Last weekend and this whole week I’ve been under the weather. Some sort of sinus yuck. That slowed things down quite a bit. The master bedroom painting and 1 closet were finished and I got to sleep in my own bed. Sleeping on the air mattress lasted 20 days and it didn’t help being sick.
Tommorrow, I plan on starting the Pergola in front of the back porch. It will be cedar about 18 X 12 with North/South beams. Six posts in a slightly unusual pattern. It’s hard to describe w/o a picture. On one end are 2 hops planted with their own trellises. If the temp will stay above 40 these guys should cover the trellis in 4-6 weeks and be ready for more. To this I’ll add some Morning Glorys just in case the hops have problems like last year. Petunias and marigolds have already started going in the dirt for ground cover, beauty, and bugs resistance.
Under the Pergola will be stone with some significant spaces for 1-2″ plants. A mint from last year’s research into steppable plants survived the very tough winter. He can go in mid-high traffic areas. Another survivor was a little rosette and stem sedum called Dragon’s Blood? This will go in low traffic areas like borders. Around the posts large plants like dianthus can be planted for some height.
I already started removing the existing river stone (on one end) and placed cinderblock pavers (on the other end). It looks like they just put down the pavers which explains why they are slightly too tall, creating a drainage issue in our recent flooding rains. I’m scraping off another .5 – 1 inch of soil. This is happening now, because the construction of the pergola above will require a lot of walking and thus tamp down the soil before sand and rock come in.
So, tomorrow the posts and roof supports.