Thursday Yardening

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today is sunny and quite warm, with a light breeze.  :D  It is a beautiful spring day, perfect for working outside.

Round 1 -- I fed the birds.  Lots of them are out and about today, hopping around and singing.

I cleaned the dead stems and leaves out of the barrel garden and its hanging pots.  These are now ready for planting.  It's not actually the first place I usually plant, but it's a small easy project to start with. 

My violas are waving gently in the wind, a little burst of color in a world that is mostly still drab.  It makes me smile to see them.

EDIT 3/28/19: Round 2 -- I straightened the brick border around the cistern garden, then removed dead stems and cut away some tree seedlings that didn't belong there.  I still need to remove dead leaves or stuff them down the holes, and add more soil.

EDIT 3/28/9: Round 3 -- I raked most of the dead leaves into the holes and low parts of the cistern garden.  I think I'll wait on adding more soil until I've bought new potting soil.  I pulled a few weeds too.  This section is in much better shape now.  \o/

EDIT 3/28/19: Round 4 -- I took the pruners and cut away seedlings from the strip between the house and the sidewalk, and inside the strip garden on the patio.  I still have a lot more pruning to do on the far edge of the strip garden and patio where it joins the lawn.

EDIT 3/28/19: Round 5 -- I pruned seedlings and pulled weeds along the back edge of the strip garden and patio.  That area should probably be raked up and the refuse thrown in the firepit. But at least it's cut down now. 

EDIT 3/28/19: Round 6 -- I raked up the mess along the edge of the patio, and hauled two trolley loads to the firepit.

*goflopnow*

Comments

Whew

[zeeth_kyrah]

Happy spring! That's a lot of work for one day.

Re: Whew

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yeah, I got a LOT done. :D I'm trying to ramp up before the other mail-order stuff arrives, so I'll have some actual stamina. I managed so many sessions today because I didn't try to do too much at once. I doubt I spent more than 10-15 minutes per session, but that adds up to at least an hour.

I used to garden when I lived in Ohio

[dauntless_heart]

Now that I'm in New Mexico and have a business, no time. But I loved raising organic veggies. Someday I'll have time again...

Re: I used to garden when I lived in Ohio

[ysabetwordsmith]

Huge difference. 0_o

I've been talking with a friend about gardening in the high desert. That's interesting -- again, very different from my central Illinois locale.

Options for New Mexico include:

* Raised bed, lasagna garden, hugelkultur, straw bale, containers, wall garden, or other methods that lift plants above the sandy soil and give them a better growing medium. Of these, containers are the least work and easiest to enjoy if you have limited time/space to garden.

* In-ground hugelkultur, dug beds, or other methods of excavating poor soil and replacing it with something better at ground level.

* Native plants adapted to the local soil conditions. Much less work than the above methods, little or no irrigation required, fascinating new species to explore -- but you probably couldn't grow much familiar stuff.