Part 2 of Anna's playplace

I continued the work on moving topsoil during the rain Sunday afternoon. All of the topsoil is now moved and the rains continued and got harder. The rain is supposed to continue all week, so I am praying that all my topsoil doesn't get washed away. The good news is that the area doesn't get hit hard by rains due to the tree cover. Here is a picture of the area with all the topsoil moved now:

The next phase of Anna's playplace is to put down a weed barrier. At the cheapest level, weed barriers are simply plastic like in trash bags that cover the ground. There are problems with the cheap weed barriers, including what happens to water. The expensive ones are puncture resistant and allow water to flow through easily as well as last for a long time. Since I was covering a relatively small area, 13.5' x 12.5', I decided to go for an expensive weed barrier. I choose the Easy Gardener brand Commercial Grade Weed Block which came in a package 4' x 50' and ran about $20. Since it has to overlap. this ended up being about the perfect size. I can cut four strips of 12.5' long and overlap the four feet about 9" each sheet. I also bought about 40 garden stakes to pin the weed barrier down.

If this week lightens up on rain, I will be ordering 2 cu yds of playground mulch and getting the project finished. Meanwhile, in the areas around the play place I am fertilizing and planting grass. Since we are in a drought, the rain will provide the opportune moisture to get my grass started growing. Hopefully the area will be completed by this weekend.