Basil Surprise

A friend gave us some basil with the promise that it might actually re-seed itself every year, so rather than plant it in a pot with the rest of our basil, we decided to plant it around one of our trees, like we did a few years ago with our mint. Easy, we thought. Clear out some grass and weeds, dig some holes, split and plant.

Clear around the tree. Check. Dig dig dig - hm....the shovel isn't going through the soil anymore. It's not too dry, so what's in the way?

Landscaping cloth, the bane of my existence. D goes for the big shovel and scissors and starts digging and ripping. He finally dislodges most of it.

 OK, time to dig a hole for the basil again and...what's that? A brick?

 Another brick? And another brick? And another brick?

 Thirteen bricks!?!? What used to be around that tree? I wish I had some idea what the previous owners were thinking? Is there a whole patio under the grass? Maybe a secret passage?

Over an hour later - BASIL! Now hopefully we don't kill it with our less than successful gardening record. But hey, at least we managed to harvest some bricks.

On a totally unrelated note but just to document it - take a look at our ceiling in the new ("sun") room. See anything? No? Well that's good because this is the "after" picture - yet again, we got something fixed before I managed to take the "before." After a few months of cold, warm, dry, humid, etc. changes, the ceiling and the edge of the crown molding had developed a visible separation. This week the team that built the room came in to caulk it so it's totally invisible now.