Gardening Update

Because everyone has been holding their breath in anticipation of the result of the great salt weed killer experiment, I'm reporting that you should just go ahead and buy commercial weed spray for whatever weeds you want killed. While the salt worked wonders on killing things dead, those dead things came back to life quite miraculously. Unless somehow I missed half the cracks in the patio and grass was growing in those, but I did salt every single seam between bricks on the second half of the patio and still, grass grew.

I broke out the black bottle of toxic death and killed it all. The end.

So I've been getting projects done lately, which is so very nice. Except not projects previously started that need to be finished, just new projects that I've invented or things that were previously completed but I thought needed re-done. Like the stone pathway out to the trampoline. It is in some serious need of trimming around the rocks. Grass turned into thatch over half the rocks and it's hard to find a stone to step on. The irony is that if I'd try to grow thatch on a fairy garden roof somewhere it would never be successful. But that project was delegated to the 12 year old, which means it's something I'll have to do another year.

The stone walk off the patio, however, was my project. I was very tired of killing weeds growing between those, too. (Darn salt.) And then when weeds did die, the dried up ground between the rocks just wasn't all that pretty to look at. I had a solution, and it involved digging up all the dirt from between the rocks. Well, not ALL the dirt, just a few inches down.  That was a "hey, I have free time!" project that took a few evenings to finish, but finish I did. And then I took myself to Lowe's.

Lowe's is my very favorite place to shop for all things project related. It matters not what project I have going on, Lowe's has something that'll help me complete it. (This is not a sponsored ad by Lowe's. But if Lowe's wants to give me a gift card for promoting them, I'll not turn it down. I'm just saying.)

So at Lowe's I got a few bags of smooth pebbles (I love rocks of all sizes. They just make me happy.) I poured those pebbles down over my stone walkway and then swept off the stones to fill in all the nooks and crannies. Before I was even done, however, I realized there was a problem. Those beautiful wee pebbles shifted every time someone stepped on them. Even someone the size of Jack. This was going to be very bad, and I envisioned having to buy new bags of pebbles every week to replace the ones that shifted into the flower beds or lawn. And then the lawn getting all nasty from the copious amounts of pebbles taking over. It was a nightmare waiting to happen.

So I went to my favorite online place for all things project related. Pinterest. Pinterest told me that if I sprinkled mortar on those pebbles, then hosed it lightly with water, it would set kind of like Jell-O. Sometimes Pinterest is nothing but a big fat liar, and sometimes Pinterest knows what's what. I am happy to report that those pebbles are in a Jell-O-like state, and while they'll move a bit underfoot they most certainly don't leave divots where dog feet walk, or cascade down the slope into the lawn. It's like magic, that Jell-O making mortar.

I'll get back to you on the project in a week. Or a month. Or however long it takes for that Jell-O to start coming undone and those rocks needing to be re-jelled. In the meantime, however, I'm loving the look of the newly re-done walk.