Basket Weave

This has been a spring (and into summer) of big projects.  Well, they're actually small projects, but they seem big.  Or maybe just seem big at the time ;-).  Bricking the garden areas has been my favorite.

Years ago I boarded my horses and Punkin at a farm near downtown Lexington.  It was known as the last green holdout in the midst of city development and it was a fantastic old rundown farm full of foxes, rabbits, birds, raccoons and even a few deer.  I tried to win the lottery to save it.  It's now long gone. 

These are no ordinary bricks.  Well, I guess to some people they'd be ordinary, but ordinary in the same way handspun yarn is ordinary.  These bricks were made on that farm and  I'd love to know how many years ago.  They were used to build the stud barn which by the time I got there was just a neat old falling down barn tucked deep into a wooded lot.  The wooded lot is now gone as well.

Saint Tim noticed the bulldozers moving in on his way to work one morning and stopped and loaded up the back of his car (and tore something up too if I remember correctly, maybe due to weight?) before they all hit the dumpster.  They've been stacked outside our barn ever since, just waiting for a new job.   I now can't imagine the garden areas without them.

Other that the brutal digging out of the dirt and sod (again a big thanks to Saint Tim), laying the bricks was a fun project.  Once the area has been dug out and leveled, you put down about 3 inches of special gravel, level that and then cover with about a inch of special sand.  You then place your bricks (I used a basic weaving pattern, Basket Weave, to give it a good Wool House feel ;-) and then brush more sand over the top to fill the cracks.

There are gates on each end of the lavender garden.

A small pad in front of the new garden shed.

Larger pad in front of the (new) raised sunflower bed.  Side note, there is a slight slope to this area and I'm having trouble getting the sand between the bricks to stay put during big rains.  If anyone has any suggestions, please jump in.

Between the zinnias and the dye garden.

The lavender continues to be a highlight, now with some freshened up mulch.

These pictures are all from over a week ago.  The Grosso in the foreground is now waist high and in full bloom.  The bees are in heaven.  

And so is Newtown Spring Farm, but a little piece of it lives on here and in our hearts.