the wrecker and tractor. 

It was slow-going and though Carl did not want to tear up the lawn by driving the excavator in, he finally agreed it would make the job go much faster.  Joel drove it over to the berm right after he got home from work.  Yes, it left ruts, but at this point, we don't care.  They can always be fixed.  Plus, digging hostas has never been easier.

Now, as my late mother would say, we were cooking with gas.  Or diesel.  If we would have had this equipment back in the day, things would have been a whole lot easier.  But then we would have probably built more gardens, and then we'd have more to downsize.  On second thought, good thing we didn't have it years ago.

Even though the excavator moves the boulders with ease, each rock has to be rigged with chains and placed carefully using a crowbar and blocks for a final fit.  Carl and Joel are both experts at chains and rocks after all these years.  Joel helped us with each phase of the garden construction over the years. We were reminiscing about the project and figured out he was 23 when this particular berm was built. 

He said, "I'm 38 now, and would not take on a job like building the Quarry in my 40's and the berm in my 50's, even with the use of an excavator."

I think he was kindly telling me that his parental units have always been a bit eccentric. But just as he was invaluable as a teenager and younger man, he's still working as hard as ever right along with us.  We are blessed.

At the end of the first day we had shortened up the west end of the berm by a good fifteen feet.  We had a lot of trouble with thistles in this area and it was amazing to see how deep their roots extend.  No wonder we weren't successful weeding them out all these years.

While Joel was at work the next day, I took the controls of the excavator and ever so slowly hoisted rocks into place for Carl.  To his credit, he only looked terrified once.  I don't blame him, he gives me a wide berth as we all do no matter who is driving swinging rocks overhead.  Safety is paramount.  Everyone stands out of the way until the rock is on the ground.

We had to dig at least fifty hostas and other perennials out of the berm and have them in the shade waiting for transplanting.  Only one conifer had to be taken out so far, which was sad but it hadn't been doing well anyway. 

With the rocks out of the way, we could remove the soil next.  We're intending to cut the remaining berm almost down the middle and have the ability to drive between the remaining trees by shoring up the walls with some of the boulders, forming a sort of canyon effect.  This will cut the bed down by more than fifty percent.  Truth be told, we probably could have yanked everything out and turned it all back into lawn, but the conifers are still beautiful, so for now, we will preserve them. 

Joel was back on the excavator on Friday afternoon, loading up our old dump trailer with the soil we don't need.  I was in charge of hauling the soil to our pile an acre away while Carl helped dump the antique trailer for me.

Our eight year old granddaughter, Audrey, helped by hauling a few loads of dirt with the lawnmower trailer with Grandpa Carl along for the ride.

 By sunset we had the soil removed and ready for rock replacement on Saturday.

Saturday saw a lot of progress and a lot of head-scratching.  When we originally built the berm, we'd be lucky to get three boulders in place in one day, but the ease at which the excavator can get into tight spaces is phenomenal.  It's the 'sky-hook' we always wished we'd had.  Using a long chain we can suspend huge boulders and get into the trees without ruining anything.  

Saturday was in the upper 80's and the humidity was rising.  We were all hot and sticky, but kept at the job until sunset again.  

Sunday was a day of rest and in the afternoon we had an 80th birthday party to attend.  

The temperatures were up into the 90's with the humidity pushing it over 100 degrees by Monday, not the kind of weather meant for heavy landscaping.  We watered the planters and the perennials that are out of the ground, mowed lawn and took frequent breaks in the house to cool down.

Monday night, a severe thunderstorm came through and again on Tuesday morning right before noon, but we were lucky, nothing major was destroyed.  The humidity was still oppressive, though, and we spent the day running for parts for the tractors.  I did some deadheading on the zinnias and cut back the broken plants from the storm before calling it a night. 

The rest of the week is forecast to be much cooler, so we'll be back at it tomorrow if all goes well.

If we all had Audrey's energy, this project will be done in no time.

Rethinking the Garden (Again)

 

 August 6, 2024 was the last garden group of the year, a bus tour of around thirty very nice Master Gardeners from the Portage, WI area.  It is always nice to share the garden with people who have the same passion as we do.    

For some reason, I also felt compelled to share with the group the fact that we hope to be doing some major renovation work this fall, especially to the Pachyberm in front of the house and the Quarry area as well.  

For years, Carl has been adamant about the need to downsize at least fifty percent in an effort to be able to do something else during the summer besides weed, mulch and repeat ad nauseum.  I grudgingly agreed, but was always dreading the prospect since there are many plants and trees which will need relocating during the downsize.  And, in the case of the trees, survival is hit or miss due to their age.  'Dwarf' conifers may be smaller than their standard counterparts, but they still become quite large over the course of twenty years or so.  

Finally this spring, after hearing Carl fuss about the amount of work we have to do one more time, I am now committed (or should be) to moving forward with an overhaul of our two most difficult gardens.  Our intent is not to remove them entirely, but remodel them into more easily manageable landscaping, but still remain aesthetically pleasing.  It's a tall order, but we'll do our best.

I related my renovation plan to the tour group as we were strolling around and was met with a lot more skepticism than I thought would be possible from people who had never seen the place before.  One lady had been here before, years ago before our house remodel.  She took me aside and said, "You must not redo the Quarry!  You will kill your husband, it is too much work, leave well enough alone!"

Well, I'm not intending to kill either one of us, as far as that goes.  The upkeep alone is wearing us both out and we do want to garden as long as possible.  

