Life of Wry

A little backyard trauma here.  Recall, Frances and I have been re-visioning and replanting the backyard for a couple of years now.  Most recently, we came up with the brilliant idea to remove most of what had been planted on the center mound (initially designed in the late 80s) and, gorgeous focal point that it is, replant with a stunning array of grasses, most native: all sizes, shapes and colors.  We’d spent hours riding our bikes through the arboretum, making notes and making selections. Finally, in November (just three months ago) we purchased 50-100 or so plants from Lemuria and Redwood Barn. Here are a couple pictures representing a fraction of our hauls:

We arranged them just-so around the mound:

We carefully rejiggered our newly installed drip irrigation system so that each plant had its own little water source: 

Then we kicked back for the two winter months to let everything set roots and rest.  Which.. they did. Beautifully.  

Then the sewer pipe issue (see previous posts).  

So today, Frances and I dug up all the plants (about 50-75 of them anyway) and relocated them to a remote part of the yard–some in pots, some just on the ground in their own lusciously moist dirt (thank you recent rains!):

And cut and removed giant sections of the irrigation. Some we strung from trees, some we coiled out of the way. 

Here’s a shot of Troy (one of Hall’s Plumbing guys) crowbarring out one of the boulders that’s in the way):

And never mind we just had the dry creek bed re-rocked and its boulders re-set. But maybe I said that already..  

Here’s what the mound looks like with most of it cleared of plants and irrigation. We’ve made room for a two-foot wide trench and a place to put all the dug out dirt. Hall’s had run a TV camera through the pipe to check it out and to determine the pipe’s path through the yard, then they marked the area to be cleared. 

It’s all a bit heartbreaking. Still.. it could have been a lot worse. We can be grateful for the fact the line goes straight back, that it missed most of our trees and the play structure (future garden shed), that we’d not yet put in the new hardscape (coming in spring), that we’d already removed a whole bunch of plants, shrubs and trees, and that the irrigation is now all above ground and easily moved out of the way.  

I’m also extremely grateful Frances’ schedule allowed her to drive down from Chico this morning and squeeze this emergency job in before work and between the rains, and that I am now headed to Napa for a few days of friend time.  Meanwhile… Jim and Peter will be here on short shower and minimal flush status… if they’re allowed those things at all.  

It’s all good.