A little more project, and a lot of everyday stuff

 The last few days have been a lot of "normal" stuff.  Mowing the lawn, working on the backyard, cleaning in the house, making pickles and relish.  And those things were part of the time I normally do morning outside work.

There was also a surprise day from my son.  He decided that he wanted to "go". So we went to visit with a friend for a while.  My son got his favorite sweet tea and to curl up in "his" space under a weighted blanket, somewhere that wasn't home.  And with people around that are not me.  Mom isn't the only person that occasionally needs a break.  I hadn't planned on this, but the friend was up for it, and nothing I had planned was written in concrete.  So I chilled for a while, he chilled for longer, and I got to do a quick run through a thrift store. Found some interesting comfy shirts.

I did get one section done.  The compost pile wasn't very happy with new additions at the moment but I got them to fit.  I did have a few cuss words for when the stabby vine got me a few times.  And there is a longer stabby vine section in the next part.

There is more liriope to handle.  But I want all the bush and stabby vine (smilax) out before I deal with that.  There is also another section of plastic edging to pull out that goes right through that liriope.

Then I can finally mark and start planting the other camellia.  I hoping for 2 more elderberry bushes in the ground but we'll see what the measurements say.

And now I need to find a home for an old fashioned stabby rose bush that actually makes rose hips.  That is floating through the brain so that, hopefully, I can do that transplant in the spring.

Two Days in One

 I certainly didn't plan on doing two days worth of work in one day.  But the body wasn't really happy with the skipped day.  I started with the things planned for today.  First was cleaning up the random plant pots and other items that were scattered in the work area.  After that, I cleaned up newly fallen pears so that they won't cause problems with mowing tomorrow.  That actually took a good 45 minutes.

Then I decided to go ahead and get one more of the elderberry bushes in.  Well, the body decided that I needed to do two of them.  Neither was easy.  Both holes were dug with the mattock.  But now three elderberry bushes are in the ground. I have to do some more removal before I can put anymore in.  That's this weekend and next week.

I was going to stop there.  I really was.  I went and got the mail and was headed in.  And the body just stopped at the door, turned around, and decided that the last of the strawberry plants needed to be in pots. It was one of those things where you are mentally going one way, and the next thing you know, you are doing something completely different.

So the remaining strawberry plants, approximately 15, are now in plant pots until I can decide their further fate.  And thoroughly watered.

And that was it.  Tomorrow is mowing, as long as the weather and the body cooperate.  It will be somewhat more annoying than normal because the gas company came through and left a trail of yellow flags running across the front of my lawn and in the ditch.  I'm so sorely tempted to use that as a reason not to mow the ditch this week, but I won't.  I can't wait until mowing season is done.

Next week will likely be a mix of things.  I still have plants to remove.  And then new plants to put in.  But I also need to start getting carrots, rutabagas, turnips, beets, and greens planted.  And I'm waiting to see if the seeds for broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage sprout.  And somewhere in there, or this weekend, I'm hoping to get a garden seat made so that my back doesn't get quite so abused.  And get the cucumbers and peppers picked and canned.

Alternate Priorities

Today was one of those days where my daily garden time didn't happen.  There are a few things that can interfere. Today it was my son in pain.  Everything got put on hold to help get him stable and calm.  And while the Fitbit says that none of that was exercise, the body does not agree.  Probably because the number one thing in helping my son is to keep myself and my heart rate calm while doing so.  Because it helps him keep a level of calm.

And since that took so long, it's not likely that I'll be able to take a break from work that is long enough for me to go and spend some time in the garden.  Breaks today will be focused on making sure that my son's pain is under control and making sure that it stays that way.  He is currently burrowed under blankets in my bed, because for him, there is no better place to be when he is not feeling good.

So I'll leave you with a picture of another area that I finished earlier in the year.  This is the window outside my office.  Those two big bushes were much, much larger initially.  And they will get another pruning in the correct season.  The three itty bitty plants in the front are coneflower.  The itty bitty plant in the center back is a Primrose lilac.  They are currently protected from the deep levels of mulch by rings made from the center of vinegar jugs.  All of them have been happy with their new homes and are improving rapidly.  While the lilac is supposed to get much taller, I think it will be next year before it starts to get into it's true size.

