2:03 pm - 68 degrees - watching thunder clouds roll in...
We finally did it! We moved our
driveway over and made a parking area that is big enough to turn a trailer
around. We have been wanting to do this for a while now, and I am so excited
that it's almost done – all we have left is to finish planting out all the dirt areas.
From the main driveway, you
were able to see down into our place, the house, the yard, the cars,
everything. In the dry summer months, when someone drove by or it got windy,
the dust would roll on down into our place. So with moving the driveway over, building
a burm across the old driveway entrance and planting it out, it will give us
that extra bit of privacy and hopefully keep the dust out.
Last fall, Tony roughed in the
new driveway and was able to get some base rock down before winter.
Then in early April Tony
started cutting down trees, this was originally to expand our wildfire
defensible space around the house {click here}, but it evolved into a much larger project...
After a few of the trees came down and we picked up the mess, we walked around our driveway (new and old) and started tossing around ideas of how we wanted to get rid of the old driveway entrance, and just how everything would lay out and come together. Then Tony suggested that we could take some dirt from over here and put it over there and voila, we could have a really large parking area. I said let's do it!
After a few of the trees came down and we picked up the mess, we walked around our driveway (new and old) and started tossing around ideas of how we wanted to get rid of the old driveway entrance, and just how everything would lay out and come together. Then Tony suggested that we could take some dirt from over here and put it over there and voila, we could have a really large parking area. I said let's do it!
A few weeks went by and then I came home to a big surprise! Tony was in the excavator and a friend was in a bulldozer and they were moving a TON of dirt! I was giddy with excitement that the driveway project was actually happening!
From the time Tony started moving dirt, it took 3 and a half days (over a week and a half time period) to complete the driveway and parking area project and since Tony was able to reuse the rock from the old driveway in the new parking area, we were able to save about $2500 because we didn't need to buy rock - I really loved that part!
I could not be happier with how this project has turned out, it's even better than I anticipated. Now we just have to finish planting out all of the dirt areas.
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| New Parking Area |
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| We can park cars/trucks - 6 wide, 2 deep. |
Just above the row of boulders on the middle terrace, we planted some Everybearing Strawberries. I know we're taking a bit of a chance having the strawberries out in the open like that, but hopefully the deer will leave the majority of them alone and they will spread and creep around and down the boulder wall.
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| Everbearing Strawberries |
About 6 feet behind the strawberries, is a row of Cascara trees, and right behind those are two rows of Redstem Ceanothus.
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| Cascara (Rhamnus purshiana) |
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| Redstem Ceanothus (Ceanothus sanguineus) |
Going up the back wall of the burm that blocks off the entrance to our old driveway, we have several rows of Redstem Ceanothus, followed by several roes of Western White Pine, one row of Rocky Mountain Maples, and two more rows of Western White Pines. On the very top we have a row of Cascara trees and below that, on the main driveway side, is a row of American Cranberries. We will be adding some more mature Vine Maples and maybe a few Noble Firs on the top to help block the view a bit more until everything else starts to grow up.
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| Western White Pine (Pinus monticola) |
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| Rocky Mountain Maple (Acer glabrum) |
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| American Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) |
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| Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) |
Current Plant Count:
15 American Cranberries
14 Cascaras
26 Ceanothus'
50 Everbearing Strawberries
7 Kinnikinnick
15 Rocky Mountain Maples
43 Western White Pines
In addition to all of the baby plants we are putting in, we're also going to throw down more grass seed to help stabilize all of the dirt. I am so excited, I can't wait for everything to grow up.
Still Need To Plant/Transplant:
Evergreen Huckleberry
Kinnikinnick
Noble Fir
Oregon Sunshine
Pacific Crabapple
Ponderosa Pine
Thimbleberry
Vine Maple
