The Biggest Day

Sure, yesterday's election was cool, but today the PLANTS arrived!!! I rushed down to the garage, breakfast tea still in hand, hopping with excitement. Then back upstairs, changed into work clothes, and up to the top roof. I separated the pots of plants headed for the garden from the annuals and non-winter hardy perennials, and carried the latter into the exotic bathroom. They've grown - the bathroom is now an exotic jungle. Eventually they'll settle in a greenhouse.

CDV and her crew carried the garden plants down from the roof and up from the garage (via lift). The roof's transformation was immediate and shocking. They placed all the pots in their mapped locations, and then called on me to decide and approve.

I had lots of thinking to do, as CDV gave me opportunities to set the exact locations of several key plants. CG's landscape design was very specific in some areas, and flexible in others. Though I had mapped out locations for almost all of my old plants on paper, many of them looked different from what I imagined when set in place. We tested many options for the pines, heathers and berries in the bed with acidic soil. We blended the grasses and verbena to highlight the best of each.

My mom and her partner arrived to kvell and buy much-needed lunch. DW drove to New Jersey to pick up specially made steel fittings for the arbor-to-be. CDV's crew started digging in.

Meanwhile, two remaining original crew members continued to build the upper patio. Reversing his previous position, DW decided to use the paving stones to cap the seating wall and the grape planter, and they look just fine. The planting went on in a noisy atmosphere: the screaming wet diamond masonry saw, and dance music on the workers' radio.