Lang Gardens

4.25.10

2010-04-25T23:02:00.006-05:00

Today's goal is to get the damn trellises up. I'm at the end of my rope with them at this point, and they're going up come hell or high water...

I woke up feeling a little defeated. That whole "running in slow motion" thing. Another day of working. Another day of diverting Trent from a little well deserved R&R. Another day, another day, another day! I started things off getting a few supplies I needed - some retainer stones and cap rocks and weed cloth and river rocks from HD, then some plants from The Great Outdoors. TGO almost ALWAYS produces a state of euphoria in me. Not so today. Not TGO's fault - no, not at all. Just illustrating my level of "had-it-up-to-here" -edness. If TGO can't get me high, nuthin' can.

Got home and got the party started. Trent was still game for helping me out, bless him. I had sprayed the second coat of pruning sealant on the wooden disks before I went out to do my errands, so by the time I was back, they were ready to go. We got the disks screwed to the cans, then started trying to drill the holes for the drains. That was NOT fun.

The first attempt involved drilling a pilot hole, then trying to use a jigsaw to cut out the rest. No dice. Then one of us remembered that we have a whole set of spade bits. Bingo!

Pilot holes

Here, Trent's using a spade bit to enlarge the pilot holes. Oh, if only that were as dirty as it sounds!

Once the holes were drilled, I put the drains in.

First ya schmear the bottom of the pipe with aquarium sealant...

Then you mash it in the hole!

Close up of the drains. Can't remember if I already posted one...

Used some low tack tape to keep the drains upright while the aquarium sealant dried. Taa Daa!

OH. EM. GEE. Holy Shit. The damn poles are in the cans. Be still my beating heart. This is the last one we set. And of course, it was the most difficult. Not because it was heavy - nope, it was by 2 feet the shortest one. And not because we did anything different. Nope, lather, rinse, repeat. What was the problem? We have no idea. The quickrete just wouldn't set up. Where we used 2 bags of concrete for the other two cans/poles, we finally had to add a third bag to this one. That finally got it to hold the lumber plumb. Not sure what happened, but whatever. It seems ok now. I hope!

Me. Holding the lumber. Watching concrete set up. Or not.

Me again. Still holding the lumber. Still watching concrete dry. Jeeze.

Free standing wood. Yay. (Take that and do what you will with it.)

If you look at that last one carefully, you can see where I've set the bigger trash cans in in between the smaller ones. These will be planted with the blackberries tomorrow. Unfortunately, my b.berry plants have already had one bad shock this year (when I dug them up) and are about to get another (when I replant them). They made it through the first and will likely make it through the second, but I won't get much of a crop this year. Blackberries fruit on 2 year old canes, and all of my mature canes died from shock. There is fresh, new growth on all of the plants, but they won't do me much good this year. Oh well, at least they're up and off the ground now, and out of danger of becoming a bramble.

4.24.10

2010-04-24T21:34:00.000-05:00

Before I got going today, I took a few pictures of where I left off yesterday, as promised. However, I'm not going to go update them to yesterday's post. Moving forward, I say...

This is the "driveway" path. Just about finished it!

Trent had to help me move that stone there in the bottom left corner. That beast was HEAVY!

Center path. The bottom left corner is the weed cloth in one of the "sidewalk" paths, waiting for me to finish it with sand and stone. In due time, my friends. In due time.

I was playing around with getting up on a ladder for better pictures.

This is the path closest to the house on the driveway side. I got this path laid and blended in with the center path.

That's about it for an update for the progress on 4/23/10. Now for today.... Today's focus is the blackberry path. I want to get the trellises installed, and hopefully get the blackberries (re)planted. This doesn't sound like a lot, but it is.

For the trellises, I have to alter three 20gallon trashcans. I need to reinforce the bottom, add a drainage system, set them into place, put in the 4" x 4" posts, and add 8" of concrete. Once the concrete is cured, the poles need to be cut to the same height, a couple of them need to be stained, and the rest of the can needs to be filled with soil and planted. The posts are left over from the Great Fence Build, and have been in our garage for a couple of years now, waiting to be used!! Yay, freecycling!

I started the morning marking some rocks with big "X"s in pink sidewalk chalk. I had forgotton to leave room for the dry creek bed in the blackberry path. I needed to pop these stones out so that I could fix that. Trent helped me out a LOT today, starting with this. He pulled the rocks out for me and stacked them on the pallets. The dry creek bed will coax runoff from the roof line down away from the house, to the street. The runoff has created a visible rivulet in the soil on the side of the house, so I'm just following that line and making it better. I hope. Fingers crossed. (Yes, eventually some good gutters will be installed, and will be attached to rain collection barrels, but in the meantime, need to keep the foundation healthy!)

Before

Pink Xs

After. It was sort of hard to see the removed stones, so I highlighted the area in yellow to help.

Here I'm making drainage tubes for the trashcans that are to hold the trellises. The idea is this - the trashcans are 24" tall. I'm only going to put concrete in the bottom 8". That'll be enough to anchor the posts. I'm going to fill the rest up with soil and plant them with varieties of mint. In order to be successful with this, the mint will need to be able to drain THROUGH the concrete. Not bloody likely!! So I've used scraps of pvc tubing left over from my frost cover frames to resolve this. Starting 9" from the bottom, I drilled lots of holes into the PVC. 'Cause the bottom 8" will be set in concrete, and I don't want that oozing out or clogging my drains, so no holes in the bottom 8". I've also capped the pipes, but didn't glue the caps on. This way, if they get clogged, I can pop the cap off and try to clean them out. The cap has some holes in it too. These drains will be set in holes drilled through the bottom of the can and held on with caulk until I can get the concrete in. Taa Daaa! Drainage. Who rocks?

Who needs a vise grip?

Ummmm.... not sure why this pic is here? Maybe I finished this path when Trent was out shooting hoops? That could be it. I would have deleted it, but the camera put a date/time stamp on it that made me think that it should stay.

These black discs are plywood, coated with pruning seal for waterproofing. The bottoms of the trashcans aren't flat. They have a half inch rim. If I put a bunch of concrete, a heavy wooden pole, and a bunch of soil into a trashcan with a floating bottom, the weld could pop and everything would fall apart. That would be no bueno. So, I cut these disks to fit the bottom of the trashcans, filling that void. They'll be screwed in from the bottom, and then the screws will be made permanent when the concrete goes in. Also, the holes for the drainage tubes will have to be cut through this wood AND the bottom of the can. God bless America, I make up difficult projects!

I also used pruning seal on the bottoms of the cans. For extra longevity. 'Cause I ain't goin' through this again.

The blackberries will then be planted into 30gallon trashcans. This is one of them. No need for fancy drainage systems, 'cause there isn't any concrete going in these cans. Just soil (backfill from the yard, amended with store bought compost and some of the "mulch that won't end"). I just drilled some holes into the bottom and coated it with the pruning seal. Just the outside - don't want that crap leeching into my berries.

Fifteen magical flutes! Er, drains. Five per can.

All of my watermelon babies have popped up! One of the varieties was a full 2 weeks later than the other two, but now they all look like the same size. Not quite sure if that bodes well for the late comer, or poorly for the early birds, or none of the above!

Didn't get to take "after" pics until dark. But what's cool about this is the fact that the paths sort of glow in the dark! They're so white that you can see them by moonlight. Yeah, sure, the flash helped, but you really CAN see them in the dark. This is the sidewalk path on the blackberry side of the house. I finished this today, between other things.

This was taken while standing atop the tallest pallet of rock. This is the sidewalk path, stretching from the driveway to the blackberry path. I took a few rocks out where east-west paths met north-south paths so that I could fit pieces to blend the intersection. VERY pleased with myself.

Sidewalk path meets driveway path.

See how they glow?! And see how the dark mulch paths offer such a nice contrast? I may have had a tear or two in my eyes at this point. It was a long day, for a lot of reasons. I'm SO in need of this project coming to an end. I feel like I'm running in slow motion. The finish line is in sight, and I'm giving it ALL that I've got, but I just can't get there fast enough.

Aside from the dry riverbed and the MYSTERY AREA, I only have one more path to lay, and the retaining wall. And the succulents. And...and...and, oh Crikey! Please let me off this ride!

As I said before, this was a frustrating day. I had to make a trip to Cedar Park to get an additional trash can (they aren't carried by the nearby big box stores anymore, at least not the 20gallon ones). That killed over an hour of work time. Later in the day, I also had to leave to get more pruning sealant so that was another 45 minutes down the drain. Trent worked with me on and off for most of the day, but we still didn't get everything done. I ran out of sealant while spraying the wooden disks, and we couldn't go forward without them being sealed. When I got back with more spray, I finished coating the first side of the disks, but it was late in the day and that meant that I couldn't do the second side until tomorrow. The cans couldn't be assembled until the disks were ready, so we were at a standstill. See what I mean? So close, yet so far! Give me strength! Goal setting is a wonderful thing, but when you don't meet them, it can be hard to recognize all you DID accomplish. Like how much more stone I laid when the trashcans couldn't be worked on anymore for the day.

I just need to keep my eyes on the prize. It's just so close. I can taste it.

4.23.10

2010-04-23T22:06:00.006-05:00

Got a lot done today, but managed to forget to take a pic at the end of the day. D'oh! Will try to update this entry tomorrow morning before I get going...

First, the roses. I've cut 5 or 6 of them, but there are still a million or so (give or take) blooming in the yard.

I wish I could blog the fragrance too...

The little spider babies are still hanging out on that lavendar. I thought for sure they would be running away to start their little baby spider lives. I know, I know, blurry. Still working on the camera settings.

Got more stones laid in the center path. I'm still trying to fill a couple of odd spaces, but it's pretty close to being finished.

This is the center path, right near the front door. Beyond it is another path I worked on today. This is the one I finished cutting out yesterday. Forgot to take an "after" pic, but I managed to lay all of the stone in this path!

Until yesterday, I was trying to figure out what the heck to do with this one last section of the yard. In my original plans, it was slated to be a compost bin. A very intricately designed and well built compost bin. One with two sections. You would fill one, but keep the other empty. When the mood strikes, you would flip the collected compost into the empty bin, back and forth, back and forth. This would help it cook faster. But despite my gorgeous design and detailed plans, this idea wasn't sitting well with me. I want the compost, don't get me wrong, but this location is too close to the house. It might attract vermin. And, even with my design and building skills, it would still be a compost bin. Not all that attractive. And it would be smack dab in the line of sight to half of the blinding grandeur that is my front yard. So I was brain storming. The wheels were turning. Smoke was leaking from my ears. And then it came to me! I covered it in weed cloth (for obvious reason) and tucked the edges under the weed cloth in the aisles so that once the pavers are all in, the weed cloth will be perfectly sealed. And here it comes - the big idea!! Ready? READY?!

Too bad! It's gonna be a surprise!!! Muah-Hahahahaha!!!!

Progress. That's what that is, there. P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S.

When I figured out that I couldn't use the bark mulch in the paths close to the house (too tempting for termites), I decided that the look would be more cohesive if I used pavers for the paths closest to the fence too. So the plan is now to have the perimeter of the entire yard, plus the center aisle, done in limestone pavers, and only the four internal paths done in bark mulch. This "fence" path had already been filled with mulch, so here I am digging the mulch out and moving it to the last remaining unfilled "internal" path.

Why the face mask, you ask? When I was digging up the mulch, the little mulch floaties gave me a coughing fit. Plus, I really dig the look. I think I'm going to rock it next week when I start my new job.

Yep. I OWN this look. This'll make waves at the new gig. DONE!

I guess I didn't forget to take an "after" pic after all. Though I could have done a better one. Here you can see that the center path is at about 95%, you can see a teensy bit of the path nearest the house, you can see the weed cloth-covered MYSTERY AREA, the newly mulch-covered "interior" path, and the driveway path, well on its way to completion.

Emptied path. I added DG over that damp cardboard. Then weedcloth. Paver sand will come next. You've seen it all before. Didn't want to bore you...

Yeah. See? Weed cloth. If you peeled it up, you'd see DG.

Same deal, other side. I hadn't put mulch in here yet, but it was prepped for it. So I threw down the DG and this is the weed cloth, waiting for paver sand. And pavers. So. Patiently. Waiting.

Really chipping away at the pallets of materials. The paver base is down to the last 2 layers (just enough to finish the path in front of the succulent bed and the small retaining wall), the paver sand is moving quickly, as is the stone. I opened all 3 pallets of pavers so that I could pick and choose rocks and fill the puzzle in faster. The most distant pallet has been relieved of a few layers, the next one quite a few more, and the closest one is down to the bottom third. I'd say I've used most of a pallet of stone so far! AWESOME! 'Cause kids, it's just LITTLE OLD ME moving these rocks. I've now been told by not one but TWO guys that I'm doing "man's work". I scoff. (Trent exempted because he helps when I need him!)

Here is where I should have dragged the ladder into the sidewalk in front of the house and taken an aerial photo and really showcase how things are moving along. But I failed. Hopefully I will think to take one first thing tomorrow morning, before I get going.

