Day 43, Saturday, July 11, 2026: Larching on..

The crew had their work cut out for them this Saturday, and the supervisor, ie D, was cracking the whip! P went to work on his process of laying out the slate stones on gravel and mixing in the dirt with intermittent help from Y and D. Y focused on watering the plants, and then worked with D to plant the rest of the leftover plants, which mostly didn’t look too great, in an area we call the Wall of Hope – we hope that some of them will live! They also planted three of the Oat grasses by the new path beside the Upper Pond on P’s specific instructions to add a barrier between the pond edge and the path in this narrow strip. Y also helped P firm up some of the rocks in the Upper Path, and sweep the dirt, while D helped sift granular dirt for the path while P worked on leveling each and every slate on the path. We paused around 12:30 pm to wrap up some errands and buy some plants with E.

P adding sand to the path next to the Upper Pond. Photo credit: YS

Sweeping the dirt, with hardly a place to stand! Photo credit: YS

D planting the Oat grasses by the Upper Pond. Photo credit: YS

P moving on to sanding the area beside the Bridge landing. Photo credit: YS

Newly wetted path area – the dirt is still settling, do not step on it as the rocks can shift! Photo credit: YS

D is ever the optimist – we’ll plant them and see what happens! Photo credit: YS

Our Wall of Hope along the slope. Photo credit: YS

Time to level each slate rock in the landing area. Photo credit: YS

In the afternoon, E drove P and Y to pick up some more plants at Dogwood Nursery, and boy did they all pick up some! The group came home with several types of Pieris Japonica variants with different heights, Black Mondo grasses that would need some extra care (along with the acid loving Pieris’), Scotch Mosses, Creeping Thyme with Pink Flowers, a Cypress, and a Weeping Larch tree that E and D had to go pick up in a truck in round 2. While E and D were out to pick up more supplies of peat moss, mulch and top soil from Home Depot, as well as the Weeping Larch from Dogwood, P dug out the hole for the variegated Pieris that we were planning to put right next to the Bridge Landing on the top, and Y planted the fragrant Creeping Thyme under the Japanese Maple, beside the stream and the Bridge.

It was 29 degrees C, of course we were at Dogwood! Photo credit: YS

Not a soul in sight, but there were plenty of really nice trees. Photo credit: YS

We’re taking her home – our Weeping Larch! Photo credit: YS

The new plant stash minus the Weeping Larch. Photo credit: YS

Back at leveling the rocks, after digging out a bigger hole for the Pieris, while waiting for the special materials it needed to be planted in. Photo credit: YS

Creeping Thyme was in and looked very pretty. Photo credit: YS

After D and E returned with the supplies, the crew planted the variegated Pieris after D and Y mixed up the acidic planting mix with all the necessary ingredients. They also planted the Black Mondo grass, after pulling out our first casualty in the garden, the Meadow Sweet that never adjusted beside the stream bed. They also put in three patches of Scotch Moss. Finally, the crew worked on planting the Weeping Larch by the North East end of the path. The Larch needed a lot of adjustments in the placement, and we had to take care to keep its weeping tresses out of the soil while planting. Overall, we were pretty satisfied with today’s progress. Tomorrow is the crew’s last full day of work, so its crunch time in the garden!