Making a Concrete Pie

With the grass under some control, we decided that it was time to start adding some bushes and trees to the yard. On the south side of the yard, we thought it would be nice to add some granite stones to give the area a bit of structure.

We also wanted to build a sort of planter box for the area near the porch.

So, in my infinite wisdom, we had a couple tons (literally) of granite stone delivered to our house, along with a few hundred pounds of concrete...two days before I had to travel to the states for a business review meeting.

I'm not obsessed with the grass or anything, but it's looking better, isn't it ???


Rene and I ended up mixing the concrete by hand. The first few batches were kinda fun - sort of like making a big cake. After a while, the stones really got under your nails and it really hurt.

My hands were all sorts of torn up by the end of the day - they looked like I got in a fist fight with a cat in a rosebush and lost. The hands looked great for the trip to the States and the meetings thereafter.

Here's the planter box next to the porch. We estimated the number of stones (the weight) almost perfectly. We were two stones short. To this day, almost a year later, we are still missing these two stones.

A few months later, we planted strawberries in the first row and a really weak looking bambus. Both are doing excellently now...