Thursday, August 16, 2012

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I wake up in the mornings now, planning my days outside.

Yesterday I looked at my latest little area of beauty .. the three pavers that I installed at the end of the little cement sidewalk that ends about 5 feet from the cherry tree.  I’d chiselled out spaces in the hard packed clay soil to fit these in and they do look rather well.

And I added grass seed, topped with some soil and a thorough watering …. the grass should be growing in a week or so.  Whatever is left from the birds .. I do know that they like to nibble.

Grass is not my thing, but it does give the yard a lovely green quality.  And I’ve been forgetting to water the grass once a week … so am starting that habit.  It doesn’t take much .. but I hear the words of one my instructors at the Organic Master Gardening class .. just an inch of water per week will keep the soil moist so the living creatures can go on living and nurture the soil.  I want to keep them alive.

I also weeded the front patch of grass .. trying to nurture that back to a healthy green .. if I can keep cars from parking there, grrrrrr …  then a thorough watering.   And the final piece de resistance .. a liberal dosing of EM!  I’ve bought a huge, bright orange, 3 L watering can and so I filled that up 6 times with the EM/water mixture.

The changes should start appearing in a few days .. oh, hold me back from checking every 5 minutes.  And I will make sure that I keep this patch watered every week.

Bare soil, with no covering, is dead soil.   There needs to be a covering, mulch or plant materials, some water .. and this will keep the soil alive.

Looked around the little veggie patch, saw a surprise in one of the zucchini plants.  I swear there were only 2 tiny zucchini’s there the day before and now I see one that is nearly 5 times the size.  Do these things grow into giants overnight?  I have much to learn about growing vegetables.

And I think, why are zucchini’s spelled with two c’s??  I play around with the n’s, adding an extra one, short changing the c and then realize I need to correct. Sigh.

And I vow that next year, I will watch for the potato plants and will quickly scoop them up and grow them in containers.   They take up a lot of real estate in the garden and I plan to grow lots of garlic and more raspberries!

Looked at the little water feature hanging from a branch of the cherry tree .. glad I took the advice of my friend D, to put something in there for the birds to perch on .. when they finally visit the water.   She notes that the feature is too new for the birds .. they will use it when they become familiar with it being there.

Despite my great plans, I still haven’t planted lettuce in my little portable raised bed.  A situation that I plan to rectify today.

The day disappeared yesterday!  What with some necessary shopping.  Which included filling my car with plants that were on sale at a local supermarket. Three types of grasses, and other perennials that I’ve never used in my garden.,

I normally venture towards perennials, and am strongly attracted to herbs.  But sometimes it’s good to have a variety.  All the plants that I chose yesterday are strong, hardy and drought resistant.  My kind of plants.

Well .. on with this most lovely day.  Things to do.  Plants to plant.   And a little portable raised bed to situate somewhere.

And will I find time today to haul out my garlic bulbs, sort and choose which ones I will plant and which ones I will use and share?

🙂