06.23.08
Dig It?
Well, there it is. Pardon the long grass, we’ve been enduring several days of steady rain accompanied by some wonderful thunderstorms. While the grass is enjoying it, we can’t get out there to chop it down to a manageable height!
Easy construction, having a compound sliding saw makes doing this job a lot faster and really simple. I followed these plans and we’re quite pleased with it. We made it higher so that we could make sure the dogs didn’t “water” our little garden since we wanted to plant some edibles in there.
Here’s one of our little basil plants. Initially I thought that one of our storms had caused some damage but closer inspection has revealed that we’ve got a little aphid infestation. The little hosers have eaten chunks out of the basil, sage and parsley. Apparently some kind of soap and water concoction will make them go away.
So, I’m annoyed and slightly dejected that within one short week we’ve already had a problem. I’m one to think positive so I have managed to convince myself that because we’ve had to deal with one issue that we’re set for the summer.
Oh the joys of being a novice gardener with very high hopes.
05.26.08
Mmmmmuffins
We had such a busy weekend. Spring is definitely here and we’re soaking up the sunshine!
Friday we spent an uneventful night vegging out watching tv. The plan was to make muffins but this great show came on called The Final 24, the episode we watched featured the final hours of River Phoenix. I used to have such a crush on him…I think he was the only blonde featured on my wall of teen heart throbs. Since that didn’t end until 10pm that’s when Scott and I tackled the muffins.
The recipe was easy, I got it from Michael Smith from Chef at Home. The recipe is Spiced Banana Muffins, but we felt the need to add chocolate chips…can’t have banana muffins without chocolate! The smell of these muffins in the oven was heavenly! And we think they turned out quite nicely and I am suitably impressed with myself.
Saturday and Sunday afternoon were spent tidying the yard and finishing up our very first garden building project. We had cut all the pieces and Saturday we put it all together and cleared the grass. I think the worst job was getting the posts in the ground. Scott spent a lot of time with a VERY BIG screwdriver trying to loosen the dirt. The problem is that beneath our “grass” there is no soil, just solid clay which makes any gardening project extremely difficult and frustrating. Sunday was spent banging the posts the rest of the way in. So next weekend we’re going to shoring up the sides for some stability and installing the plastic liner. I’m hoping it will be done soon, I’m really looking forward to having an herb garden. We’re not sure what else we’re going to plant, but it should be fun figuring out what else we want for our kitchen garden! I’ll post more on that container when we’ve finished it!
Have a great day!
04.21.08
How Does Your Garden Grow?
We cleaned up the front garden and grass over the weekend. Finally we got to say good bye to the last crumbs of winter in it’s disgusting glory. It amazes me how much garbage and filth gets hidden beneath those layers of sparkly whiteness. Anyway, after removing the actual garbage from the flowerbed I had to then go and pull out all of the dead leaves and plants. After that labour of love was done I was left with some nice rich, black soil. I must be doing something right, right? The tulips are growing and no doubt I’ll soon see some lovely flowers. My peony bush seems to be surviving, but since I forgot to trim it down last fall I’m guessing no flowers this year…if you know the answer to that one I’d appreciate it.
The one part of the garden I’m struggling with is the iris’. I like them enough, don’t get me wrong but the things are TAKING OVER. They have so much greenery on them I sometimes can only see those.
I think this year I’ll add some summer colour with pansies, I don’t think I can kill those. Rumour has it, if you water your garden things don’t die….we’ll see.
In my local garden centre’s flyer they were advertising Golden Yuccas, bragging that they’re “drought resistant” and can live in “dry soil”. Obviously they’ve never spent an afternoon in the small patch of desert that is my back yard. At $30 a plant I’m not sure that I’m willing to experiment, but it IS barren out there.
