Summer update~
In a word~ busy~
Yea! Out landscaping every day I am able, and I am getting much done.
Rock retaining wall for bank in front, almost completely done. Top planted with spring bulbs and other goodly things.
Side garden that follows long driveway in a semi terrace done with landscaping timbers and stone~done, almost completely planted with bush cherries,echinecea -(various types) both seed and plant, iris, periwinkle, daisy's-various types, Kordona miniature roses, burgundy gaillardia,delphinium, foxglove. Also just got these wonderful purple on white coriopsis in from a site I highly recommend-Rose Franklin's Perennials or www.ButterflyBushes.com Her prices are great around four bucks a plant, they came like two days from ordering, large healthy plants with the best packaging I have ever seen.
One small garden across from porch done, with many varieties of plants and one climbing light purple rose bush. One large patch in the front, to begin allowing for paths, all seeded, with foxglove, delphinium, daisy's, differing poppys.
I still have a good bit of dirt left and need to continue on the front banks. I have to screen it for rocks and roots and then I mix it with mulch/loam and bull poop. Plants are doing lovely in the mix! I love playing in the dirt~
Also~the fence is halfway up!!! We went with the six foot high square pressure treated 4x4s sunk about two feet in with concrete and five foot high square wire. It actually looks good. I built the gate, based on one I had seen on a website in the UK, but I did woodburning on the cross timbers. It looks great and it is different. Of course sinking the holes was in a word-horrid! But I knew it would be. This is clay soil with many rocks just beneath. So we got this post hold digger on wheels, which made it doable, otherwise I don't think we would have made it. Even so, most of the holes have to be finished by hand and a long metal pole to jab the rocks out.
But it is something we can do in stages, so it is working. Even so, the holes in the front may prove too much and we may need to get a jackhammer, the rocks seem much bigger, plus we seem to have hit water about a foot down in this area. In any case leaving that for last. Also the one hole has to be deep enough as it has to hold the heavy front gate.
In the other area to be done, poison ivy infested, climbing down from next door neighbors bank, I mean it goes down into the woods and up all the trees down there. I am seriously allergic to the stuff, so David is the one to suit up and try to get as much of it out as possible, which then goes into plastic bag into trash.
But the one side that looks into neighbors yard we left enough space so I will begin planting many many grape vines to climb the fence, and then fruiting bushes across from them. There is enough space for a small walkway between the fence planting and the bush plantings. A good place which gets plenty of sun. So also will get dual use of privacy and fruit. On the inside of said fence I will put a long row, it is more then 50 feet long, of raspberries, this will do dual duty of keeping dog/s away from fence and provide more yummys.
Sadly missed WTT again this year, but most extra money is going to fence, which cannot be up too soon. Even tho we spayed Piedmont this spring, if she hears another dog she is apt to run as we found out yesterday when she plowed into the woods and did not come back. All of us calling and chasing her down the road. Thank God Davids kids were here and she came right to them up the road. We were letting her rip around the back yard every morning and night to get some puppy energy out. But now, she is relegated to leash walks and such until fence is up. Once that is done I will be searching for pup #2. She wants so much to have another of her kind to play with, I just cannot bear making her live her life alone. Has to be a big dog tho, as she is sixty lbs and won't be a year old till Sep.
This fall I am going to be putting up two keyhole gardens, Ri's link and mention of this type of garden really moved me. It is perfect, I have all these med size rocks, old metal cans and such from back in the woods. In any case I will bring it to waist high with a terrace halfway down and about a foot out for strawberry beds, with the top all veggie goodness. I think I will use some sort of cement to hold the stones in place, and perhaps build it like one foot across for the width of the walls, but leave holes for drainage. The next one will be mostly herbs, in between the two I will build up a long rectangle and plant paw paw trees in them. I had to cut a good many pine tree branches for the fence and in the front so I think I will cut like a foot and ahalf lengths and wire them together for the rectangle wall.
And also, I would like to get some dwarf apples and fruit trees before winter. But we shall see.
In any case I have got to remember to have Holly bring camera to take some pics.
In other news David has quit smoking using Chantrix, and I am working on the same. He brought home some sort of death flu, not sure if this was swine flu, but I would not be surprised, this is like day seven for me and I am still pretty sick. But I figured it would be a good time to try to quit, so I am about 90% quit, hopefully in a few weeks that will reach 100% and I will be done with the damn things!
I think what makes it so friggen hard for me is that it is like the only bad thing I do. Plus I just really enjoy it. I mean I don't drink (give me instant headache) , I don't do drugs-my diet is good even tho I can't seem to loose weight (lovely). So, if I could replace it with something that is semi bad, it would most likely be easier. I just can't seem to find a semi bad thing that would not harm me....