The end is in sight. OMG. Can't freakin' wait!!

4.22.10

2010-04-23T00:12:00.010-05:00

Thought I would start this entry with that prolific rose bush again. All the buds are beginning to unwind and you can see that sunny yellow-orange. So lovely...

Still can't seem to capture it in a photograph. Some things are just that way, I guess.

Final attempt. (For today...)

That blasted mulch pile. All that can be done is to move it, one bucket at a time, to a temporary location. Not "temporary" the same way that THIS location was temporary! As in, going on a year and change. For realz! I'm going to mix some of my dug out dirt, this mulch, and some store-bought compost to use as the planting medium for my blackberries. I sure hope that uses it up. This $20.00 investment was a good one, but it has now over-stayed its welcome.

And now it's all moved. I sure wish life worked as easily as reading a blog. Poof, from one picture to the next, HUGE amounts of work are done!

Remember how I said this area would need more digging? Well, I'm about to do it. Have to dig it out to the blue line.

Aaaaannnnd SCENE!

And moving on to the path nearest the driveway. First layer.

You know the words! Sing it with me!

I got to thinking the other day and decided that it would be best to use pavers, not mulch, for the paths closest to the house. Don't want to tempt the termites ya know. And that made me think that I should also do the paths near the other end of the fence with pavers too (instead of mulch), but we'll get to that another day...

D_COMPOS_D GRANIT_ - would you like to buy a vowel?

Going back to the center path... Of course there is a star in it!

Brought the path ALL THE WAY TO THE HOUSE before my body quit on me. Just a few more stones tomorrow and it'll be all layed out. Look, I left some badass on it...

Starry, starry path.

Starting to make a dent in the pallets of materials. ZOMG.

Absolutely covered in sand. Like a sugar cookie. Made of sand. Dropped on the beach.

This was the COOLEST accidental discovery. I stumbled upon this while in the driveway bed, taking pictures of my sunny yellow roses. This little blob of glittery mysteriousness was a spider web full of eensy tiny little bitty baby spiders, just hatched from their egg sac. They looked like a little ball of glitter, slowly expanding on the nearly invisible web. As Trent and I fiddled with the settings on the camera to try to get the best possible picture, they just kept moving outward from the point that until just moments before had been their entire universe.

Looks like some kind of organic fireworks. So pretty. The fading light seemed to shine right through the incredibly small exoskeletons and made each little body appear to be lit from within.

Moving outward and onward. Expanding...

Ain't nature cool?!

Charlotte? Charlotte!?!

And now for a little segment called "Nature Imitating Nature". This is that onion blossom I've been taking daily pics of. It's finally loosed itself of it's leafy trappings and is on the verge of bursting into an abundance of frothy blooms. Doesn't it look JUST like the spider-glitter from above?

Is "blurry" the same thing as "soft focus"?

Still life with roses (including three freshly cut from the driveway bed) and artichoke (tomorrow night's dinner).

More have opened.

I worked much of the day in a cool, light, clinging rain. This was my reward.

4.21.10

2010-04-21T23:24:00.000-05:00

I took a few days off after a weekend of digging. My hands were killing me, and I had some other stuff to do. By the time I got back into the yard, the forecast had improved dramatically. Also, the muddy soil had dried enough that it was lighter to handle and didn't stick to my boots, but was still sticking together enough that digging out more dirt was a simple matter of slicing out "bricks" and scooping them into one of my green tubs.

While Candelario and I made a big dent in the digging over the weekend, there were still more areas that needed attention. This area is one of the trickier parts. I'm going to have to dig out the dirt for the path, but also enough dirt so that I can put in a very short retaining wall. I also need to dig out some of the soil in the bed under the windows so I can amend it for succulents.

The strings show the outer limits of the retaining wall. It's just going to be two bricks and a cap stone deep, and the top will be flush with the foundation of the house. I've never understood this little bed, but it's going to be perfect for some succulents. Because it's right against the house, it's not something that you would want to water a lot. Thus, succulents. Cacti. Don't like a lot of water. Plus, it gets tons of sun, but at the hottest time of day, is protected. Which is good for succulents because while many of them are desert plants, not all are. My collection will also be protected during the coldest parts of the year. So it's a win all around.

Another view. I've gotten all of the little volunteer rose bushes out, and the weeds, and have cut the trench to the 95% level. When I'm ready to install the wall, I'll finish digging it out.

On to the corresponding path on the other side of the yard. I dug out as much soil as I could. I moved the pile of mulch (wrapped in the tarp) over the weekend to make digging easier. However, I didn't move it enough, and I'll need to move ALL of the mulch out of this area and into the driveway in order to finish digging this path out. But that'll be another day. Today I want to focus as much as possible on getting the center path started.

I had covered the mud with cardboard to help us track less mud into the house. Now I have to pull this up and get crazy with the weed cloth and all that mess.

You've met me, right? Just more pictures of the same thing.

Starting with the weed cloth. I pinned it down at the gate, rolled it to the house, then went back in with more pins in key areas.

WEEDS BE GONE!!

And then the cardboard went back down...

FINALLY got my "terracotta soldier" pic. Is anyone with me on this? Anyone?

Decomposed Granite.

Another layer of weed cloth.

Paver sand.

Oh, yeah. Switched up the perspective on you here.

Check it OUT! It's so lovely. Sigh.

Strawberry bed, makin' strawberries. And red onions. And cilantro. Oh, I think a cilantro-strawberry mojito would be delicious!

Yummers.

So many of them.

I don't know what setting I used on this shot, but it turned out awesome! This is what I was told to expect with the artichokes - that they would grow on spikes. These were growing close to the heart of this plant, but all of a sudden, there are several new babies, and the stalks are growing like mad!

I need to find this camera setting again. I cut this artichoke and will be buying a head of garlic tomorrow to slice up and put into the leaves and boil. Drooling already.

I have a rose bush with something between 15 and 20 roses all set to bloom within hours of each other.

It doesn't photograph so well. But I can't wait until they all bloom, all at once!!

Lots of them are just beginning to open. I took about 10 different pictures of this, but just couldn't do it justice.

Trying.

This beauty grew in the sidewalk bed. It's HUGE. Not particularly fragrant, but a stunner none the less.

Also from the sidewalk bed, but from a different plant.

Even more!

All of them together! (Don't tell anyone, but this picture is standing on its edge...)

Still life with coke glass...

And that's all, folks!

4.17.10

2010-04-17T17:38:00.011-05:00

Today the goal was to work on the center aisle. I was hoping to get it completely dug out. I had updated my "free dirt" listing on Craigslist and had the stereo on and my phone out, both tucked under some plastic sheeting to protect them from the elements. Pulled out the tools and prayed for dry skies.

This is the main aisle. It's 6 feet wide by 25ish feet long. We put the tarps down last summer to control the weeds and they helped a LOT. I wasn't sure what I was going to find underneath though. The weather was behaving, but I didn't want to test it by wasting a lot of time combing through the soil for roots and weeds. I just wanted to slice out the damp clay and pile it on the driveway.

There were two tarps on the ground. I pulled off the first one so I could start digging, and left the second one on the ground to keep it dry. That board there is a makeshift lid we put over the trench I had dug last year to test my failed bottle/led lighting idea.

These are the bottles that I had put in the ground for the led trial. The weeds grew pretty tall last year before we put the tarps down, and this is the sad mangle of dessicated yet soggy runners hash-marking my bottles. It was a great idea, just a bit outside of my reach. Oh well, in honesty, it won't be missed.

Close up of the lid. Plywood. Yep.

The trench. I thought it was going to be a pain to backfill, but it wasn't. It just sort of disappeared. Maybe Candelario filled it.... Candelario is my mostly-Spanish-speaking, Landscaper neighbor. I had promised him a bunch of the soil. While he expressed an interest, he wasn't really doing anything about it. He watched several loads of soil get carted off, and I think he wanted to really earmark some of the soil for himself. I had pulled out all of my tools this morning, which meant two shovels, two rock breakers and some other things. Candelario came over, grabbed a shovel and started filling the wheelbarrow with me. We did a pretty good job of communicating about where I was digging and how deep, and we worked from about 11 until about 2 on it together. Each time the wheelbarrow got full, he wheeled it next door to his house to dump the soil. It was REALLY awesome! With his help, I ended up getting that whole aisle dug. Just need to tweak it a bit before laying the dg and sand, etc...

But I digress... got a bit ahead of myself. Digging out the wine and beer bottles that I had worked so hard to cut to size for the lighting idea. I think it was good that I let them sit for awhile, and didn't just dig them up right after I did the trial and it failed. Digging them out then would have been heartbreaking. Digging them out this morning was just part of the day's goal. No sweat.

Boy, I did get ahead of myself. I had gotten most of the path up to the back of the first set of beds dug out myself before Candelario joined me.

We got some rain today, and my phone was blowing up with Craigslisters looking for fill dirt. I knew most people weren't going to want to slog sloshy, sticky Texas mud around in their trucks, no matter how rugged. But I also had priced having the stuff hauled away, and the price was outrageous! I wanted to keep the dirt as dry as I could so people would still want it. So, when the rain started coming down, I popped up the tent to cover it. Worked GREAT! Thanks again, Tent Giver!! This thing has been invaluable!!!

Texas soil is thick, tenacious, nasty stuff. What's more, it has both the properties of stickiness (in abundance, as evidenced by the state of my Wellies) and slipperiness. So when your boots are caked with this mess, you have to walk extremely carefully, especially over rain-slicked tarps and hard-packed, similarly slick mud. And even MORE especially when carrying a trug full of 40 or more pounds of mud. Again and again and again and again. Can I get a "Ramen", Spaghetti God?!?

You can see here that I have actually rolled up the tarp full of mulch enough that I can start digging the path between the intended compost bin and the house. That is a HUGE accomplishment, as this pile of mulch is never ending, and thusly has been there since shortly after the project began. I have used it in countless beds and potting mixes, etc, etc, and it never gets smaller! That was an awesome $20.00 purchase!! If only I had a golden coin that did that!

Off topic but not really, it was when I was working in this area when I felt a sting on my right calf. Then another closer to the back of my knee. Then one in my boot! OMG, I had ants in my pants! I'm SOO glad Candelario had already split for the day at that point, because I could not run into the house and strip my pants off fast enough. I did NOT need a witness to this! My blasted boots were caked in mud and I couldn't get a grip on them to yank them off. By the time I finally did, I had several more bites. I finally freed myself of them inside the garage and flew into the house so I could peel off my rain and mud soaked jeans and get relief from the ants. NOT. FUN. AT. ALL. All of my other work jeans were in the wash, so I had to finish the day in workout pants, wellies, and my football jersey. If Clinton and Stacy had seen me in that get up, I would be in NY by now with a new wardrobe.

AND I started attacking this bed. This is the one just outside the living room windows. This one isn't as high of a priority, but I needed to get after it just the same. I cleaned up the debris that was being stored there, and started hacking out the path between this bed and the nearest set of blue boxes. I also pulled out all of the volunteer roses (gave to Calendario) and weeds in this bed. Roughed out the trench that I will have to work on more later for the short retaining wall.

In order to clean out the bed pictured just above this pic, I had to move the blackberries (in temporary pots) closer to their intended places. When I did that, things really started to click in my head. Each of these plants will soon be in one of the tall trashcans, but pretty much in the location in which they sit now. Seeing this was really a good thing for my body and soul. My body is aching. The skin on my hands and my fingernails are peeling and splitting and gross. My fingers are creaky and my hands spasm and cramp. My back is sore and my shoulders are killing me. Seeing this made all of those things fade for a bit. Kind of like when I'm drinking a cocktail and it kicks in. Fuzzy and lovely and a little bit numb-y.

Another picture, 'cause it just does me so much GOOD!

The onion pod, in slow-mo burst! Oh, man, my dad gave me the coolest camera that I should have set up to capture this. I've been so focused on the digging and paving that I haven't learned how to use it yet. It's made for the garden, so is weather and heat proof, and it'll take pictures every X time period, as you set it. Then the pictures can be put together to make a movie! Tomorrow may be a really wet day, so that seems like the PERFECT day to learn how to set up that camera and be ready for the next perfect thing to photograph in time-delay. Thanks SO much Dad! Can't wait to play with my new toy!

My first 'mater of the season. A sungold cherry tomato. Those things are like crack. So juicy and sweet. And prolific!! Last season, I had so many that I sacrificed a TON of them to make fried green tomato poppers. They were FANTASTIC. I smashed each 'mater with the side of a butcher's knife to remove the seeds. Then I did a double dip coating. I think it went milk, cornmeal, egg, cornmeal, deep fryer! Now that I'm vegan, I'll find a non-animal product binder and make a bunch more of these this year. And I think I can do a "pan fry" instead of a deep fry. It'll be more of a fritter than anything, but same concept and same deliciousness!

This is a gorgeous purple globe basil. I had a green globe basil last year and loved the sweet, mild flavor. It wasn't as sharp as Genovese. This purple one has a bit of a licorice flavor to it, which isn't my absolute favorite, but I thought it was so lovely. I want to try a basil mojito with this!

