This week I put down a gravel driveway (of sorts) because the plain-dirt driveway that had been there was suffering from erosion. Even though the slope is gentle, in heavy rains sand and soil would wash down onto the sidewalk and into the street. The surface had become uneven with exposed roots and was a bit of a trip hazard, particularly at night.
(Sorry, I was too lazy to remove the screen for the photo.) I used a material known as slag or A-base, a mixture used mostly for filling potholes. The guy at the gravel place recommended it because once it settles, it tends to stay put, unlike pea gravel. It's not pretty, but I can top-dress it later with something more attractive - or it may just darken and blend in. I borrowed a trailer from my 90 year-old roofer buddy (he's still working!) and, because he had nothing going on that day, he came along with me to pick up the stone. This remarkable man helped me shovel 2.7 tons of gravel onto my driveway, and pretty much kept up with my pace. At one point, he directed me to sit in his truck, with the air-conditioning running, to cool down. He said that it's not good to get too hot. (If anyone knows about hot work, it's a roofer in Alabama.) When we were done, I went into the house (no air conditioning) and thought, "Gee, it feels cool in here." I glanced at my phone; the temperature outside was 97F. Total cost of project: $106.00
This morning, I banked up the soil slightly on the side of the newly-surfaced driveway, amended it with some compost and manure, and planted some rooted cuttings of firespike (
Odontonema cuspidata). Last year I noticed that someone in town had a mass planting of this previously-unknown-to-me plant and it looked terrific, so I identified it and found it for sale at a local nursery. Too stingy to buy more than one, I propagated four more from cuttings. Transplanting in August is OK as long as you're diligent about watering.
Here's what firespike looks like in bloom. As I recall, the neighbor's planting was about 3-4' tall, and the effect is much more dramatic
en masse. It's a favorite of hummingbirds.
This is the time of year that the longleaf pine (
Pinus palustris) sheds its old needles. Longleaf pine is a magnificent tree, native to the Southeast US. It's the state tree of Alabama. This is its native range:
I went down the street this morning with a tarp and a rake and collected enough "pinestraw" for this project in about five minutes. By the way, in Connecticut I've also used the shorter, more delicate needles from the native northern white pine (
Pinus strobus) as mulch and it works just as well. In fact, it's a little easier to handle, and stays fluffy longer.
Garden Project #2 was the container on the front porch. An aloe had sat on my front steps for the past couple of years, but temperatures plunged into the 20s last winter and no one was there to throw a blanket over it. The damaged aloe survived but I decided to change to something a little tougher.
The variegated plant is
Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' with a groundcover juniper (
Juniperus horizontalis) that was on the discount rack at Lowe's for $3 because one small branch was dead. (I trimmed it off.) It looks a little goofy right now, but I think it will look nice when it fills out. These are indeed tough, drought-tolerant plants, as hardy in Mobile as they are in Montreal.