August Planting - through the Lions Gate

 Last summer I picked up a couple of damaged wading pools from Hopscotch toy store (for a donation) with the thought of making a couple of beds. While my soil is good clay, our dry summers and the shade in my overgrown yard make it challenging for some pants ... And my daughter has a BIG garden!

This spring while Kayleen and I cut back blackberries on one side, I noticed that area receives good sun, and moved one of the pools into place in June! I have been enjoying no-dig and container gardening videos, and used ideas from both. The soil is a mix from other areas, my compost, and from various pots. 

I got a Taro and Chinese yam from my friend Melissa Van Hevlingen, and had two tomatoes and a garden marigold from the Farmers Market, which I put in back of the empty pots.

Seeds included red Orach, spicy lettuce, Asian greens and Mesculin mixes, Okra, New Zealand spinach, chiogga beet, Kuroda carrot, and Pattypan squash. Borage, tomatillos and purslane volunteered in the surrounding soil and in the pots. ... And an avocado sprouted (from the compost!) The purple tulle provides a bit of shade for the Taro

I began working on the second pool this week, (note Percy kitty, enjoying the shade!) I cleared the brush, tied back the spearmint and vitex - which the bees love! 

I filled the bottom of this pool with the dried blackberry brambles, and the same soil and compost combo, topped with a bit of potting soul, and planted many of the same veggies, with the addition of lemon cukes, a round zucchini, endive and radiccio, sets from my topset leek, and a mix of flower seeds in the center for the pollinators.

I put a plant cage in for the peas that are soaking, and will plant beans as well ... Added a clump of garlic chives and baby Mullein, and covered the lot with tulle to deter the kitties! 

I sprinkled fresh seed from my Good King Henry, and hope some sprout to share. My plant is over a decade old, and going strong! 

Yard Projects

I've been working on cleaning up my yard! My 'BD gift' from the city was a note that I needed to get rid of 'noxious weeds' over 10" tall. Now I *love to garden* - & get overwhelmed with the amount to be done . . .

My daughter lived next door several years, then moved across town. I'd relied on her & her hubby for help, in *exchange* for a lot of babysitting :) That's shifted the last few years, now that the littlest is in kindergarten, I don't even watch them Monday mornings!!

My son Josh was going to be in town, & I asked Mary & my friend Leonard if they could help - we got THREE loads of yard debris to 'Greenlands' - the composting branch of our local garbage service! We did one load last Thursday (my birthday :) & got most of the rest into the driveway for taking yesterday - what a nice change!! Leonard brought a weed eater, Mary, Josh, Alyssa & I clipped & chopped extra brush & the ubiquitous blackberries . . . Josh would ask 'why did you plant this?!' & I'd reply - I didn't - the birds did!!' Hazels, an oak tree (way too close to the fence, & our native oaks get HUGE) . . .

This morning I'm clipping a bit more in the driveway, chopping out a few weeds, & moving the garbage & recycling bins closer to the 'garage.' Mary still has a bunch of boxes in the garage that need to go home for sorting - another use for that nice big truck! There be spiders, so we need a few sunny days.

& Leonard brought over a 1x6 board to replace a couple on my back step that had rotted out - which necessitated a trip to Lowes for nails - & I found some lovely big rings on eye screws that I'll run a hazel rod through to make a new clothes bar for the square dance outfits I'm accumulating!! I think I'll put up two, one for the fluffy petticoats -

Josh brought his post setter, & drove a green fence stake into the ground so we could slip an 'umbrella' clothesline post over it - viola! A new clothesline!! My folks hung clothes & bedding out whenever they could, & I've missed having one here! A gal friend got one at Bi-Mart last summer, & someone suggested the fence post rather than sinking a sleeve into concrete - made sense to me, & I just happened to have an extra post from an old bit of fence! This morning I hung out a few clothes!

My next project is a new compost bin. I helped Leonard with a few projects around his yard on Monday, & he has a pile of pallets for a project - with some extras. I have one of those black bins (back left in the shed photo, behind the blue tarp) which is great, but I've wanted something a bit easier to access - so checked on line & found this fun bin, made with pallets! I'll line it with hardware cloth to keep rodents out, & plan to cover it with a carpet strip as suggested (with 1x1s nailed to the ends, so it will drap over easily, but also be easy to remove! I may use a devider with hardware cloth down the middle, so effectively have two bins, fill one first, then begin the second, with lots of room for the worms to 'migrate' to the second side!

I'm also thinking of what kind of fence to put up at the back of my yard - Mary & I took out the huge shrubs on her side of the chain link fence, & we installed a gate - with new neighbors, I want something taller again. The neighbors to the N & S have cedar fences, & we looked at the cedar boards at Lowes. One friend did a lovely fence using both cedar & bamboo, I need to visit & see how that's weathered.