slow progress is better than no progress
By April 2010 we had managed to move a couple of the retaining wall stones from the driveway to their final resting place.
all work an no play makes Jack a dull boy
Or in my case a dull girl – my new toy! Boy was our lawn going to be something to look at! We had to import the reel mower from England because they are not available here in Switzerland.
Things were coming along nicely! We hadn’t had much time to continue the terracing on the west side of the property but the garden was growing and filling out.
it is never plain sailing
And then in June, the bad news! Leaking roof! Our house is built into the slope and the top floor has a green/planted roof. It was a terrible mess when we bought the place in 2007 – covered in bind-weed which took nearly all of the three years we had been in the house to eradicate.
We hadn’t really gotten round to doing anything except plant some squash and pumpkin so having to have it repaired was actually a blessing in disguise which forced us to make some decisions.
All the soil removed from the roof and new drainage behind the back walls of the house and roof re-done.
It was slow going but it gave us time to enjoy the garden through July while we came up with a plan about what to do with the roof.
August arrived and our plan was................raised beds!!!
After the beds and paving were in place, we sorted out the soil levels and laid a row of paving along the border to our neighbour.
It was quite a job levelling out that amount of soil ourselves but with the help of a long plank we accomplished it in the end. We rolled the soil and sowed the lawn seeds on 26 August 2010!
Now I had a temporary spot for the plants that a neighbour had promised. The final touch to the raised beds was the overlapping u-channel to help combat the umpteen slugs. The sectioned off part was intended for raspberries notorious for suckering – time would tell!
Then in September, we finally admitted defeat!
The palettes of retaining wall stones had been sitting in the driveway for over a year – a constant reminder what still had to be done on the west slope!!! The after much consideration – calculating the time it would take to do the terracing of the slope ourselves and what it would cost to have it done – weighing the pros and cons! It was clear! We needed help!
A grader and three men accomplished what would have take us an iternity in under two weeks and our headache was finally out of the driveway!
Having the job done so quickly meant that we could still get some plants before winter arrived.
October 2010
And then, in a flash, it was December and the 2010 was over!
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