I'm going to go have a really late breakfast.  And I'm considering a cup of caffeinated tea to just help the body get over that last bit of tired.

Time to Use a Measuring Tape

 

I know myself.  I measured for the camellia.  I didn't measure for the first elderberry in anything but a general way.  I know that I have a tendency to do straight lines that angle.  So it was time to pull out the measuring tapes, yes, two of them.

The first measurement was the full width of the new garden bed.  The outside edge will be 8 feet from the house.  The big plants will be 5 foot from the house.  And the edging plants, asparagus and fall blooming crocus, will between the 7 foot and 8 foot mark.  I roughly marked the 8 foot point with bricks.

Then, using both tape measures, I marked the spots for the other elderberry plants and moved the pots into position.  Now I know where to accurately dig.

And I've got a lot of clearing to do down the side of the house still.  It looks like I can get in one more elderberry bush and the second camellia.  But that will be something to make a final judgement on when I can cleanly measure that area.

There's a short concrete walkway where the burn barrel is temporarily resting.  It leads to a door that hasn't been used in over 15 years.  For years now, I've blocked it with planters and outdoor plastic storage boxes.  Yet somehow, once in a blue moon, some fool delivery driver decides that is the front door and will leave packages there,  hidden behind the planters and boxes. That's all I'll say on that.

So I will be trying to plant the second camellia close enough to block most of the view of that door, while still far enough away that it shouldn't have a problem with the concrete.  And in spring, hopefully, if the body keeps cooperating, a knee height wooden planter will be placed across the concrete to block out people.  Or maybe a primitive wooden gate with lock, so I can still use most of the path to access the hose bib and that area.  That idea is still bouncing around.

Now, to the right, out of the photo shot, is a large silver maple.  The trunk is about 8 ft, maybe, from the brick marking the new garden bed edge.  My current debate there is whether or not to just expand the bed all the way out and around the tree, or not.  The base of  the tree is not a good spot to put plants or planters.  I've already tried both.  I'm currently debating sitting benches in a circle around it, with stone as "mulch". That would solve several of the issues with that spot, and reduce the area that requires mowing even more.  Again, another bouncing idea that the brain is working on. 

And the next batch of strawberries got planted today.  That's ten more strawberry plants in.  And I made the decision that, yes, I am going to expand that bed out about another foot.  Actually, from digging down some, I'm not expanding it, I'm putting it back where I had it originally.  But that was done about 4 years ago and nature has been encroaching on the edges.  So a new layer of cardboard and mulch will quickly resolve that problem.

By the way, the bush on the right, that they are all going around, is a blueberry bush.  And that bright yellow green plant that is the border on the left, is golden marjoram that has decided that it likes where it is.  So it has way overgrown the two pots it started in and is making it's way down the center of this porch garden bed.  I'm perfectly content to let it do so, although I'll be adding a few pavers so I can reach the strawberry plants in the back when it is harvest time.

That is a lot more strawberry plants than the photo makes it look like.  Hopefully, they will all survive and grow with lots of vigor.  I'm not sure I want anymore strawberry plants in that area, but there are other strawberry home options available for the future.  So tomorrow, I will get the remainder of the plants potted up and tucked into the front edge of the blueberry to hold for winter.  These will be in normal pots with the intention of pulling them in the spring.  So my main focus is just getting them into the pots.  Tucking them into the mulch bedding for winter will happen as I get the new layers of mulch placed over the next few weeks.  

And More Strawberries

  

This is where I left off yesterday.  All of the existing plants had their plastic rings removed.  The rings went to new spots and were filled with soil and new plants.

This is step one of doing this.  Scrap down through the mulch to bare ground.  Pull all the weeds.  Then put the rings in place.  These are made from the center sections of juice jugs and soda bottles.

Then fill with soil.  I'm using potting soil from various pots where the plants were planted out or just didn't survive to be planted.  Potting soil costs money so I'll keep cleaning out pots until there is not more.  And then I will buy more.

Todays pots also gifted me with an electric blue skink, a DeKay's brown snake, and part of an ant hill.  Nice things to see, well, except for the ants.