The tent again. Only noteworthy if you understand that this is not the same pile as was in the tent before. Nope. That whole pile was hauled off, and this is a new pile. And it got much bigger before the day ended.

Backing up a bit... at some point Candelario took leave of the project. He left me his flat-edged shovel (I HAVE to get one of these!) and his pick axe to borrow for the rest of the afternoon. Before he left, we were both paused, catching our breath at one point, and he said in Spanglish, "Much work". I laughed and agreed. He added, "Por Hombres". I just about died! "Man's work!" I couldn't tell if he was being respectful or derisive, so I'll just split the difference and take it at half way between the two.

That said, I totally could not have gotten this far today without this guy's help. It was so fortuitous that he had the free time and just picked up a shovel and started working. (I know Trent would have helped me, but he's down with a hurt foot and isn't even playing basketball, so you know it's not invented to get out of this project. And we all know he's not that kind of guy anyway!) When I took his tools back to him, I brought him another sizable volunteer rose bush from under the living room windows, and a paper bag with all of the strawberries I had that were ripe enough to pick. It was only a small handful, but it was every single one that a bug hadn't tasted and was red enough to be yummy. He deserved 'em!

Sorry this post is sort of all over the place. It doesn't feel like it flows, but I'm too pooped to edit. I try to be a good story teller, but my brain is jumbled today. I'm trying to force myself to take a day off from the hard labor tomorrow. The skies just might help enforce that. Though if they don't, I'll feel compelled to work through the fatigue to make the most of the dry day. The forecast STILL shows rain for every day until I start my new job. But it would bite if I started it and was a ragdoll from working myself too hard. Rambling again. That's a wrap!

4.16.10

2010-04-16T23:17:00.006-05:00

More of the same. This stuff might not look all that impressive, but in the next few days as I start adding in the pavers, the pictures in the blog will be more dramatic. This post is for me, a pat on my own back.

This is the path between the area that is to become the compost pile and the nearest set of beds. I started digging this but quickly realised that roughing it in wasn't the way to do it. Dig too little and I have to go back in. Dig too much, and I'll have to build part of it back up to support the compost bin. Let's bust out the measuring tape, shall we?

A few measurements and a landscaping timber later, this edge of the bin is marked. Carry on!

Broken up, weeded, and dug out!

Now to start on the north-south path nearest the driveway. OMG, I was NOT looking forward to this. The skies were threatening so I didn't want to pull the iPod stereo out, so I started this out in the quiet of a Friday morning. The barely visible blue lines on the soil mark the rest of the compost bin and the parameters of the path.

After getting a good start on the digging, I did the marking, which means I had to go back in and do more digging. Whatevs. It all has to get done.

Half dug out! You can see, way down at the end of the pallets of pavers, the small mountain of dirt piling up. Peeps looking for good deals on Craigslist came through for me - I had a guy come by with his truck and we loaded this pile 'o' dirt into it. And so I had room to pile more dirt, and then the next Craigslister queued up to come and get some. Only the next guy was just so cool! His wife came with him, and they were an older couple, and just awesome to talk to. They took one pile home, unloaded it, and came back for another. This time with freshly made kolaches for me and Trent. They came back one last time, and I've promised them more as I keep digging. They live just 3 miles away, so they can come over pretty quick and since I only have the one place to put dirt, the faster I can get rid of it, the faster I can pile up more of it! Am I rambling? I am. I'm rambling.

The light is better in this picture. The sun had come out for a bit. That meant that I was able to drag out the iPod stereo. I might add here an apology to anyone who heard me, er, singing along to Marty Casey and the LoveHammers, or Liz Phair, or Karen O, or The Pretenders, or Florence and the Machine, or AirSupply.

Then again, no one ever apologizes to me for incessant rooster crowing, so maybe I won't.

This path was the main task for the day. I accomplished my goal and am really pleased.

I helped my Craigslisters load up dirt on each of their three trips. While I was waiting for them to arrive the first time, I noticed that my sidewalk bed is overrun with that freaking weed again. OMG, it's making me crazy!! So, I grabbed a beer and my weeding tools and copped a squat and pulled weeds while I waited. There are a ton of zinnia volunteers, a bunch of lamb's quarters, and some amaranth. I cleared out most of the lamb's quarters, but kept the amaranth and zinnia. I hope some of the zinnia are the long stemmed ones, but I'm cool with them either way. They look amazing and help choke out some of that infernal weed.

Just more pics of my beds, full up with weeds. How do they grow so fast?! It's just amazing!

GAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

4.15.10

2010-04-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

Today was a lot of "lather, rinse, repeat". I had a lot of the east-to-west paths to take care of. They had to be weeded, loosened, combed through, and then have the soil dug out and removed. I was working between the raindrops, for sure. With the forecast not in my favor for the next two weeks, my biggest concern is getting the soil dug out. The more rain the soil takes on, the heavier it becomes. I'm trying to shave off the top 3-4" while it's still dry-ish. When the rain was coming down too hard to dig, I booked it to Home Depot for more bark mulch.

I started marking out the rough location of the compost bin. That's what those stakes in the ground are. And, I started consolidating the mulch pile.

Before...

Got through steps one and two for this path, but left three for a later day.

I knew this path was going to take a little more work than the others, since I was going to pull out those pavers and the pea gravel. I also had to weed the edges of the path to prep it for the bark mulch. I liked this look, but it wasn't friendly for my knees, or my wallet!

Pavers popped out.

Pea gravel dug out. I kept it to use in a French drain for another part of the yard. I left the DG and the weedcloth though.

Cardboard. You've seen this all before.

Aaaaand, MULCH! Done!

This path is the one on the "blackberry side" of the garden, closest to the sidewalk. I kept having to move things from here to there. Move pavers from aisle X to aisle Y, bags of sand from aisle Y to aisle W, etc, etc. It was becoming redundant, not to mention tiresome. I finally got smart and moved things into grouped piles in front of the garage. Joe the Frog moved with those things.

Cleaned out!

Weedcloth and cardboard.

Mulch.

This is the path on the driveway side of the yard, closest to the sidewalk. See those bags of sand in there? That's the kind of thing I kept having to move from place to place. By early afternoon though, both my deliveries from Lowe's and the landscape stone place had arrived, so I grouped things accordingly.

Loosened and weeded.

Dug out. I ran out of weedcloth and mulch, so finishing this one will have to wait a bit.

I thought I was going to get to this path too, but the rain ate part of the day. So did plain ol' fatigue. Man, NONE of this is easy. And this path isn't as cut and dried as the rest. The part to the left of the picture, closest to the house, is going to become a succulent bed. It requires that I add a very short retaining wall, but that requires MUCH more precision than laying the paths. I also have to adjust the soil composition. Plus, I need to clean the area out. It houses all kinds of garden flotsam and jetsam - discarded, failed bean pole cages, an old hose, a busted soaker, random tools, and the four displaced blackberry plants. Yeah, not ready to mess with this one.

Randomly, I spotted this onion bud. Again with the fuzzy close-ups. But it's this beautiful little tear-drop shaped capsule absolutely bursting at the seams, filled with little white florets waiting to bloom. It looks so full of potential.

This is my first pile of excavated mud. With a showercap on. After a little calling around, I found out it would cost roughly an arm and a leg to have this stuff carted off. And it would just get shoved into a landfill. What sense does that make?! So I posted it as free fill dirt on Craigslist. Fingers crossed.

My pallets of toys! That's 3 pallets of stone to lay, and a pallet each of paver base and paver sand.

4.14.10

2010-04-14T20:35:00.000-05:00

OK, so I found out I got a GREAT new job on Monday afternoon. I don't start for two weeks, so that's two weeks I can throw money and time at the yard. So, on Tuesday, I went to a local landscape rock place and ordered 3 pallets of the pavers I used for the first stone path. Then I went to Lowe's and ordered the paver base and sand and concrete (for the blackberry trellises). By the time I was finished with that, I was tuckered out and didn't do squat in the yard, even though I had tons of daylight left. Man, I regretted that, as I found out on Wednesday that it is supposed to rain EVERY SINGLE DAY for the remainder of my time off. D'oh!!!

So, Wednesday I got off my arse and got to work. The goal is to get the digging done before the ground gets soaked. Not knowing when the rain is supposed to come, I'm working against the clock!!

This is the path on the driveway side of the yard. Rather, this is a picture of all of the weeds choking the driveway side of the yard. And "Joe the Frog", my new front yard frog. Mr. Burpee might not be salvageable.

Same path, but this pic was taken from the house, not the sidewalk. Here, I've popped out the tall, vertical weeds with a pitchfork. Unfortunately, this side of the yard had a LOT of horizontal weeds too. That blasted grassy weed that roots where it touches the ground! Crikey I hate that stuff. So, this path isn't going to be as easy to dig out. What I'm going to have to do is a 3 pass-process. First, pop out the vertical weeds and loosen sections of soil with the pitchfork. Second, comb through each section of loosened soil with a garden claw to remove the roots. Third, dig out and remove the soil. If only it could be as easy as the first path was!!

This is the remains of the mulch pile that won't end. Don't get me wrong, this was a STEAL at $20.00, but I thought I would have used it all up by now. This pile is going to be in the way soon, so it's time to try to clean it up and make it mobile.

You know how I like the multiple perspectives....

First step down - vertical weeds dug out. Two more to go...

Loosening the soil...

Using the garden claw to remove the weeds...

This section is all cleaned up. Oooh, and there's a cameo of my handsome man!

Done! All cleaned up!

All the pretty colors!!

I love how there are white dianthus right in the middle of all of those hot pink ones!!

That shock of yellow is so cute!

My artichokeS!! For some reason I have trouble with close ups with this camera, but check out the two artichokes on the sides of the middle one. OMG!

And a baby green artichoke! So many of them!!

I think this baby is on my other plant, but I'm not 100% on that. Just smile and nod.

A fourth purple artichoke!

4.11.10

2010-04-11T23:16:00.007-05:00

I did a BUNCH of different stuff today. My goals included getting more done on the newly paved path, digging out more of the mint from the strawberry bed, weeding the driveway bed and reseeding some things that didn't take off, seeding the rest of the 'mater beds, and whatever else I could work in. In roughly chronological order...

I needed to kidnap some of the trashcans from the trashcan bed in the backyard for the blackberries. As I did so, this cute little guy popped out of one of them. Cute little buggar!

I was working in the front yard when my neighbor, Larry, drove by. I had promised him the top soil we dug up to lay the path, and he brought his truck so he could load it up. I helped him shovel it into the bed, and then gave him a quick tour of the garden. When I did, I saw my VERY FIRST artichoke!! OMG! I though they were supposed to come up on long, leggy stalks, but this one is buried deep in the foliage of the giant thistle. I'll give it a few more days and then cut it. Can't wait to eat it!!!

This rose was about as big across as my hand. We had a misty rain all day long. The kind that really just hangs in the air - doesn't so much fall as float. Gorgeous, and smelling of cloves!

More on another bush. Likely to open tomorrow.

This is a little hard to see. I had been playing around with the placement of the trashcans to hold the blackberries and the posts for the trellis wire. There are 3 small trashcans (one left, right, and center) and one bigger one lined up at the back of the new path. I wasn't sure what I was going to put the posts in, so I pulled the cans out and started playing. Originally, I thought I would plant the b.berries in the smaller cans, but even with all 4 of them in place, it didn't have the impact I was hoping for. So I decided to plant them in the bigger cans, which freed up the smaller ones for the posts! BINGO! While the cans were in place, I eyeballed the strip of pavers where I could begin sweeping sand into the crevices. I only wanted to do it for the stones that would be under the cans, as the rest of them will get a mix of sand and soil to support some ground cover plants.

At some point I managed to get the sand swept in. It sort of makes the pavers disappear, but that won't last long. It'll settle in and the pavers will shine!!

After sweeping the sand in, I took a tour of the garden and got some things planted. This is the bud forming at the top of an onion leaf (?). I haven't grown onions before, so I'm curious what this is going to look like, open.

I ate a bunch of chard last week at some point. Really made a dent in this plant. Went out of town for a few days. Came back to 2 FEET of growth, and bolted chard! It's still delicious, so I just lopped off the flowers and will keep on eating it.

My strawberries are quite prolific this year! That's good, 'cause last year they were very stingy. I almost pulled them out altogether. In fact, were it not for the tangle of mint that I was dreading wrestling with, I WOULD have pulled the strawberries out. So the mint was a blessing in disguise!

Here's a better idea of what the line up of b.berry cans and support, etc, is going to look like. The small cans that hold the posts will double as bottle trees! They'll also be used as planters, and will hold mint. Two types per can. It'll be off the ground, so it should be easier to deal with. For a while...

If your imagination is failing you, here is my best effort at rendering it with MS Paint and the photo above. See how the smaller cans hold the posts and mint? And how the posts hold trellis wire and bottles - blue wine bottles from my favorite Reisling? And see the purple dots, eh, blackberries all over the leafy blackberry vines? I know you're jealous of my mad Paint skills. Don't be hatin'.

