The Garden Project...

Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
14,259
Location
Merritt Island, Fl
We are finally able to start serious work on our backyard, with the help of one of my dance sisters, Jessica. She's building a vegetable garden with raised beds and hydroponics for my wife, and a semi-formal "Ma'at garden" (think "Zen Garden" but without the Orientalia) for myself.

Wife's vegetable beds and associated decorations. Took Jessica about 45 minutes to assemble the main wooden raised bed, and a couple more hours to do all the decorative stuff:
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Keeping this Jeep related, the Jeep and its newly finished trailer hauled in some bricks for the Ma'at garden wall:
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Those bricks are to the left in this picture, the large pile to the right were used ones hauled in the hard way because the trailer wasn't quite ready and the guy said $20 for the whole pile if you come get these fucking things out of my yard TODAY. So what do you do? You stop working on the trailer which was about 2 hours shy of being usable, and you do what you gotta do to get those bricks!
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Son in law starting the cinder block wall for the Ma'at garden:
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There's going to be a wall fountain, a number of plants of course, several statues, and a "Magic Circle" made from the used bricks. Today, wife and I went shopping and came home with this statue of Persephone. The plinth weighs more than the statue!:
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The statue place had this little concrete cat with a broken tail. As our cat is a tail-less Manx, it was perfect so it came home with me for $5!
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Wall is almost finished, son in law needs to come back and put mortar between the top bricks, and then I'm going to stucco and paint the thing:
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A gratuitous shot of the Jeep and trailer:
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More to come. Jessica found a pretty unique wall fountain used, somewhere in Orlando. We're planning on taking the Jeep and trailer up to get it on Wednesday.
 
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Drove 125 miles away to pick up a wall fountain:
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Supposedly a one-off, signed by the builder, etc, etc. Very Tolkienesque. Its also a HMF, it took 4 guys to get the thing onto the trailer, now I gotta round up a crew and figure out how to get the damn thing off and into position.
 
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Its also a HMF, it took 4 guys to get the thing onto the trailer, now I gotta round up a crew and figure out how to get the damn thing off and into position.
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I'm assuming you're moving over an unpaved surface. Lay it on a sheet of plywood and drag the plywood. You could attach a rope or cable to the plywood. I've used sections of heavy wall 1 1/2" PVC pipe as rollers to move a hot tub.

Do you have a tool rental place nearby? They might have something motorized to move it.
 
LukesfirstJeep said:
I'm assuming you're moving over an unpaved surface. Lay it on a sheet of plywood and drag the plywood. You could attach a rope or cable to the plywood. I've used sections of heavy wall 1 1/2" PVC pipe as rollers to move a hot tub.

Do you have a tool rental place nearby? They might have something motorized to move it.
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The first is about what I was thinking - the second is a good idea! After discussing this with the neighbor across the street who knows far more about "things Florida", we've decided to put in a six inch slab to set the thing on. Otherwise, he's afraid it will just settle/sink as this whole area is nothing more than a glorified sand bar.

We might be able to move the trailer by hand to get it to about 10 feet away from its final resting place, main worry there bring that the wheel on the tongue may dig in instead of rolling. A couple pieces of plywood alternating could resolve that problem, but there's still that last 10 feet and worse - picking the damn thing up and placing it on top.
 
Most important consideration for your base is to make sure it’s level. I have. 3 piece fountain and the mating surfaces are uneven. I used Real copper pennies to level each section. Because it is so dry here I get a lot of evaporation. I ran a drip irrigation line to the fountain to keep it toped off. I also pour in some bleach every once in a while to handle algae growth. We love our fountain as it has that relaxing waterfall sound.
I would throw a party and tell your guests that while they’re there you have a favor to ask of them.
 
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bucky said:
Most important consideration for your base is to make sure it’s level. I have. 3 piece fountain and the mating surfaces are uneven. I used Real copper pennies to level each section. Because it is so dry here I get a lot of evaporation. I ran a drip irrigation line to the fountain to keep it topped off. I also pour in some bleach every once in a while to handle algae growth. We love our fountain as it has that relaxing waterfall sound.
I would throw a party and tell your guests that while they’re there you have a favor to ask of them.
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Yep - the guy I bought it from told me to raise the back of this one about 1/8" - apparently water wicks between the base and the backdrop portions if you don't. Most of my friends are Belly Dancers, they're not exactly built for moving this thing - but my son in law, his side kick, and the guy across the street should suffice.

I'll have to keep it filled manually - at least for awhile. When we had the house extension built 2 years ago, I thought about extending an outside water line into this area - then I promptly stuck my head up my ass and didn't do it. The only way to get water there now is to run a line all the way around the side of the house to the back from the front. Doable, but I'll have to get annoyed enough with manual filling for that to happen.

We'll be doing a dedication/consecration/party/celebration/ritual/whatever once the garden is more-or-less finished. Wife's gonna cook Greek!
 
More recent pix:

Wife's main veggie bed is ready, and even has some seeds planted in it.
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Put concrete adhesion promoter on the wall for the stucco:
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Then applied a small test area of stucco to learn how to do it, and see if it really sticks!
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Stucco seemed easy enough to deal with, I'll see what it looks like after it sets up. I forgot to take a picture of the wife's hydroponic setup that she's raising iceberg lettuce in. Two more statues, a sundial, and the first of several wind chimes have been ordered as well. "Jessica" can't really do more here until the stucco is done - of friggin' course its raining the next couple of days.

Son in law is going to get a crew together to get the wall fountain emplaced, hopefully this Monday. I got out my 12 volt March pump that I brought from California, need to get a couple of plumbing bits for it.
 
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That goddamn, HMF of a wall fountain is up. What a pain in the ass^H^H^Hback. Need to get a couple of angle brackets and tapconn it to the wall:

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We were supposed to have 4 guys, only 3 showed up - plus me, but I'm pretty useless for this kind of thing these days. But its in place, now I have to get the solar system resurrected and hooked up.
 
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Looks good. Word of experience on stucco - paint it right away. It will absorb moisture and fall off if left unpainted.

Ask me how I know....
 
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cparker249 said:
How do you know? :LOL:

Jokes aside, I applied some wood protector on my wood, do you know if that's good enough or if I still have to paint it?
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I would defer to the instructions on the can. For me sun normally does the most damage and nothing seems to protect against that. LOL.
 
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Got more stucco on:

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BUT, rain washed my primer off the other side:
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Another statue (Right) came in today. It'll need a plinth like the one to the Left:
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Figuring out the true cardinal directions with the stake and shadow method. The long piece of PVC pipe lying on the ground is true east-west:
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Garden side of the stucco is done, currently trenching at the base of the wall gardenside for a cable from the solar panels to my battery box by the fountain. No pix.

Also, got this thing:
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Its called an "Armillary Sphere", a type of sun dial. Its currently getting a better coat of paint. Compare it to the standard type of sundial to the right.
 
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