Garden Plans – Stardate 052714

Yesterday while pulling out nearly a years worth of hardy grass new growth and dead strands, it occurred to me I really ought to keep a diary of my projects as I strive to transform my 3 lot, 100 year old home place into my own Garden of Eden.

I rarely think to snap pics until I’m all done – “My, ain’t that pretty?  Let’s take a snapshot!”

So here are some snaps – some have before and after –  some, I didn’t think about the camera until too late –

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Remember the southside of the house when this project first commenced?  The nice rolling ditch to funnel water right back to the foundation?

Southside – Ditch to be dug for blocks

Here with a nice sanded slope I had been advised to put in place, by no less than 5 local ‘experts’, only to discover this traps wet in the stucco, which necessarily breathes from the bottom air holes?

Growing Green Things

Then the hours of digging down, sloping and installation of a secondary raised bed?

Behind the scenes – 2 layers of block protecting steep sloped, plastic covered, pebble graveled run-off away from foundation

Well, here’s the south side nearly finished – tire perimeter in place and two of the perennials from last year made it – beds need their mineral/rock dust amendments and then will be planted with summer vegetables.   The back portion of bed already planted with mammoth sunflowers to shade the wall – sunflower seed fits my budget better this year than the lattice work I had hoped to install between the upright poles – ah well, there’s always next year!

Fronts of the beds planted yesterday with marigold and nasturtium seeds – hopefully, my marigolds aggressively self-seed!

2/3rds Done! Middle beds and walkways left to do

Me and the boy cleaned out a mess of leaves, tumbleweeds, hardy grass and dead leavings to clean out the west side of the yard fence – the below featured tree has quite a few buds on it, so not ready to give up on it just quite yet – this area will be prepared for an amaranth and cabbage bed – if the amaranth gets as tall as it says it will, should provide some nice shading late in the day.  In the background, you can see Oakley, the wonder dog, lying carefully in between the rows of Jerusalem artichokes – alas, she has stunted the growth of 2 of them, but more are poking their heads out and we have 6 that are 4″+ high already!

Future Home of Amaranth – Burgundy and Golden Giant

The east side is coming along nicely – Here’s a pic from my front door during last years heavy rainstorm – and the tires I originally thought to use for the eastern perimeter.

August 3rd – Rain, Rain and some more Rain

Next, a picture of the east side in progress –  beds next to the house that capture roof run-off and the establishment of what is sidewalk/what will be lawn area.

Transplanted to these beds last fall, the new irises, white and purple,  have put on a lovely show and will be inter-planted with lovage and purple volcano sage.   All but one of the roses transplanted from my mom’s garden last year failed to make it – one has 2 green leaves down near the base, so left it in to see what happens –

The front walk-way blocks were planted with perennial chives and annual cumin – I may regret planting chives so close to where I’m going to attempt having a pretty, run in your bare feet lawn space – time will tell.  The side of the lawn planted with a low growing, drought tolerant seed mix last fall (right) received no supplemental water from September through now – which means I have to reseed and try again this year to get well established before testing it’s drought tolerant capabilities.

Walkway to be lined by chives and cumin – lawn re-seeding awaiting me getting the micro-irrigation back out of the shed

The hurriedly built and transplanted strawberry beds are showing the seedlings of 7 different kinds of lettuce and the spinach is nearly 3 inches tall.   I inter-planted some salsify in one bed between the strawberries (lettuce at the outer edges) and also planted perennial Welsh onions in the second bed in between the strawberry plants – both the salsify and the Welsh onions are new to me, so will keep you posted on how that whole experiment turns out.

Strawberries and Salsify in middle, Mesculan mix around one outer edge, spinach planted on the other outer edge.

Strawberries and Welsh onions planted in middle – green leaf and flame red lettuces planted at edges.

Interested  in any of the plants?  Here’s the links to the seeds I purchased:

Amaranth, Golden Giant

Amaranth, Burgundy Grain Organic

Welsh Onion, Bunching Scallions

Salisfy

Mammoth Sunflower

French Sparky Marigold

Dwarf Nasturtium

Lovage

I suppose the area for amaranth is not going to prep itself, so I’ll sign off – Happy Gardening!