After seeding the 'mater beds, I weeded the driveway bed and checked on the seedlings planted there. This zucchini is doing quite well.

As is the yellow summer squash...

And the sugar snap peas. I couldn't pull out all of that clover, or I would have damaged my pea shoots. In the next day or so, they'll finally reach the bottom slat of the blue fence and will grab hold and climb up. Once that happens, I'll plant some more. The new seedlings will use the older ones as a trellis.

Would you believe that this is the bed that was previously choked with mint? I got the remaining 2/3 of the mint out. The tall, bushy plant in the bottom right corner is a cilantro. It never grows for me where I plant it, so I left this one there since it's so happy. I learned my lesson and worked hard to leave the strawberries in place and relatively undisturbed. I'm sure they're a little worse for the wear, but I think they'll have less shock and lose fewer fruits this way. Those little weird thread-lookin' things in the freshly cleaned squares are red onion starts. Onions and strawberries are supposed to grow together really well.

The last thing I did was weed this strip of soil on my side of the driveway. I didn't take a "before" pic, but it was absolutely choked up with weeds and mints. No more mint in the ground!! Containers ONLY!! I didn't get every bit of root up, but I'll work on it more as I plant it out.

And I guess that be that. All in all, it was a VERY successful day! Can't wait to finish the blackberry area!!

4.10.10

2010-04-10T21:43:00.002-05:00

This isn't going to be a long post today. I worked from about 10 am until about 6:45, finishing the path I started last weekend. With a couple of trips to HD and Lowe's thrown in, and a coupla breaks for snacks and water, I was go-go-go all day long!

Here I've brought the pavers back about half way into the second row of beds.

Made it to the back of the second set of beds, and to the end of the sand I had put down. I had to go get more sand at this point. I also had to make some decisions about how to connect the path to the house. With a little input from Trent, I got it figured out and got back to gettin'.

I had to dig out a few more feet of ground in order to take the path to the point Trent and I decided on. Dig it out, move the dirt, lay cardboard, dg, weedcloth, sand, etc. Blending the new section with the old was a little difficult, but I think I did ok. I don't think it's visible, and I think once all of the sand "grout" is swept in, it'll look really tight and clean. AWESOME!

Dug it out!

OMG, finished! Well, with the limestone pavers. Still need to add in the rest of the grey, industrial pavers over the gasline, and still need to add the blackberries back in, etc, etc. I could go on and on with the lists! So for now, deep breath, cold beer, and chill the heck out! Testify!

4.9.10

2010-04-09T20:51:00.000-05:00

I read somewhere recently that butterflies don't live off of flowers alone. They have to drink water, too. But they can't land on water; instead they land on damp soil or sand and drink from that. For this reason, a shallow dish of damp sand is an asset in any butterfly garden. I shared this information with my mom and she was intrigued. So, on a recent visit to Houston, we set out making butterfly drinking dishes.

Mom had a bunch of stained glass scraps on hand. We also went to various craft and discount stores to get bags of glass beads and pebbles. I'm scoring and cutting glass into smaller pieces here. You can see all of our containers of various glass bits.

This is the 16" plant saucer I used as my base. Mom made a slightly smaller one. Any size would work.

This is my mom's dish. She put glass bits on the edge, then built a spiral on the bottom of the dish.

Mom's spiral turned out to be a GREAT idea. Neither of us had made these before. Mom didn't put grout on the bottom of her dish, just around the beads at the top of the dish.

Gorgeous!

Grouted.

Wiped down and filled with sand. SOOO pretty! Here's where the lack of grout on the bottom of the dish paid off. Because the little glass beads Mom glued down stood up off the bottom of the saucer, the sand could be worked down in between the beads, but you can still SEE the beads. I think this will help attract the butterflies, in my humble opinion. Though we have no way of knowing...

Gluing, gluing, gluing!

I put my last name on the bottom, 'cause I intend to use this in the front yard. Should it walk off, I might be able to reclaim it what with my name in it and all. Or the "new owner" might feel bad... Alas, it won't actually show, because the sand will be on top of it.

I used little red beads to make hearts on the bottom of the dish. Awww!

I filled in around my name with white glass, then around that with blue. The sides have big blue glass circles and green glass stars alternating all around. I filled in the gaps with slivers of green stained glass. LOTSA work!!

It almost looks Christmas-y...

Mixing the grout. Hair up, gloves on!

Gotta mush it all around and make a nice runny paste.

Gooping it all around...

Scraped off some of the dry grout to see how it's gonna turn out.

OOOH, very loverly!

Awesome! I'll wipe it down again after it's cured a bit more. I love it! It's a shame that the work on the bottom will never show, but oh well! Can't wait to fill it up and see all of the butterflies come rest on it for a drink!

4.7.10

2010-04-07T12:50:00.007-05:00

I have a second interview today in the late afternoon. I'm very excited about it. I can either get a stomach full of butterflies waiting for my appointment time to arrive, or I can keep my head together with a little gardening. Hmmmm... have you met me?

Started in the front with a few plantings. Put some red onions in with my strawberries. They're supposed to grow really well together. The onions are circled in yellow - they're young and sort of hard to see. I circled one of the strawberry plants in red, just for giggles. The white stuff is DE - helps with pill bugs and other exoskeleton bugs, without inundating my soil with nasty chemicals.

I also tucked these three peppers into their new beds. The red circle is where I'll seed some habaneros.

Got my watermelons planted. "Hokkaido Black", "Desert King", and "Moon and Stars". Right now, these guys are in the back yard. Once the pavers are finished up front, these pots will be moved into their intended places. I needed to get the seedlings growing or risk not getting a crop! I laid a blanket under each pot so that when it's time to move them, we can lift them up more easily, using the blankets. My friend Tina had some trouble with birdies and varmits digging up her watermelon seeds, so I've borrowed my anti-bird cage from my bean bed.

I realised that this big, sharp, wire cage was right in the trajectory of my two goofy Italian Greyhounds when we let them into the backyard. Margo is mostly blind, so I wove some scraps from a paint drop cloth into the wire to help her see it. It's soooo sad when she bonks her little apple head on things. And the wire - ooh, that could give her a nasty cut!

Mom is helping me remember that "goal setting" applies to gardening just as well as any other type of work. I've had 5 rose plants, waiting to be planted, for well over a month. I decided that that would be my task today. This is the "Trashcan Bed", and two roses are destined for this area. I have a climber that will be planted near that trellis, and a bush that will go in one of the trashcans. I'm going to flip the locations of the big tub in the front with the small tub that is near the trellis, too.

Done! I raked out a bunch of dead leaves, pulled a ton of weeds, cut back a dead plant ( will replace later), and switched the locations of the planters. When I did that, I discovered a mini-rose growing in the big tub, so I moved it into the small one. Everything in its place!

This is the weedy can that will soon be home to the "bush" rose. That's it right there, sitting in that tub full of weeds. Waiting.

Taa-daa!

I don't have a "before" picture for this one. It just got put in a spot where I thought it would look good, get enough sun, and not grab the doggies.

This is a trellis in the "Long Back Bed". It's the intended home of the climbing rose sitting there in the bottom right corner of the pic.

Weeded the area and planted the rose. Yay!

The yellow circle shows where the pavers that I'm using in the front yard came from. They have been in storage here for over a year. This "Long Back Bed" is getting widened this year, and storing the pavers here has helped kill off the grasses and weeds where I'm going to be digging more bed. The red arrow shows the line of pavers that used to be the front of the bed. The green arrow shows that I've moved the pavers up to the NEW front of the bed. Hiya, Hippo!

Another trellis in the "Long Back Bed".

Weeded and planted. This picture has weird lighting because the skies were darkening, getting ready to rain. It had been treatening all morning! But I wanted to get these goals accomplished!! And I did just that. As I was cleaning up my messes and picking up my tools, it started to drizzle. By the time I was out of the shower, we were getting a nice, gentle rain! I didn't water my plants in, but I'm not so sure the rain will be enough. I'll check them after my interview and water if they didn't get enough.

4.4.10

2010-04-04T21:49:00.016-05:00

I'm gonna knock this out. My goal today is to get the fine-tuning digging done ( right up against the fence and blue boxes), and lay the lasagna - cardboard, dg, weedcloth, cardboard, and sand. And, I want to lay actual pavers at LEAST to the line of the back board of the first set of beds.

Tools of the trade, standing at attention.

Layer 1 down. Why cardboard? Because it's free. And thick. Yes, it will dissolve over time, but it's UNDER layers of substrate, not exposed to the elements. So it won't "go away". I think the term is "anaerobic"? - Decay without air is different from decay with air. Maybe I'm over thinking it. Whatever.

This is my pile 'o' cardboard. This is AFTER I pulled the boxes I used in the path. Those made up over half of my stash. I'm sure Trent is happy that this is being whittled down. He's VERY patient with my projects and stashes and piles - SAINTLY patient. But they have to get annoying.

The cardboard that has all of the black and brown lines painted on it? It's on its THIRD life. Started out as applicance boxes at HD or Lowe's, then became a ROCKIN' haunted pirate ship at cubicleville for Halloween, and is now my weed preventative. Recycling is cool.

Putting down the dg. That shit is heavy. Sorry, I try to keep things clean here, but I had to lug about 100 of those bags around today, by the time the day was over. Not cool. Not that I poured 100 bags into the path. I think I used 30, but moving them from the shelf to the cash register, from the register to the car, and from the car to the work area, well that's a freakin' LOT of carryin'.

Whittled down the stockpile of dg, paver sand, and various other substrate that was "in storage" between this box and the fence. All that stuff squashed the weeds growing there, so if I move fast, digging that path should be pretty easy.

I had all of the dg bags lined up, and I kept flashing to that Chinese Emperor's tomb with all of the thousands of terra cotta soldier statues. Maybe I was a little overheated.

Action shot. DUMP that dg!

All the dg, raked and leveled (I use that term very loosely) and ready for weedcloth. It's calico because I had one kind on hand, had to buy 2 different kinds on my first trip to HD this morning, and had to buy a fourth kind altogether when I took my last trip to Lowe's this afternoon. Whatever, it's going to get COVERED!

Looks so good, I had to take another picture.

Weedcloth. This part of the path is roughly 7.5' wide by 22' long. Weedcloth is 3' wide, at least the kind that I could afford. So I bought two rolls and decided to fudge the extra 1.5' somehow or other. I won't put it under the "gas line" pavers, so that buys me a few inches. And with some more cardboard, all should be well.

Cardboard. We've already been over this.

Sand. Again with the terra cotta soldier imagery.

Dumped and raked out as much as I had on hand. I know I won't get all of this paved today, so I'm not making another trip out for more sand. What I don't get paved will get covered with a blanket to help keep weed seeds out.

ShaZAM! OMG. I wanted to cry. It's so FREAKIN' pretty. The end is in sight.

Goal met! Can I get a "HELZ yeah!"? I wanted to get pavers to the back of the first set of beds, and I did that and more. You may have questions. Did I use all of the recommended, top of the line products for this paver installation? No, I did not. I am unemployed. Tryin' to make things work for as little moolah as possible. Will that lead to weeds? Of course, but so would using all of the top of the line materials. Did I follow the manufacturers installation instructions to a "T"? No, I did not. Is it perfect? Yes, in every possible way.

Saying "whew". 'Cause I was capital-T-Tired. That, or Trent snapped this mid belch. 'Cause I just upended a cold one.

Puzzle pieces... I will fill in the gaps with a mixture of soil and sand. I will plant plugs of elfin thyme, pennyroyal, oregano, and creeping jenny in this "grout". All of them will provide color, stability for the pavers, will help choke out weeds, and all but the last one will release fragrance when stepped on.

I'm putting these rectangular, grey, utilitarian pavers over where the gasline is. I'm going to spray paint them, "GAS" for clarity.

A beautiful, curlique new onion leaf.

My sage, in bloom.

My salvias coming back. Look at that electric blue!

Dianthus, pinks, sweet william, carnations...

Yup.

Verbena, but with better light. So pretty.

The transplanted strawberries, giving it their best. You can do it!!

4.3.10

2010-04-03T21:49:00.001-05:00

Today we are going to get after this path. I enlisted my handsome hubby's help. We need to cut out the weeds, then dig out 3" of topsoil so I can lay the pavers. Once the pavers are laid, I can get the blackberries planted into containers and moved back into place, and get the trellises up, and the bottle tree, and get the watermelon into place. So get to work, baby! Put your back into it!!

My handsome man, showin' me how it's done!

Break it, baby! Use that rock breaker! Yeah!

Diggin' up the weeds. I have a neighbor a few streets over who also gardens like crazy. I introduced myself because I wanted to offer him the topsoil after it's dug out. It's actually pretty good soil, and he does raised beds so I figured he might like it. I think he's going to come and get it. For now, we're just piling it up on a tarp on the driveway. Anyone else want some? Yes, I had to dig out the weeds, but guess what? The soil mix you buy at any "big box" type shop will either a) have plenty of weed seed in it, b) have tons of nasty, weed preventing chemicals in it, or c) all of the above. Why buy the cow if you can get the topsoil for free?

