Operation House Rescue Part 5- Sifting the gravel out of sand

Ooh, A box of treasure!

Nope, just a box of glass pieces which among other things, came out of the gravel we sifted as part of the cleanup and fixing of the yard. The bulk of the glass came from the area in front of the garage which had also been the braai ( barbeque) area.

Before:
Lynton @moderndragon and my dad when we had a look at the rental home the second time round. We knew there was gravel sunken into the sand, and the more we looked the more glass and bits of bottles showed up. Apparently the previous tenants were quite the partying crowd. The neighbors have confirmed this many times.

So how do you go about sifting gravel and sand?

First- Call in a gardener to come help with the heavy digging. Much of the garden's transformation is because of the power and expertise of Hadji the gardener.
He laid down plastic to make cleanup easier and started loosening the soil while my sister Petro and I built the sifting screen out of an old bed that had been abandoned in the garage. At first I only had a double layer of chicken wire down but the holes were too big and everything fell though. Hmm...

So we popped back over to the hardware store and got some 5mm mesh. This worked a treat.

Shout out to zip ties! They keep the world together.

Old manky shower curtain getting a last lease on life as a drop sheet.

Ta Da! The extra sand was moved to a different location in the yard and eventually became part of the terraces. Although this does lower the ground level a bit a round the garage, it is important as the yard slopes towards the house instead of away from it so we need it to be lower for drainage purposes.

Not shown here is laying plastic again and spreading the gravel on top. This stops the stones from sinking down again.

Today
A tangle of nasturtiums slowly plots it's path to world dominance.
The step still needs a new coat of paint. The wooden step was something I'd made out of a pallet for our previous house which also had a stupidly high first step. It's pretty handy at stopping you falling out of the garage when you're coming out.

So there you have it.
Rinse and repeat for the rest of the yard.
Now for a photo montage:

(Insert soothing music)

Since February when this was all done the garden has come on beautifully. Even the bits of lost Bermuda grass in the before pictures have been tamed and have stuck around now. What's funny is it's the type of grass most gardeners don't want because it's a bit of a weed. But hey, it's growing without help from me so it's welcome to keep the sand from blowing about.
I have a very organic kind of gardening process. I'll go pull out the weeds and then leave them on top of the sand to dry out and become mulch. It looks messy but it helps stop evaporation.

We're still in the middle of the worst drought in a hundred years here in the Western Cape and not allowed to water anything, so whatever doesn't get greywater from the washing machine has clung to life due to the occasional rain shower.
It actually snowed on the mountains in Ceres last night. Had a bit of rain again here today.
It's going to be an interesting summer if it only starts raining in May again next year. We're already on water rationing and have to keep water consumption below 87 liters per person per day.

Hopefully the plants have had time to establish their roots now so they can get through the summer.

Well, thanks for sticking around and reading all of that. If you'd like to see my other Operation House Rescue posts have a look at the link below.

Hope you have a great day!
Lizelle
Read the previous posts here-

[Operation House Rescue-Part 4- Garden Progress]
(https://steemit.com/home/@simplylizelle/operation-house-rescue-part-4-garden-progress)