Beginner Gardening: Front yard / corner lot needs help for British pocket garden, 1 by Twincol

Twincol wrote:
Aaaah, WeeNel, you bring such clear thinking with your advice. Yes, yes, a plan, measured, drawn out on paper so you cannot MISS the instructions. I’ve attached a pic of my workspace with the 20X30 inch (I give up with the conversion) photo of my house to work with. Awesome, huh? So I plan on using my evenings when it gets too dark and too cool to be outside working to put my plan together. That’s the wall at my dining table. When you don’t have anyone else to please you can nail anything you want on the walls!

But, but, I mean, there are two holes for each post . . . one for the post . . . one for the plant!! ! Why the heck did he fill the plant holes???? IDIOT! ! ! I’m going to call him, finally, tonight, to remind him that he has some work left to do here, which he has already been paid to do! ! ! And I’ll have him dig out those holes in the parking strip on the street, so I can plant it this fall.

The temperature this evening, at 6 p.m. is 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius—are you a Celsius location?), so we’re still pretty warm. But we expect to be down in the low 80’s this weekend, which will encourage work outside. Moreover, there’s even a prediction of possible thunder/lightning/rain storm in the next week! What’d I say? The County Fair hits town this week and we often have rain and heat, in turn, during Fair week! I have moved my little leaf mulcher thingeeeee out by the back gate and will drag my leaf scruncher out to cut ‘em up and begin working on that pile of leaves.

And I will fill my plant holes full of good planter soil.

I purchased black plastic sheeting earlier this season to perform just as you prescribe and plan on laying it out on the parking strip when I plant the shrubs I need.

Aaah, yes, the little barrow? I have one of those I’ve used for a number of years. I need to put some air in the wheels, as they’re flat at the moment {chuckling}. But you’re right, it’s an indispensable piece of equipment, back pain or not. And this “old lady” appreciates any help with such work she can get.

Pavers? The stuff I found at the building supply store is actually a type of concrete which is used just for the purpose I need it. The web search supports just this type of adhesive and ecrane3 was absolutely correct in sending me there. I laid several out just at the porch landing so as to determine how much must be “skinned” from one paver so as to keep them centered, if you will, all the way up the walk. It will only require skinning off about 1/8 inch or so (about the width of the lower band on your favorite ring). So, I will get my little electric sander out and find the coarsest sandpaper I can find to see if it will do the job. I suspect it will do perfectly . . . how cool is that?! I just love it when things end up so simple. I must still measure the length of the walk to see if I must have three pavers (the width of the walk) cut down to end up exactly where I need them to end.

Oh my, I’ve driveled on so. Thanks for checking back in on me and my little job. My mother, 86YO with Alzheimer’s, lives in a retirement center, a secured residence, and there’s much to do after work hours from week-to-week. So I juggle multiple tasks, losing track of some at times. But . . . I never lose track of my garden tasks! It’s an exciting time, having laid out the bare bones. And that's as it should be.

Warmly,
Linda