The first corner removed actually had the most sod to take out, and it was wet, heavy and full of large roots. Now it's the perfect spot for a future pot of cucumbers. I'll string some heavy wire from the tops of the fence posts, and train the vines along the fence. Herbs or flowers can fill the smaller pots.
There wasn't so much sod to take out here, but a zillion lilac suckers to remove, a bit of trimming on the lilac tree, and a bit of edging. The barrel was filled with buckets of soil from last years tomatoes, and amended with a lot of composted manure. It will eventually hold a hill of Honey Bear squash. A small folding wire fence was added to keep the dogs out of the future flower bed, and a clump of chives was brought over from the container near the patio.
Just look at that root system on the chives, after a couple of years in the container! It took a sharp shovel to get the clump broken up into manageable sections.
More than enough for the job.
It's beginning to rain, and there's still a lot to do.
Yes! I finished before the rain came! All cleaned out, edged, leveled, fenced and a border of chives planted on the outside of the fencing to eventually hide it. Zinnias will be planted behind them, on the other side of the fencing.
It looks much better! Of course, in a month or two there will be another gazillion lilac suckers to remove.
The next corners to tackle. Maybe today, if the rain holds off a bit longer.
It finally got warm enough to keep the seedlings out in the shed at night, and they've been spending the entire daylight hours outside. I cleared all the stuff out of the dump cart, and added a board to the top of the garden cart, so now I can move everything in and out easily. Much better than the 15 trips it was taking me twice a day! Now all I have to carry in and out are the four big tomato pots.
Great job rounding those corners. Looks good too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gardener on Sherlock!
DeleteThat is a great idea!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Linda.
DeleteGood idea on the board. I saw one used the other day with some starts that came from a nursery. Thought it smart but putting the board on the wheels=brilliant! I have to get something going too b/c ours are growing beyond our abilities to heave those things in and out. Thankfully it'll be warm enough soon to put them OUT for GOOD! whew!
ReplyDeleteLove the cutting corners idea also! What'd Mr Granny have to say about it?
I bet he was grateful. Does he come and survey what you do and comment or just let you do your own thing. I love that it's just YOUR project ongoing and he's seemingly not got too much of his hand into it.
Is he as healthy as you are? I know that all of this work kicks butt and makes you extra healthy, not to mention the good food outcomes of this work!
Good thinking this week, I love it all! The pink tulip tree or whatever it's called it pretty too!!
Amy T., Mr. Granny doesn't do diddly in the yard (other than sit on the riding mower), so he can't say much about it if I want to do something! It did take a bit of persuasion to get him to agree on making the garden larger, but I knew I'd win in the end ;-) No, he doesn't look at anything unless I drag him out and force him to look, and if I ask him to help me with something, he manages to come out AFTER I've done it myself! OK, so he did hold the leaf bags open for me today while I filled them with stuff I'd raked up, and he did start the push mower for me to use, so I can't say he does "nothing". No, his health is not great (he's had a stroke and a heart attack).
DeleteIt's a lilac tree, and it should be in full bloom by next week. I love the tree, hate the suckers it puts out.
Sorry to hear Mr Granny is in poor health but I know you're providing him some great healthy meals via that garden! He undoubtedly knows it too. Good on him for holding the bags for you. I was picturing you out there shaking the trees and wondering if the neighbors were thinking u were off your rocker. lol
DeleteThe tree is gorgeous but sounds like a pain. Sometimes those are worth it tho. :)
My mom used to say that all my dad did (they lived in Florida) was "squirt the deck" which meant hosing around the pool to clean the ground of dirt and stuff. He could spend hours out there just "squirting the deck" hahaha. He later was a chair holder downer as well. Be good to Mr Granny as we all need one in our homes! :) My dad is passed away so keep mr granny in the veggies and up holding bags from time to time! heheh.
ps I love seeing the roots! I'm transplanting my starts now and the roots constantly fascinate me!
ReplyDeleteRecently I've just been leaving my plants out at night. We have had some warm nights recently. So I barely have to carry anything. But then I only have a trip of a few feet. It's not that hard.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I won't leave my warm weather crops out until it gets at least 50F at night. We're still in the low 40s, sometimes dipping into the high 30s, so I play it safe and keep them in the shed. It's cold in there, so they should toughen up.
DeleteIf you figure out an easy way to get rid of those lilac suckers--I need to know. Criminy-I have been hacking away at them-they come in so thick I can't get my border spade through them.
ReplyDeleteI'm about to get the ax............
;)
Sue, if I could figure that out, I'd sell it and be a zillionair! I love that tree for about 2-3 weeks every year.
DeleteThe garden is looking great! I love the way you have "cut corners". I gasped when I looked at the picure of your seedlings. They look gorgeous and there are so many of them. Hmnn... could that "unmentionable" soil have helped, LOL
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ed. Yes, the "unmentionable" did the trick ;-)
DeleteCutting corners definitely isn't your thing! I was just telling my hubby that when you guys do something, you do it well. It's definitely inspiring, that's for sure! Everything looks really nice! I like that you're going to have a wall of chives to hide that fence.
ReplyDeleteMegan, the little fence was necessary to protect future flowers from Annie and Otto. They think they have to annoy the little dog next door every time she comes out to her yard, and they trample everything along the chain link fence. I hope Otto won't jump over it. Annie can't jump that high, but she's smart enough to push her nose underneath and lift it up. I might have to tack it to the whiskey barrel and wire it to the other fences.
DeleteLove what you did with the corner. It looks great. I'm hoping to be able to set my seedlings out in another week or two. Still too cool here.
