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.