I stumbled into Pike’s nursery yesterday just to look around. They had a great Japanese temple lantern on sale for $250 but I didn’t buy it. I also saw a nicely formed Japanese maple but the price was a bit high. In the back I found some conifers that may work for my garden. I found two Canadian Hemlocks (Gentsch White) for $10 each, so I purchased them. The will reach a height of 3 feet and spread to 5feet wide with weeping foliage that turns white at the ends in fall.
One of the plants was already kind of leaning and lop sided so I think I will plant it at an angle to cover the rocks of the left side of the falls. The second plant is more upright and roundish so I will plant it behind the first near the left edge of the retaining wall to help hide it too. Pictures to come after planting.
My daughter and I also took on a project of repairing the bench by the pond. During the digging of the pond, it got burried under clay and rocks and acted as a good backstop for the mound of dirt. Unfortuately that wet clay damaged most of the wood. We tried unscrewing the bolts that held the wood on but found most of them were so rusted it was easier to break the rotted wood and then deal with the bolts. We scraped and sanded the metal sides and back, purchased new oak, and will be rebuilding it this week. We painted the metal parts with rustoleum to help protect them for the next few years. This was a good father daughter project and will keep her from asking “when are we going to build something” for at least a few months. She learned how much time and energy it requires to do even this simple project. Cost of repair materials $75 (vs New bench $95), 5+ hours of labor, Father/daughter time, priceless.
