Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: All Things Wild, big, buckets, cash, cobble, Dr. Hurd, drops, dump, grass, kids, labor, load, manzanita, mulch, pile, planting, rock, stone, stream, tons, truck, wagons
Today the big dump truck came with 8 tons of rock: 6 tons of mulch and 2 tons of river cobble to form artificial stream beds in the drainage areas.
Being a sunny Saturday afternoon, all the kids in the neighborhood came out as soon as they heard the runble of the truck booming down the street. The truck thundered right up to our house and dropped its 8-ton load right on the driveway.
Then the kids went to work, six in all. They eagerly grabbed wagons, buckets, and tools and all jumped in to help move the rock around. And to play “king of the rock pile”.
Rock Princes and Princesses - L to R: James, Emele, Rose, Sabrina, Jenna, Calvin
The mulch will have to wait for the plants, but the cobble was ready to go in right away. Within two hours, the kids and I had placed all two tons of the cobble, while my neighbor laid the entire border for the driveway strip using the Petrified Seashore I had brought home the other day, more than compensating for the little work I had to undo to include his bit in the project.
Taking Shape; Calvin lies on top of the rock pile
Kid-layed Cobble
Oh, yeah, also I went first thing in the morning to see All-Things-Wild Genelle at the farmer’s market to get more native plants. That was another $200. It would have been more but I am being budget conscious and buying the smallest size available of everything. They are plants. They will grow eventually, right? All the kids went this time because they wanted to see Genelle and talk to her again, even though they all had to ride home awkwardly in the minivan while sharing their seats with a large number of assorted native plants.
I finished the day by actually planting our first new plant, the “Dr. Hurd manzanita” I bought last week.
The First New Plant - Dr. Hurd Manzanita
Filed under: Cash for Grass | Tags: California, cash, grass, lawn, manzanita, native, plant, rock, rose, wild
Then we went rock shopping and ordered 6 tons of rock from Sierra Rock, to be delivered next Saturday. Not having a place to put the rock yet, and feeling like I might now be doing things just a bit out of order, I spent the rest of the day ripping out the remaining grass. The pace picked up quickly once I got away from the tree, and I did not swear as much. My half of the driveway strip peeled off really easily, and I finished it all in about four hours.
I had also bought and brought home some flagstones from Sierra Rock at the same time I ordered the other rock, to make a path from the sidewalk to the courtyard entry. My kids had to sit awkwardly in the minivan because of the pile of stones on the floor and in the middle seat, but that is they price they pay for going along when Dad runs errands.
I‘m now in for about $550 so far. It looks now like the whole project will cost about $1,400. With the $700 check I hope to get and lawn-lady savings, this should pay for itself in less than a year. More importantly, it is within the margin of what my wife calculated my $1,200 quote to actually mean.
The pile of sod in my courtyard has grown enormous. I might have to actually pay someone to haul it away, which would increase the budget.
Really huge grass pile
