Garden Diary: On the level

After a two week hiatus, my garden helpers came last Friday and worked valiently through a cold, windy day. Heavy rain earlier in the week had made the frozen ground workable. To level the surface around the new pool, they removed the gravel from a large area behind it, dug out about a cubic yard of earth, and relaid the geotextile weed barrier and gravel.The ground plane surrounding the pool is now level--very level compared to this older photo, where you'll see the ground surface rises substantially behind and to the right of the pool.We also laid paving in a sitting out area in a back corner of the garden (below). The bench is positioned with a hornbeam hedge at its back and on one side. The shrubs, invisible here, are about 30 inches tall going into their third year, so I hope for a substantial wall and a feeling of intimacy and protection in two or three more years.This view back to the house shows how an existing path through the garden flows into the area of the new reflecting pool, giving the impression it was all designed to work as an ensemble. In fact, the idea of linkage was always in my mind, though I wasn't sure what I might be linking until recently.From the house, the square shape of the new paved area reflects the square pool across the garden, with both linked visually by this sinuous path. Throwing the square of paving out into the far edge of the garden has created a sense of destination, and a pleasing feeling of conclusion.