Relative Something

We have not discovered the secret to convincing our favorite gravel guy to come landscape the bottom half of our driveway. Since we have reached the point of not even receiving callbacks from him, I’m assuming we will need to look for another source of landscaping help if we’re not able to do it ourselves.

In the interim, we are taking a crack at applying an improvement to our original thinking about how to finish the edge of the driveway asphalt in the sections where we already tried smoothing the grade with some composted manure.

The limiting factor in this plan is the relatively small supply of our manufactured soil currently available for the task. I wrestled with the decision of using what little material we have in places where none has yet to be applied or using it to improve the areas landscaped last summer.

I went with the latter, for now.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I have settled into a pattern of creating piles roughly 1 meter wide by 1m deep by 1m high. The small pile on the left in the foreground of the first photo is just getting started and receives new, fresh manure daily. The pile in the foreground on the right is no longer getting any new material added and it is cooking at a perfect composting temperature.

The pile just behind them is in the final stage of composting. Just beyond that one is an area shown in the second photo where I just removed two composted piles to use for the driveway landscaping project. In the background is a large pile that was created over the winter and never got turned in order to fully compost.

I will use that for fill eventually but it needs to be broken apart to dry out because the majority inside is a stinky green mess due to never having been regularly turned to promote the composting process.

My attempt to finish the driveway edge last summer using the remaining exposed gravel left me with a rocky lip that I now want to eliminate. The new plan is to pull down the gravel to form a more even slope and to cover it all with dirt or compost right up to the asphalt.

We will need to plant grass to provide some competition for the weeds that absolutely love an opportunity to sprout in freshly exposed soil.

I had originally envisioned the possibility of having a gravel edge along the asphalt. Now I want to just cover the rock completely. Driveway edge landscaping two-point-oh.

If I find this latest plan works, I will probably order a load of black dirt and do this the rest of the way down the driveway.

I think I could convince our favorite gravel guy to at least deliver a truckload of dirt and dump it down by the road if they don’t have to spread it. Time and labor seem to be their main shortage and that is something I am able to provide.

.

.