. . . and so it begins part three

I know it looks open, but if you can imagine the white bush on the right, the tree in the middle, and the bush on the left filling in.  It should not be as open once that happens.

Three Mondays in and still going strong.

What a day.

Here’s how the third Monday went.

The morning went smooth.

We took out the plants that needed to be out and trimmed the bushes.

Time for the new tree, the one in the middle with the red leaves in the video above.  This is going to be an easy day.

NOT!

My dad and I thought this was going to take but a few hours.  It turned out to be our longest day so far.

Why?

We honestly didn’t know how much space there was in this one spot.  With all the dead stuff, the weeds, and the three overgrown bushes it just looked a lot smaller.

It wasn’t.

Once we got it stripped down to where we wanted it to be we realized it was pretty open.

Another issue we had, the mulch.

Now the journey out begins.

This is why it took us almost 6 and half hours to complete this task today and the reason why I sit here with a small sunburn.

• First trip to Home Depot, buy five bags of mulch, a weed killing mat, and the tree in the middle in the video above.
• Back home – oops wrong mulch – not enough weed killing mat – tree looks great.
• Tree planted – off to the store to return mulch and buy more weed killing mat – stop for lunch on the way.
• Return mulch to Home Depot – buy five bags of the right mulch at Lowe’s and help out a customer load mulch who was by himself.
• Get home – finish mat – but realize not enough mulch.
• Wanting to finish today so we rushed back to Lowe’s.
• Just like on the last trip there was someone at the mulch.  This time an older couple so my dad and I helped them get loaded up.
• We bought five more bags of mulch and hurried home – sun was high – heat was on – getting done early was out of the question.
• It took eight bags to mulch that one area and cover the weed killing mat.  If you count the first bag of mulch (which was the wrong kind) we put down to hold the mat in place that would make it nine bags to cover it.  It was that big a space.  It just doesn’t look that big.
• Running count on mulch = 15 bags today (5 of the wrong kind (4 returned) and 10 of the right kind)

Now I’m sitting here with a cup off coffee, a small burn on my neck and shoulders, thankful it is all done.

Next week – maybe staining the back deck.

Fingers crossed with that one.