Annual Birthday Gardening

Last year I decided help would be nice to tackle a larger garden project so for my birthday I enlisted my parents and a friend who was visiting from out of town to help us create a nice raised bed for vegetable planting and rest a path. That worked out so nicely for us that I decide it would be a great birthday present again this year. There was one area of the path in the garden that always had problems draining and became a swamp every time it rained or I watered plants in the plots above the path. At the other end of the main path was section of path that was poorly paved, so we decided to fix both areas. Lastly there was a brick edging that had sunk into the bed and was no longer acting as much of an edge anymore so that had to be replaced as well. Here are the before photos:





With help from dad and DIY Network we put together a plan for solving our issues. Pea-sized gravel is key to helping with drainage issues by allowing space for water to flow and be slowly absorbed into the surrounding soil. Sand on top of the gravel then creates an even and sturdy base of the pavers and also facilitates drainage. I pulled up all the old pavers and cleaned them up since they had been sitting in the swamp for a while. Because the yard is on a hill the areas above us drain directly into our yard. This particular part of the yard could almost be a working well so after I pulled up the pavers I had to find a resourceful way to drain off some of the extra water before we started digging up the soil.



I got to work on the sinking brick edging while my wonderful brother did most of the digging so we could create about a 1-foot deep trench and fill it with gravel to help the water drain. Sand on top of the gravel and then with some careful placement we had a new path! While we were working we learned from the landlord that they were planning on adding some supports to the deck so one edge of the path isn't finished, but we moved some of the cinder blocks we use as path edgers and planters to line the edge of the path and then some pieces of broken pavers and gravel to fill in the edges where we couldn't fit whole pavers. Once the deck supports are in we'll finish the other edge of the path with some more pavers and stones to edge the path and planter bed to protect the plants from the hose as we drag it around the yard.



For the other end of the path we used a random combination of pieces of broken pavers I found throughout the yard to create a more complete path and then used gravel to fill in the spaces between the pavers.



Another garden infrastructure project done, thanks to my family who will apparently move lots of heavy things and help with very muddy projects for my birthday! Wonder what I'll rope them into doing next year...