This is those same areas after I finished mulching between the rings, planting in the rings, and making sure they all got well watered.  Tomorrow I will be filling in some of the front gap.  And I'm debating whether I'm going to deepen this garden bed by a foot or so and add a row of strawberry plants in front of the blueberry bushes and mints.

I did get the first elderberry in the ground today.  You can see the bare bit of green if you look really close.  It's where the pot was yesterday, down in the bottom right corner of the photo.  Yeah, I'm not the greatest photographer. I've come to the conclusion that it's probably a good thing that I'm working both these projects at once.  It is taking the mattock to get through the rocks and old roots, and my body can only handle so much of that type of abuse.

And this is another of the sections that I completed over the last few weeks.  Those are two yaupon holly bushes and a beauty berry.  They are looking a bit better now that the weather pattern is cooling and there is more natural watering.  That nandina in the back is currently being killed so that the roots won't sprout back up again.  It is way too close to the house for me to dig and pull with a tow chain.  And unfortunately, a lot of the original plantings of them were that close to the house. I'll be glad when the last of them are replaced.

Anyways, time to go do some more schoolwork and earn some money. So I hope you have a good day.

What's a Little Rain?

 I got a really, really late start this morning.  And the body is more than a bit sore.  I was going to say from the neck down, until a headache decided to jump in as well.  There will be an epsom salt soak in a little while.

This is part of the strawberry patch.  This is also an area that I prefer to really deeply mulch every fall.  Because deep mulch keeps winds from whipping under the porch and against the house.  So my floors stay a bit warmer.

Anyways, the strawberry plants I bought, that survived to get planted, did well.  They are all planted in the middle section of a soda jug or vinegar jug that was filled with soil.  Now that the roots are well established, I pulled the plastic to use for new plantings.  And everything got a deep layer of mulch around the old and the new plantings.

I got about a third of the plantings done.  So that would be where all of the current existing plantings are in this picture.  I forgot to grab an after picture.  I'll do that tomorrow morning.  Because rain came to visit while I was doing this, and I just refused to give up.  So I kept going until I had emptied the wheelbarrow of mulch.

By then I was soaked and was really planning on calling it quits.  But I didn't quite feel that I had done enough work.  And while my back was very annoyed at the bending I had been doing, it seemed to be okay with the idea of digging.  As long as my feet and my weight did most of the work.

So I let my feet and weight do most of the work, although I did threaten the liriope with the mattock if it didn't stop being stubborn.

Not all of the liriope is gone.  But the front parts are.  I may actually have to resort to the mattock for the rest of it, but that's for another day.

Then I went ahead a set out the pots of plants that are going in next.  Those are four pots of black elderberry, sambucus nigra.  I got them as cuttings from a nursery about a year and a half ago.  They survived this long so it is time for them to get their permanent home.  These cultivars are Korsor and Samdyl.

Yes, I am crowding them to themselves.  The spacing between the elderberry, the house, and the camellia are all the correct spacing.  And yes, that means that this garden bed pretty much just doubled in width.  That falls into the "Oh my, less grass I need to mow." category.  And less grass to mow in a spot that is tedious to mow.

Anyways, back to spacing.  I'm good with the elderberry plants crowding each other.  They will provide a good hedge, and they will provide a plentiful supply of both flowers and berries for the household.  With the correct spacing between them and the house, they'll hide rainwater barrels pretty well when I can get to that project.

Now, off to eat breakfast. And then to dry off and get more laundry started.  Tomorrow is more strawberries, and hopefully at least one of the elderberries.

I'm leaving you with an image of one of the completed areas that is hidden behind the nandina in the above picture.  That is a tea olive.  In the long run, I'll be putting a walk path to the left side of it, because that is the path I have to take to the spigot.  And there are a few other things that need to happen in this area.  But I have to finish getting plants in the ground first.

Where Did the Day Go?

 Today has just been non-stop.  The body decided that I did not do enough physical work yesterday.  So I definitely did enough this morning.

That is the first camellia.  And to give you some size ideas, that is 5 foot off of both house walls.  That allows for it to grow to full size and still have 2 to 3 feet between it and the house.