As I pop out the weeds, Trent comes behind me and removes the loosened soil. He dug the entire path out, from the sidewalk to the back edge of the back-most bed. Thanks, babe! Much appreciated!

I also needed to get this back area cleaned out. This photinia (?? - I always forget what this damn thing is!) needs a good trimming, and I need to dig up the weeds in the alley. The photinia shades a window, so while I'm going to trim it, I'm not going to butcher it. It helps keep the house cool.

As big as this thing is, I thought it was going to take forever. In truth, it took about 20 minutes, and that includes bagging the trimmings. Not bad.

I thought I was going to have to get way up on a ladder to get that poof of leaves rounding the eaves. Not so.

Wouldjalookitthat? All trimmed up, and halfway finished with the weeds. And that little ol' 2-step stepladder was all I needed. And some loppers.

This brave, BRAVE last patch of grass is all that is left from when we cut the sod out two Novembers ago. I'm going to make quick work of that, let me tell you!

Spotless!

These are some WAY cool garden ornaments I found at HEB. When I buy them, people in the store stop me and say, "What kind of vegetable is that"? I just stare at them. The bigger ones are about 18" - bigger than most pumpkins HEB carries in the fall. People are funny. The two "holey" ones are mine. The one with the fern pattern is for momma.

They were sitting on the grass for a few days. I picked 'em up to mow.

CROP CIRCLES!!!

4.2.10

2010-04-02T21:49:00.001-05:00

R.E.M has a gorgeous song called "Night Swimming". It's one of my all time favorites. This posting is called, "Night blooming", and may well be my shortest post ever.

Verbena and pansies.

My first rose from the sidewalk bed.

FIN

3.27.10

2010-03-27T21:48:00.000-05:00

Went to another garden show with John and Joann and her mom. We met up with Tina and Benny at the show. This time I came prepared! I have two wagons that live in the back yard. Both are old, but one is waaaaay older than the other. The older of the two works GREAT! I've drilled holes in the bottom for drainage because it often serves as a planter, but the holes haven't rusted out or enlarged. Also, the wheels work fabulously. The other wagon is not so well off, but I didn't not know the degree of its short comings until we had already lugged it to the show. John and Joann have a truck, so they picked me and the two wagons up. I claimed dibbies on the older one (I didn't know what was to come, I SWEAR!) and let them use the other one. 'Cause at our last garden show, none of us had a wagon, so this time we would ALL have wagons.

As it turns out, the repair job I did on the gimpy wagon was not so good. It kept the wheels on, but only when they weren't turning. If you wanted to turn them, then the nut keeping the back left wheel on would work its way off every 100 yards or so. I just happened to see it happen the first time, and caught the nut before it fell off. And then we knew that we needed to keep an eye on it. We were halfway between parking and the event gates when this happened, and no one particularly wanted to take the wagon back. Besides, we were going to NEED it. We were going to FILL IT UP. So on we trudged.

At the end of the event, none of us had bought much of anything at all. The one, working wagon would have been plenty to carry our collective booty and have room to spare. And then we had to drag the damn thing back to the parking area. OMG. J&J, you guys are the bestest kinds of friends to see the humor in this and not just throw my old wagon right into Zilker Creek.

Not sure what this tree is. Going to venture, a peach. For some reason, it was flowering like CRAZY at the pruning locations. It looked like some kind of fungus. Some kind of pink, soft, frothy, lovely fungus. More pics below...

Pom poms!

When I got home, I felt a nap coming on. So, instead of getting ambitious, I picked something a little easier. Easier in that I could sit on that cushy pad and stay in one place. This is the strawberry and mint bed that I've pissed and moaned so much about. I started clearing out the mint. It's not too hard, surprisingly. The mistake I made doing this first 1/3 of the cleaning was in removing the strawberries. I transplanted them to another bed, and they're having a little trouble. I think they'll come back, but I also think that for the remainder of this box, I'll work around the strawberries. Most of them are already blooming and producing!

In shock. But they'll come back after a long drink of water. And I need to be vigilant about the doodle bugs. Gah, I hate those!

More of the same. I put them in two patches, in the bed on the side of the driveway. They're planted with roses (they're related) and garlic (are supposed to LOVE being planted with garlic) so they should do well. Eventually.

3.26.10

2010-03-26T21:48:00.000-05:00

Did lots of stuff today... In no particular order:

Took stock of each bed. Pulled the mibuna from this one - it had bolted and was way past its prime. I mixed the leaves from the pulled plants in with some salad greens. They were tasty - sort of like clover. Bitter and metallic, but somehow not unpleasant. Maybe I'm biased, since I grew them. I read that description, and it doesn't sound like something I'd want to eat. The onions and French sorrel stayed put.

Pulled the bolted brassicas out of this bed, and the weeds. Forgot to take "afters" of this bed and the one above.

Started giving heavy thought to this path. Believe it or not, in amongst these god awful weeds are 4 blackberry plants. Plans include pulling the blackberries out temporarily, digging up the weeds and 3" of topsoil, putting down pavers, and replacing the b.berries in containers. I'll need to construct some vine trellises, and I *think* I can make one of them double as a bottle tree. New planters for watermelon vines will go between the container planted berries. Need to get crackin'!!

Before.

After. This is as far as I got. It wasn't hard popping the weeds out, but I had such a jumble of other projects in my head, that I moved on... to....

The ARUGULA. I have mentioned before that it grows too well in my beds. In the image above, the massive green thing with all of the white flowers is a single planted arugula, and all if its wild-sown babies. Trollop.

This is the other "rogue" arugula I've mentioned before. I said it would get worse. I warned you! I did. For goodness sake. At least this one had the decency to plant itself in one of my beds.

Whereas this one, circled in yellow, just sprung up willy-nilly at the edge of the yard. All by itself. There were actually several of these, but I gave some to Tina. I hate letting my plants/crops go to waste, but when they're as prolific as this, it's hard to use them up. And there you go kids, a lesson in micro-ag.

Here's the "after" showing all 3 areas trimmed back or pulled out. If I'm not careful, this one remaining plant could get all kinds of out of control again.

Herbs are doin' well.

Beans are starting to sprout. The birds ended up snacking on some of the new shoots, but that's ok. I'll replant, and that'll give me staggered harvests. I'll also park my bird-cage over top of this. The bees can get in to pollinate, but the birds can't get in to steal.

Weeds and an artichoke in the middle. And the bead-thingies my mom and I made when she visited. She was so nice - she gave me hers, so I have 2! So pretty! But I thought I already weeded around this artichoke. Hmmm...

Now for the sidewalk bed. The scraggly, branchy thing in the upper left corner is my rock rose. I'm hoping it'll come back. I moved it and that should have been ok, but I didn't realise that the roots weren't well covered for over a week after the move. Mom says she thinks the branches are still green at the base, so I'm hoping for new life. And yes, I did improve the root/soil situation. Fingers crossed.

There is this GNARLY grassy-weedy devil thing trying to take over this sidewalk bed (circled in yellow). It bested me last summer, and I've posted about digging up all vestiges of it several times already in Winter 2009 and Spring 2010. Nancy suggested it might be "Bahia" grass? I googled that, and it looks similar enought that it might be, and different enough that it might now. Hmph. Anywhoo, here it is again, so here I go again, digging it out. GAH!

Combed the ENTIRE bed for it. But it'll come back, no doubt. Grrr...

My salvia is coming back. A few weeks ago, it was looking like a bunch of sad, sad sticks. Now it's bright green and about ready to send up flower stalks. (It's in the lower left corner of this pic.)

Time for lunch. Aren't these the cartooniest carrots you've ever seen? I gobbled one up in a huge salad, and saved the other for another day.

This bouquet is made with bolted lettuce and its flowers. And apples.

3.6.10

2010-03-06T20:42:00.000-06:00

My friend Joann invited me to join her and her hubby and some friends at a garden show. Man, o man, this one is going on my calendar for the future. It was sooo fun. I didn't really know this at the time, but you have to be strategic about this show. For one, bring something with wheels. Next year, my antique wagon is coming with! For two, print out, study, and MARK the list of plants BEFORE getting to the show. They are VERY organized. There is a tent for 'maters ONLY, one or two for other veggies, one for herbs, and maybe one for ornamentals. There are a few garden-doodad vendors too. But the serious business is the 'maters and veggies. People have their lists in hand and they RUN to the tents that they need to shop at and race through, grabbing all of their "must haves". People are very nice, but you WILL catch an elbow or get your toes run over. Just take it in stride and grab your chosen items. If you're smart, you'll team up with friends and divide and conquer, with one person going to the 'mater tent and getting everyone's, and some one else in the group going to herbs and doing the same, etc, etc. You can't chat that way, but belive me, there was no time for chatting in the tents. It was a blast! Look at my face - that's JOY!

And I have to say, I loved meeting Tina and Benney. They are "Garden People" too, so now I have more peeps to talk shop with. Don't know how I didn't end up with a pic of Tina and Joann. Insert sad face here.

John and Benney looking oh-so-silly. I mean handsome. Handsome.

Just a super fun picture of the hustle and bustle. This is in front of the 'mater tent. People brought all manner of things to carry their treasures in. I LOOOVE the wheelbarrow. Wheelbarrows are such good things.

The line to the herbs! Behind the little group dead center, you can see the herb tent to the far left of the pic, and the line stretching all the way to the right and beyond! I managed to get into the tent before the line was too long, but I forgot one. I ran out to put my cardboard collection box down with John and Benney, then ran back and was going to try to sweet talk my way back in to grab one last thing, but at the last minute, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Everyone was waiting so patiently - I couldn't upset the peace like that.

Me and my new plants. Some 'maters, an eggplant, and herbs. No peppers this time.

The show was at a community garden, so I took some pics here and there. Raised beds like mine. Over flowing, like mine. And with weeds, like mine! Thank goodness I'm not the only one. (Yes, I know, they happen, but I always feel like such a bad garden-tender when they get out of control. )

Isn't this guy gorgeous?! I couldn't afford him, but I was drooling over him the whole time. He was gone by the time I checked out though, so he went to a good home, I'm sure.

Piggies! Oink, oink!

I did splurge on Joe the Frog. Mr. Burpee is a little weather worn, and I'm trying to figure out if he can be salvaged. I couldn't be without a frog, and this guy's overalls killed me! He had a little girlfriend holding a daisy, but I couldn't justify getting the pair. Gah!

Once I got home, I decided to focus on this weed-ridden bed. It grew one of my watermelon vines last year, and now everything in it is undesirable.

Here, I've cleaned out everything but one little straggler.

I'm pretty sure this is a zinnia, likely one of the long stemmed, hot pink ones from last year. I moved it to the sidewalk bed. I love those flowers!

In its new home, right by the soaker and a pansy for company.

A busted string. What to do?! How will the plants EVER know where their "square foot" is?

Oh, maybe I can just splice in some new string. All fixed!

Planting a bunch of different beans here. The rich, black dirt there is worm castings from my worm bin. Can't wait to see how they do.

A little DE to keep the bugs at bay.

And markers...

FIN

3.5.10

2010-03-05T21:54:00.000-06:00

Momma came in this week to help take my mind off some remodeling we were doing to the main bathroom in our house. The whole process was making me crazy, so mom came in and we did some yard work together. Having the company and the time in the yard did my brain some good!

Mom worked her fingers to the bone, weeding the perimeter of the front yard. She got out every last uninvited growing thing, and trimmed those things that needed it. That was awesome! Yay, mom!

While mom was weeding, I was planting new crops. Lots of cukes and okra and honey dew melon and cantaloupe and other yummy things. I'm watering the new seeds in, here.

I also made the plant markers for my new plantings. I got a little creative with these two!

Ha!

HaHa!

So cute!

After planting and placing the markers, I went to the areas mom had weeded and cut a gap into the soil right where it met the sidewalk so I could finally install the cedar edging. Mom's weeding really made this possible. She had already loosened up the soil, so I just had to push it back. Thanks, mom!

I have been so eager to get this edging in, but it always fell to the bottom of the list. It makes that area look so clean. It's rained several times since I got it all installed, and it's doing a fantastic job of keeping the soil from running onto the sidwalk after the rains. It looks so tidy now, even with the cute piles of dianthus spilling over the edging.

The other side of the yard. It looks soooo clean!

2.23.10

2010-02-23T21:02:00.000-06:00

So I'm working from home this day, scrambling to get dressed and prepped and ready for a job interview. And it starts SNOWING. OMG, seriously?! I ran out and nabbed pics before I had to head out.

My igloo farm!

More igloo farm! I think it looks pretty cool. I liked this white frost cloth a lot better than the green ones I got first. Those got relegated to the backyard.

IglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIglooIgloo

Mr. Burpee!!!

Before blankets.

Threw some covers over my newly planted roses. Gah!

Even the yard cuttings look pretty with a dusting of snow!

The driveway bed, tucked in for the afternoon.

I put the strawberry cage over my fledgling artichokes, then threw blankets over top of that and crossed my fingers.

