I have already proven that math confounds me (see my retaining wall post). And measurements are just as bad. As a page designer for the last 17 years, I have picas and points, even on a scalable screen, mastered. Inches can be iffy but in print I am close. In the real world it gets ugly. Anything bigger than an inch — feet, yards, meters, miles, kilometers — I am useless. That said, I NEED dirt. And a lot of it. After attempting to top off behind the retaining wall with a few bags of soil from the hardware store proved I have no idea what a yard looks like, I knew that it was more than I wanted to buy in individual plastic bags. So to the Internet I went. First to a yard calculator and then to a dirt company who would deliver. They came Friday morning.

6 yards! The picture does not do it justice — it was literally above my waist and took up most of the driveway. Holy hell, that is A LOT of dirt.

So out came the wheel barrow and for the next 3 days nothing but sholving and dumping — first into the garden boxes and then behind the retaining wall. Because this was happening on a lovely Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I got to meet a lot of my new neighbors out for a walk and enjoying the beautiful day. Lily made a ton of new friends and got a lot of exercise following me back and forth from the front yard to the back and out again. Neighbor Charles (who I really like and who Lily LOVES to bark at) made it a point of coming out and making sassy comments ever few hours — Thanks for that Charles!

But I triumphed!

3 days later. And some seriously sore muscles, I had moved it all.

And now ready for the fun part … planting.

Full and ready for planting

Another blank canvass ready for some fun!