Thursday, August 31, 2017

Moving the shed...again

I cannot remember the rationale behind moving the shed to the furthest corner of the east yard, but it was not convenient and not my best decision. The garden is about 180 feet across the back. These days I am gardening more in the far west garden, which is the furthest area from the shed. I kept making due with whatever I had handy rather than running back and forth that distance over and over and over. So today, the whole family helped me move it back where it came from. What a bloody job. Seriously. It will NEVER move again. Thank you family, I owe you.


 



And look, it's MJ the "garden cat in training". She curled up in the shade watching the craziness that was involved in the shed moving. Smart cat. She's a natural.


And the shed is back home!!! I am so glad. I immediately went back to my old routine. At the beginning of my garden day, I unlock the shed and open it up until I'm done gardening. Gosh I've missed that!! {I'll wash that algae off asap.} Again, thank you for doing this for me family!

Sunday, August 20, 2017

The East Garden is getting a huge makeover.

Last year I got a bad case of tennis elbow. It was so bad I couldn't pick up a coffee cup. I'm not exaggerating. So I wasn't able to do ANY gardening until this spring. By then the gardens were full of weeds, the wood chip mulch was lying in piles looking more like piles of sticks in the gardens. And then when you throw in the whole Raspberry patch dying from Root Rot, the east yard looked awful. I have been trying to get it tidied up, but it just got worse and worse looking. So....I have made the tough decision. I am going to return most of the east back yard to lawn. There will be a garden where the Apple trees, lavenders and the blueberries are. So it won't be completely barren.

 
 
Five foot tall pile, about ten feet across. To be removed soon. We will be taking a huge load of sticks and wood chips that are too chunky to break down, to the composting facility. I estimate about five to ten yards. And then I should be able to start seeding grass.

You can see the mulch before I rake it out. It is horrible with all the sticks. In the background you can see the latest project on the go. It stopped the garden raking in its tracks. There will be a post about the moving of the garden shed.

This is the old Raspberry patch half raked out. See how much better it looks already.

Allan has harvested the potatoes, so I can level that part of the yard. I've been working hard on that old potato bed for about a month. There was a lot of manure and wood chips there, so it is slow going. There is about ten inches of material to sift sticks out of and move elsewhere. Right now I am moving quite a bit of this scrumptious composted material into my flower border and what remains of the flower border near the potato bed. It will be about half the size it was. I will then take the rest of those nice chips and put them in the veggie gardens.