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In the Garden
May. 10th, 2010 10:23 amFinally! An uninterrupted weekend!
Stacey and I spent most of the weekend working in the garden and working in the yard.
We've now tilled and turned and planted the bottom three tiers of our yard and we've mostly finished filling the 4th while we've been working on a trench for a french drain around the house.
The biggest chores of this garden have been pulling out the english ivy and leveling the terraces. The terraces that make up the yard were never really finished by the people who built them and so the far end has eroded pretty badly and required we move a lot of dirt up from the lower terraces but the upper ones are still pretty badly washed out. We also have a lot of dirt that's come from further up the hill to the edge of our house. So... First we collected rocks and fill from around the yard and built stone walls at the edge of the terraces that need it, and then bucket by bucket we've been moving a hundred or so kgs of dirt. It's almost starting to look a little too civilized.
On the bright side, clearing out the english ivy has revealed a decent-sized patch of strawberries. Not sure what sort they are yet but. Ooooh. Strawberries. :)
No other interesting plant finds this weekend (except for one native plant that I haven't identified yet but intend to use as a decorative) but I've been enjoying the many inhabitants of our garden. We have lots of things that creep. :) I've found at least a dozen banana slugs. I <3 banana slugs. They're primarily decomposers and shouldn't really hassle my plants too much though they really like mushrooms, so they may be a problem for the oyster mushrooms but for the moment I don't anticipate much worry. Have also found a lot of California Slender Salamanders and a few Firebelly Newts. So far, I haven't seen any brown garden snails and only a few regular slugs.
This evening (weather permitting) I hope to get most of our herb garden planted.
I've really missed having a garden.
Stacey and I spent most of the weekend working in the garden and working in the yard.
We've now tilled and turned and planted the bottom three tiers of our yard and we've mostly finished filling the 4th while we've been working on a trench for a french drain around the house.
The biggest chores of this garden have been pulling out the english ivy and leveling the terraces. The terraces that make up the yard were never really finished by the people who built them and so the far end has eroded pretty badly and required we move a lot of dirt up from the lower terraces but the upper ones are still pretty badly washed out. We also have a lot of dirt that's come from further up the hill to the edge of our house. So... First we collected rocks and fill from around the yard and built stone walls at the edge of the terraces that need it, and then bucket by bucket we've been moving a hundred or so kgs of dirt. It's almost starting to look a little too civilized.
On the bright side, clearing out the english ivy has revealed a decent-sized patch of strawberries. Not sure what sort they are yet but. Ooooh. Strawberries. :)
No other interesting plant finds this weekend (except for one native plant that I haven't identified yet but intend to use as a decorative) but I've been enjoying the many inhabitants of our garden. We have lots of things that creep. :) I've found at least a dozen banana slugs. I <3 banana slugs. They're primarily decomposers and shouldn't really hassle my plants too much though they really like mushrooms, so they may be a problem for the oyster mushrooms but for the moment I don't anticipate much worry. Have also found a lot of California Slender Salamanders and a few Firebelly Newts. So far, I haven't seen any brown garden snails and only a few regular slugs.
This evening (weather permitting) I hope to get most of our herb garden planted.
I've really missed having a garden.
