Before the Main House was built,
a large area was excavated just north of the site to create
a level space for lawn and parking at the "front" of the house.
The excavation was done in
May, 2004.
In the 4½
years since,
nothing has grown on the exposed slope
(not even weeds)
due to the highly compacted clay with veins of
bentonite.
Bentonite is useful for many things,
but growing plants is not among them.
[Note:
the orange-tipped markers are guides for snow plowing.]
Fixing this problem has been a low priority since the most
desirable views are out the south windows,
looking across the canyon.
It finally came to the top of our complex schedule of
landscaping tasks;
most of the other tasks will have to wait until things dry
out next Summer.