And digging that hole was an adventure in which tool next.  But between the shovel and the mattock, I got a pretty good size hole dug.

Yes, that is a tomato cage holding it.  For some reason this plant had decided that it's two main branches needed to be at a 45 degree angle.  I've tried several ways of supporting it and finally decided to use one of the tomato cages.  When those branches straighten up and support themselves enough, I'll get it out of there.  But it'll be there through this winter at least.

For the moment, that spot over there is also the new temporary home for the garden tools that are currently being used on all the different projects.  Because the former resting spot has been moved.

There are still shrubs to clear that go down the side.  And still some liriope to clear in the front.  But the other random shrubs that were to the front of the house went away today.

The liriope has another home to go to if it survives.  I'm going to be honest, I'm not being gentle with it.  But if it decides to survive, there is a place for it.  I'll actually be dropping the plants in that spot to give them a chance.

I started with my loppers but the bases of the shrubs had too many stems crowded together.  So the sawzall with a pruning blade got to take most of it to the ground.

And then today became a whole bunch of errands which involved moving wood, getting cardboard, getting son's granola bars, and getting strawberry plants.  Oh, and the surprise I forgot about of canning jars.  Which is a bonus because the pepper plants have started to be generous in their gifting.

It is likely that this section will be on hold tomorrow, and maybe Monday, while I get the strawberry plants in the ground.  There are a lot of strawberry plants.  And a lot of space under the blueberry plants for the strawberry plants to make a home in.

Untreated Lumber and Moving a Ramp

 

I have a family member that is starting to make some wood things.  And there was a FB post for free untreated hickory and cherry. So that was this morning's first task.  I loaded up Munchkin and got to spend an hour pulling the pieces that looked the best.  

Why an hour?  Because it was a big pile and I didn't want to leave it messier than I found it.  So as I pulled pieces that I wanted, I also made sure that the pieces I didn't want did not get scattered all over the place.  That's just basic courtesy.

The brain also threw forward a project for me that could use some lumber, untreated or not, so I grabbed a few more pieces that I could use.  And when I get a dry space built, I'll probably go back to get more for the smoker.  Last I knew, hickory and cherry make good wood for the smoker.

This will all get used for different things.  I'm grateful to the business that offered it up for people to use.  I also got a bag of sawdust from untreated wood to use for making wind stops along the bottom of doors.

Task number two was both simpler and harder.  We have a ramp at the porch steps in case we have to remove my son from the house, again, in an emergency.  Or in case I have to get him back in the house again after an emergency.  It's nothing fancy, but enough to help in those situations.  We can't afford to build a full wheelchair ramp.  And the health issue that causes the need is so sporadic that we don't qualify to recieve a free wheelchair ramp from the charities.  It is what it is.

There is a friend who gets a kick out of using it to bring full cart loads of groceries up onto my porch if he's here to help unload on the once-a-month grocery pick up day. I have to admit, it does make it easier to get everything in.  But I don't mind the exercise from just going up and down the stairs a couple of dozen times, most of the time.

The ramp was locked to the right side of the steps which was going to be a problem for multiple things in getting the new garden setup done.  One of which is the ability to easily move the trash cans in and out of their home.

So this was one of those pain things.  I had to find the lock key. Then I had to find the WD-40 because the lock had gotten pretty rusted. Then it was up and down the steps to wrap the chain on the opposite side and lock it down again.  Meh.  

The ramp had to be dropped open before I locked the chain in place again so that I wouldn't tightened the chain to the point that the ramp would have problems opening when it's needed.  And it was the reminder that I need to get outdoor textured tape to put across it.

So that is the planned morning tasks.  Well, I've also got to go unload all of that lumber because tomorrow I go to get cardboard and strawberry plants.  But I'm waiting to hear if/when I'm meeting someone to pass on most of it.  Because there's no point in moving it extra times if I don't need to.

This is by no means all of my tasks for today.  But that's the outside stuff for now.

I Disappeared Again

 Life has been hectic.  There was a lot of health issues.  And in fixing some of the health issues I was able to get more active again.  I keep waiting for the body to issue one of it's stop notices, which it likes to do without warning.  But while it's willing, I'm going to tackle the to do list that has gotten insanely long.  So I've spent a lot of time, and I do mean a lot of time, working on the yard.  I honestly wasn't thinking much about this until someone asked for a lot of information on what and how.  

