molly likes the new grass

molly checking out the new grass


the grass is growing in by the drainage ditch


rubbing her face on the new grass


in april, the leaf pile was in 3 bins, in an 'L' shape.


in may, the leaves had decomposed enough to shove down to just 2 bins.

garden pictures

strawberries are blooming




first seeds to sprout outside, the radishes in the raised bed


set up the trellis for the pole beans. i gave up on trying to keep the aisles weed free along with the garden. the black plastic has been my sanity saver.


a few years ago the grassy weeds took over my garden, aisles and all. they keep trying to come back.


i transplanted my tomato seedlings and peanut seedlings. tomatoes up front, they really struggled in that stupid woodchip potting soil. peanuts in the rear. they're this years experiment. not sure if they'll make it enough to put out or not. they require a longer growing season than we have.


peas and their trellis. winter lasted so damn long i gave up and had to start even the peas indoors! otherwise it gets too hot too quickly for them and they end up stunted and die. in the pots are the watermelon i started indoors much much earlier. i'm using them to help shade the roots of the peas, keep their roots cooler and alive a little longer. i've also had success with nasturtiums, but have trouble getting their seeds to sprout. when the watermelon vines get bigger and start putting out, the peas will be gone.


more watermelon. plus clover in the aisle. i spent hours weeding that clover so that its JUST clover. all the aisles used to be clover but that stupid grassy weed took over and i couldnt handle that much weeding in the heat. i love the smell of clover, and it attracts the big fat fuzzy bumble bees. and its nicer to sit in while planting and weeding. it bounces back. i'm hoping after a year or two of having the aisles under the black plastic, everything under them will have been killed. maybe then i can try reseeding and have clover aisles again.


cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli. plus the other patch of clover that i saved. i should have trimmed back that clover patch though, its taken over a bit.


the rye i planted last fall as a cover crop and decided to let it grow and try to harvest it. its knee high here.

pear trees in bloom!

parker pear tree in bloom


luscious pear tree in bloom


summercrisp pear tree in bloom (only two sets of blooms)


patten pear tree in bloom


pear tree flowers












day lilies and tulips out front. the day lilies are really doing well now.


day lilies still in back that will need to get transplanted, once i move the rocks out of that area.

pictures from early may

dirt pile for expanding the strawberry patch. need more dirt. need more bricks. its a work in progress. thats molly in the background.


the transplanted day lilies in front. not all of them came up/survived the winter in a plastic kiddie swimming pool. the squirrels dug up the daffodil bulbs that survived the pool. oh well. room for expansion now without needing to dig up more sod.


bins of shredded leaves. these were full to the top last fall. winter compacted them nicely.


my new minimum/maximum thermometer mounted in the greenhouse. picture from outside looking in.


picture from inside, you can see the mount that swings in and out for easy resetting


seedlings in the greenhouse


more seedlings


the greenhouse is currently unheated and uninsulated. temps at night were still getting down to 40 and 50 at this point. only the cold hardy plants were out in the greenhouse. all my other seedlings are still in the house under my grow lights. either by this fall or next spring i hope to have some insulation and heating solutions installed.

sifting really crappy potting soil

i bought the worst potting soil ever. miracle grow organic choice potting soil. i only picked it because it was right *there* inside the store and didnt require me going out to the farthest corner of the outdoor garden center in inclement weather to get what i wanted. i should have tho. i will never buy that crap again. it came infested with tiny little gnat/fruit fly type bugs that got all over my house, and infested the dirt in the tortoise enclosure too! and it was half woodchips. HALF! big woodchips. crappiest most worthless bags of wasted money. i had a lot of trouble getting my seeds to sprout in this. never again. do not buy this crap.

a sieve i finally bought after so many seeds failed to survive all those woodchips


woodchips


sifting still let a lot of those woodchips thru


usable potting soil. what i got out of two 32 quart bags, minus all the woodchips. this is a 10 gallon/40 quart container.


more woodchips


molly came to investigate the woodchips, see if they were edible (i got two of these bins full of woodchips)


not edible, so she laid down next to them.


oh hi! can i eat it now? (no!)

i made cinnamon rolls. they were yummy!

my parents neighbor gave me a $50 gift card to chuck and dons, a pet supply store. i picked up some squeaky stuffed animals and some treats for the dogs. i pulled them out on a rainy day.

puppy showing his new toy off


molly refused to touch it. it was thundering heavily outside and she's afraid of thunder. she was shut down. i thought maybe a stuffie would help, but nope. she was too upset even for a stuffie.


puppy abandoned his stuffy and stole mollys stuffy (so i gave her his)


chomp chomp chomp


after the rain and thunder stopped, molly happily played with her toy. both toys were destroyed with glee.

i got a new toy to deal with the roots

there is a section of my yard that the dogs have ripped up all the grass. it floods dramatically every spring. its sloped incorrectly and flooded the greenhouse on two occasions this spring. its crisscrossed with large tree roots, making it impossible to dig in that area with a shovel. in order to regrade the area, reseed with grass, and create a drainage ditch, i needed a better tool. it was suggested to me that a mattock would be that tool.

this is a mattock


its about waist high on me. i can get a good swing going.


two swings with the mattock digs a great trench! i LOVE this thing. it makes extremely quick work of all those roots. one or two swings and i've cut right thru the roots that are an inch to two inches around.


molly likes digging! she came and helped.








digging is hard work. lots of breaks are needed
















mostly though molly was just in the way. whatcha doing. stop doing that and pay attention to MEEEEEE!




progress


all those damn tree roots i had to chop out just to be able to dig at all. this is JUST the roots from the foot wide section down that strip on the left.




enlarging that foot wide section


dog blocking, to allow the grass seed to take root without being ripped back up or compacted.


more attempts at dog blocking so the grass seed will grow. the roots have all been dug out.


dog blocking


transplanted grass from a new flower garden the front yard