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| This informal set of stairs evolved from a few slabs stuck in the hill for access |
It's true. I just wanted to get an early start on the Oxalis pes-caprae, which you'll know all about if you've got it.
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| GRRR! Mostly Oxalis pes-caprae - a difficult weed to overcome - next to impossible. |
Pull early and pull often. Get them before they make the little nutlets. Try to get the roots.
This hill is hard to weed. Oxalis grows among the Mexican sage (which was growing on this hillside when we arrived and has survived a good bit of neglect).
So I thought I'd just add a rock or two to perch on and get to the difficult areas. Maybe a rock here and there below a penstemon.
But I just kept going. It's not the first set of stairs on this hill.
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| Rat and I added the stairs on the right a while back, and the low retaining "wall." |
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| Another view. I need to reset the blue hose container level. My dad's cottage above. |
I love making stairs and this way I have is very fast, flexible, and forgiving.
Start at the bottom. Dig in to the hillside and shove a flat stone in there roughly level. Put a couple boulders or river rocks on it and lay a flat stone on top of them. Dig it into the hillside a bit. Adjust for fit. Continue. Put some up the sides as needed to create some sort of look.
I had a large piece of broken pot and decided to add a bit of whimsy. I'm not the best at visual design but I think this is fun.
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| I planted a few little Heuchera micrantha I had propagated "in" the broken pots and elsewhere. (I'll have to do something about that disused irrigation pipe runing across the top step.) |
My idea for the whole hillside is to make a sort of rock garden full of hummingbird feeding plants - whether native or not.
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| Anna's hummingbird with pollen-laden beak, on Mexican sage. |
I'm looking forward to the planting phase - it's going to be fun! And who knows I might add a few more stones along the way...
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