Back-Breaking Retaining Wall And Whole Week Of Nothing.

Martha Stewart Fire-pit set.  Table fits right into our fire pit for intimate fires.

Wow, it has been a while since I reported progress and that is because nothing much has changed really. I have been fighting Greenscapes over my flower beds which are really not flower beds but tilled up soil. Supposedly they put 2 inches of "good soil" in their beds and till in. First they botched the whole process because instead of sod-cutting the grass they opted to till it which means that a lot of grass is mixed into the soil that makes up the planting beds. Also, all flower beds have drainage problem which is why there is standing water. They did not use "good soil" or they used very little of it to make a difference. Clay soil does not drain well so if you want to amend it, it is better to mix in as much of organic soil as possible. I am absolutely unhappy with their planting beds.

 Greenscapes was supposed to come and fix my flower beds but they literally did nothing except dig a trench for water to run into the dry creek. Where and how I am supposed to plant on that is beyond me. So, we wasted the whole week for nothing.

After realizing that Greenscapes has no intention of fixing the beds we decided to go ahead and plant which we did a lot of this weekend. I have no pictures to show (I will add them later in the week or tomorrow) so I will update this blog and add pictures. We still have a lot of planting left but we have done most of the work.

We finally broke in the fire-pit. It turns out we need a lot of fire to actually feel it because, instead of 36 inches diameter that we decided on, it is actually 42 inches which is not a very big deal. But it is also very high at least 20 inches in height which keeps the heat inside of the pit rather than spread it. Only solution I can see here is for us to make a bigger fire instead of the size we had. It was nice to make smores with  the kids. My son has been  begging me since the beginning of this project and he finally got his wish. My daughter enjoyed it too. Come to thing about it, it was nice to see them enjoying each other's company and laughing at each other's jokes.

Guess what, I also made a retaining wall on the front door walkway. It was original to my plan but Greenscapes did not include it because of "budget constraints" even though I overpaid for so much in what they  have done for me. It is not completely finished but it what broke my lower back. How I am still up is beyond me, so I have to go to sleep now.

One more thing, great accomplishment overall.