About 100 clay pipes are in the way of a planter bed that I want to build from black locust as well as finishing the last section of the garden.

The place I want to use the pipes is on the top and around a long, river rock planter bed to secure new hardware wire.  So, I decided to start this project in order to get the pipes moved.

Over the years, the gopher wire rusted, and gophers create a mess of soil down the top section of rock.  Time to dig out the soil, replace the wire, and improve the structure.

It took a couple of hours for farmhand Will and I to dig it out, pull out the aviary wire, and move the soil to the orchard.

I’m planning to lay a landing at the bottom of the stairs, using small river rocks.

At the end of the day, the landscape design is going through stages of change.  I don’t think I like the look of the river rocks at the bottom.  My whole purpose of moving the clay pipes is now going to be a much longer process, of course!  I really think I want to move all these medium-size rocks to the rain garden area where we plan to build another herb spiral. Instead, I can use black locust to build a big rectangle which will be pretty sturdy.  I’ll use the clay pipes on the top, around the lavender and roses.

Luckily, our neighbor decided to hire the tree service I recommended, and they had a few more trees cut down. I called the tree service and asked that they would save the limbs for me.  I’m so grateful that I have 5 large pieces (11 ft. long) that could be used for this space.  I look forward to figuring out this design concept and recycling the rocks for another project!