It just occurred to me that I can write back posts with the date function so as to not forget about significant garden memories, like this one! So, I'm writing this 7/30/21, but posting it for five years ago when the work actually happened...
Matt and I have always thought gabion walls were really cool. So, when the city decided to do some work on our street and put in a parking lane which required demolishing the regional trail AND the colored concrete edging (both of which were replaced 8' further in at the end of the summer), we asked the crew if they would give us the slabs, and they did! Then it was just a simple matter (ha ha!) of smashing up the slabs with a sledge hammer. :)
Thankfully, Matt's not the only man around this house! At eleven years old, Owen's got enough oomph inside of him to get quite a lot accomplished.
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Looking back at this photo I love the pretty nodding wild onion in the foreground! :)
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While the smashing was happening at the end of the driveway, the digging and pounding of rebar and the building of the 4x4 grid with 2x4 mesh behind was coming along. The goal with the wall was to create an edge to the front yard to make it easier for the kids (ahem, Reuben!) to know where to stop and where's too far.
And then the exciting part began! All summer as we were working, we jokingly called this the "man quilt." As a
quilter myself, I had often laughed at a comic I saw once of a man lamenting to his wife that all she does is buy big pieces of fabric, cut it up into small pieces, and then put them back together into big pieces again! Well, that's what we were doing here. Smash up big slabs and concrete and then put them back together into a different (but much more interesting!) sort of slab. Yes. I do love quilting, particularly, I've learned, scrap quilting, and this Motley Garden is no exception. I thrill at finding ways to work with what we have to make something more than what it was before!
Another delightful piece of this project was how interested Reuben was in the process. It's hard (and still is five years later!) to engage him and help him be a part of what we're doing, but this was just the right variety of repetitive task that grips his interest.
He loves filling the wheelbarrow, here with help from two and a half year old Evania.
And then these three fill up the wall!
Isn't it pretty??
