The Worship Committee meeting took up most of the morning. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Mike finished the planter box around the large crape myrtle. He also drilled down into the front edge and sides of the two planter boxes and drove rebar through those beams to avoid slippage.
I added another inch of topsoil to the box and set a drip overnight. Myrtle received another application of Quick Start, in accordance with instructions to repeat the dose seven days later. She appears to be staked and rooted well enough to stand the high winds that come with the current run of winter storms.
I spent the afternoon laying stones and building up the topsoil around the box and the slope on the upper side. I found an almost perfect stone, narrow but 32 inches long, to run from the far upper corner of the planter to the outer edge of the flagstones. That stone will define the edge of the lawn. On the upper side of that boundary stone I brought the topsoil up to the level of the flagstones. Mercifully, the border edging remained in place and mostly disappears when the ground and lawn are level with the flagstones.
I added and built up topsoil on the slope running down from the flagstones to the platform for the new planter. The slope is still there, but without a sudden drop off the edge of the flagstones.
A light rain fell at the end of the day, what the Irish call a soft rain. Karl defines a soft rain as one that is impervious to wool. I don’t mind working in a light rain but had to defer adding Turf Builder. Scott’s recommends allowing the weed killer 24 hours to work before watering the grass seed. The light rain is a foretaste of the next atmospheric river that that is on its way.
I was rewarded at the end of the day by the sight of a white egret rising out of the pond in front of the house. The word may be out to the egret community that the natural beauty is stunning and the accommodations are luxurious in this very wet spring.
A Year at the Snake 