Garden Love

 

The clematis is awake! It is climbing the lattice slowly. This tempts me to add more plants, but it will cover most of the 8' piece of lattice next year.

The apple tree is leafing out and growing. It sits just inside the fence. You can see my dump wagon and a container with carrots coming up. There will be raised beds on the outside of the fence, and I need to hurry to be able to replant the carrot seedlings. Other wise, they will not be moved at all.

The newest raised bed will make for careful navigation on the other side of the fence that faces the ravine. It has sweet peas planted. On the inside of the fence you can see the pots holding different plants waiting for their own bed. A tomato plant, asparagus, onions and yellow squash are getting a good start in the pots.

Later, when all my raised beds are done and filled I will be building some simple frames to attach some plastic to. They will hinge on the far side of the beds to meet at the fence on either side and create a sort of green house. Not that I could grow stuff all year, but it will allow an earlier start in the spring and late fall will be longer, allowing me to grow greens and winter squash.

The building part is easy. Just attach the short sides to the long sides. HeWho has better control of the heavier drill will do that part, after he uses the chain saw to make the length of the longer boards easier to move. I do the rest. He is too impatient and would simply go buy as many bags of soil needed to fill them and dump it in.

I layer newspaper, junk mail and such, topped with cardboard on the bottom, This eliminates having to carefully remove anything growing. The layers of paper will prevent weeds and will decompose over the years. I top this with raked leaves, careful not to include anything green to the top of the bed. Then I carry half filled buckets of clay dirt from the side of the embankment and dump it on the leaves. This compresses the leaves considerably. I top this with good quality raised bed soil. This becomes the biggest part of the bed, depthwise, and I am ready to plant.

Sounds over simplified when I write it down, but it is labor intensive. My back hurts today, but I plan to work through it. I need to become adjusted to working gardens again, something I will be doing all year. 

All these pots have got to go! As you can see the doggie fences have come in handy. The beds will be high enough to discourage my canine companions from jumping into them. Toni Louise would not dare to disturb my plants, she is wise. Eddie does not jump. In fact he won't even use the doggie steps to get on the couch unless it is precisely positioned to his liking. Bo will be the challenge. He likes to climb onto things and jump through the air, as if he thinks himself to be a super hero dog. The doggie fences (I have 3) will be employed on the otside of the fence, along with netting to keep the birds and smaller critters out. Just netting on the inside should discourage Bo after only one time getting caught up in the netting.

Coffee cup is empty and the great outdoors is calling my name! We are planning a short trip next week. We will only be gone a week, but when we return I can't wait to see what my gardens have done in my absence!