Trench goes in, dirt goes everywhere…

After two weeks of false starts, the plumber came on Friday and the new water line was in by early afternoon. He came back for a few hours on Saturday morning to finish backfilling the trench, and clean up. Then it was over to me to put the garden back to rights.

First obstacle was the steep bank up from the water meter.

Next obstacle was all the tree roots. Somehow the guys were able to leave the patio peach more-or-less intact.

This thing made digging light work.

From this…

…to this by the end of the day. Still a lot of work to do.

I’m going to have to add a lot of compost to those front beds to make up for all the clay that’s been mixed in as a result of the ditch-digging. But most of the plants I moved seem perfectly happy in their temporary home, so I’m optimistic that I can get the beds back to decent shape by the end of the month. How long the grass will take might be a different matter. I hope we have a few wet weeks soon.