1.24.09 and 1.25.09

Ok, NOW we're getting somewhere... This weekend was incredibly productive.

Saturday involved trips to two AWESOME nurseries/garden shops. My friend Ed and I went to The Great Outdoors and the Natural Gardener. I netted two bare root (and alive - take THAT Home Depot) Kiowa blackberry plants, two Brazos blackberries, potted and full of leaves, vermiculite (note to self - TGO has it), and some great seeds.

Once home, I touched up the paint on the lumber for my first "square foot gardening" box. Then I measured how much plastic edging I would need to draw a firm line in the sand, so to speak, between our yard and our neighbors' yard. Thank goodness for the surveyors' markers that made that possible! After that, I loaded my car up with the blackberry corpses that I had bought from the Home Depot, as well as the Satsuma tree with the meager root system. I took those in to return them and bought some plastic edging.

I digress here, and spare you the details of the grocery shopping and subsequent *time lost from my life* waiting at Wallyland for them to fix the slow leak in my front driver's side tire, discovered whilst doing something garden-related, no doubt.

It was well dark once I got home, so all I could do at this point was flip the lumber and touch up the paint on the other side (was painting in the garage) and then rush crazily around the back yard, covering plants for the overnight freeze.

All of this is fascinating, I'm sure. So fast forward to Sunday morning. Skip past the part where I uncover the backyard plants and fold up the blankets and put them away. And...you can skip past the couple of hours where I was digging a 5" deep trench on our property line so I could put in the edging and bury it.

(*clever caption about digging edging ditch goes here*)

Slow down a bit for this next part - Calendario, my neighbor to whom I gave about 1/3 of the sod we cut out of our front yard, offered me a trailer load of mulch for $20.00. Calendario and I have a language barrier, but with the help of his bilingual friend (whose name I always seem to forget) we manage to talk about whatever we need to. Apparently, this friend is a landscaper, and they had a customer back out of a job when they told him the price. So they were stuck with a load of mulch that they didn't need immediately, and didn't have a customer lined up to off load it to. They needed their trailer for another job, but it was full to the top with mulch, so, remembering my gift of sod, and seeing the "garden of stakes" that our yard had slowly evolved into, they made me the crazy offer of the entire trailer full for $20.00. That's right, a mere twenty dollars.

I would have been CRAZY to pass that up! So Calendario backed the trailer up on our driveway and brought over his rake and wheel barrow. I brought mine around too, and Trent came out and helped. The three of us made short work of unloading that mulch. Trent climbed up onto the top of the pile and raked it back toward the open end of the trailer. Calendario and I took turns loading a wheelbarrow and then dumping it in the designated, tarp-covered spot. When we were finished, I had an 8' x 8' x 3' mound of mulch for a mere $20.00. Calendario's translater friend told me that in Spanish, there is a saying for good fortune like this, something akin to " I don't know who he's working for"... I'm sure I'm missing a bit in translation, but it works for me.

(*that there is $20.00 of mulch. it's like christmas!*)

Once we got finished with that particularly fortuitous transaction and I had covered up the mound of mulch, I returned to the edging installation. You can fast forward here some more. I finished the trench and Trent came out and helped me put the edging in and bury it. Not thrilling, I know, but I'm glad I took the time to add that detail to the project. The fence will go right up to that line, so the edging will give a finished, polished look. I'll put it in on the other side too, when time be time. (*it's really not as glamorous as it looks, kids*)

Here's where I get stamped (stoked + amped, which is exponentially better than either). The touch up paint on my lumber was well dry, so it came time to assemble it! I predrilled the holes and then Trent came out to help hold the edges together while I put the screws in (left over from Fence Builds 1-99, 2008). I managed to stab Trent with the drill, so that was no bueno. See sad face picture. And he left blood stains on my frame. I kind of look at in the same light as breaking champagne over the hull of a boat before its virgin voyage. It's for good luck. Thanks for the sacrifice, babe!! (*sad face picture... :-( sorry, babe!*)

(*dramatically points to blood stain...can't see it in the pic, but it's there. swear.*)

I laid out some cardboard for weed deterrance, and then I put my first square foot garden frame down! YAY! I need to make some tweaks, and I haven't filled it with soil yet. That'll happen sometime this week. Once the soil's in, I'll add the square foot grid and then next weekend, I can start dropping in the seedlings I've started in the house. Many of them are outgrowing the little Jiffy mini-greenhouses and are ready to go! I am sooooo thrilled! Attack on the front lawn VICTORY!

(*those are your lemon cukes, mom!!*)

(*dunh dunh-dahhh! yaaayyyyy!!! Box numba one goes onna ground!!*)

(*yeah, i know...i KNOW...aMAZing, right?!*)

Cheers and beers,
erica