R.I.P. Tomatoes

Got back from Austin to a sad site- two of the tomatoes were limp and brown.
Ro said "I tried to call you to see if I should cover them up the very cold night we had, but your phone was off."
New directive: when in doubt, cover.
Snooze, lose: Red Pick-up Guy beat me to the real mulch on Chesterfield, but didn't get the grass bags on Cromwell. Someone took the metal frames off the shower doors on Wingate, and left the glass. That was kind of random.

Journal March 26

A wrap -up of the week:

Monday- in pre-dawn raids, picked up boards, a landscape timber, a nice big piece of bead board plywood, three plastic planters and some leaf bags. Had a fellow scrounger- a fellow in a red pick-up. We kept passing each other, slowly trolling up and down the streets. I was at an advantage as I pick likely sites on Sunday evening, after Mass. But there are always new things out in the morning.

I briefly considered a shower door, for a cold frame, but our climate doesn't really make that necessary. And I don't want to start collecting items, since V. just worked so hard cleaning out the garage.In the afternoon, I planted cowpeas, okra and cukes, new radishes and new peas. Also, the African daisies, marigolds "Citrus Mix", and Liliput zinnias in Bed V.

Hung the herb baskets on the fence, and stapled trellies up for the morning glories and the peas.

V. hung up the shrine for me and I installed the statue.

Wednesday- I bought the boards for the new and last, garden bed. Now there will be a neat rectangle with mulched paths, so the mowing will be reduced/simplified. See how E-Z that is? or so I tell V. It was raining again, which was great, since we need every drop. Put together a new grid for the beds, and a teepee for the beans. Beans were up Monday.

Thursday- picked up three bags of leaves and a lovely big round hanging basket. It has to be hung from somewhere- I'm considering making it part of the Butterfly Barrow. Or putting up a brace on the fence and using it there. There are two or so in the garage.

To Do- depending on the weather: make cuke trellis, make another grid, make bean teepee, construct last bed.

Butterfly Barrow

In the spirit of recycling- an unsuccesful bird feeder becomes a waterpuddler.



Lantana, alyssum and parsley

Coreopsis "Jethro Tull". You know you'd buy it.

The completed project.

Journal March 21

Busy days. Babysat on Tuesday and took O to the nursery with me that afternoon, then had all the children overnight on Thursday through Friday afternoon.
Ordered another load of topsoil from Strong's, which they delivered the same day (Thursday).
Constucted and filled two 2x10' beds across back fence. O and I planted one (Bed IV) with coneflowers, zinnias, cosmos and moonflowers. The second (Bed V) has yarrow, summer squash seedlings and morning glories for now.
Drilled holes and filled pumpkin barrel with planting mix.
Ollas arrived from Path to Freedom. They were wrapped in T-shirts and a sweatshirt, which will be re-cycled to the Thrift Store. The kids and I planted them in Bed II, and filled one as an experiment. Checked the soil around it today and it is, indeed, damp.
Mixed planting mix for the hanging baskets and TP herbs to two of them to hang on back fence: one has three thyme varieties, the other has chives, sage and rosemary.
Bed I: TP summer squash, basil plants. Zucchini is up. Harvested romaine and mesclum for dinner. Watered with soaker hose.
Bed II: TP Roma tomato.
Bed III: Corn is up- most of it overnight at the same time! Watered with soaker hose.
Bed IV: Moved in shepherd's crook from Bird Area, hung with lantana in hanging basket.
Bed VI: (formerly Herb Bed): TP zucchini along fence.

Bought a new mom-friendly drill at Lowe's, as well as a new saw. Also bought V. a ratchet screwdriver for his poor old hands. He finished the little shrine for me - I think it will go on the back fence.

To Do: construct cuke trellis
Hang trellies for squashes on fence.
Put up strings for morning glory, moonflower
Hang shrine.
Finish paths: buy mulch, collect cardboard (from MSSC?), put down weed block.
Plant pumpkins, cowpeas, cukes, flower annuals, sunflowers
Dig up old rosemary
Hang baskets on fence
Construct bed in Bird Area.
Work out watering schedule: print

Idea?

The plan was to put up the hanging baskets on the fence with bee-attracting flowers- but I may convert them to herb baskets and put more veggies in the herb bed.
Hmmm...

Drunk Sailor in Port

That would be me- at Lowe's this morning.
But I am now supplied for the squash trellis, which I put together this afternoon. V. came out to see what I was hammering on and we had a little "Ur doing it rong" tiff. My take: it's a trellis, not a house. His: it should still be square.

Also set up my soaker hoses in Beds I & II. I cut the hoses to length, capped the ends and put these genius snap-on connectors on the other ends. Now I just put a two-faucet unit on the hose, attach the soaker hoses and turn it on.
Bed III gets the ollas. I'm wondering if something similar couldn't be rigged with a terra-cotta flowerpot and saucer. Just plug the hole in the bottom, bury the pot, fill it with water and cover it with the saucer. Might be worth a try. They might not be porous enough, though, for the water to wick through.
TP eggplant, red bell pepper, green bell pepper.

Bought cedar for the back fence bed, plus fence palings to put across the bottom of the fences. And some bee-attracting seeds: coneflower and cosmos. Plus pumpkin seeds for the tub.

I also bought some squirrel repellent spray for the bird feeders, called Critter Ridder. I'm not anti-squirrel, but enough is enough. They can eat corn off the ground with the doves.

