We have a dirt patch!

We made some pretty good progress this week!

Once we took out the garage and removed the concrete, we realized that we have some pretty serious clay soil that could cause drainage issues in the future. So, to be proactive, we decided to lay the foundation for a french drain system.  We didn’t actually connect it to any drain lines, but can in the future if we need to.  We had 4 cu. yards of drain rock delivered and went through the backbreaking work of spreading it around to create downward sloping areas for the perforated tubing to run out of the garden.

Progress one evening after work

We laid this out in the shape of a backwards “E.” Once the slope was created (1/8-1/4″ of vertical drop for every 1′ of linear distance,) we covered the perforated tube with more drain rock.

2/3 of the way there

Then, we covered all of the tubing / gravel with a layer of landscape fabric, so by Friday morning it looked like this:

Then we had 10 cu. yards of topsoil blend delivered. I selected the blend that contains a mixture of peat moss, topsoil and something else because the woman from Pacific Topsoil said that it would help with potential drainage issues.

Alex and Jamie are kings of the dirt

1 hour of hard-core shoveling later, it looked like this:

  
It looks like a great blank-slate for our future garden!  Phew – that was a ton of work, but I think it will add so much livability to this space.  Next steps – fence, finishing the deck and doing the concrete.

-H