Why I Oughta...

A couple days ago, I posted the details of some of my 2025 priority projects in the garden including my initial (#1) project:  renovating the gravel path on the side of our house .  In that post , I walked through my learning journey about geotextiles and their differences - non-woven vs. woven.  And, how they have different drainage and separation impacts.  After poking around, I ended up landing on the use of a nonwoven geotextile under the gravel will stop the 'sinking gravel' that has occurred over the years.   I found this roll of nonwoven geotextile that is four-feet-wide by 100-feet long.  It is listed as "8 ounce" weight and in-hand it feels substantial.   The gravel path on the side of our house is laid down with bluestone chips, so this project isn't straight-forward.  If this was a net-new path, the job would be easier:  lay down the fabric then pour on the bluestone chips.  But in this case, I had to find a way to s...

In December of 2023, I started to notice that the bluestone chip garden path that runs from our driveway back to the boardwalk on the north side of our house was starting to 'sink '.  The gravel started as a thick, full layer started to sink into the ground and mud was starting to peek through.  In 2024, I added even more Bluestone chips to the path, but it still didn't stop the sinking.   Last March, I decided to act and began to 'pull back' some of the bluestone chips and lay down some larger gravel .  Then, I pulled the chips back over the top.  But, that hasn't stopped the sinking.  I've long resisted using any sort of landscape fabric.  On any project.  There's TONS of research showing that it doesn't work to supress weeds and it doesn't allow the soil to breath and regenerate with organic material.  Why?  Because, it creates a barrier.   A barrier.  Wouldn't that help with the gravel sinking?  Yes, it turn...

Yesterday, I published a post detailing the idea of "Legibility in the Garden" and talked how Dr. Jared Barnes introduced me to the concept via his Meristem blog.  Barnes has developed a set of elements that he feels are the core components of "Legibility" and how we as gardeners can achieve it :   1. Clean edges 2. Desire lines and paths 3. Primary and secondary axes 4. Sightlines 5. Focal points 6. Entrances 7. Seeing over plantings Edging is something that I've posted about a number of times .  And, it seems to check a few of Dr. Barnes' components:  clean lines, paths and entrances.   Edging is something that I posted about last Fall when I included some inspiration from a YouTube channel (Moxie Gardens) and talked about how he used railroad ties and other wood beams cut up into chunks to edge various parts of his garden and beds.   A couple weeks ago, Amy at Pretty Purple Door sent a newsletter that talked about creating a dog-frie...