Stepping Stones Galore!

I have diligently been working for about 18 months to collect enough 'bowling ball stepping stones' to totally carpet the parking area of Mr. Fix-it's garage. As you know from my introduction and previous posts, Mr. Fix-it is my husband and he collects old cars. We had a three car garage built for him in 2002. Our agreement was that he could only collect enough cars to fill up the garage. Unfortunately for me, he had that many before we even built the garage and now wants an addition!

Because we are a good pair and have been married a long time, we are very good at compromising and negotiating. He negotiates he needs more space for parking. I negotiate I need more space for gardening, then we each kind of get our way. He gets more cars which take up more garden space; then I go off and expand gardens in an out of the way area, or I work to landscape his cars (just kidding-only around his cars).

The stepping stones are for landscaping his area. Since I maintain the lawn, I am the one who has to look at the weeds growing out from under his many parked cars and trailers in our backyard. To combat the issue of wild weeds and weed whacking, I decided to install some hardscaping under his area.

There is a local bowling ball factory (about 35 miles from me); which sells stepping stones made from heavy, VERY heavy, fiberglass for ten cents a piece. The caveat is that not all stones are of a uniform thickness, and the stones are sold on a first come, first served basis. Like I already said, I have been working for over 18 months to completely fill in this parking area. I can't tell you how many times I have made the trip to get the stones only to find the factory had none available.

I finally gathered up enough to finish the area under Mr. Fix-it's very long enclosed trailer. The area to be filled is shown in the second picture, and the trailer parked in the area is shown in the first picture. Do you see those long weeds and grass growing on the left side of the area? When you have a car or trailer parked on lawn, just enough sunlight hits the outer area that grass and weeds (like poke weed) can grow just out of reach of the lawnmower. I am hoping the stones will fill in and prevent the weedy problem. Less maintenance down the road for me.

It took a full 120 stepping stones to fill in under the trailer area. I could not have done it had my good friend Geri not traveled to the factory and picked up 45 of those stones during the first week I had jury duty. I spent all one Saturday planting the heavy and sturdy stones. Planting the stones meant digging out the dirt so that the stones would all be level. I emptied about 20 wheelbarrows full of dirt into the area behind the garage; which had to be built up when the garage was built to compensate for the slope. I have been filling this area in for over 18 months and can finally see an end to the work. Yahoo!

The last picture shows behind Mr. Fix-it's garage. Initially when the garage was built we paid for a few dump trucks of red clay for backfill. That was a mistake, but at the time it was cheap and worked for a while. We should have gotten more trucks full of good soil and really designed a workable slope for this area. The initial slope was too steep and tended to wash away when the runoff from the garage fell onto it.

I am trying to rectify the situation by adding more good quality soil, a few tiers, daylillies and creeping lilyturf; all intended to hold the soil. This picture show the low end of the slope. Where I am standing is actually higher. Once I complete it this spring, I should have a lovely slope for tons of native orange daylillies that are low maintenance. You can already see the daylillies growing on the far end.

The little shed on the other side of the chain link is the adjacent property owner's shed. He built it in the middle of a dry stream bed. Now you can see why I am concerned about runoff. I really don't mind the shed, just the location as it was not a smart location. He at first tried to build it right ON the property line; which is not allowed in Montgomery County and could have affected my property. The runoff flows right through the middle of his shed and has damaged quite a few trees in the area by carving a stream out of the ground containing roots. What a shame. The dry stream bed is clearly marked on the plats for at least three properties in this area, including mine.

in the garden....finishing up with stepping stones.