The 4 R's

Usually people refer to the 3 R's... reduce, recycle, reuse. However, the newest R is rot. Yes, I said rot. I'm talking composting! I am really excited to experiment with composting. I did a little research and my favorite bin for composting is the three bin composting station. I found a design plan online and Pat Tracy built it for me (wow... he's too good to me!). I think the current compost pile we have might have to go in our green bin, not so sure it's acceptable for compost considering it has old llama urine in it and other unknown things.

Sweet 3-bin compost station, the boards in the front can be added an taken away as the compost pile builds.

Today I also put some vegetables and seeds into one of the garden beds. Pat Tracy also brought over some onion seedlings he got from one of his friends. They needed to go directly into the ground and so I decided to add some more seeds too. Unfortunately, it's still a bit too cold to do all the seeds. But today I put in the onions, beets, parsnips, radishes, and lettuce.

Garden bed from left to right - onion, beet, parsnip, sweet peppers (not yet planted), radish, lettuce 

Unique seeds... I've never seen beet seeds before.

The Hollow Crown Parsnip seed is really flat  and light.

Garden bed complete with string for straight planting.

I also planted another garden bed full of Dahlias, Peonies, and Gladiolus. I read in one of my gardening books to place a stake where the eye of the bulb is. I guess that will help support it as it grows. I really wish I didn't jump the gun on planting the wine barrels before my vacation. I didn't do the proper research and I'm not too sure I correctly planted the peonies and dahlias in those barrels.

The bulbs I planted!! :)

All you can see are the stakes and small silver name tags. Hopefully in another month or so they'll look like the pictures on the bulb bags.

I also took some pictures of the beautiful roses as they are already turning into large, colorful blooms.

Surprise!!!

I went to Maui for spring break and when I returned there was a fence built around my garden! I love my father-in-law and husband! Also, I heard strange voices in the back yard the morning after I returned and realized they had convinced my neighbor to not only remove one of his old ugly trailers from his yard, but they also came to our yard and hauled away our junk pile!!! YES!

Adding the side panels that Pat turned into a wave design later.

Patrick's adding a few more nails around the latch.

Can you believe Pat designed and built the entire trellis? He's an amazing carpenter!

It's such a fun and unique design. The idea is to get some sort of vine (maybe Wisteria?) to grow up and around the peak. As much as I love beautiful flowering vines, it would be tough to cover up such craftsmanship.

Patrick started remodeling the barn and we added an electric garage door, but until the neighbor came over this weekend we had the old barn sliding doors and a bunch of other crap piled up by the fence.

The dirt area behind the wood pile was where we had wood from the llama feeding stalls, LARGE sliding barn doors, and miscellaneous other junk. Patrick put a big dent in the wood pile this weekend too. He chopped it up for firewood for his parents (we don't have a fire place, but HVAC beats a fire place any day!)

These are the tunnels made by the mole I saw when the neighbor was removing the wood pile. BIG MIKE, the neighbor crushed the little rodent to death. Sad I know, but what do I really want... tunnel boring mammals or fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers?!?! It's crazy because up until this weekend, I had only seen signs that moles and gophers inhabited our property. But then on Saturday morning I saw the little mole and then later that evening I saw a large gopher pop it's head up out of one of it's holes in my garden area! And then we saw several more pop-up appearances Sunday, but we were never quick enough to "do anything about it!!" 

The men were hard at work on the fence, so I decided to take on another project. This is definitely the year of gardening experiments! We have an area along our front fence that is visible from the street, but won't grow lawn. I had 6 small gopher baskets left and thought I would use them to plant some day lilies and iris bulbs.

The supplies!

The blank area between the lawn and fence. It lines our neighbors driveway.

The result. I did 6 of these little baskets along the fence line. Each basket has one day lily bulb, potentially one large plant iris bulb, and about 6-9 smaller iris bulbs. I seriously think I over planted these small baskets, but should I risk putting them in the ground with the aggressive gophers? Spend more money on gopher baskets? Nahh, I took the plunge and planted them all!!!

