Planning and Change

There was no lack of planning in any respect to this project. I spent many fall and winter months planning and getting things ready for Spring. Now that I am about halfway through it, I can say, "There is not a single aspect of this project that hasn't changed from the original plan."

There are a few reasons for this. The reasons are that I found better ways to do things and that I like to let things unfold and see what I have instead of forcing pre-existing plans that might end up being more difficult, less functional, or less attractive than something else. Basically, letting the landscape speak for itself.

For instance, while I was breaking out all the concrete, my final task was to remove the area of concrete that used to be a hot tub. I had filled the unused hot tub years ago with dirt and covered in a thick layer of concrete that matched the surrounding concrete. So after breaking out the concrete and exposing about 8 inches of the top of the tub I was left with a daunting task of having to dig the entire tub out and remove it. This would have taken a day, maybe two, to accomplish. Instead, I slapped on a few Redwood fence boards to the top and outside of it. Instant Redwood planter...


So, as you can see, this worked out great. It was much easier than forcing the removal of the tub and going according to my plans.

This is, basically, an example of the entire process so far. Everything has changed. I might as well throw out my original drawings, because they are irrelevant at this point. Everything from plumbing to landscape, pond shapes to where the grow beds are to be located has been changed to accommodate the "Real World" application of this project. If I were to ever do this again, the planning(at least the construction and landscape part of it) would be an afterthought.