ReplyDeleteRhonda, I'm kind of pushing the weather here myself. As long as it stays over 40 at night and 50 in the daytime, I feel OK putting the plants in the shed or outside. I probably won't leave them out 24/7 until May 1.
DeleteI'm going to start doing my own lawn-mowing -- mower-loving daughter is moving -- so I like the idea of putting something in the corners so I don't have go go forward/back over and over and still not get everything mowed. But, how do you keep the grass from creeping back? This stuff in my yard is tenacious. I think if I dug in a row of anvils, the grass would crawl right through within a week or two.
ReplyDeleteDianefaith, I do have heavy duty vinyl edging around the patio, and it helps. I still have to clean out those beds once in the spring (another job on my to-do list). I'll probably just keep at these back "corners" with the shovel this year, and see how it goes. As it is, I do have to straighten up the fence line every couple of weeks, so the "corners wouldn't add too much more work. I may resort to more of the edging.
DeleteIm very impressed!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Stay @ Home!
DeleteYour garden looks good, but your whole backyard landscaping looks great too. I wish mine looked as nice as yours. I think I need to resod my whole yard.
ReplyDeleteKris, the back yard never gets anything but water and mowing with a mulching mower, so the clippings are the only fertilizer it receives. Same with the front, but the front yard never looks good, and I fight the weeds there all the time. I think it needs to be ripped out and resodded!
DeleteHi Annie, Now you will have more gardening space!!! That is great! Will you add mulch to your new beds to keep the weeds out? Nancy at Cozy Thyme Cottage
ReplyDeleteNancy, I'll be putting straw under the squash beds, but I'm kind of a "dig in the dirt" kind of a gal when it comes to the good vegetable garden soil. I used a lot of mulch last year, and had a real problem with slugs. I would like to get some bark mulch for the flower beds though.
DeleteYour garden looks just so beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Charmcity!
DeleteLooks great Granny! Those carts definitely make the seedling shuffle much easier! What's with this new blogger layout this morning???
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Robin. I had a heck of a time finding where to publish the comments! I think the old layout was so much simpler, but Blogger just can't seem to leave well enough alone.
DeleteLooks wonderful! I love idea of planting cucumber and squash in a barrel, they always take so much space in the garden that I was doubting if I can plant them this year, so maybe I'll add something like that to the outside garden too. And love that lilac tree! Our is just a mess (which we inherited this way) and I just didn't get a chance to clear out all those new runners. One of these days i'll have to add deep purple one to the border :)
ReplyDeleteJenny, that lilac tree (which used to be a bush when we moved her 20-some years ago) is a real headache to take care of. I spend more time removing suckers than I do gardening, I think! If I didn't love it so much for 2-3 weeks of the year, I'd have it removed.
DeleteWow everything is really coming together nicely! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Farmers Wife!
DeleteRounding corners is a great idea. I also like how you are using chives as a border too. I recently read that chives helps prevent apple scab if grown underneath apple trees. So I am planting a lot of seeds and surround the apple trees.
ReplyDeleteYour seedlings look very happy. It must be much easier to wheel them in and out instead of gazillion trips.
Rachel, I'm going to let those chives fill in and flower, so by next year they should be really pretty. After I got them planted, I could have kicked myself for planting single ones instead of clumps, I certainly had enough of them.
DeleteI love your constant changes, keeps life exciting! I can not get anything to grow in my wine barrels. After 5 years we finally took them out this past weekend. It is a strange thing.
ReplyDeleteKelly, what can I say....I get bored easily!
DeleteMy plants haven't been growing well in the barrels the past couple of years, so that's why I emptied them out and put in all new soil and lots and lots of compost. Fingers are crossed, as the winter squash are one of my favorite things in the garden. I grew melons in one I think three years ago, and they grew great. Last year the strawberries were kind of a bust in them, and the zucchini died of powdery mildew.
I have a question. Do you have to keep moving your plants in and out because you started them indoors? If they were direct seeded outdoors would you have to do that? I am zone 5 and planted the gardens yesterday, including tomatoes, peppers, etc. bought from the greenhouse. They always seem to do fine even with our nights dipping into the 30s and 40s.
ReplyDeleteI like how you are using your chives as decorative planting. I plan on doing that with my red lettuce as soon as the wind dies down enough to plant those tiny seeds. The red ones were so pretty last year. I also planted my broccoli in amongst my flowers and I have a beautiful sage in the center of the flower bed. I think it's so much cheaper and more practical to use veggies and herbs to help fill in. I'll try to send a pic when things are up and growing.
Yes, Langela, I'm hardening them off. The tomatoes and peppers were started inside 5-6 weeks ago. I would never direct seed the tomatoes or peppers, they wouldn't have time to produce anything. All of these plants are warm weather crops, and starting them inside early just gives me earlier harvests. I also will not set any of them out in the garden before the night temperatures stay above 50F, as the cold soil just slows the growth. Tomatoes and peppers set out now, when it's still so cold at night, just sit there and pout, and those set out in warm soil not only catch up with, but surpass the earlier ones in growth.
DeleteI planted broccoli with my flowers last year, and thought they were really pretty. If you look at the picture at the top of my blog, you can see them right in front of the lilies. Yes, please do send me a picture...since you won't start a blog!!!
Wow, what an impressive job (but then again, your garden is always pretty impressive). Nice work!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, 1st. Man! It's you and Ed that motivate me into wanting to make the yard a prettier place, you know :-)
DeleteGreat idea! And it really look good ... I may have to borrow that one :)
ReplyDelete