And now she had these narrow cobblestone pathways going all the way around the garden too. She looked along the side and wondered if she should take the edger and cut back the grass or let it grow alongside the walkway. She walked back to where Tony was removing five forms from the initial steps poured and was setting up another five forms to fill. “Are they drying that fast?”
He shook his head. “Not really,” he said, “but they’re keeping their edge. The inside is pretty jiggly, even with something extra to help it set faster. So we’re adding a frame to keep them contained.” He pointed back to where his buddy had installed a simple two-by-four framework all along the edges.
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” she said as she smiled. “Should I cut the lawn back along here, so I can keep mowing it, or maybe put gravel in here too, or do I let the grass grow right up to the concrete?”
“It would probably do really fine with crushed rocks through here,” he said. “That way, you won’t have to worry about the weeds coming through, and you’ll have a clean, crisp line that you can run the lawn mower tires on.”
She liked that idea. And it gave her something that she could do. She grabbed her edger and started cutting back a nice, neat trim line. “I’ll have to get some gravel in,” she said.
“I can leave you what I’ve got leftover here,” he said. “We already took some and filled in the gap between the house and the sidewalk, then also the gap in between the fence and the sidewalk. We’ll do the same along the far side of the house and that newest sidewalk, but you probably want to fill in this section too.”
“What about landscape cloth? Is that an issue if I don’t lay that down first?”
“I wouldn’t think so,” he said. “But if you give it quite a bit of rock in here, the weeds won’t be much of a problem.”
She nodded, wondering about that because she did have some landscape cloth. But then it seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth half the time. By the time she had edged down to the creek, she could see that they had chosen to put the complete two-by-four frame all the way along each walkway. Although she thought she had a lot of spare wood at this point, there wasn’t any now. As a matter of fact, it looked like they were coming up a little bit short as it was.
She walked back to the house to inspect her supply stash, but they had moved it all to pour that first sidewalk. So the leftover wood was in the backyard, half in her garden and half out. She lifted a couple boards and took a serious look, but it seemed like nothing was left. They’d used up almost everything. Two boards were left, and they looked like decking boards. Then she spied a couple pieces of two-by-fours and a couple pieces of the huge six-by-sixes or eight-by-eights that had been used under the deck.
Not much was left. All the bags of cement would be used up shortly per Tony, and all the anchors had been used, and she guessed all the screws had gone into securing the deck boards. She hadn’t had to buy anything, except for those screws and the beer and the pizza this weekend. She smiled at that because, if there was ever cheap labor, this buddy system had to be the best kept secret in the world.
As she walked back down to the creek, Tony poured the fifth of the last group of steps along the garden edge. The first ones were still holding with space in between, although a little bit of it was shifting. “It looks phenomenal,” she said in wonder.
“It really is,” he said. “That additive helped it to set really fast, and so, like I said, we’re hoping that it’ll keep its shape with the two-by-fours.”
“I’m grateful to have it even like this,” she said.
“It looks really cool, doesn’t it?” he said happily. “We’re at about sixty feet here, and you’ll need at least one or two more.”
“I can see that,” she said, “but probably not full forms though, right?”
“I don’t think so.” He looked at the cut grass and nodded. “I can’t get around here with the rest of the gravel,” he said. “We did only what we could reach from the front, so the rest of this’ll wait until tomorrow.”
“It’s probably better anyway,” she said, “because you’ve got to take the boards off the main path too.”
“In that case, we should leave the gravel for the day after,” he said. “I can pretty well dump the rest of it up in your driveway, and we can move it around in the wheelbarrow, once the concrete cures fully.”
“Hey, so much has been done already,” she said. “I just can’t believe it.”
“It’s almost a complete transformation back here,” he said. “You’ve obviously put a lot of work into the gardens too.”
“I’m getting there,” she said. “I did pick up a bunch of plants from Heidi recently.” Remembering that brought up a frown on her face.
“Is that the woman you put into jail?” He laughed. “It doesn’t sound like people really appreciate you too much, do they?”
“No,” she said. “I keep trying to make friends, but I end up putting them in jail instead.”
At that, he burst out a big guffaw.
“I wanted to have some of the extra plants that she didn’t want,” she said.
“My mom’s got a ton,” he said. “I’ll talk to her about it and maybe let her know that you’re looking for