Yea! Out landscaping every day I am able, and I am getting much done.
Rock retaining wall for bank in front, almost completely done. Top planted with spring bulbs and other goodly things.
Side garden that follows long driveway in a semi terrace done with landscaping timbers and stone~done, almost completely planted with bush cherries,echinecea -(various types) both seed and plant, iris, periwinkle, daisy's-various types, Kordona miniature roses, burgundy gaillardia,delphinium, foxglove. Also just got these wonderful purple on white coriopsis in from a site I highly recommend-Rose Franklin's Perennials or www.ButterflyBushes.com Her prices are great around four bucks a plant, they came like two days from ordering, large healthy plants with the best packaging I have ever seen.
One small garden across from porch done, with many varieties of plants and one climbing light purple rose bush. One large patch in the front, to begin allowing for paths, all seeded, with foxglove, delphinium, daisy's, differing poppys.
I still have a good bit of dirt left and need to continue on the front banks. I have to screen it for rocks and roots and then I mix it with mulch/loam and bull poop. Plants are doing lovely in the mix! I love playing in the dirt~
Also~the fence is halfway up!!! We went with the six foot high square pressure treated 4x4s sunk about two feet in with concrete and five foot high square wire. It actually looks good. I built the gate, based on one I had seen on a website in the UK, but I did woodburning on the cross timbers. It looks great and it is different. Of course sinking the holes was in a word-horrid! But I knew it would be. This is clay soil with many rocks just beneath. So we got this post hold digger on wheels, which made it doable, otherwise I don't think we would have made it. Even so, most of the holes have to be finished by hand and a long metal pole to jab the rocks out.
But it is something we can do in stages, so it is working. Even so, the holes in the front may prove too much and we may need to get a jackhammer, the rocks seem much bigger, plus we seem to have hit water about a foot down in this area. In any case leaving that for last. Also the one hole has to be deep enough as it has to hold the heavy front gate.
In the other area to be done, poison ivy infested, climbing down from next door neighbors bank, I mean it goes down into the woods and up all the trees down there. I am seriously allergic to the stuff, so David is the one to suit up and try to get as much of it out as possible, which then goes into plastic bag into trash.
But the one side that looks into neighbors yard we left enough space so I will begin planting many many grape vines to climb the fence, and then fruiting bushes across from them. There is enough space for a small walkway between the fence planting and the bush plantings. A good place which gets plenty of sun. So also will get dual use of privacy and fruit. On the inside of said fence I will put a long row, it is more then 50 feet long, of raspberries, this will do dual duty of keeping dog/s away from fence and provide more yummys.
Sadly missed WTT again this year, but most extra money is going to fence, which cannot be up too soon. Even tho we spayed Piedmont this spring, if she hears another dog she is apt to run as we found out yesterday when she plowed into the woods and did not come back. All of us calling and chasing her down the road. Thank God Davids kids were here and she came right to them up the road. We were letting her rip around the back yard every morning and night to get some puppy energy out. But now, she is relegated to leash walks and such until fence is up. Once that is done I will be searching for pup #2. She wants so much to have another of her kind to play with, I just cannot bear making her live her life alone. Has to be a big dog tho, as she is sixty lbs and won't be a year old till Sep.
This fall I am going to be putting up two keyhole gardens, Ri's link and mention of this type of garden really moved me. It is perfect, I have all these med size rocks, old metal cans and such from back in the woods. In any case I will bring it to waist high with a terrace halfway down and about a foot out for strawberry beds, with the top all veggie goodness. I think I will use some sort of cement to hold the stones in place, and perhaps build it like one foot across for the width of the walls, but leave holes for drainage. The next one will be mostly herbs, in between the two I will build up a long rectangle and plant paw paw trees in them. I had to cut a good many pine tree branches for the fence and in the front so I think I will cut like a foot and ahalf lengths and wire them together for the rectangle wall.
And also, I would like to get some dwarf apples and fruit trees before winter. But we shall see.
In any case I have got to remember to have Holly bring camera to take some pics.
In other news David has quit smoking using Chantrix, and I am working on the same. He brought home some sort of death flu, not sure if this was swine flu, but I would not be surprised, this is like day seven for me and I am still pretty sick. But I figured it would be a good time to try to quit, so I am about 90% quit, hopefully in a few weeks that will reach 100% and I will be done with the damn things!
I think what makes it so friggen hard for me is that it is like the only bad thing I do. Plus I just really enjoy it. I mean I don't drink (give me instant headache) , I don't do drugs-my diet is good even tho I can't seem to loose weight (lovely). So, if I could replace it with something that is semi bad, it would most likely be easier. I just can't seem to find a semi bad thing that would not harm me....