I haz a garden!

[Darlica]

Well it's not really mine but I'm in charge of it!
The tenant-owner's association where Lindorm and I lives has a garden, a rather neglected one which now is mine to play with.

In April I signed up to help with the gardening and was met with both enthusiasm and scepticism, many people before me had said they would help but nothing or very little ever happened.
I was given a small amount of money and told I could use them to create a little herb garden or whatever I wanted and I guess they expected me to give up halfway there.

The houses and the garden is situated near a former clay pit and the they used old and deformed bricks, bits of concrete and stone to fill out between the houses when the building was done and the gardens where created. There is a little slope up to the wall of the neighbouring garden which was completely over grown with shrubbery and it was talk about hiring a a contractor to clean up the mess.  It's a lovely garden with lilacs and elders as old as the houses and it has great potential but the soil is a nightmare to work with.

Now, instead of of running to the nearest garden centre, the minute I got the money, I took some time and made a plan and planted some seeds that would fit in no matter how things ended up.
I found surviving herbs and strawberries from an earlier garden attempt beneath the weed and shrubbery and used that as a starting point.

I soon realised that a good part of the shrubbery had to go, or my little herb plot wouldn't get enough sun, I also realised that I had to either elevate the herb bed or dig deep into the hard clay-soil mixing it with sandy soil and peat if I wanted whatever I planted to survive (it holds moist very well but when it gets dry it kills the plants in two days).

I started to cut down the shrubbery single handedly (the one the wanted to hire a contractor to deal with) it took me about two days, I dug up the Strawberries from the old lot and placed them in a bucket with water, I dug up a Lemon Balm and planted it where the shrubbery had been together with a Lovage who had been hiding in there for I don't know how many years. Then I started to prepare the old lot by removing all weed. I bought a wooden frame about 45 cm high and good quality soil to fill it with and a couple of nice ceramic pots and then I was out of money. 

However my efforts didn't past unnoticed and on the common house and garden work day got help to buy more soil for the little slope so I could plant the strawberries (that had been relocated to the herb bed) where I wanted them.

Today I and a member of the tenant-owner's association board here went to a very nice garden centre and bought herbs and flowers. I got a lot of praise and apparently the whole board is impressed by all the hard work I have put in to the gardening, I was also told that I'm now in charge of the garden and have pretty much free hands to do what I want as long as it doesn't end up being very expensive.

This afternoon I planted the herbs, cleared another old flowerbed of weed and planted Sunflowers sprouts in it, planted the 4'o clock in a big pot together with purple Lobelia and planted a Steppe Sage in a matching pot. I also managed to spray my self with the water sprinkler...

I'm such a dirt monkey, leave me unattended in a garden for five minutes and I will be dirty or wet all over (preferably both) when you comeback!

I'm ridiculously happy right now, I get to do something I love to do and somebody else is paying for the material (and enjoying the results)!

[Opsa]

Wow, Darl, that's fantastic! I would love to see some photos.

I love old gardens.

I am a dirtmonkey, too. Whenever I go out with garden gloves and I always discard them right away, unless raking or mowing-which can cause blisters. I always get dirt in my hair. I dig holes with flip-flops on. I guess I like the feel of the earth!

Big Earth Mama hugs!

[pieces o nine]

I rehabilitated a neglected stretch along the building's garage a couple places back for a herb garden, too. Sounds like the neighbors already appreciate what you've done; your hard work will be rewarded!

Post pics when you get them, please.

[Darlica]

Unfortunately I didn't take any before pictures (I guess I didn't think the change would be so drastic)...

But I can take some after pictures anyhow.



It's odd, I'm never as happy as when I have dirt under my nails.


Sometimes I envy those women who can maintain their perfect French manicure and wear pastel coloured flower patterned aprons while gardening, without breaking nails, get stains on their clothes or soil anywhere else but on the gloves...

However I have a feeling that I'm working about 10 times harder than they are and does a lot of things that they consider men's work and either make their husbands do for them or hire people to do.

What?! I'm not supposed to be pushing this 50L wheelbarrow full with gravel up that little hill just 'cause I'm a girl? I double dare you!!!
And I end up doing it repeatedly, not because I'm big or very strong (I'm 162 cm tall and a bit on the chubby side), I'm just very, very stubborn.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

 

I understand that! I'm never so happy as when I'm out watering or weeding (except for crab grass--I HATE that plant) or planting.

I'd love to see the results of your efforts!

[Sibling Chatty]

What?! I'm not supposed to be pushing this 50L wheelbarrow full with gravel up that little hill just 'cause I'm a girl? I double dare you!!!
And I end up doing it repeatedly, not because I'm big or very strong (I'm 162 cm tall and a bit on the chubby side), I'm just very, very stubborn.

Now we know why Dan won't till me a garden. Stubborn?? OH, yeah... I'm about 5-6 cm taller, quite chubby, and forget that I'm NOT 2 meters tall, like my brothers, and NOT just as strong as they are.

It also slips my mind that I'm no longer young and healthy--at first anyway. Let me haul one landscape timber, and I remember, though...

