Things are a bloomin'

Last weekend we were busy bees working in the yard.  We didn't post anything because most of the work was more like lawn maintenance than gardening (mowing, weed whacking, trimming hedges, mulching trees, etc.)

This weekend, however, it was back to the garden. We put our irrigation system to the test (see previous post) and IT WORKED.  The two rain barrels were full and were due for a downpour today so we emptied out the rain barrels into the garden via a "Y" connector and two soaker hoses. It took a while to empty them, but we did.  And, as you can see in this picture, there's some green stuff growing!

We didn't take pictures of everything, although everything HAS sprouted at this point.  Some things are still pretty small, but they're there.  Below are the limas which are taking off!

Chard and beets are doing well too (they both look the same at this stage so we just took the one photo).

Cucumbers starting out great....

and squash is off to a good start as well.

Tom's impatience with a lack of sprouting tomatoes and lettuce got the best of him. So he started 2 little containers of worm castings and planted the same tomatoes seeded in the garden beds, and the same kind of lettuce. As a test to see if the worm castings were good or bad for seed soil, he sowed even more tomatoes in potting soil. We'll be curious to find out if anything sprouts, and how long. It took 14-17 days for germination in the raised beds. Tom's betting the small containers will yield faster results ... but you never know until you try.

This picture was taken when we first moved in - a little less than one year ago. As we've been workin' the yard, we've sized up different areas to see what potential they have; where might be a good place for berry bushes, potato patches, pumpkin patches, cut flowers, etc.  We'd been keeping an eye to see what a patch off the carport might be good for, since we both hated the eons-old monkey grass it contained.  It gets about 2 or 3 hours of sun so it will be ideal for items that don't need full sun.  So two weekends ago when we were doing lawn maintenance, I moved all the cement blocks out of the way and started digging out the monkey grass.  I do believe this is one of the hardest manual labor jobs I've ever done! (She did an awesome job! :) ~T)

This weekend I got all of it out and re-arranged the cement to make a narrow bed.

Tom broke out the ol' Mantis Tiller and worked the dirt.  He threw in some wood ash and composted horse manure (courtesy of brother Dan and cherished horse Flamenco), a little muriate of potash, and the bed was ready to go!  We'll see how lettuce does here since lettuces will grow in partial shade.  Got the first lettuce seeds down.

There are two patches (one in the back yard and one in the front) that the previous owner used to plant flowers.  This one in the back yard is lined with the evil monkey grass so it will need to be dug up as well (Tom censored out Yvonne's cursing from this sentence ~ the editor).  For the time being I cut it down to nubs with the weed whacker.  We'll just keep mowing over it until we have a chance to dig it up.  In the meantime, Tom tilled the center and threw the same additives as in the lettuce bed (but more muriate of potash), then planted potatoes. (The potatoes Y speaks of ... well, they sat by our back door for a couple weeks way back in October. I never put them in the worm bin. Instead, I did the easier trick of placing them in our storage room, locking the door and forgetting about them. Lo and behold, the dang taters sprouted, in the dark! So why not plant those suckers and see what happens?)

When we moved in last year, we noticed this tree along the back fence.  We're pretty sure it's a pecan tree but some kind of funk got to it and we never really saw what these "fruits" turned into.  We're going to do some research on it and try and manage the funk and bugs to see what we can get it to produce.

Here is a more up close shot of the "fruit".

Toms has been working the compost and it is moving along.  Two weekends ago he put all the grass clippings in the bin on the right and the piles already reduced by 2 feet.  About every 7 days or so he turns the pile. It has a sweet smell, and we're still adding to it. He waters a little along the way so the microbes will be moist enough to eat away at the pile. Last week he watered the pile in stages for the first time, and in one week the pile really heated up. It was almost too hot to hold throughout the pile, as he turned it. (He insisted I take this photo as he's crazy about making dirt.)

~Y