Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Yesterday and today .. we have been so totally blessed with warm sunny late morning and afternoons.Yesterday I was just itching to go outside. Just had to do some household chores and some basic shopping. All I really wanted to do was go outside and play in the yard.
Lately I’ve been working on the reshaping of the veggie garden. I tried different ideas, but nothing seemed to be fulfilling. I like gardens that are free-flowing, no real straight lines. Was trying to achieve a natural type of veggie garden, without the rectangles or squares.
I dug away, shifted soil, moved rocks, tried sections of boards, held in place with bronze coloured linked fencing. Whatever I tried just didn’t feel right. So I kept digging, shifting soil, moving board. Making pot after pot of Yorkshire Tea. Trying to use the rocks of the past summer (that I’d used to border the beds) .. but they didn’t feel right either.
Wandered around the yard. Kept noticing the piles of bricks that I was going to use to create garden beds in another area. Decided to see what these would look like as garden borders.
Spent untold number of hours yesterday afternoon .. sculpting away soil with my Lee Valley garden tools, creating spaces for the bricks … attempting to keep a smooth flow of the bricks. Hey, I’m liking the look of this .. so I scour the yard, gathering all the bricks that I can find .. and soon enough, I have lined the garden beds with these lovely rectangular shapes. And I’m really liking the effects.
The rustic colours of the bricks fit in well with the texture and colour of the mulched leaves. I’m really pleased with this new shape for the veggie bed! And I’ll probably change it next year .. however .. for now, I’m happy.
Yesterday morning and early afternoon (before I started with the brick thing) .. I began preparing an entire bed for planting garlic! I’d dig out a row, line with mulched leaves. Place the garlic cloves pointy side up .. then on goes more mulch and some composted soil, topped with more of the beautiful garden soil.
Today I spent more hours finishing that project . .ending with the elephant garlic (about 40 cloves!) and at least 100 of the hardneck/soft neck variety. This year, I’m planting the garlic in full sun with much more amended soil. I’ll add seaweed or some kind of sea material in the spring. And for sure, I’ll be cutting down the “scapes” in June .. in order to have larger bulbs. I’ve learned my lesson this year. I spent so much time enjoying the beauty of the long green stems and resultant flower heads .. blissfully unaware that the energy that “should” have gone towards creating large bulbs .. was actually being diverted to the stems/flowers!
Yesterday .. I cut my gardening day short .. in order to prepare enough meals for 4 days. Not only did I prepare the easy chicken main dish (slathered the chicken sections with spiced mayonnaise and then coated with Panko, placed on a parchment paper lined pan & then popped into the oven.
I also prepared a large container of lasagna. Using freshly made pasta sheets, and a mixture of many veggies, beef, sauce and cheeses. Figured a few hours spent cooking would save me gardening time during the week! And so tomorrow and the night after .. we’ll have leftovers .. and, weather permitting, I’ll have more time to garden.
Have been noticing the tension between the wasps and the Anna’s .. the wasps are desperate and angry .. the Anna’s just want to feed at the h/bird feeder.
Saw the lovely little yellow bird .. two of them, actually. They live in the Hawthorne tree, I swear. Heard the Spotted Towhee, but missed seeing them. The Chickadee’s are getting used to me .. as are the Junco’s and the Chickadees.
Went for a lovely walk this morning, over an hour .. a quick trip to beautiful Swan Lake. Saw wrens, junco’s .. a few Mallards paddling away in some side streams. Lots of bustling around in the bushes as I walked by.
Feels good to be going back there .. soon I’ll start my daily walks there.
Well .. it’s been a day. Today, after I finished planting the garlic (I still have more to plant, around the yard, though!) I started playing around with another area of the yard. This will be my real play area. Here is where I will put my fanciful garden items. Stained glass. Wood framed windows. Washtub. Old tin kettle. Pond liner.
Started moving things around late this afternoon .. tomorrow (barring rain) .. I plan to continue. I can see some semi-circular designs already happening there.
Another lovely day …
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