One of my goals for the summer is to get the garden whipped into shape. Since our yard is one big slope, that task involves turning a section of hillside into a series of terraces with sufficient flat space to grow some 'maters and 'taters. I flattened one section last summer and put in the first row of planter boxes, then dug about sixty feet of trench for the first retaining wall by hand this spring. That was more than enough shoveling for one summer, so to get the rest of the dirt work done I decided I could justify bringing in some heavy equipment.
I rented the smallest excavator Caterpillar makes and spent the day making holes and pushing dirt around. It was great fun.
There's something about towing a piece of yellow equipment that makes a good pickup truck proud to be alive.
The 301.8 that I rented is only 39" wide, fitting nicely in the space between the existing planters and where the next retaining wall will go. Kenrick helped me move some of the dirt around the yard with the lawn tractor and trailer and kept an eye on the trench depth. Paxton looked for worms and interesting dirt clods.
The result of all my fun.
I decided to flatten out a space for little garden patio on the northern end, but didn't realize that my drain field extended along the hillside as far as it did. Fortunately I didn't damage anything and I'll still be able to put in a patio, but I may have to raise it up a little higher than I originally intended.
Anyway, the bulk of the digging is done so now I can spend the rest of the summer hauling gravel and building walls. Ugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment