My husband’s parents came to the United States as teens (they didn’t know each other yet) from Sicily. Vince’s dad spoke little to no English and worked very hard to establish a business — earth moving and concrete work in New York. There are still plaques on some old sidewalks and concrete work that bears the name of the company. Vince’s older brothers eventually took over the business and Vince’s parents, Vince and his sister moved to Florida when Vince was fairly young. Once Vince was in high school and college, he went back to New York and worked during the summers. I’m pretty lucky that he has that background because I think one of the things that Vince loves most is working in the dirt. He never minds tilling up the garden or digging holes for trees to be planted.
We keep a couple of piles of topsoil and a couple of piles of sand around our place.
Sand Piles
When the piles begin getting low, Vince orders more dirt or sand. I think that when his dirt piles get low, he feels like I feel when my yarn stash gets low .. maybe . . I don’t know because my yarn stash will probably never get low.
Any time I suggest to Vince that I think some dirt needs to be moved, he gets right on it. I had been telling him that water was draining towards the front of the house. The porch had a pretty big drop off . . not enough for steps but enough that there were certain parts where it was hard for Speck to get up and down. We get so little rain but when we do get rain, getting 2, 3 or even 5″ in a short time is pretty common and that much water rushing against the foundation is not good.
Yesterday Vince got out his favorite toy and moved dirt from one pile to the front of the porch.
Dirt Work
Together we spread it out but he wasn’t real happy with the way I was raking it so he suggested I sit on the porch and supervise. I was happy with that idea.
Dirt Work
He got it all spread to his liking, then he made a little path for Speck so we don’t have to walk through the dirt with him.
Dirt Work
The front porch is my favorite part of this house.
Porch
Except for probably half a dozen nights during the summer, evenings are cool enough that it’s comfortable to sit on the porch in the evenings and discuss whatever we feel like discussing, often with a glass of wine (or a mojito lately). We’re going to plant grass in the new dirt but we have to go get a couple of bales of hay to cover it so for now, we’re going to put tarps over the new dirt because it is supposed to rain maybe tonight and tomorrow. I wish I could plant pretty flowers in the new dirt but the deer and rabbits would eat them all and we didn’t do anything to kill the grass/weeds under the new dirt so I think, at least for now, this area is going to be just plain grass.
Kathleen says
Do marigolds grow in Texas? I don’t think deer or rabbits eat those.
Diane says
Has Vince lost weight? It looks like he has.
Terri says
Okay, I have to ask. What is that dark thing sticking up in the top right side of the picture of Vince spreading the dirt in front of the porch?
JudyL says
Are you talking about my kokopelli wind chime?
Susan says
Who wouldn’t love to move dirt with that bright orange Tonka toy? =) When we added on to our house, someone came over with a machine with a scoop about half that size, and it really *did* look like some kind of Tonka truck!
Pamj says
What flowers, shrubs, trees that “deer” do not like ? Google Aggie horticulture, or Hill Country Gardens, even the master gardener program in your county has a somewhat substantial list of plants. Most of them are perennials, I have them every where. Plant once, trim and they keep doing their thing !!! Salvia, vitex, thornless opuntia,lantana,and sage lots to pick from… Lots of color…I’ll send some pics…we put drip irrigation on all of them and they grow like crazy…
JudyL says
I should have said “plants that I like that deer won’t eat”. There are plenty of deer resistant plants, but I will tell you that a plant deer don’t eat normally, they will eat during a severe drought. The plants that I like are the plants deer like too. Here, with the drought, we’re asked to use xeroscape type plants due to lack of water. I use so much water with the orchard and the garden, that I don’t want to have to water anything else so for now, we’ll just stick with some native grass. Maybe some day when the trees don’t require so much water or the garden is smaller, I won’t mind using the extra water on some flowers but for now, I can’t justify it.