This weekend was warm and nice and really made me think it was spring. I almost planted more Dahlia bulbs and considered transplanting the seedlings to the garden beds. It's Monday evening now and it's dark, wet, cold, and gloomy. I'm glad I didn't put my vulnerable seedlings out in this harsh weather. Things are safer underground and protected by wire!

The hot weather reminded me to water! I bought a long hose and this fun sprinkler in attempt to keep some of the grass green through the hotter months to come.

We found this dead snake (we think it's a king snake?) over by our garbage cans. We're not sure what got to it, but I'm thinking maybe a hawk. However, I did go peek to see it again today and it's gone.... and that's nature for you! Yikes!!!

(Now every twig I see looks like a snake! But at least these are the good kind that eat gophers and small mammals like that. Too bad he bit the dust before getting rid of a rodent or two!)

It's the green tulip I posted a post or two ago. The red has taken over, but it's still kinda weird looking.

Wine Barrels - prepped and potted

After talking with Patrick and his dad we devised a plan for the wine barrels, so that they'll last for a long time and keep critters out. It goes like this...

Step 1: drill five holes in the bottom of the barrel for drainage
Step 2: cut wire mesh to cover holes 

Step 3: Line with Visqueen (heavy plastic)

Step 4: cut slits in plastic above drainage holes
Step 5: nail metal mesh over holes

Step 6: add a two inch layer of gravel

Step 7: fill with dirt
Step 8: cut plastic a few inches from top of barrel
Step 9: smooth out dirt to edges of planter
Step 10: begin planting!

I'm sure it's important to have a plan, but each time I have actually marked one down on paper, it doesn't last! Instead of following my sketch from the other day we decided to put one wine barrel on the corner of the rectangular planting beds (four total).

Far back right barrel with Circus Rose (peach color), Dahlia*, Peony*, Iris*, and Freesia*
*bulbs

Back left pot with Gold Rose (yellow) with Peonies*, Iris*, and Freesia* 

Front left pot with Dahlia*, Iris*, and Freesia* bulbs

Front Right planter with Sunsprite Rose (yellow), Dahlia*, Iris*, and Freesia*

 I also added a border and wood chips to the base of the Redwood trees in the garden area.

The little Redwood sapling looks a little more dignified with the border and mulch base.

Redwood with Blue Spruce (Christmas Tree) in the background.

Check out the cow toy I dug up while putting the wood chips around the base of the Redwoods! Hilarious :)

oops! should have worn gloves!!!

The growth update:

The Parsley seedlings are starting to resemble the herb in its mature form.
Check out the new three leaf growth!

The cucumber seedlings are getting so BIG! I had these out in the sun (and wind) all day on Saturday and it might have proved too much for some of the fragile tube stems. I noticed a few have seen better days and might not survive their first outdoor experience.

Fruit tree updates: All trees we have planted are now showing some signs of life!

Asian Plum tree (had blossoms when we planted it, but lost them with the stormy weather).

The Brown Turkey Fig has some pretty leaves forming.

The Golden Delicious Apple has green leaf sprouts too :)

Tiny green leaves from the Fuji Apple.

Little sprouts on the Asian Pear Tree at the top of the row of fruit trees.

 It's a wonderful time of year to blog about our property. It seems like each week something new has grown, changed, or emerged from the soil. 

View of Father-in-Law, Box Elder Tree, and our old red barn!

I love this tree. The moss makes it even more interesting to look at.

These green shoots are called suckers and need to be removed before they get too large. They're on the plum tree. You can see where Patrick removed past suckers that the previous homeowner allowed to grow until maturity. 

This is a blurry shot of the first leaves growing on our LARGE Sycamore in the front of the house.

I planted the Snapdragons in early November. They have buds again and are even taller than before. They are seriously at/above my knees!!!

A new favorite emerges!! :)

Strange green tulip glowing in the sunlight.