The landscapers have finished their work last week. It’s very exciting! The new font walk came out nicely as did the driveway and the grading.

I was able to immediately start digging the trenches for the water line and electric line in the back of the house. We installed three remote faucets in the back to make watering much easier in the future potager and in the greenhouse. The electric line is for the fountain.

It was easy working with the PVC pipes. All you need is a hacksaw and the pvc primer and cement adhesive. The water line project cost less than $100 which is amazing when you realize we created three remote water faucets. The electric line was simple too as it was only an outdoor power cord that we ran through a 2″ PVC pipe. The pipe had to be this large so that the plug could fit through the elbow connectors, etc. The cord is protected from the elements and should last a very long time.

The weather has been particularly cooperative, if a little hot, for us to finish the project. We also managed to paint the fountain. It is a relatively inexpensive fountain and proved to show us how inexpensive by completely fading to another color and chipping within a year of owning it. On Sunday I created the center bed that holds the fountain. I was able to recycle some old bricks found on the property to create the circular shape of the bed. We also managed to roll out quite a bit of landscape fabric in preparation for the cypress mulch walkways. Once we had the paths laid out it defined the shapes of the quarter beds.

Unfortunately the entire design did not come out with even sized beds. I think this is due to the fact we planned our centre point to the cross-section of the pathways and mainly used the door to the greenhouse as our guide. Standing in the greenhouse and looking out the door you will see straight down the path to the fountain. However, this caused each section to be of a different size, but roughly the same shape.

It’s all okay though. When I purchased the house last year I had to get some of the plants in the ground as soon as possible so I created two beds around the cottage. The potager is now the predominant design and is incorporating one of the cottage beds. The lilies and other plants I placed there are doing extremely well and I do not wish to disturb them. They will provide a nice back drop to the vegetables that will be planted in the now extended size bed.

Next weekend I’ll be focusing on finishing my mother’s room and sitting room, but I do hope to get out in the garden for a little while because there is so much to do.