Wright Garden Chronicles: 2014

Friday, October 24, 2014

Allium sativum 2014

Last winter's early arrival prompted me get our garlic planted two weeks earlier than usual. Earlier in the week, I planted sixty cloves of garlic in half of the garden bed at my parent's house. Forty cloves of Sicilian Silver, which is a silverskin variety, and twenty cloves of an artichoke variety called Chet's Italian.

This afternoon, eighty-four cloves of garlic were lovingly nestled into the soil of our garlic beds. Sixty-four cloves of Spanish Benitee and twenty cloves of Ajo Rojo. Both of these are creole varieties. All but Chet's Italian are new to us, and we're excited to taste them all. They smelled fantastic.

This will be plenty of garlic to store and save for seed next fall; share with family and friends; and to cook with and enjoy until next year's harvest.

Getting rows ready for cloves.

Covered with leaves and straw to protect them from frost;
keep moisture in the soil; and deter weed growth.

Who doesn't want to see a photo of a cat lounging in a pool of sunshine
with pumpkins in the background? The pumpkins were grown in our garden, even!

Visit Wright Garden Chronicles, check out the useful links there, as well as the recipe section. My own recipes are included there. Weee!

Monday, October 20, 2014

We have a new driveway, y'all!

Last Monday, the contractor we hired (and his crew) arrived to demo our twenty-year-old, beat up driveway. I was very excited to see so many trucks, tools, and heavy equipment arrive at our home. Although I had to leave for work shortly after demolition began, I managed to snap a few pictures, and then left the shutterbug responsibility to my beloved.

The contractor managed to remove the old driveway as well as the underlayment media, and then lay new media and compact it. A run-off drain was installed just outside the garage to help re-direct water to the backyard. The drain will help address the issue of water pooling, often times ankle deep, in front of the garage and back door.

A section of sidewalk that ran across our driveway was removed. The sidewalk ended on the north side of our driveway, so we got permission from the city to remove approximately twelve feet of sidewalk so that it ended on the south side of our driveway instead. Removing the section sidewalk enabled the contractor to pitch the driveway in a gradual slope away from the house.

By the time all of these tasks were completed, it was raining hard enough that the contractor's called it a day. Pouring a concrete apron around the drain wouldn't happen until five days later.

*Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to view them in a larger format.

Old view looking east

Old view looking north

Let the demo begin!

Dig in with the tines on the scoop; lift, scoop, haul away.

The old underlayment looks like it was comprised mostly of soil.

Fresh media...

...ready to be compacted.

Run-off drain set and framed. Ready for concrete.

Drainage tube leads toward back yard.

Compact.

Even without the asphalt, the compacted sand and gravel did a better job of
keeping rain from weeping into the basement than the old driveway did.

When the three-man crew arrived at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, I armed myself with our camera and watched the entire process. It was interesting, to say the least, to watch concrete pour from the truck's chute, making lumpy piles in the designated frame, and be transformed into a level and smooth apron, with a perfect pitch toward the drain on all sides. Concrete looks like it would be fun to work with.

Saturday afternoon's concrete apron pour.

Chunky.

Smooth.

Viola!

Today, thankfully, the sky was clear and the sun was shining. The crew arrived just after 7:00 a.m. and began laying asphalt for our brand spanking new driveway! The entire process was fascinating to watch.