Central Yard Part 1

Finally a nice day, and I have the afternoon off! 

We have been bursting to get to work on "making good" the areas around our new concrete.  However, the first thing we have to do is apply sealer to the porch and walkway. The sealer will prevent stains at the new concrete and should protect the surface. To begin with I had Amy Sheep clean up the walkway and the porch with our noisy leaf blower, while I filled up the sprayer.

We are using a water-based matt sealer which does not require dilution:

Amy Sheep applied a light coat of sealer to the porch and walkway, and rebutted any offers of help apart from when the sprayer needed refilling, so I just stood around snapping photos and generally enjoying the first nice day of 2023.

After the sealing was completed, we went inside and had some tea and biscuits and what not, and when I came back outside the sealer had dried and Amy Sheep was nowhere to be seen. I busied myself adding dirt to the voids at the uphill side of the new walkway, until the path was just a couple of inches above the dirt:

Then I laid my first course of moss rock against the path....

Then backfilled with more dirt up to the top edge of the moss rock...

And then rinse and repeat. I managed to build the section of "wall" you can see below from rock that we had on hand. Amy Sheep was nowhere to be found while this work was going on.

I have been backfilling with some rather nice top soil that was left over from another project. When this runs out, we will have to order some more from tut' garden center. 

I broke into the pallet of rock that has been sitting outside the house being rained on for the last couple of weeks...

Progress after a couple of hours....still no sign of sign of Amy Sheep.... 

The next day Amy Sheep emerged from her hiding place and we went to work building up the dirt and adding more moss rock to the uphill side of the path. The gradient is such that less rock is needed as we work towards the street.

The pallet of moss rock was shrinking fast by this point.

We managed to extend the rock all the way to the street...

...and build a sizeable wall at the porch side, before we ran out of rock and topsoil. The wall needs to be a layer or two higher in places.

To be continued....