When we built the Quarry and the Pachyberm in 2001 and 2009 respectively, we did not have the equipment we have recently acquired.  Placing over 700 tons of large limestone with an old farm tractor and a hand-crank wrecker from the 1930's along with crowbars was a challenge when we were in our forties to be sure.  Now that we are both sixty-six years old, we finally have our own used excavator which will make a world of difference in moving the big stones and the soil.  We're not naive enough to think it's going to be a walk in the park, but change is always a constant in any garden.

The Quarry has suffered from the rocks settling since 2001.  Woodchucks have been the biggest problem, digging tunnels and undermining the structure.  The pond itself is not very deep as it is all sand with no liner, and the water table fluctuates greatly from spring to fall.  A year or two ago, the farm fields to our north were tiled to drain the surface water off, and the water table in the pond has drastically been reduced as the aquifer must have been affected.  We've had a lot of rain this year and the pond has never rebounded in depth.  Now, instead of water, all that is visible for most of the year are the wild white waterlilies which have taken over.

We hosted our annual friends and family booyah party (for those unfamiliar, it is similar to a chicken stew cooked over a wood fire) on Sunday, August 11.  Once again, we told our visitors about our plan to remodel the garden and the comments were about the same as the garden tour earlier.  "How are you going to do that?!  Are you going to take all the rocks out?  Where are you going to put them?  What is it going to look like?  What will happen to the trees? Will you still have a pond?  Will you dig it deeper?  Fill it in? How are you going to get the excavator down in the pond? Are you sure you want to do this?"

Ah, good questions.  The answer is we don't know.  Carl said he wants to take it down to a blank slate and see what happens.  Some trees will have to be moved, some can stay, but in the end, we just don't know.  We survived (barely) the house remodel in 2019/20.  We used to get comments (suggestions? critiques?) that our house didn't match our garden--one visitor went so far as to say, "The last time I saw your house it was really rundown, this is an improvement!" 

Um, thank you, I think.  You have to have thick skin, let me tell you.  Callouses on your hands from weeding, and a good filter on your tongue when hearing opinions about your personal spaces. Some will always find fault, human nature, I guess.

We have no more garden events for the rest of the year, so we're getting the tractors and the excavator ready to go.  We've had rain again the last two days, an inch again today, a half inch yesterday, and more forecast for Saturday, but after that, things look like they will be a bit drier.  Joel is on board to help us with the digging when he's got the time, which we greatly appreciate.  I've operated the excavator a few times, but I'm not great with it yet as it takes practice. 

I've spent hours online looking at ponds and waterfalls and pros and cons of a water feature again; I've looked at just filling in the pond and having a sunken garden with high stone walls, we've thought about putting in a liner and having a smaller, deeper pond, or maybe a disappearing waterfall or..........well, as Carl says, we'll see what happens.  We won't know until we start from scratch once again.

The part of garden we both like the most is the 'Escarpment' which is adjacent to the Quarry.  Just sheer stone walls with minimal planting spaces that require far less upkeep yet still look wild. 

Part of me is excited, it's fun to create something new, the other part of me is dreading it, but we have to do something as the stonework is failing and we need to make things easier.  

Maybe we'll just push all the rocks into the hole and plant grass. 

Here we go.  Again.

P.S. Would you look at what climbed into our big ol' Buick tonight?  Didn't I just say I have to move trees?  Oh, well, what's three more.  (There's two ginkgos in the front seat, one in the trunk.) 

They were on clearance and they needed a home.  

Somewhere around here...

 

2024 Garden Tour

 

I'll start the tour with January and snow.  Today, July 31, was in the upper 80's, which for us is hot enough, but the humidity was pushing the heat index into the mid-90's.  In other words, step out of the door of an air-conditioned building and feel as if you stepped into a warm bathtub.  Amazing how our temperatures change in a few months' time.

So, here we are in the last week of July:

We've had a very wet spring and summer this year, so wet that many of the farmers were not able to get fields planted for our short growing season, and the hay crops were difficult to get off the fields, too.  

Gardening is nothing compared to farming, obviously, but does have frustrations as well.   Days of rain kept us out of the garden, and cloudy days didn't provide the light the annuals needed to grow well.  Weeds, on the other hand, have been exuberant and irrepressible, reappearing seemingly overnight.

Early May:

 

 

Moving on to June:

Martagon Lilies

My geranium favorites

More Martagons

The plant stand was crafted by Carl's late father, Don.  This year I decided to forego flowers and add birds instead.
 

The hostas have flourished with all of the rain, so at least they have been happy.

Our deer population has been steadily increasing, which is starting to become annoying.  We have a large garden, to be sure, and a few bites and nibbles here and there are to be expected, but grazing to the ground isn't nice.  I guess we'll have to look into a deer fence if things get worse.

Once July arrived, we saw more sunshine and hotter temperatures, which brought on the blooms.

And let's not forget the weeds.  Carl, above, sweating, swatting and pulling garden invaders.

We've had one garden group tour this year, the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association, very nice professional people who were kind enough to pay us compliments on our completely unprofessional landscaping efforts. It is always fun to meet people who are passionate about gardening, and they definitely were.

We have one more tour coming next week, and then the summer will begin winding down.  (Too soon!)

There are a few interesting additions to the garden this year which I'll talk about in my next posts.

Until then, stay colorful!