Rock Therapy

The initial idea for this back corner flower bed.

Now with twice as many landscape bricks.

I played with those bricks like they were giant toy blocks, reconfiguring the wall several times.

At this point the project grew in magnitude. The wall wanted to be part of a circle.

Here with just my eyeballs and instinct I begin to lay out the circle that has formed in my mind. 

After some internet research, I get down to the nitty gritty of making the whole thing level.  

This is the current state of the Fern Garden.  I think I am finished with it for now, as I get to work on the rest of this earthwork project and finish building the circle.

So far I am up to 42 bricks, which seems like a pretty good place to rest for a while as I research the next phase of the project which will be a brick or tile patio.

Beautification

This time last week I went out in the middle of the night and brought home these four little seedlings.  Two Kale and two Brussels Sprouts.  I also planted marigold seeds around the perimeter of the bed to discourage the munching bunnies.  They haven't sprouted yet, but I haven't seen any bunnies either.  I think maybe my gnome is working overtime to keep them away.

Another big project I did last week was to excavate the old concrete steps at the edge of the property.  They were mostly buried in the hillside, so now they are a good foot and a half wider.  Some terra cotta pots are there alongside some rocks from the yard, to help keep the dirt from falling back down onto them.    That hillside was pretty darn overgrown too, so I used my new bypass cutters and folding handsaw to cut down a bunch of annoying ghetto palms and thornbushes.  It lets a little more light in there, and I might get some shade loving flowers to grow over there if I play my cards right.  

A flower bed is in the planning stages, but it is going to take a LOT of work to get all those rocks and busted cinder blocks out of there.  I managed to dig out two rusted fence posts, a discarded piece of what might once have been the back porch, a gigantic hollow metal pole in three pieces that looks to be about 12 feet long, three really nice concrete pavers, and several large pieces of rotting landscape timbers.

Delia said this reed fence makes our house look like it is wearing a hula skirt, but I kinda like it.  It is just stapled up there to hide the garbage cans and the basement door.  Maybe in a few weeks it will serve as a trellis for the nasturtiums I planted in pots at the base of it.

The front of house flower beds also got some Black Eyed Susans, two different colored Columbines, some lettuce and some peas planted. I left the mum that has grown back two years in a row now, and I transplanted Delia's Chocolate Mint, which bravely survived the winter on the sidewalk in a pot.  The Lemon Balm came back, only not where I planted it, which is super weird, but cool too.  And since Kai broke one of my Fiesta mixing bowls, I am repurposing a piece of it in the garden.  Hopefully sometime soon it will be holding up a cascade of luscious strawberries.
No gangly tomatoes over here this year, I will plant those guys out at the Co-op Farm when all danger of frost is past.

Scenes from our Urban Garden - Mid June

I love the way this vine wound up the porch and around the flowerpot full of grass.

Coffee trees.

Delia and her Gigantor lemon balm. The thing was towering over my tomato bed, so we moved it. Lemon balm is a member of the mint family, and I was kind of afraid it would take over the whole raised bed. She bought it last year at the Farmers Market, and it stayed outside all winter and came back like crazy. Hopefully it will enjoy life as a potted plant!

One of my hanging tomatoes and some other stuff.

Habaneros. I still have 4 or 5 that could use forever homes if anybody wants any.

Zucchini and some more tomatoes. Keith counted, we have 16 tomato plants. How did that happen?

The first pepper, and some lettuce.

Day lilies and random weeds.

Tomato blossoms.

Garden Goodness

Our broccoli grew, almost overnight, into bunches of tasty goodness!
Always ready with a sharp pocketknife, Keith harvests our first broccoli crown of the season.
The banana pepper plant we bought at Aldis is verily bursting with peppers. Anybody want some? SERIOUSLY! They aren't particularly hot, but they are delightful.
Our garden bounty turned into supper. One homemade whole wheat pizza crust brushed with garlic oil and topped with asparagus, tomatoes, onions and mozzarella (from the grocer) and home grown peppers and broccoli.

How the Garden Grows

It has been a bit rainy here, and while I don't necessarily appreciate that (it kept us in the house and off the bikes yesterday) the garden sure does!
The lettuce looks about ready to harvest. Delia has informed us that she is not eating any of it. That's OK with me, because I think I could eat it all. Just not all at once.
As you can see, broccoli and lettuce aren't the only things growing in our raised bed. We have been invaded by some hostile Hostas. When we built the second railing for the front steps I transplanted a clump of hostas from one side of the steps to the other. They didn't fare very well, because they didn't have much soil over there. I left them for dead, and thought nothing of it when we built the raised bed over their final resting place. Boy, was I wrong! They have been poking their little leaves up through the lettuce! I knew I should have lined the raised bed with landscape fabric. Oh well, live and learn!
Hopefully I will be able to dig them up and move them somewhere else once we harvest the lettuce.
Veggies and Hostas can live in harmony!

And here's a quick peek at the Feather and Fan swatch I'm working on for Madison Brooke, our new niece. Surprise Baby! I hope I can get this layette knitted before you turn 1!

Onions, Broccoli and Lettuce

Delia decided on Walla Walla onions, and there were about a hundred of them in the bunch we bought at Lowes. Anybody want some onion sprouts? We planted maybe a quarter of them.
The broccoli went in next. Our little neighbor Elena (she's 4) helped take the seedlings out of the container. She said she likes carrots but not broccoli... maybe helping to grow these will change her mind.
The tag on the lettuce said to plant them 18 inches apart. I think we might have planted them too close together. We shall see! I wanted to save room for at least one row of beets, but they shouldn't be planted till all danger of frost is past.
Delia is serious about this garden, although she still refuses to touch the dirt, because there are worms in it.

Our Equinox Project : The Urban Garden

Here we have two (untreated) boards from Lowes, 12 inches wide by 8 feet long. We had a nice dude cut them both in the cutting machine, giving us two 3 ft long boards and two 5 ft long boards. Easy Peasy.

Keith and his trusty drill and his handy helper Delia join the boards together with three and a half inch screws.

Isn't he just the handsomest handyman you've ever seen?

We filled the frame with 15 cubic feet of Miracle Grow Organic Choice Garden Soil, which the nice man at Lowes sold to us at a discount so we wouldn't go buy it at Big Lots. The total cost for this raised bed was $95. That felt like a whole darn lot of money, but it will last for several years.

This is the sunniest location on our property. It gets full sun from dawn to about noon. Better than the back yard which never gets full sun. So it'll have to do. We might be eating a lot of lettuce this year. I had to get down and break up all the clumps with my hands and a fork-tool. That soil smells like poop, but in a good way. I really can't wait to plant something, but we haven't yet decided what.


This is a family experiment. We will grow a little something for everyone. Who knows how it will turn out. Next up : Hanging Tomato Baskets.