There was a cute family- dad, mom and a little boy about five- looking at seeds with me, and trying to select some things for his garden. He wanted everything hard to grow: carrots, onions, flowers that needed to be started inside six weeks ago. I mentioned to his mom that the onion sets and vegetable seedlings were out front and saw them again when I went out to look for another basil plant.
If I were doing a garden for a small child, I think I'd use the bags of top soil method and plant:
Radishes- you plant a little seed and only leaves come up, but then you pull on them- and there's a radish! It's magic!
Cherry tomato
Lettuce seedlings
Sunflowers- so you can share with the birds
An annual from seed- probably a short Zinnia variety
and if possible, some vining plant: beans, or morning glories.
If they turned out not to like gardening, you just pull everything up and scatter the dirt on the lawn.

To do: order dirt

Journal March 15

Just had a week of steady rain and cold temps- lows in the hi '30's. While the rain was very welcome, that may have slowed or stopped germination of the hot weather stuff I planted last week. May re-plant when the soil warms up, as I can always thin.
V. brought me back three kitchen trash bags of fresh horse manure, from Becky's place. I put some in each compost bin, along with the latest batch of bagged grass/leaves. I mulched the tomatoes, and the herb bed with some of the same, and saved two bags for future mulching.
Weeded the herb bed- mostly nut grass.
To-do list:
Trellis for squash
Trellis for peas. Also re-plant peas
Grids for Beds II and III
Boards for flower beds along back fence (thin are okay)
Order another cubic yard of dirt from Strong's
Order cuke seeds. All heirloom seed vendors are three weeks behind or no longer taking Spring orders. NB: order early next year.
Start lettuce seedlings to transplant, in the seed starter from Lowe's.

Ordered some ollas from Path to Freedom, to test out. They sound like a good idea for our climate.
This issue of Natural Home was the garden issue. They have an article about community gardeners who plant and tend the yards of people who have suitable property, but don't like/want to garden themselves. They share the produce between themselves. This is genius.
The uplift of green growing things and whatever feeling of self-sustainment we can acquire can't be underestimated.

Journal March 9

Overcast, windy. Hi: mid-'70's
Went out scavenging this morning and picked up some discarded plastic edging, bags of grass and a large plastic tub with rope handles. I'm thinking of using that as a planter for a pumpkin.
Moved Bed III into place and rather than digging it completely out, forked up the sod a bit and covered it with 3 copies of the Sunday Dallas Morning News. Then filled the bed with dirt and leveled it. It's been blessed and planted with 4 squares of corn. Okra takes up the rest of the bed. I can dig it up properly in the fall.
Also planted: nasturtiums (they came in a group pack with the morning glory and moonflowers), green beans and zucchini.
V. put a hook and eye on the gate, so we can lock it open.
New wheelbarrow is taking some getting used to- the load has to be balanced differently than in the old one.
First load of dirt is almost gone- must order more.
Found a volunteer vine growing behind the bird bath- I think it's a clematis. It will be fun to see what it turns out to be.
Absolutely MUST get a rain gauge, for watering. Also a pack of early corn seed, a pack of pickling cucumber, and a summer squash plant.
How can it be 6: oo in the evening? Darn that DST.

Journal March 8

Sunny, partly cloudy. Hi- low '80's. Begin Daylight Savings Time. Grrrr.
We put the newest bed together this morning. Lesson learned: don't be a Stingy Man. Get the wider lumber- it will pay off in time and frustration saved. But it will be adequate. I was going to put it in the Bird Area, but V. wanted to move the old landscape timbers away from the fence.
So, they will form the bed in BA, and I'll put the new one (Bed III) in the back yard.
Encroachment proceeds. I had to offer to mow the backyard, though.
Bagged up the rosemary branches for trash pick-up.
Scouted the neighborhood after Mass for bags of leaves, for a pre-dawn raid.
Carrots are up.
Watered TP tomatoes, marigolds and Barrow.
Have taken down the squirrel feeder. They eschew if for the easy pickin's of the bird feeders. But I am going to convert it into a statue holder- think Austrian roadside shrine- and put it back up on the fence. Or mount it on a pole. We'll see.

Journal March 7

Partly cloudy, WINDY. Hi- mid 70's
Sissy and the kids came over and the little ones and I put together the Butterfly Barrow, in wind gusts that almost knocked us down. There was dirt in eyes and other crises, but we got it done.
We also fed the birds and put out the nest materials holder- an old suet feeder with bungee cords. We only put in the wool yarn scraps (no more non-degrading acrylic for us!) and I'll add some raffia when I get it out.
When Sis instructs me in how to download pics without doing them all, I'll add one of the Barrow.

Journal March 6

Sunny, windy, hi: 70's

First time in a week I've had time/felt like working in the yard, other than feeding birds and watering.

Picked up mobile butterfly garden plants, one more herb and two tomato plants at Lowe's.

Time to start P/TP the hot weather vegs.

Blessed Bed II and TP two tomatoes: Better Bush and a cherry type.

There are now two peas up in the herb bed.

Moved some pavers in the Bird Area (it needs a better name) to make room for the new bed, and cut down the rosemary, prior to digging it up. It's about 10 years old and we let it grow out of curiosity to see how large it might get. But it's now in the way of a bed and nobody needs that much rosemary. So, good-bye and thanks.

Washed the feeder, watered. First daffodil up in the BA.

Ves mowed and trimmed for the first time this spring.

If Sissy brings the kids by tomorrow, we will plant the butterfly garden.

First!

This little narcissus claims the honor. To me, the scents of spring bulbs and new grass are some of the most evocative. They are the fragrance of re-generation.

Compost Heaps

Heap 2, set up, with brush in bottom
Heap 1, filled with leaves.

Plan to turn these in August or September, and use next spring.

Progress So Far...

The back yard

What got dug up

Mimi and helpers

Ready to plant.

Starting to plant.