The backyard - productive or otherwise - 2022

[Nancy]

Waving to you LynnL. I love reading about your activity on this thread.

[Harriet]

Dreaming

I went out and measured the two enclosed beds that are part of the brick architecture on the front of this ranch-style house. I've got :

a 3-ft by 4 3/4-ft rectangular bed at house level that appears "square" from the lawn, and
an 18-ft-long by 21-inch-wide bed that runs under the LR windows at hip level.

The lawn is on a slope so that you look up toward the house as you approach by car. So short plants will be hard to see because of the brick "lip" of each bed. Whatever I put into the beds needs to be eye-catching and grow tall enough to be noticed from a distance. The long bed is the most distant view.

blessed got me interested in flowers in PWYC this morning. I'd love to get these two enclosed beds healthy enough to produce beautiful flowers this summer and maybe a little kale, but gee, many questions I've got to dig in and answer:
How old is that dirt?
How depleted is it?
Would any self-respecting earthworm check it out?
How far down does it go? Good drainage?
Do I replace it or just be grateful it's settled enough to allow me to chuck in about a 6-inch layer of new planting soil?

My dream would be that the long bed against the house, with roof barely jutting out enough to cover it above, would be semi-shady enough to handle impatiens, my favorite annual to see at a distance. We'll see. Maybe sun-friendly annuals for the front of the "square" and some kale behind. Everything could go over to pansies slowly as the summer flowers finished their seasons, BUT I may find that any short flowers are just too invisible.

Well, one thing about it - there won't be any creeping weeds to fight. And the hip-level bed will make for pleasant tending.

Lynlee said she ate lunch in her outdoor space. Such a happy thought. I'd love to figure out a way or reason to walk to these beds from the other side of the house (easy flat walking) with some chairs for a place to enjoy lunches, etc. close to the flowers. Right now, even we don't walk around there, much less take a visitor. It's not a destination.

[Nancy]

Harriet I love that Idea. If you still have hens that can help with fertilizer and straw to enrich the soil.
I looked in the garden center at the store today at Wally World and they did not have seed out yet, but some bulbe were in stock.
I did not get any.

I have been outside today for a walk and out to the shop and shed but that is all.
I will be looking for some herbs to plant later on.

[Lynlee]

Harriet - Mulch is king and the worms will come if there is some moisture there. (That stops short of it being a waterlogged swamp.) Trash from the hen house, composted will be gold. Some topsoil ..

I grew the best trees by not digging holes. Arranged composted grass clippings around tube stock had the roots reaching through into the underlying soil, even the can't easily make a hole in it soil.

Look up no dig gardens too. People have grown things in haybales by popping the seedlings in quality compost or potting or top soil and tucking them in the hay bale garden. Or in the mulch 'garden' covering.
In time there will be lovely walks to be had around your new heritage intergenerational home Harriet.
That dream can happen.

I dreamed a park into being in my yard. It needs more regular mowing, but it is out there waiting for me.

I'm getting better at pulling out the seed heads when I see them.
Little actions - I hope to grow them some more again. They make a difference.
Noticing them (the actions, the difference, the little delights) helps.

Nancy is excellent at it. And her posting here helps me.

[Harriet]

Raked the two beds out (that was a lot), pulled up all but one of the 3 winter-over plants that dstepdil planted - the others, I truly believe, were dead anyway. This one in the middle of the long beds needs muscle : either ds, who came by and said he'd come back by to see if I needed anything, or perchance me again tomorrow if what I've already dug up dries enough in the sun to let me shake the bulk and weight of dirt off.

Happy finding of an earthworm. Feeling sorry for disturbing two skinks. They are disgusted with me. Bad finding of a tiny thin vine I suspect of being poison something. Need to think about it because all of us are quite allergic, yet I don't want to use chemicals in this bed in case the kale works out. Maybe vinegar, although that isn't always permanent.

Certainly found contented single (not creeping) weeds and pulled them, mostly along the brick of the house. But not much creeping grasses, I don't think. (Sometimes you don't know, though - they surprise you.)

Do you guys know the name, "bull tallow"? That type of sticky, red earth in our area seems to be down below part of the loam in the long bed. Kinda disappointing but then it may have a lot of minerals. Not great for drainage.

Nancy is right that I must ask ds about chicken-house straw leavings.

Lynlee, you have a point about the no-dig idea. You reminded me I even have a book on that by Charles Dowding, whose videos online are so calm and pleasant, and old books on mulch gardening by Ruth Stout. Obviously, this earth has been growing things, so it has fertility, the level has just sunken within the beds. If I could be reasonably sure new planting soil I bring in doesn't have weed seeds, is well composted or whatever, it could be put on without too much more concern about working the soil below.

[Lynlee]

Harriet - When you move on something you do move on it. WTG - cheers to beginning.
Most plants are unhappy about a boiled kettle dunked upon them.
Removal of dead things that sting is still an issue.
I've heard a recipe - vinegar plus detergent to help it 'stick' to the 'chosen plant, or just sugar on the earth but that deters chosen plants as well. A note on the sugar being poison to life forms, or to etch concrete. I remain unconvinced on vinegar. I think it might take a bit of application , repeated.

The treelets I chopped back are considering themselves 'pruned' and are delighted.
That war continues. Plants with hairy leaves and stems I have an aversion to. shudder.

All of my endeavors to remove the hidden bit of being here . logging in failed, though the double me is gone - for now.' I am truly unsure how long I will persist if my computer continues to misbehave when I come here.

[Nancy]

I was outside today did a pick up after the dog, and made a mental note to rake the yard again it would be a great arm workout done.

[blessedw2]

I am still in the dreaming phase as winter has set itself down for a bit of a stay. I have been ordering seeds and thinking about what I want to do in the garden this year.

[Harriet]

Sore muscles but I have spread all the new top-dirt and broken up clods. I believe that I was right in telling ds we needed a little more for the square bed and a little less for the long bed than he thought. But he was working with his calculator and doing the math over and over. Actually, I'm surprised I could "see" this discrepancy better than he. I'm sure it had to do with depth, which is harder to envision. I'll either get out the shovel tomorrow and transfer some, or just pick up another bag next time I'm out. Don't have a wheelbarrow at my disposal unless one of the boys has one. Hmmm... .. One bag is do-able.

The more I stand out there, the more I begin to think I will have a lot of area in enough shade that I need to concentrate on more shade plants and less sun-loving ones. That's fine - just need to know before I plant. When the trees leaf out I'll know more, but I can guesstimate. So close to the house yet on the south side, so, some experimenting may be happening.

HRH thinks he can invent something to handle the rainfall off the roof into the square bed, while preserving the brand new fascia at the roof, for which we just paid so much. I have no doubt.

No sign that the poison vine survived the boiling water, so I'm hopeful that did it.

Lynlee, if you have continued to have those computer problems with coming here, we're genuinely sorry and we miss you!

[Nancy]

Yes I am missing LynLee as well.
I have do a session of weeding & picked up back yard after our walk.
Mon. Working by the plant cage currently did some inside.
Tues outside the plant cage again it is looking better yea!
Wed. I am continuing to work on the outside of the plant cage area did at least 30 min. plus an additional round by the driveway and got some leaves from by the tulips there raked up some more seeds and got the stuff I picked up that I'd pruned in the can to go out next week, today's progress feels great!
Lovely weather for it it's looking better getting more of a path or walkway there now
And a spot for undecided plant or herbs a plan would be good!
Seeing bulbs up and flower buds are starting to show some color this week violets are in bloom.