The Unexpected Beauty of Tearing Things Apart

The Unexpected Beauty of Tearing Things Apart*

After two and a half months of puttering in the yard--dibble-dabbling with multiple landscaping toils, travails and flings--I suspended more conventional landscaping endeavors and commenced an excavation of my property instead. The number of, size of, and appearance of rocks encountered when digging holes in order to plant several hibiscus no doubt catalyzed my mission of excavation, especially when I had to relocate a couple of planting sites because I could not dig even six inches down. Those experiences coupled with the ongoing environmental knowledge gleaned on my morning runs in the neighborhood, that is!

As I’ve slowly extended the distance covered on those morning runs, the route now includes views of three properties under development--two just starting and one just finishing.  I have observed what constitutes the beginning labors for building a new home as well as those that end the official construction period. In fact, a for-sale-sign-on-a-rod got punched into the terrain of the “finishing” property just last week.

Apparently, the process of building a home begins like this: (1) Clear the jungle/bush from the designated area, leaving any ohia trees in place that will not directly interfere with the construction of the house. (2) Break up the exposed pahoehoe lava rock and level the interior area of the property.

After the construction of the home is completed, a crew finishes the home-building-process by distributing gravel, cinders, and any available dirt over what has now become the established yard.

So this is my house and the central area of my backyard as it looked when I first moved in. Although covered in the same red gravelly soil, the edges of the property actually rise a bit in elevation because the gravel soil had been spread to cover up unbroken lava rock. Pretty much gravel covered my entire yard except for narrow strips of the original jungle vegetation left intact at the boundaries.

Here now are sections I have "excavated" so far on the south side and along the back of my property:

South side first . . .

 To find this shelf of pahoehoe lava, I both scraped/swept away the gravel and peeled back soil/root networks of very active vegetation.

Looking along the south side towards the front yard and the street.

Looking along the south side toward the back yard.

 Yeah, I built that wall with loose rocks buried under the the red gravel and uncovered as I scraped to clear the black lava rock. This part is the south side as it finally meets the rear boundary of the yard.

Now for photos of the rear boundary area of the property . . .

Yep, and another rock wall underway--my current project.

Ultimately I have realized that my yard was sculpted as a shallow bowl with a huge dollop of something on the front yard piece of the bowl. (Having focused my labors on the back and sides of the property, the dollop remains unexcavated at this time. I have serious trepidations about how to approach the front yard excavation, but since I’m not particularly fond of what was established and installed at the time of the purchase of my home, there will be changes!)

Things I have learned from my excavations so far:

(1) Not all of the pahoehoe lava rock was broken up on the southern side or the back boundary of my property. Once I scrape off the gravel and peel back the one-to-two-inch thick carpet of root network and soil, the design of the intact pahoehoe lava rock emerges.

(2) The work of vegetation on expanses of cooled lava rock is a collection of miraculous processes.

(3) Earthworms prefer the space in the soil that is closest to the actual lava rock.

(4) Even wearing gloves, uncovering and hauling rocks devastate the manicure. (My nails are a mess, possibly worse than when I had just completed the three weeks of Project Bold!)

(5) Yard work expends calories and builds muscles. (Proof: diminishing love handles and more defined biceps!)

(6) I truly enjoy “laboring in my vineyard.” I find it surprisingly satisfying mentally, emotionally, and physically.

* This title I coopted from the title of an article in the Smithsonian because it expresses how I've felt discovering more intimately the land that makes up my property.