Of course, first, we gotta fix the tiller. I have a garden area that converts into about 1,250 m² that needs to be in veggies and herbs. I'm not taking that from 'grassy meadow' to veggie garden by hand.

[Darlica]

Me thinks Dan is teh wise.

There is actually a very simple reason to why I can push a 50L wheel barrow full of gravel even though it looks like a stupid thing to even attempt.
Technique and strong legs. The fact that I'm fairly short actually helps since it means I can do all  lifting with my legs instead of with by back and arms, this means that as long as I can keep my hands closed around the handle of the wheelbarrow, avoid to over-stretch my elbows and keep walking, I'm golden.

[Bruder Cuzzen]

Good for you darrlie ! I've just rearranged my front postage stamp sized front garrden . It used to be a perfect putting green , dad babied that little lawn .
It has a ornamental apple tree now ,alomg with a healthy big ole Russian sage , 3 dwarf weigelias ,4 or 5 big weigelias , a purple lilac that i propagated , iris , mint ,lemon balm ,and dozen other ground cover type plants whose names i forgot .

My koi pond needs to be " tweaked " , the raccoons ate my little fish !

[Opsa]

Bad old raccoonies! 

I noticed a squirrel and rabbit walking together in my veg garden the other day. I think they were discussing methods of gnawing through fencework. I ran out and "RARRed" them.

We "RARR" around here to scatter the fur folk, but only if they are threatening things.

[Sibling Chatty]

We send out the Attack Schnauzer, who lays out spread like a bearskin rug and waits for the bunnies to come to him.

I needed a camera a few days ago, when he was lying in the shade of the big pecan tree, communing with the bunnies. Schnauzie nose to bunny nose...

If I ever get a garden, he'll probably help them choose the best produce.

[Darlica]

 

You said he is a hippie, you are probably right, he is probably also a strong believer in inter-species communication and perhaps aura reading, watch out if he start to smoke though.

[Opsa]

If you see him giggling spasmodically and drawing on his toes with a ballpoint pen while snarfing oreos, it may be too late! 

[Sibling Chatty]

Does snuffling a lot, lying on his back with his head on Mommys foot and begging for Doggie Bacon strips count. Cause he'll do that...

[pieces o nine]

Does snuffling a lot, lying on his back with his head on Mommys foot and begging for Doggie Bacon strips count. Cause he'll do that...

As long as he doesn't say,  "Wow, man..."  when he gets one...   

[Black Bart]

I've got a mouse in my garden who's taken a fancy to the bird seed.  I used to keep the seed and peanuts and stuff in the shed, but the mouse got in and started eating it.  I don't mind him having a share but he tends to burst open the whole bag, nuts and seeds everywhere.  I moved the bird seed to the green house.  Little mousy tunneled his way in and started having his din dins in there instead.   I actually caught him in the act once and he just gave me a cutsey wutsey look and carried on munching.  I moved the seed into the BRICK potting shed.  The little blighter has found his way in there through the roof...I think I'll give up feeding the birds and buy some mouse feed.

[Alpaca]

Put some out in a bowl for the mouse, and then suspend the back from the ceiling.

[Opsa]

I used to keep my bird seed sack in the shed until the mice found it and split it open. I then put it in a plastic bucket with a lid. That pretty much kept them out.

Except

after the winter I went out to put the last of the feed into the bird feeder and there in the bottom of the bucket was one dead mouse, fat and smiling, but quite deceased.

[Alpaca]

We have a bird feeder, and now that we've found some birdseed that doesn't go bad in Floridian conditions (I dunno how the previous one managed it, but it did), the birds have been gobbling that stuff up in insane quantities. We're planning to get a second "arm" with another feeder, because right now, when the bigger ones want to eat, they drive the little ones away first.

[anthrobabe]

Critters in the seed...... (and yes mice are cute-but don't need in things)

There is a reason for saving (hoarding) some of the crap I hoard.

Large gallon size glass jars with screw type lids-- they are hard to come by around here anylonger-- all plastic now it seems. People were like - 'do you really need all of these jars' --- yes I do.
One use for them (if you can get them), put the birdseed or whatever you want in them, screw on that lid very tightly and nothing will get in (well except for racoons and some squirrels)-- so be sure and put some nice hot powdered chili pepper in your birdseed-- it doesn't bother the birds at all but most racoons and squirrels do not like spicy food and will leave it alone. (notice I say most squirrels and racoons-- not all).

Hippy Schnauzer--- sounds like a super hero!

[Black Bart]

Fantastic advise as usual.  Caught the mouse eating the bird seed again last night...shot him.

Only joking...is it possible the mouse is nibbling my young plants in the potting shed as well...a vegetarian mouse?  Only the lower leaves are being eaten and it doesn't look like snail damage.

[Opsa]

It is quite possible, Bartie. At http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00573.htm there is a list of what mice eat, followed by a paragraph which includes:

"White-footed or deer mice, the common wild mice of much of the midwest, are "opportunistic omnivores," according to The Mammals of Illinois. That means they eat almost anything they can find, including seeds, insects and insect larvae, and leaves and other plant parts."

[Black Bart]

The little blaggard...I'll get the chili powder...ironically they are chilli plants!