![]() We went to the nursery every week and drove home with a lush jungle spilling out of the car trunk I’d sit in the back seat with silvery leaves and purple flowers brushing my cheek. After that, we had to smooth it out, fill it with gravel (wheelbarrowful by wheelbarrowful) and then with dirt (shovelful by shovelful.) By the time we began to fit in the rocks, I had complained enough for the whole summer. It needed to be nine inches deep, three feet wide, curving like a snake from one end of the yard to the other. ![]() We sifted through all of the rocks and roots by hand, which is every bit as laborious as it sounds, and turned the soil with fertilizer.įorming the stone path felt like the bane of my existence. I didn’t realize that we’d have to lift up the sod, like heavy strips of carpet. I imagined the process of removing grass to be a very simple, straightforward one. We did it all ourselves that summer, and it was more work than any of us expected it to be. I thought it was wishful thinking, but my dad told her, “Let’s do it.” Lime-green creeping bugleweed, black stemmed rhododendrons, pink-throated lilies, pure white bleeding hearts in the shade… And a natural stone path weaving through it all. Then she wanted to transform it into something stunning, a rainbow of growing, breathing plants. She wanted to remove all the grass in that section and fertilize it. My mother began sketching out designs, writing down ideas, until she’d come up with an ambitious blueprint. ![]() It was brimming with uneven grass, moss that squished under each footstep, and unappealing patches of yellow. But the other strip of yard, the one visible from the kitchen window and the dining room, was once utterly unimpressive. One of the strips is nice, just cool green grass and evergreen trees. Our yard is L shaped, wrapping around our house. But I think it really starts two years ago, when my mother decided she wanted to remodel our backyard. Where to begin the story of this chocolate-mint ice cream cake? Sure, it technically begins with a cool carton of cream and a stack of cracked egg shells.
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