And now I scramble to get the backyard covered up...

I LOVE this fern. I don't want to lose it.

Covering the freshly planted pansies and any other hardy souls trying to brave the cold.

Wanted to stop and have a hot chocolate at this table, but had to get to the interview.

Thank goodness they're ceramic, or they would be c-o-o-o-o-l-d!

Ewwwweee! Dandruff.

Cold hippo is not happy.

Cold goat doesn't mind so much.

Dear Snow, please kill all of those nasty weeds so I don't have to pull them up myself. Kthxbai!

That piggy chiminea is begging to be used! It would have been so perfect to throw some logs in and sit and watch a fire. Alas - the interview.

All the while, this cucumber is growing - and FLOWERING - in my kitchen window. Gotta love that.

2.21.10

2010-02-21T00:06:00.013-06:00

The early months of spring are always hard to wait out. Things look so bare! Last winter (2008, not 2009), I was able to get into the yard to cover everything when we were expecting a freeze. So, at this time last spring (2009), there was a lot of life and color in the yard. This winter (2009), I missed my mark for the very first cold snap, and it was a hard one. After that I sort of figured everything was a loss and focused on the front yard. Now I'm kicking myself. Fingers crossed that more things wake up, SOON! Here's sort of an "around the world" of the backyard, starting with the beds near the house and going counter-clockwise...

Oh, before I start, Angie and Chris are making their way back home to Alaska via Austin, so their shining faces made it into this entry as well! Hiya, Chris and Angie!

Not a lot going on here. All of the trumpet trees died, as did the geraniums, which I had been able to keep alive last winter and had woken up with a vengeance by this time last February. And the bulbines. And ice plant. Gah! But there ARE some lovely pansies that Chris and Angie helped me plant. Thanks, Chris and Angie!!

There's Angie, working hard to get her passport back. I mean, to help me pretty up the dormant beds...

Better view of the pansies, and you can see the weed-ridden "trash can bed" behind...

A pic Angie shared with me. I love seeing things through other people's perspectives. This is a hobby horse Trent surprised me with, having found it curbside in the 'hood, set out for bulk trash. Don't tell anyone!

I had had roses and rosemary and mandevilla and some other gorgeous things growing in all of these containers. Last year I pulled the roses and parked them up front, where they're doing great. The others all seem to have perished. I'll be putting more roses in, and hopefully get this area back in shape soon.

That fun, fuzzy green plant? That's a weed. Yeah. Those gangly, hard-to-see twigs? Dead plants. Yup.

Another fun pic from Angie. I need to set this pot full of puppies and kitties back into one of the beds. At least it'll add some color!

This is along the long back bed. This was a very cool hibiscus. I think it was three different varieties, braided together to form a little tree. Oh, I SO hope it comes back.

Hungry Hungry Hippo wants to know where all of my beautiful plants have got to!

More hibiscus and other things in the long back bed, looking quite dead.

Hiding our guests' passports until they have done enough back-breaking pansy planting.

Dead, dead, dead, and DEAD. I need to make time to get in there and cull the ick so the new growth can be seen.

It's so sad.

Chris, planting pansies. Yay, Chris!

Trent's Cowboys helmet. Love it! And some airplanes, and trucks, and ATVs. Very manly.

There's a skeletal fern, and a bunch of dead leaves. OMG. The carnage. Please, can't we fast forward to mid-Spring?

More pansies - the only things providing any color in the garden at all!

I think there's a little bit of green at the bottom of that feverfew. Right? Some green?

Ahhhh! Color!

Ryan's old Tonka truck. Love that thing! And a purple grass that isn't looking very purple. And an awesome mirrored bowling ball that my mom made. And some fairies looking a little worse for the wear...

Ahhhhh, more color!

A couple from Angie of the front yard. This is that omnipresent planter. Yup. Full of yumminess.

One of the brassica beds. For some reason, some of my brassicas did better than others. My kale and mustards and greens took off, as did my kohlrabe and beets. But my broccolis and cauliflowers and brussels sprouts never seemed to get anywhere. Better luck next year, eh?

Bye kids! It was an AWESOME coupla visits! You guys are welcome back anytime.

2.12.10

2010-02-12T20:38:00.003-06:00

Sometimes it's good to take a break, else you risk burnin' out. Trent and I had been long anticipating a visit from some of his old friends, Chris and Angie. Hailing from Alaska, the were going on a tropical vacation and arranged to fly out of Austin so we could hang. That was AWESOME planning on their part! Yay Angie and Chris! So there's not a lot of gardening in here, but there's definitely some worthwhile stuff!

In preparation for their visit, I decided to make up some pumpkin muffins to have around the house for snacking. My fall pumpkins lasted a good long time, so I finally decided to roast them up and prep them for baking.

Beautifully roasted, creamy and smooth and scrapes out with a spoon. Yummy.

Mashed, in a bowl, waiting to become muffins. Which they did. And they were wonderful. But didn't last long enough for me to take pics.

This is Flip Happy Crepes. If you're in Austin and you have never been here, you MUST go. Go early, 'cause they make these crepes individually and by hand, so if you get there at "opening time", there's already a line. We got there super early with a thermos of coffee and hung out. Drooling.

My handsome man and Chris, Angie's handsome man. Doing some manly ordering of foodstuffs for their womenses.

I think Chris had "the Cuban", which was my all-star favorite before I gave up meat. Yes, it still makes me drool, but I had some lovely, vegetarian concotion and was perfectly happy!

After some shopping on SoCo, we decided to take a tour of UT. UT is actually a gorgeous campus, even if it is notorious for cannibalizing its buildings since expansion is difficult. Chris is an engineer, so he got to look at some building activities, and I had fun reminiscing about my alma mater.

The old turtle pond is still there, and still chock-a-block full of turtles. Yay, turtles!!

Our tour took us by a slew of AMAZING murals done by graffitti artist Federico A. I know his last name, but I can't spell it, and I have @#$% VISTA so it's not so easy to have two browsers open at the same time. I'll update later with his full name. Check his stuff out - it's STUNNING. I love his Lady of Guadalupe. It would be dreamy to have it done on a section of our backyard fencing...

We stopped for adult bevvies and snackies at Spider House, one of my all-time favorite places. The outdoor eating area is just dreamy. It's full of things that inspire me with ideas for my own gardens. A claw-foot bathtub fountain, lots of crazy seating, old signage, etc, etc. Love it.

After snackies at Spider House, we moseyed on to the Lang Homestead. I harvested some greems to use in the night's white bean chili.

Mmmmmmm - white bean chili. Though I guess it's more of a veggie stew, as I didn't use any spicy flavors. LOTS of flavors, but none with heat. Served it up with cornbread and lots of wine. Angie helped cook! Yah, Angie!

Our menfolk, all tuckered out. Aren't they cute?! And there are the doglettes!

There's Angie, enjoying a pumpkin muffin. Yay, pumpkin muffins!! She and Chris are headed out to their tropical adventure. We'll see them again next weekend!

The END!

2.7.10

2010-02-07T22:52:00.007-06:00

My soaker hose is doing a little too much soaking. So I'm going to patch it. Yes, it would be cheaper to replace it, but that would mean I would have to take it out of the bed, and now it's all wound up around a million plants! So instead, I'll spend way more than a new hose costs in repair parts and bandaids for the inevitable busted fingers. Grrr!

Step 1: Turn on soaker. Cleverly point the screw driver and the scissors toward the hose, on each side of the leak.

Step 2: Run back to the spigot and turn water off. Run back to the hose and cut it as indicated by the cleverly used screwdriver and scissors.

Step 3: Tools of the trade. A 1/2" ...eh, repair-er thingy and two clamps. Hey, Guess What Home Depot?! When I ask for 1/2", I really do MEAN 1/2". Stop trying to sell me the damn 3/4" hose repair kits, because they don't fit on 1/2" soakers!!

Step 4: Slide the loosened clamps onto each side of the hose.

Step 5: Insert the plastic thingy.

Step 6: Slide clamps toward center and tighten. Be sure to lose your grip on the tiny wet clamps and scrape your fingers all to hell. Several times.

Onions, buttercrunch lettuce, rogue arugula, and garlic. This arugula planted itself.

Radishes. Yeah. Not much going on here.

Cleaned the heck out of this bed and put down a new layer of mulch. And Trent found me that cool bowling pin. It's HEAVY! Good for whackin' moles!

Trying to get ahead of that nasty, weedy grass. I went through this entire bed with a fine toothed comb to get out every inch of grass and root that I could. Hopefully this'll help keep that stuff from getting such a chokehold on this bed later this year. Fingers crossed! Also, planted 5 new roses right by the street in the hopes that once they're grown, people will think twice about walking through this bed. Yes, I KNOW this is city property, but still, it's planted to the hilt! Stop walking on it all! Yeesh!

Brassica Bed Numbah TWO! Raddichio and red lettuces and beet and endive, etc, etc, etc!

Onions, Mibuna, more beets, French Sorrel...

Lots herb. The legal kind!

Brassica Bed Numbah ONE! Yeah, I flipped 'em on you. Kale, kohlrabe, and a buncha other stuff!

Weeds, an artichoke (dead center), and the once-hot-pink-now-pale-pink snakie from Toy Joy. To scare all the birds. And, um. Other things.

A better pic of the artichoke. A couple of those other green things are ornamentals that I'll move to the sidewalk bed later this spring.

This is that same ol' bed that I always take pictures of for no reason. Nothing hidden in it. Look at the arugula in the front row, second from the right. Respectable, but manageable, right? Just wait a few more weeks... Arugula does REALLY well in my garden. Too well.

Strawberries and mint - a good combination for a refreshing dessert, but not so much to plant together. Yes, I know how invasive mint is. But I got cuttings of about 10 different varieties, and thought, "I'll just root them here, and move them before they take over". Looks like I didn't manage to get to it in time... The varieties I have include chocolate mint (mmmm, smells JUST like an Andes mint), orange mint, candy mint, pennyroyal, pineapple mint, sweet pear mint, spearmint... I'm going to have to dig this whole bed up and try to salvage cuttings of the mints, as well as the strawberries. I might even have to "solarize it" after I clean it out. That is, cover it in black plastic and let it cook all summer. I can't BELIEVE I was so naive about mint!

Rogue arugula, getting ready to take over the world!! Look how it OWNS those onions!

This is my potato bucket. I read about this method of growing potatoes where you plant them in a deep bucket, but in only a couple of inches of good soil - just enough to cover the potato bits. Once they begin to grow leaves/vines, you raise the soil level. Then the vine puts on more 'taters in the new layer of soil as it continues to grow skyward. So I'm going to try it out. There are red potatoes in here. I'm going to do another bucket with multi-colored French fingerlings.

1.17.10

2010-01-17T22:53:00.010-06:00

Some "afters"...

The non-producing rose bush is gone, but not much else is changed here. Oh, yeah, I pulled out the remains of the pumpkin vines.

The weed looking thing at the bottom center of this picture is an artichoke plant. Actually, it's two of 'em. I'm hoping it's a green one and a purple one, but only time will tell. Under the chicken wire cage is another one. It's a little smaller and I've caught a local tom cat sniffing a bit too intently at it, so I put the cage over it to protect it until it's big enough to be annoying to the cat. Believe me, it won't take long.

The yellow circle at the top of this picture shows you were a lot of very long branches from the neighbor's tree used to be. Last spring I didn't get them trimmed and they cast a LOT of shade. Of course, I might find out this year that it was the shade that made my melon vines so prolific, but we'll see. The orange line just shows where I used my laser beam to cut the branches.

About 1/5th of the bed has been cleaned here. More work to be done. LOTS more...

1.16.10

2010-01-16T22:44:00.012-06:00

It's mid-January now and I'm eager to get to work on things that MUST be done before the heat comes. And while it may seem like that's a long way off, it really isn't. I need to be aggressive.

Unfortunately, a lot of the activities that need to happen now are heavily dependant upon other activities being completed. For instance, I need to build my compost pile, but the area where it is going to go is still covered with a pile of mulch that I am trying to use up. I need to get my blueberries container planted, but I don't want to do that until the area where they are going to live is paved over, as it will be easier to pot them where they are going to go, than pot them elsewhere and then move these huge, heavy pots into place. I need to dig up and container plant the blackberries, but it's the same story here - need to pave the ground they're going to sit on. They're going to go into even BIGGER containers, and I just can't move those around when they're full. And so on...

So, I started with this bed, adding the final 4 or 5 feet of cedar bed edging in this corner. (Obviously this is a "before" picture). I weeded the whole bed, relocated some plants, and added a thick layer of mulch (whittling away at that pile that's impeding the building of the compost pile).

I moved those three lavendar plants closer to the driveway so that I could plant something else in the middle ground. Maybe 'maters... I removed a rose bush that never produced. I think it was a grafted plant where pruning had removed all vestiges of the desired stock. I added a new bare-root rose. It's a climber with apricot flowers with hot pink tips on the petals. Can't wait.

Another "before" picture.