I'm already a giant chunk of the way through the overhaul, and I didn't take before/after pictures.  So I am going to take before/after pictures as I overhaul the section I'm working on now.  Because while it all looks so pretty afterwards, and seems so easy, it actually takes a lot of work to get it from A to Z. I'll put the after pictures of the other work on another post, but it's hard to show just how much work went into doing all of that. Those areas had raised beds and trellises in them and everything had to be stripped out.

I'm working about an hour each morning.  My body needs that time for a variety of reasons.  And that time has been helping my health and sanity, two good things to keep going in positive directions.  All in all, I spend 6 to 7 hours a week working on the yard in one way or another.  On the weeks I have to mow, about 2 to 3 hours of that time is handling the lawn.  Otherwise, it's the yard getting overhauled.  At my speed.

Start of day

This current project actually started on 8/17.  When I finished mulching under the last of the currently unused vegetable beds, I started this.  Step one, which I can't show you, was getting all the cardboard that I had laid down out of the space. I didn't take pictures so I can't show you that.  But the cardboard did what I needed it to do.  It kept the weeds, the spirea, and the sweet autumn clematis from taking over until I could get back to this spot.

So here are the raw photos for the area I'm working on for the next little while.  It will all be stripped back to bare earth and then rebuilt from there.  And there were a few surprises.

The cardboard did a good job of keep the weeds down.  But when pulled, it because obvious that some of the more stubborn things, like spirea and sweet autumn clematis, were trying to make a comeback.

Start of day

The actual first job was getting everything out of the way.  So those two rather large planters you see above had to move to a new home.  Each planter is an 18" square.  They are planted with Arp Rosemary.  Eventually those plants will get an in ground spot, but for now those pots are their homes.

Then was picking up all the small bits of accumulated random trash.  It was an interesting pile, and fortunately small.

That's when things got interesting.  If you look closely at the pictures, you can see sections of black plastic edging.  That edging has been there for 20+ years.  It's actually in pretty amazing condition for something that old. But that also meant that it was a pain to pull up.  And pull it up I had to, because it was going to be in the way of the new plantings.  Basically, the original garden bed had been planted way too close to the house.  The new garden bed will be correctly spaced.

Start of day

That black plastic actually goes/went all the way across the front and wraps around the side.  I started with a shovel.  That failed quickly.  So the mattock came out to work.  As of 8/18, most of the black plastic in the front has been pulled.  The side will be another day.

In pulling up the black plastic edging, I discovered that way back when, someone had placed plastic bags from soil/rocks/whatever as mulch cloth.  I don't do this for multiple reasons but I have to say, the bags held up pretty well.  It was a challenge to get most of them pulled out. But they got pulled out.

And I had to hand weed the random plant volunteers, including the goldenrod and the sweet autumn clematis.  That spot will be watched carefully to see if I'll have to resort to Round Up.  It is the core spot for most of the vines that I've been fighting the past few years.

End of day 

I also had to pull out the loppers.  I love those loppers.  I used them to get the bits of stump that were still aboveground.  And the small pieces of spirea that were still trying to come up.

I'm not worrying about stumps beyond killing them thoroughly.  They are actually all too close to the house.  Most of them will be buried under the new mulching.  And since I really don't want them coming back, there will probably be a few extra layers of cardboard over the spots that were still showing signs of life.

End of day

 

By quitting time for today, things were starting to look different.  Empty.  Blank.  That won't last for long, but it's the starting point for the new garden bed.

End of day

And this is just some of the plastic that was tucked under the soil.  I'm also finding lots of rocks.  I'm guessing that the original mulch for this area was rock.  That's okay.  The rocks can be reused in another spot.

So, am I going to disappear again?  I hope not.  I'm actually hoping to just keep right on trucking along on here.  There have been quite a few folks that have opened my eyes to a few things.  I keep forgetting that I've learned things that other folks haven't.  So maybe if I put it here, that knowledge can pass on to the people who need it.  Maybe before they need it.