The Wall

Sorry to disappoint any Pink Floyd fans out there.  You cannot read this post while watching the Wizard of Oz and have it make any sort of sense.

The wall that I am referring to is the lovely stone wall that is next to our driveway. I'm a big fan of this wall -- the stones are multi-colored and very natural looking. It's not just a pile of cinder blocks holding up our lawn. I think it has a lot of charm.

In a previous ownership, this wall had what was probably a lush growth of phlox draping over the edge. As you can see in this photograph, this lushness had kind of faded out by the time it got to us. Under what appears to be green foliage are brown, dying stems. A friend who has a much greener thumb than mine suggested that I "whack it all back" before the winter so that it would start fresh in the spring.  So I whacked it back. That didn't really help.

And so in the spring, I decided to start off fresh. I hauled out what was left of the old phlox, got out my trusty edger and then went to town digging out the grass. I made an edge from little gray bricks and added new phlox and blue and lavender pansies. (Hey, look in the background! There's another few peeks at the ugly bushes that Josh took out for me. And sitting on the wall are some of the new shrubs that replaced them!)

I made a new friend while working on the wall -- this snake was maybe five inches long, and I thought he was a worm at first! He's so tiny. The bugs are bigger than his head.

The phlox has been lovely, and is filling out beautifully.  I think by next year, we'll have a nice wall-draping crop.

And our pansies are so happy.  And friendly.  Is there a friendlier flower? They always seem so happy to see you. I like that in a plant.

Unfortunately, my first exercise in weeding the wall was rather traumatic.  I was hauling out weeds and all of a sudden felt like I was being stung on my arms. I looked down and had ants crawling all over my hands, biting the living daylights out of me.  OUCH. Not cool.  And there were a lot of them. Hundreds if not thousands.  This photo shows the ants that freaked out and started running around the wall after I started weeding.  You can't see the ones that are all in the dirt, making the dirt look like it's actually moving around.  Horrible. And then they sent a little kamikaze warrior into my shoe, and he (or she?) proceeded to chomp away at my little toe until I could get my shoe off.  Jerk.

Overall, I really have enjoyed the wall project. Other than the ants. I hated the ants.  But the phlox and the pansies are fantastic.