Sunday, February 8, 2009

What to do with a perfect weekend??


... cross a few things off my to-do list. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so I spent some much needed time outside.

I started out with several visits to the Natural Gardener, where I bagged and hauled around 1 ton of soil, compost, and mulch. I finished filling my new garden beds, which my daughter affectionately refers to as the graveyard. I have to admit that it does look a little sinister at the moment. Some spring veggies will change that in a month or so.

Here's a close-up of the mortis and tenon joints. I love the design.


In between my second and third trips to the nursery, I needed a little break, so I planted an herb garden. I had earned my $10 off at the Natural Gardener, so I treated myself to some parsley, oregano, thyme, cilantro and society garlic. They joined the marjoram that has been growing like crazy over the winter.



I also decided to plant the kumquat tree in the ground. The ground was not exactly soft, and the soil, well calling it soil would be quite a stretch. Anyway, I got out a shovel and pitchfork and went to work. Not only did I have to fight the thick clay, but I found a huge chunk of concrete in the ground as well from who knows when. I mixed the dirt with compost, a 50/50 mix. Then I put in some root booster and planted the tree. I am hoping it will like it's new home better than the small pot it was in before.

I slept like a baby Saturday night, and then went back to work this morning.

First thing I did was water the winter vegetable garden and trees in the backyard. Here's a few pictures of my veggies, including some carrots that I put in the potato soup for Friday night's dinner.

Here's the broccoli that doesn't care much for the heat lately. We did manage to eat some a few weeks ago though.

Finally some cauliflower!

What are we going to do with all of this cabbage?

A round of carrots.

After the watering we took a motorcycle ride to pick up dog food. We also stopped at Plantscape Gardens and The Great Outdoors. At The Great Outdoors we purchased some blackberries, raspberries, and dewberries. Next week I plan on digging out a bed along the creek and planting them. They said they weren't going to get any more shipments this year, so we should get them today. We couldn't fit them on the bike, so we ran back out to pick them up.

I finished off my busy weekend by pruning all of the roses. The official date is the 14th, but I checked the weather and it's not supposed to freeze between now and then, so I figured this weekend was good enough. Here's the results...


What a weekend! I am tired and going to bed.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Laura.
Those are some good looking raised beds. I think you should sneek out one night and erect some wooden tombstone crosses for a laugh! You could inscribe on each cross a famous vampire "character" ...I am thinking:

Nosfertomatu (Ahem)

The Vampire Lesprout (Ann Rice)

Vampire Dill "Bill" (True Blood)

(okay I can only come up with three).

Your veggies look great, and those carrots...wow!
I can't wait to see how your graves err beds transform over the next couple of months!
ESP.

SomeLikeItHot said...

My daughter is a much bigger vampire fan than I am, I'm sure she can provide me w/ a 4th name :) I have until mid march to erect the tombstones. It's too perfect not to. I think I'll have to follow your advice.