From the "street end"

This is another big issue. This is the "sidewalk bed". About mid-summer last year, this insidious grassy weed started spreading all throughout this bed. I pulled out as much as I could, but it was aggressive. It grows from roots and runners. It's the hay-colored mess roughly in the center of this picture. The cold weather has slowed its growth, and I spent some time this weekend with a weeding fork and a garden claw, pulling up as much of it as I could. What's above ground is dead, but there is plenty of live roots and buds just below the surface. I'm hoping to get a lot more flowers growing in this bed, a lot earlier this year. This'll help choke the weed out. For right now, I have to dig up as much as I can, and plan where to plant my spring/summer additions. I can't use a pre-emergent to help with the weeds because I do want to plant some things from seed directly into the bed. Plus, the enemy weed didn't ever seem to go to flower/seed. The runners root wherever they hit the ground. While I try to dig out the roots and get a feel for where I want to put things, I have to figure out where I need to patch the soaker hose (needs LOTS of TLC). I also want to use up some more of my mulch pile here, but if I add it now, it'll just give the bits of weed-root that I don't dig up a better chance of coming to life. So I have to wait to mulch until I've planted it out. Yeesh! It's a whole lot of hurry-up-and-wait.

Taking inventory of what lived and what didn't. My lavendar is looking sickly, and my lamb's quarters finally gave up the ghost. There are some mounds of dianthus that look good though, and I think some thyme in there too.

Lots of little dianthus mounds right along the fence. I need to bust out the weed eater and cut in a dividing line, but that's one of those things that can happen whenever time allows. It's not a priority.

Yeah, there's the thyme (the bright green in the middle) and the flagging lavendar. Come back to me, Lavendar!

Looks like a weedy mess, but the dianthus will start to color up soon, and I'll put in more plants... I also intend to add that short cedar edging to keep the soil from going all over the sidewalk like that. It doesn't look too bad here because I just swept, but when it rains, the soil washes all over the sidewalk and it becomes an ugly, messy, slippery mess. I've been toying with the idea of using pea gravel as mulch in this little strip (once the edging is in place) and removing all of the herbs and replacing them with succulents. That can be done in due time.

This is a particularly trying little bit of ground. I can't get much to grow here. I gave up on my jasmine because although the plant gets huge and is a glossy, gorgeous green, the flower production was next to nothing, and it only lasted about a week each year. If that! It was nothing like when I bought it. Hardly any fragrance. I'm going to move the goldfish plant here to add color. There are verbena and sage and salvia and pansies right now. None of which are looking spectacular.

I want creeping thyme to grow in the sandy crevices of the little path I laid. That or creeping jenny. Something bright and pretty.

Another hot mess. Getting ready to dig up the weeds here, turn the soil, decide if the bulbines and the salvias are going to come back or not. I'm also going to move that rock rose and the xioras. And the burberry, if it lived.

I pulled out the dessicated zinnias and was happy to find lots of little dianthus mounds sprouting. Yay, volunteers! (This is still a "before" pic. "Afters" to come.)

That's my goldfish plant. I have no idea if it's still alive or not (I don't like doing the "scratch test" on the bark). If it's alive, I have no idea if it'll survive being moved. But it's going to get moved nonetheless. Godspeed, Goldfish Plant!

1.1.10

2010-01-01T22:43:00.007-06:00

The mini pumpkins and an acorn squash that I picked in mid November ripened further on the counter in the kitchen. I finally dissected all of them. Seeds went to the worm bin (after cooking and cooling - seeds often sprout in the worm bin and are sort of hard to deal with). I lightly rubbed the squash slices with olive oil and roasted them at 350 for about an hour, maybe more. When a fork could easily pierce the flesh and flake off a tastey morsel and they didn't taste raw, they were done!

After I removed the skin and pureed the flesh, I made pumpkin muffins. They were delicious. I gave up meat just before the new year, so I altered a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook to accomodate. I used lite coconut milk in place of milk. I may have used real eggs as I was still going through groceries purchased before I switched over, but in the future I'll either use egg replacer (not egg substitute, which is still made from eggs) or cinnamon applesauce. I'm betting the cinnamon applesauce will be dynamite. I made a little crumble of brown sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds that I topped the muffins with. The resulting muffin had a great texture - a tad on the crumbly side but I'll bet that the apple sauce in future batches will correct that. It was sweet but not overly so. You could just barely taste a hint of coconut. I think most people would have missed it altogether. I had added some extra spices - cardamon and clove - in addition to the regular pumpkin-y spices.

Here's the recipe with my alterations:

1 C whole wheat flour
1 C packed brown sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/8 ground ginger or ground cloves ( or cardamon)
1 C pumpkin puree
1/2 C lite coconut milk
2 "eggs" worth of egg replacer OR cinnamon apple sauce
1/3 C vegetable shortening
1 C whole wheat flour
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C raisins

Spray a non-stick muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup whole wheat flour, the brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and spice of choice.
Add pumpkin, coconut milk, egg replacer or apple sauce, and vegetable shortening.
Beat with an electric mixer on low speed pr hand mix until blended.
Once blended, beat on medium to high speed for 2 minutes, or simply contine hand mixing until fully incorporated.
Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, blend.
Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven 30-35 minutes (cooking time might require adjusting) or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For additional flavor, cut together 1/4 cup of brown sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle a spoonful on top of each muffin before baking.

Sorry no pics. We ate 'em all too fast. Maybe next batch!

12.20.09

2009-12-20T22:41:00.006-06:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

We did a white elephant gift exchange at the office where we were to spend no more than $10.00. So of course I would use this as a perfect opportunity to share my love of gardening! A few winter veggie starts from The Great Outdoors did the trick. I got a plastic bin at the dollar store, drilled drainage holes, lined it in cardboard, filled it with soil, and poked the plants in. I also typed up some "how to" notes. It was so fun to put together. I'm not 100% sure that the recipient was as thrilled as I was, but what can you do?

Let's see...curly endive, raddichio, firecracker lettuce, mibuna, another lettuce, and another veggie - can't remember what.

12.7.09

2009-12-07T22:38:00.006-06:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

This is a big ol' turnip that I dug up. I grew them in the summer, but I left them in the ground too long and they became fibrous and woody. Not good for eating. Unless you're a worm. I fed my summer turnips to the worm bin.

Big ol' mess of turnip greens. Hadn't ever fixed them before so I was up for the experience.

Buncha herbs I picked to play with. Looks like thyme and some mint and some oregano.

I made turnip and red potato hash browns. I found a recipe online for potato hash browns and tweaked it a bit. Luckily, some online reading before this culinary experiment informed me that turnips hold a lot more water than 'taters, and would need to be pressed to expel water to help the hash patties hold together.

So nicely browned. They tasted a lot like potato hash browns, but with a slightly astringent flavor. Sort of bright and crisp. Different. I think the experiment was a success.

Here's my recipe:

2 medium turnips, cleaned and shredded (reserve greens for another dish)
2 medium red potatoes, cleaned and shredded
1 small radish (optional – this one was a “volunteer” in the yard and thusly made it into the mix)
4 oz shredded parmesan
Olive oil: 2T for root veg mix, plus extra for the pan
Garden herbs (or dried) to taste
S & P to taste

To remove excess water from the potatoes and turnips, I put the shredded root veg mix by the handful into a clean cloth napkin and squeezed as mightily as I could. (Saved the run-off for the worm bin)
After squeezing out as much water as I could, I mixed in a handful of chopped herbs (onion leaves, oregano, sage, and thyme) and peppered the mix liberally. Drizzled in the olive oil. Tossed by hand.
Next I threw in about 4 oz of shredded parmesan. Real stuff, not the salty powder that comes in the green cylindrical can. Tossed one final time.
Heated a non-stick pan over med-high heat and drizzled in a little olive oil for extra stick-protection.
Added two mounds of the mix, shaping and flattening to about ½ inch as quickly as I could.
Had to keep playing with the heat – too low and the cheese would melt and bind but the veg wouldn’t cook all the way through; higher heat to help the patty cook better but sometimes blackened the cheese. Med-high is best, but you may have to play with it some.
To achieve a nice texture to the turnips and ‘taters and a crispy, golden brown from the cheese, cook 2-4 minutes on each side. Gently lift a corner of the patty with your spatula if you’re unsure. Try to flip only once, but if you turn one prematurely, don’t be afraid to flip it back over. I found that the resulting cake stayed together fairly well – certainly well enough to transfer to paper towels to drain, then to plate. They weren’t quite as crispy as a traditional potato hashbrown patty, but still a pretty fair approximation, given that this was my first attempt. I liked the flavor – sort of spicy but still familiar. Served it with sautéed mixed winter greens (kale, chard, and turnip) with onions and mushrooms.

12.06.09

2009-12-06T22:34:00.016-06:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

This was the "Caprese" bed. Now it's chock-a-block full of brassicas and other cold-loving veggies. The yellow plant spikes are the markers from The Great Outdoors. They have a ton of info on them, so when I made the metal plant spikes, I made sure to punch a hole in the bottoms of the yellow plastic stakes and thread them onto the hanger wire along with the metal tag. If I were TRULY efficient, I would have taken the yellow tags into the house and put them in my planting binder so the info would be at my fingertips, but I live in a state of barely managed chaos, and that's getting a little advanced!!

This is an artichoke plant (in the dead center of this box). It's supposed to over-winter well, then become a big, three- or four-foot by same bush by summer-ish, with the artichokes growing on stalks throughout. The other plants around it are rudibeckias (sp?). If they make it through the winter, they'll be moved to the "sidewalk" bed so the artichoke doesn't overtake them.

Brassica bed with metal stakes and the yellow info markers. One of my brassica beds was mostly grown from seed, and the other was mostly planted with starters from my favorite nursery, The Great Outdoors.

I think it's so cute, with all of those little tags standing sentry over the baby plantlets!!

The color of that firecracker lettuce is to die for!

It's fun to make these plant tags because precision is NOT the idea. I love the imperfection of them!

"FIRECRACKER LETTUCE"

"ENDIVE"

Which I found out, wasn't. Apparently TRUE endive refers to those little blanched football shaped heads of succulent crispiness, and requires a multi-faceted approach to growing. I will, of course, be doing this, but not this year. It'll have to wait until after ALL of my hardscaping is finally completed.

I forget the story on this little radish. I think it was a volunteer that just appeared in the middle of the yard. That's pro'lly it.

12.05.09

2009-12-05T22:20:00.014-06:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

We had a nasty, early freeze. I didn't get all of my plants covered in time. I had fully planned to, and then failed. These following images include plant carnage, and may not be suitable for all viewers. Discretion is advised.

Froze globe basil...

Froze zinnias...

Rags thrown over squash and gourds, to no avail. Insert sad face here.

Oh, the carnage. So, so, SOOO sad.

I found half a dozen or so pumpkins and acorn squash as I sifted through the freeze-damaged vines.

Acorn squash...

Some white mini pumpkins...

I took all of my pumpkins and squash to Houston for Thanksgiving and we used them for centerpieces. Once back home in Austin, I let them ripen more in the kitchen. Eventually they got carved, seeded, roasted and pureed and made into some awesome muffins.

This was my sun-gold cherry tomato bush. Man, those things were delicious. I hated seeing this thing die.

Yep, you guessed it! This is THE bed. Since it's somehow finding its way into every post, I'm going to start hiding weird things in it. The first person who posts a comment to the blog identifying that week's hidden object by the deadline (I'll put it in the post) will win a handful of what ever is in season!

My "Jack-O-Lantern" vine, decimated. But the pumpkin didn't die!

Thank goodness for cold weather veggies! My brassicas did great.

As did most of my herbs.

My "Caprese" bed didn't fare as well, but I wasn't thinking it would. I needed the freeze damage to encourage me to clean out the bolted basils and the hopeless 'maters and peppers and put in something that would do better in the cold.

The wilted marigolds were heartbreaking. What was a firey mound of orange and yellow just a few days before turned into a sad puddle of deadness.

I had tried to use these army green frost covers, but they weren't all that helpful. I thought these covers were supposed to insulate, not just keep frost from touching plants. Apparently, I misunderstood the packaging.

Blobby frost cover messiness.

More of same.

I'm sure you get the picture, but I'm still not going to edit!

Guess!

I do have a point here eventually... wait for it.

Ahhhhh, yesss! My PVC biodomes! Just some cheap electrical (or plumbing - now I can't remember) pipe, some nuts and bolts and VOILA! After experimenting with the pole length and finding what would cross from corner to corner without flipping out of place or creating a huge amount of space between the tallest plant and the frame, I cut all of the poles to length. Ten beds, two poles per bed. I think the measurement I used was 7'. I bolted two poles together making sure the nut was on the bottom of the "X" when installed so as not to rip my frost cover.

I thought I was going to have to use bracing hardware to keep the frames in place, but they are actually VERY snugly installed with just the tension of the PVC against the wood. Easy-peasey to pop in or take out as needed.

Draping blankets over the frames prevents crushing delicate plants, as well as forms a pocket of insulating air in the center.

