The regular crew went to work with definite goals in mind: extend the upper landing and celebrate Canada Day by planting our showcase Japanese Maple tree now that our bridge was in place. We had help from K of course since he would be here for another half a day before heading out again.
D was working on taking the rough gravel and rock layer out of the planting area, while K and P work on carving out a landing in line with the bridge. Photo credit: YS
We realized that we didn’t have a way to efficiently carry the debris away from our overcrowded work site now. So K and D unveiled the new Jack to take out the roots blocking our way from using wheel barrows over by the South side. The roots were gnarly and this didn’t exactly work. Photo credit: YS
Y digging a hole for the Maple after clearing out the top layer of gravel and rocks from the area. Photo credit: POChange of guard as D and K take over from Y and P to dig, dig and dig!! Photo credit: YSBut that wasn’t enough for the Maple tree hole. We needed to call in the muscle to go at it with a pick axe at least thrice. Video credit: YSY massaging the roots of one of the Wooly Thymes that she and D were planting by the far side before putting in the Maple tree. Photo credit: POD’s mix of the goo that trees like: Bone Meal, Perlite, some Black/Top Soil and water at the base. Photo credit: YS
Bringing in the prize. Photo credit: EO
Gently lowering it in. Video credit: EO
Lift it a bit and shift to your right! Photo credit: EO
Add in that good top soil. Now some more native soil. Now more top soil again! Video credit: EO
Praying to the tree goddess. Photo credit: EO
There she is, Japanese Maple ‘Tamukeyama’. Isn’t she stunning? Photo credit: EO
We were all very happy to celebrate the day with this tree planting. Afterwards, Y watered the plants, and P and D worked on adding some gravel to the side of the Maple area, around the bridge, to reduce the wood’s contact with soil and water. They worked briefly on carving out the path and top landing beside the bridge before the group broke for lunch. We had a special visitor, A, who came in briefly to meet us and was delighted to see the progress we’d made with the garden. The group called it an early day given it was a national holiday. Later in the afternoon, D and E left to drop off K with T. Thanks so much for building us such a beautiful bridge, K and T and for injecting some much needed vigor back into the crew with this masterful addition. Next, we continue to complete our path to the East and the West sides. Also coming up is D’s ‘palisade’ beside the East side of the bridge and an embankment to ease the steep height gap. More tomorrow…
Our special guest, A, who joined us to see the garden we’ve made thus far. We also had a surprise visitor, aka Mr. Troll found lurking underneath the bridge, to the right! Photo credit: YSThanks mama E for the Canada Day lunch special, it was very tasty! Photo credit: YS
It was another hot, summer day out here in West Kelowna. P and Y were out to start taking out the existing middle step of the patio stairs along the garden path. They pulled out the rectangular top stones easily enough, as well as the supporting blocks. However, they quickly came across a critical decision…
The builders were greeted in the morning by some chilly weather. Whatever happened to the famous Kelowna summer? Nonetheless, our builders marched on, led this breezy day by K, who was at the site, all decked up in his toolbelt and paraphernalia at 7, while the rest of us struggled out of our beds to…
Sunday morning was hot and we could feel it. We started around 9 and did quite a lot out in the garden. D and P began by checking the stairs by the bridge – they were well cooked and ready to go. Y watered the plants and planted the last round of Bog Filter marginals,…
The weekend crew faced another hot day in the morning and began the morning shift around 8:30 am. P and D began their work on solidifying the bottom steps. Y watered the very thirsty plants, and then joined D and P as they finalized the steps. They’d decided to use glue instead of simply relying…
It was a rather short garden work day for us on Friday. P, D and Y were outside this hot day, trying to wrap up some of the long overdue tasks. P and D focused on prepping the upper path and Bridge landing. They glued the top layer of the boundary rocks onto the base…
It was another crisp summer morning here at West Kelowna, but that didn’t stop our crew from getting started on the task they had been looking forward to for days – getting the pond liners in! Before we started with the liners and under lays, we wanted to solidify how the upper pond’s waterfall rocks…
