Texas? Why?: February 2010

It's a popular belief that in Texas, everything is bigger. So when I ordered some mulch and soil for some garden maintenance, I ordered the minimum. When the truck pulled up and dumped enough mulch and soil to fill the driveway I was surprised, but then again, I really shouldn't have been!

Here's what 4 yards of mulch looks like. There's 2 yards of soil behind it. I'm smiling because it's the start of the day :)

We needed the soil to help with some low spots in the yard. One side of the house is especially low and when it rains, water tends to pool there. We also have some low spots in a couple of the garden beds and the rest was to top up the vegetable beds.

Water is a big issue here. The soil is clay so the water can't soak into the ground very well. It wouldn't be so bad if we had nice gentle rain that had time to soak in but when it rains here, it really rains. It's not unusual to have 5 inches in a day. Standing water comes with a list of problems, not the least being a breeding ground for mozzies come summer. This is the low side of the yard:

This bed is low in the front and forms it's only little moat when it rains.

This bed is also low at the front:

So with shovels and wheel barrow in hand we started moving the soil.

This is the low side of the yard. You can see where we've spread the soil out on the existing lawn. The grass will grow up through it and hopefully establish itself at the new level. At the front in the rings are 2 peach trees and we have grapes to grow up on the lines. As the soil here is so crap, we've added new soil, mulch and nutrients for the fruit trees and planted them above the natural grade. According to the experts, this will do the trick!