I was VERY happy with these. My original plan was to use them to hold up the green frost cloth for future cold snaps, and if necessary, layer warmer blankets on top. I eventually found a better product though, and the green frost covers got relegated to the back yard plants. Pics of and info on the better product to come.

11.21.09

2009-11-21T22:07:00.013-06:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

This is one of my white mini-pumpkins. The variety has the cutest name, something like "Spooktacular" or something like that. I'll have to check my seed collection. This little guy got about as big as a baby's head. (What?! I couldn't think of a sport with a ball that was the right size! Yeesh.)

Lovely squash blossoms, and a mini orange pumpkin that some garden invader nommed. I wanted to fry up those blossoms, but wasn't sure if all squash flowers are edible, or just particular varieties. Oh well, there's always next year!

Another baby pumpkin. They're just so cute! Spoiler alert - I ended up having to harvest all of my squash early due to an early freeze. The ones I had to harvest green eventually (as in, 3-4 weeks later) turned orange. I roasted them up and put them through a blender and used them to make dynamite pumpkin muffins!

I just love elfin thyme. I love the fragrance, the way it creeps so low to the ground, its hardiness and its flavor. This particular picture makes me think some kind of garden gnome is going to peek its red-capped head out of the edge of the pic.

Lavendar! My brother said the NICEST thing to me one day. He had come over and I was showing him the new stuff in the garden, and he said, "It SMELLS good here". That was such a huge compliment! I think it was the lavendar he was smelling.

This was a volunteer amaranthus. It ended up freezing to death, but I'm hoping that more will pop up in Spring 2010. They're so gorgeous.

This has become a running joke for me. I seem to take lots of pictures of this particular bed. Yes, that's chard, and lettuce, and spinach, and pennyroyal, and carrots, and, um.... bush beans... And here you can see one of my garden stakes that was made before I decided on the more modest height of HALF of a coat hanger. I'll eventually get this bad boy shortened... Not high on the priority list.

"RADISH, cherry belle"

Kohlrabi. It's delicious! I hadn't ever had it before growing these babies from seed. It's crisp and sweet, sort of apple-y and a little tangy/spicy, like a radish. I shredded it into a salad and loved it.

A purple one! Can't wait to eat it. Yummy!

Installing Path Numba Three. I had had a layer of black plastic trash bags pinned down through the summer and they did a great job of cooking the weeds and compacting the ground. Which I then had to dig up, but whatever...

Digging out 3 inches of soil. (Don't fret, it didn't go in the trash. I moved it to the backyard, into a new flower bed. This is surprisingly decent topsoil - at least the top few inches.)

See, see! I do the work. I do it. Me!

All dug up and raked free of loose weeds and roots. Getting ready to tamp it.

Tamping. And YUP, it's EXACTLY as fun as it looks. Especially when you hit your toe!

Weedcloth.

DE. Diatomaceous Earth.

Double recycled (was the haunted pirate ship in cubicleville) cardboard and more DE.

And mulch.

Stomping the mulch. Stomp, stomp, STOMP!

And finally, a little water to help it all matt together. Done!

Oh, and a new measurement for my one and only "Jack-O-Lantern" pumpkin. Gettin' bigger every day!

11.15.09

2009-11-15T22:05:00.004-06:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

These marigolds look so awesome! They just pour over the sides of the bright blue lumber and really stand out.

I think I finally have my plant stake design down. No need to make the ends of the stakes into spiral and try to corkscrew it into the soil. Straight does the trick way better. I'm using metal roof flashing, cutting it into rectangles and rounding off the corners. I have a couple sets of steel alphabet die stamps, and I hammer in the plant names. Finally, I use a black paint pen to darken the punched letters. Unwinding a coat hanger and cutting it in half gives the ideal length of wire. There's enough to stab it into the ground sufficiently deep for it to be stable, a few inches at the top to coil into a circle to hang the tag on, and about 18" of gently swaying stake. I HATE windchimes with a passion, but these swinging softly in the breeze make a lovely, whispy metallic sound.

This is the SINGLE "Jack-o-lantern" pumpkin that made it to full size. I got this planted late, too, because I had a couple of precious watermelons still on the vine that I was holding out for. Alas, the "fuzzy lizard" got one, and the other just disappeared. I'm not really sure what happened to it, but I'm fairly certain that whatever it was, it was an event of the natural world ("fuzzy lizard", water-induced rot), and not an abduction.

11.12.09

2009-11-12T22:04:00.003-06:00

Pics of the squash and gourd vines at their most lush. I got them planted a little late in the season, unfortunately. Next year I'll remember to dig up the cantaloupes when they begin to diminish in quality instead of trying to hang onto them. I'll get my winter squash planted a little earlier that way. (And I just love that smudge of hot pink and electric orange up in the corner there!)

Not a great picture, but we already know I can't edit to save my life. Just checkin' out the front of the house in its full glory.

11.01.09

2009-11-01T22:02:00.002-06:00

Um... yeah, just more pics. I just love those apricot roses. Sighhhh...

10.29.09

2009-10-29T21:57:00.005-05:00

All the roses bloomed at once! Just pics today... Enjoy!

10.28.09 - Electric flower love!

2009-10-28T21:48:00.001-05:00

A baby pumpkin. Didn't get much bigger!

10.25.09

2009-10-27T20:43:00.012-05:00

Finishing Path Numba Two today...

Some cardboard I've been gathering, at the ready for when I need it...

Dug out 2"-4" for the path, then soaked it with boiling water to make sure any seeds that had made it onto the top got cooked and-HOW. Paid special attention to the blasted crape myrtle roots.

Covered "sterilized" path with weed cloth with the help of a few earth staples.

Here's the cardboard - just an extra layer of protection against the weeds, and for FREE! Sure, it'll eventually decompose, but then again, so will the Space Shuttle.

And now, adding the mulch. Five or 6 inches = 5 or 6 bags, and DONE!

Taa DAAAA! Much easier on the feet than pavers in the summer. Will also help keep the soil cooler in the summer. Provides drainage. If weeds do get started in it, they'll be super easy to pull. Eventually, when the mulch starts to break down and become more "soil-like", I can dig it out and add it to my compost bin (yet to be built) to break down completely, and can add more bark mulch to the path!

These zinnias didn't do so hot this summer, but have taken off now that the weather has mellowed. And the dianthus look AMAZING! That's a lavendar sort of squeezed in between the pinks and the orange zinnias. And there's another in the middle of the pic, and off to the left. Hope they'll bloom...

So MUCH color!!

Hard to see, but there are a ton of buds on this rose bush. I've NEVER seen this many. I'll get this one last riot of color before it goes to sleep for the winter. So lovely.

Intoxicating.

Technicolor!

Playing with a new style of garden stake. The others were pushed into the soil, standing only an inch or so over it. I like these because they stand about 2 feet tall, and can actually be SEEN. For this one, I wrapped the end into a wide coil and wound it into the ground. It's not a perfect solution. I almost think if I can just push them far enough in, they'll be anchored enough so that they don't lean and cut into the plants.

"GARLIC"

"ARUGULA"

I'm working on cleaning up this mint-and-strawberries mess. It's going to take some doing!

"RADISHES"

A Halloween-y button bouquet. Dark Opal Basil (the purply green leaves and purple bottle-brush flowers), yellow marigolds, orange marigolds, multi-colored marigolds (from seed)...

Happy Halloween!

10.24.09

2009-10-24T21:27:00.001-05:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

This is a volunteer wax been plant. It just grew in one of the aisles. Thanks, Wax Bean Plant!!

So lush.

Electric!!

Look, ma! Blooming bleeding hearts!

Love this rose bush. Such an amazing color.

Sigh....

Can't get enough.

Baby squash, probably pumpkin, not sure what color.

More!

Mmmmm...

Thyme.

I call this a goldfish plant, but I could be wrong. It never photographs very well. It has these cute little goldfish-lookin' flowers all over it.

Marigolds dripping over the side.

Some bright purple lettuce in there! And volunteer arugula!

A close-up of the volunteer bean bush. Royal Burgundy Bush Bean.

Chard and arugula and bush beans and lettuces and garlic...

This is a pumpkin plant - I think it's called "Jack-o-Lantern". It's the carving size...

My brassicas have taken off!

Wow!!

A little volunteer dianthus tucked under the hose tub.

10.10.09

2009-10-10T21:40:00.002-05:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

Trying out brassicas! These are ALL from seed. Turnips in the bottom right corner. Kale just above it, some onions to the left of the turnips. Kohlrabi to the left of the onions. I forget the rest - probably some endive and broccoli.

I FINALLY got a brain and covered the central path in tarps to kill off the weeds. Oh, man, what a relief. Fingers crossed that I can get this paved in late winter/early spring 2010.

As I dig out topsoil to lay paths in the front yard, I've been moving that soil to the new bed in the back yard. Less grass = less to mow. But more flower beds = more places where the doggies get yelled at if they go and pee. There's a balance in there somewhere, I just KNOW it. The cardboard is not merely recycled, but it has been recycled TWICE. Yep. One of the work groups in my cubicle farm went to the local big box hardware store and asked for large appliance boxes. They used them to create a haunted pirate ship for Halloween. After scaring the bejeebers out of coworkers' kiddos, they gave me the cardboard, and now it's acting as a weed preventative. Yay!

Another angle. Man, just LOOK at that gorgeous fence! LOVE it.

Yep. Cardboard on soil.

So many bouquets!! This one has lemon basil in it for extra fragrance.

09.07.09

2009-09-07T21:46:00.002-05:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

Redoing the cantaloupe patch - getting it set up for fall crops...

I pulled this chicken wire off of the ground where I had had the cantaloupe patch. I originally laid it to deter stray cats from using my carefully cultivated beds as a litter box. The chicken wire doesn't hurt them, but they don't like walking on it. It had pretty good success, actually. That is, when it wasn't covered (and thus softened) by mulch or plants.

I layed a layer of black plastic trash bags ( just cut them along a seam and tacked them down with "earth staples" made out of coat hangers). Added mulch over this, then put the chicken wire back into place.

Kitties, pee elsewhere!!

Took some time to thoroughly weed the flower portion of this bed as well.

Getting ready to prep a couple of mounds for artichokes. Artichokes are related to thistles, which many view as weeds. They don't need rich soil or lots of care. Having never grown them before, my theory is that I can get a couple of plants going well enough that vining plants (like winter squash) can grow around them without choking them out. Fingers crossed.

Mounds of soil for the artichokes.

Running the soaker hose. See those four little white sticks along the length of soaker in the middle of the pic? At the edge of the chicken wire/mulch line, there? Those are marking 4 kinds of squash I'm trying to grow. A mini white pumpkin, a mini orange pumpkin, acorn squash, and snake gourds.

Ran the soaker all through the bed. Yay, soaker hoses!!!

Each artichoke mound got a loop of soaker hose, then a good layer of mulch.

Artichoke marker, to be replaced with a hand-stamped metal one in due time.

My squash markers, again.

Um, see? See?!

My reading tells me that each artichoke plant will grow int a big, 3'-5' bush, with the blooms/chokes growing on stalks. I can't wait to see how they do. I'm hoping the artichokes will get established enough that the squash and gourd vines can grow around them and not kill them. We'll see...

Freshly weeded and mulched. Looks soooo nice.

This bed, the one between the sidewalk and the street, is overcome! There is this insidious grass-like weed crisscrossing it. And I need to rethink the positioning of some of my key plants. People love to park in front of this and then just step out into it, so I think some rose bushes are in order.

Chard and lettuces doing well.

09.03.09

2009-09-03T21:55:00.000-05:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It’s late January, 2010, and I’m filling in captions and notes for draft entries for months past. Cheers!

The cantaloupe bed at its finest. There were three producing plants, all intertwined together. I think two were the same kind, and the third was different, but I'll be darned if I can't remember what I planted. Hoping it's in my notes!

It was time to pull out the cantaloupe vines and try to get some squash going for fall. I kept wanting to take the vines out, but each time I looked, there were several more well established baby melons visible and I just couldn't bring myself to do it! Note to self: The last few weeks of cantaloupes weren't very tasty. Once the quality starts to diminish, pull them out, work in compost, and start new crops. Don't be so sentimental. (It's hard, I know, I KNOW!)

All cleaned up, with just a few left for Trent to devour. I like cantaloupe plenty, but he ADORED these. That was pretty cool. And since the watermelons were all for me, it worked out just fine. When I asked Trent if I should grow cantaloupes again in 2010, the response was a firm, "Hellz Ya".

You can't read the marker, but this was a pumpkin plant, started from seed. It took over the bed that one of the watermelon plants had been in.

08.23.09

2009-08-23T21:59:00.000-05:00

Playing catch up on the blog. It's late January, 2010, and I'm filling in captions and notes for draft entries from months past. Cheers!

Not much going on here. I had pulled out the watermelon vines because they had stopped producing. Was working on weeding and cleaning up the beds this weekend, I think.

I had to pull out a lot of the zinnias because they got some kind of powdery mildew. I let it get away from me. Need to be more vigilant!

I pulled out those two tomato vines that weren't giving me anything. That's about it...