This is what the front flower bed at Prairie Pond Woods
looked like in early spring
This is what is looked like this morning.
In the 3 days that Goodseed Farm has been here at Prairie Pond Woods working on hardscaping the front flowerbed, I've learned something about myself. I love change...change of plans, change in interior decorating, change of venue, etc...but I HATE when the landscape I've become used to changes...I don't even like it when trees fall or grow bigger. So today I feel a bit off-balance because the front porch no longer has that same hidden, claustrophobic feel to it now that the spruce tree has been "spruced up" by cutting off dead lower branches so the crew can work freely. Suddenly I'm a little shaky wondering what the new lines of sight will be, and feeling a bit anxious trying to conceptualize new landscape plantings that aren't like the old ones.
But it had to be done. The railroad ties, housing all sorts of suspicious insects (termites or flying ants?), were just about ready to crumble and burst forth. The invasive crown vetch had won both the battles and the wars over the years. And the soil was WAY over-populated with millipedes, which didn't like the wet weather of 2011 and the dry weather of 2012 and came seeking (in biblical proportions) the cool, moist shelter of our garage and sometimes the basement. So we signed an agreement, which stated that Goodseed would haul most of the soil away and make it pretty and we would pay them a large sum of money.
As anyone knows who has ever done any kind of project, from building a home to changing a light bulb, nothing is ever easy. On the second day of removing dirt, the backhoe hit a huge block of solid cement.
Why it was there was anybody's guess. The prognosis looked grim; lose a
day's work acquiring a jackhammer, add more labor costs, experience
shock & awe at what we might find underneath. Fortunately, these were resourceful fellows and the chunk
was broken up and gingerly coaxed out by a skilled bobcat
operator using a small bucket, a forklift and a loader...in only an hour
and a half!
They finally got the behemoth on his forklift
and the brave man drove backwards down the steep road
to deposit in an open area to be dealt with later.
Whew!
STAY TUNED!
They'll be here all week folks!
