I'm Too Old For This

At my age I should have given up moving rocks long ago. But here I am, at it again, struggling to move earth and stone to achieve garden perfection.

This large flat chunk of sandstone was way more hefty than it looked. I could not lift it, only rock it back and forth across the gravel to "walk" it to where I wanted it. The thing was heavy.

It was part of the flagstone patio laid in gravel that sits a little below our main stone patio. This lower area was once the base for a hot tub before we moved in. I put an umbrella table and chairs there but have since removed them.

I planted thyme leaf speedwell as a groundcover among the flagstones and it has done well, spreading in the inhospitable grit that the stones are placed in. It's Veronica oltensis. It is supposed to have a blanket of bright blue blooms in June, but in the four years I've had it, not a single flower has ever appeared.

Still, it's a subtle enhancement that softens the look of this patch of stones. This awkward lower patio space was looking good.

So why did I decide to pry up one of the stones and move it? Because I can't leave well enough alone.

I somehow lifted that large stone out, scraped and dug out the hard grit below to make a planting hole, added compost, and put my new little desert willow 'Hope' in the space. 

Not knowing what to do with this lower stone level -- too narrow and crowded for table and chairs, too impractical for another flower garden, too awkward for a lounge chair, too sunny for a hammock -- I defaulted to my one signature move and planted a tree.

I took the desert willow out of the blue pot I had planned to grow it in, and put it in this spot where it will love the sunny, hot, dry, gravelly conditions it is suited for. 

I had to put the removed rock somewhere and I couldn't jostle it very far along the gravel, so it wound up nearby as a partial stepping stone path along the edge of the deck. It broke in two as I placed it. 

Two smaller pieces are much easier to move than one big one. Go figure. 

They aren't placed on a flat, tamped bed of sand as they should be. They are just laid on the gravel and will shift as the rounded pebbles move, but they are set enough for me to step on now. 

I put some of the thyme leaf speedwell in between them to make it look like I intended this look and didn't just drop stones on gravel as I ran out of steam. But I did run out of steam. I'm getting way too old for this rock moving, hole digging, garden transforming labor. 

The bit of stone pathway is amateur and not great, but it will have to do. I like it well enough and I love having 'Hope' planted among the stones in the lower level patio.

I'm going to go lay down now.