doggy pools and a doggy ramp

the dogs love their little plastic kiddie pools.

molly likes to bite at the water




and dig in the water


posing nicely


dribbling water after biting at it


the maple tree 'helicopters' stuck in the new garden fencing


so many helicopters


here is the doggy ramp my dad helped me build for molly so she can get up on the bed


view from the back side


painting




i stapled down carpet for extra traction. (i have extra scraps of carpet in the basement)


nothing fancy, just berber carpet


voila! i made it come up to the level of the blanket chest rather than up to the edge of the bed, because the mattress sinks when you're on the edge of it.

strawberry blossoms

i planted comfrey last year in a pot because i was told it can spread and be difficult to kill. last fall i dumped it out and buried it in the bottom of the raised bed that now has the blueberries in it. i figured that'd kill it. nope. not only did it come back in the place raised bed where i had the pot planted, but it came back in the blueberry bed where it was buried under multiple feet of stuff! i let it grow in the first raised bed. i hope i dont come to regret that.


see the long long roots it sent up! over and over and over it keeps sending up more shoots and i keep pulling them out.


the first raised bed, asparagus in the back, daikon and rutabaga sprouting.


molly resting her chin on the edge of the raised bed where i blocked off access to the asparagus the dogs were helping themselves to.


the blueberry raised bed. still not much happening back in may.


the duke plant is starting to green up


strawberry blossoms


strawberry patch - the fenced in part


the not fenced in part. i've been dumping dirt there for a few years (from leveling the pavers over by the greenhouse) and the strawberries sent out runners and populated the dirt pile. the dogs run thru this area so the plants there arent in the greatest shape. and when the strawberries did come in, puppy was helping himself.


my big maple tree.


my fire pit after the bonfire. i made charcoal! notice all the maple tree 'helicopters'. thats what fell overnight. this picture was taken the day after the bonfire. my whole yard was covered in them.

greenhouse, dogs, planting tomatoes

i drilled a hole and screwed in a hook so that i could make the greenhouse door stay open on its own. up til now i've been using a planter to hold the door open. otherwise the wind blows it shut.


tied a short length of rope into a loop around the handle so i can easily 'unhook' the rope and shut the door if needed.


the greenhouse was still quite full back near the end of may


i cut a piece of wood and screwed it to the wall in the greenhouse so i could hang some tools rather than have them rest on the ground and take up space and fall over. i kept knocking EVERYTHING over.


i drilled holes and screwed in these little tool holder hooks.


puppy, napping in the sun. these silly black dogs LOVE laying in the hot hot sun.


mollys lump/sebaceous cyst is finally flat again. it drained for a month before flattening out. and it continued to leak for another month before it finally healed all the way. but now its fully healed and the skin has shrunk back so that theres only a dime sized hairless spot. and i can only find it because i had to shave the hair to clean it and that shaved hair, while its grown back, is still shorter than surrounding hair.


every year i save my eggshells in the freezer and when it comes time to plant my tomatoes, i pull this bag out.


i toss a handful of crushed eggshells into the bottom of each hole, before i plant the tomatoes


then i plant the tomatoes like normal. i had such trouble with blossom end rot. and since i started doing this three years ago, no more problems.


the tomatoes with the trellises in


the beans are planted and the trellises are in


brussels sprouts and broccoli


peas, and nasturtiums

laying pavers

slowly but surely progress is being made and rocks are being removed


more than halfway!


the last rocks to go


its a fairly long section to have cleared. 12 feet i believe.


no more rocks!


the poor screen is giving up the ghost. its just hardware cloth stapled to a 2x4 frame.


its all coming apart


and sagging pretty badly


next i had to use my handy dandy mattock to break up the dirt below the rocks so i could remove quite a bit of it and level the pavers.


first three buckets of dirt removed. puppy being so helpful and wandering thru. gotta check out what i'm doing over here.


molly walking into my picture. i was trying to show how high the dirt was and how much more i had to remove.




the dogs kindly left footprints in the sand i was trying to level.


this angle shows better how much dirt i had to remove to get the pavers level with the existing concrete slab.


level!


three MORE buckets of dirt removed


this is where i ran out of energy and stopped. it rained a whole bunch and the dirt was mud and i've run out of places to dump it. and now weeds have popped up like crazy in that dirt. i did pick up more bags of sand. here you can see my tomato plants that got too tall for the tallest shelf in the greenhouse.