You Load Sixteen Tons ...

Well. maybe not sixteen tons, but at about 40-50 lbs per bag, 45 bags of mulch weighs around one ton. Home Depot delivered the mulch this morning. I know what life will be like for the next few weeks, and it is not a pretty picture.  [Anybody else remember Tennessee Ernie Ford? :) ]

There was a bit of a kerfuffle when the Home Depot delivery guy found out he couldn't drive the mulch to the back yard with his forklift. Aside from the gate being too narrow and the utilities pillar being in the way,  it would have torn up the grass. He said he could only do a curbside delivery even though I paid for inside delivery. I'm glad he phoned before coming out. I talked to the HD manager on duty and only had to threaten to cancel the order once. They worked out a solution.

This is where the mulch will go. Note the mold on the gate and wall. While I waited for the delivery, I scrubbed it clean, inside and out. The bag-covered BBQ grill was moved to the other side of the shed. This area is covered with some kind of landscape cloth and a layer of pea gravel. The concrete pavers lie on top the gravel and tend to skate around. One day I need to arrange them as I want them and scrape out the gravel underneath, so they will sit firmly on the landscape cloth. I think that will help keep them in place.

This is the truck that brought the mulch. It is huge, with the forklift hanging off the back.

The HD delivery guy dropped the mulch at the curb, as he said he would. Forty-five bags on a palette.

This is the Home Depot Pro Delivery truck that brought Kevin and his wheelbarrow.

This is Kevin moving the mulch with a wheelbarrow. He made a nice, sturdy pile, five bags per layer, nine layers high. 

Here is the mulch, neatly stacked. Please note the nice, clean gate. :)

Kevin offered to haul away the wooden pallet, but I recalled a neighbor across the street mentioning building something out of pallets. He was happy to come get it.

By the time the delivery was complete, the fence and gate hosed down, and a hundred feet of hose was cranked back into its little house, it was too hot and muggy to do much outside work.

Mystery solved: I came in and Googled "purple star flower" and found out the mystery flowers from the previous post are Balloon flowers - Platycodon grandiflorus. Click on the Older Post button below and scroll down for a link that explains it. In short, I'm glad to have a lot of them in the yard.