I've been ignoring my blog for some time now. I've been focusing on my knitting podcast. Which has been fun! And I love knitting.
But today I actually went beyond this:
to some "real" gardening.
It's been a while.
Kim has been busy creating a vegetable garden; building cold frames, making rows for vegetables. Because that's his thing.
And he's done a great job.
The second cold frame is complete and planted. We've been eating kale and arugula.
But today I started a new flower garden.
It's been a while, years and years, since I started a garden from scratch.
What a LOT of work!!
I'm starting with this:
Luckily, the soil here is great. Not the hard cement stuff we had in Boise.
But, you've got to pull up all that grass and roots.
I've been using a broadfork, you can read about them here. https://www.whenyougarden.com/broadfork-vs-tiller/
It's a lot of work. Dirty work. But it feels good to get my hands in the soil again.
So far I've planted just a few things. I think it helps to see some plants as I work to remove the grass. It also helps me to plan my garden as I go. This one will be inside a deer proof fence. I see no point in trying to garden around the house with supposedly "deer resistant" plants because they really don't seem to exist. The deer will eat anything around here (including rhubarb leaves) when they're in the mood.
Felix approves of the Black Lace Elderberry.
I've also planted a James MacFarlane Lilac, some creeping phlox, and what I believe is Arabis blepharophylla "Spring Charm". ShopCo and Home Depot will be my garden plant haunts. Retirement has definitely affected my plant budget. But I've purchased some daisies and echinacea that I'm excited to get in the ground also.
But today I actually went beyond this:
to some "real" gardening.
It's been a while.
Kim has been busy creating a vegetable garden; building cold frames, making rows for vegetables. Because that's his thing.
And he's done a great job.
The second cold frame is complete and planted. We've been eating kale and arugula.
But today I started a new flower garden.
It's been a while, years and years, since I started a garden from scratch.
What a LOT of work!!
I'm starting with this:
Luckily, the soil here is great. Not the hard cement stuff we had in Boise.
But, you've got to pull up all that grass and roots.
I've been using a broadfork, you can read about them here. https://www.whenyougarden.com/broadfork-vs-tiller/
It's a lot of work. Dirty work. But it feels good to get my hands in the soil again.
So far I've planted just a few things. I think it helps to see some plants as I work to remove the grass. It also helps me to plan my garden as I go. This one will be inside a deer proof fence. I see no point in trying to garden around the house with supposedly "deer resistant" plants because they really don't seem to exist. The deer will eat anything around here (including rhubarb leaves) when they're in the mood.
Felix approves of the Black Lace Elderberry.
I've also planted a James MacFarlane Lilac, some creeping phlox, and what I believe is Arabis blepharophylla "Spring Charm". ShopCo and Home Depot will be my garden plant haunts. Retirement has definitely affected my plant budget. But I've purchased some daisies and echinacea that I'm excited to get in the ground also.
Kim will start a covered deck soon so we will have some shade while we gaze upon the wonder I have created.
That's the idea anyway. Ha ha.
I'll keep you updated on my progress.
