when we bought this house it came with a boring low maintenance garden. grass with a nicely separated area along the fences, planted with ornamental shrubs and with weed suppresion cloth and bark mulch filling in. ugh.
so we raked the mulch off to save it, tore out the cloth, and returned the mulch. the dirt that's left is quite clayey and as it's dry now, almost as hard as concrete. so we dig up small areas to plant flowers.
we like artichokes. we see several on our walks about town. they do well here. this one's a "violet star." we bought it in eureka, but it is from monterey bay nursery. castroville is on monterey bay, so the plant has a good pedigree.
the one flower we have planted is a forget-me-not that jason and elena gave us. the two plants in pots haven't found a place yet. one is a succulent we brought from our family house in capitola. the other is a primrose that we got for our potted plant garden over a year ago.
the extent of our new garden so far. the rock bordered part is ready for flowers.
our first raised bed. spinach, chard, and chives. we planted starts about 3 weeks ago.
other busyness. i built a work bench. the open slots under the top will have drawers. what can i possibly be staring at?
already crowded.
Mowing the lawn
2 hours ago
You need to dig some compost or manure into the soil, that will help a lot. You garage is tidier that mine
ReplyDeletethe other side of the garage is not as neat. we have apple of compost with goat manure that we add to the soil.
Deletea pile of compost
DeleteYou're staring at the fine craftsmanship, obvs!
ReplyDeletei think i'm wondering where the next screw goes. or maybe looking for the screw
DeletePutting in a garden is something best done slowly and as one gets a feel for it as you are doing.
ReplyDeletewe are moving slowly as winter approaches
Deletenicely done. i have no doubt you will be transforming the yard into a garden over the years. you always do. your gardens are always lovely. I hope your artichoke does better than mine did...I had to bring it back to life many times and it finally died for good. Perhaps too hot here?
ReplyDeleteway too hot there. even for humans
DeleteIt does indeed look as if you have been busy enough. But I'm sure you will enjoy the outcomes.
ReplyDeletewe planted flower starts today
ReplyDeleteGood to see that you're taking photos to remember the early work!
ReplyDeletenow we need some patience to get after photos
DeleteThe garage doesn't look that bad to me, but then maybe I'm not the best judge of that sort of thing. I'm not going to show a photo of our garage.
ReplyDeletehey i showed you mine. well, the neat side.
ReplyDeleteThe garden changes are already improvements. Of course, creating a "real"garden will mean more work than the steri-scape that was there before.
ReplyDeletewatering, even weeding, can be meditative.... mostly
DeleteJealous does not begin to describe what I feel! We've got plants gone to seed, some blasted by (way too mild for this time of year) frost and a l-o-n-g wait to plant anything edible.
ReplyDeleteI do look forward to the recipes that will go with the posts come the summer.
we may be a bit overly ambitious. i planted carrot seeds today and we have tomato slips rooting. our recipes are lists of ingedients.
DeleteThe garden looks much better this way. Not like it's a rental property or something. The work bench looks really good. My wife has been after me to build her something for potting plants.
ReplyDeletePat-- The people who owned the house we bought had been here since the house was built in 1990. He is a musician and she is nurse. We don't think they spent much time outside and did minimal gardening. Our project is to make the outside as lovely as can be. Flowers and veggies everywhere! Glad you like the work bench. Roger did a great job putting that together.
ReplyDelete