Sunday in the yard....

As I said, Sunday was nice enough to work outside,

So I did.

Since I wasn't planting peas, I concentrated on other stuff.  Sunday's tasks were....

 Planting the Hyacinths.

And getting the window box ready for lettuce.

 We got the window box in last year's bulk item pickup sweep.  Every spring the townships around here have a bulk item trash week, and we go shopping. It's a different week for each area and we got some useful stuff.

Like the window box.  I like the idea of window boxes, or old guttering, for the low growing things.  I'm old, anything that saves on bending over or crawling on the ground is a good thing in my book.  I think the window box will work well for leaf lettuce.  Took us a year to figure out where to put it, but I get to test the theory now.  We're gonna try using some of the pallets for fencing and I've got a couple more window boxes.  Those are plastic, so I think we can just use hooks to hang them.

We'll see.

For now I have one window box and a pack of seeds.  This could be a dangerous combination....

But Sunday I started with the Hyacinths.  They were a $2.00 impulse buy at Home Depot when I went to get the sun lamp for the seedlings.

I can't help it, I'm weak.  They were something I like at a cheap price.  I only got 2.  I wanted more.  I wanted at least 2 more hyacinths.  I like the way they smell.  Would like to have a couple outside the bedroom window.  I wanted to get onions and a few other planets too.

I also wanted to eat.  So the plants lost out. 

But, I did have the 2 to plant.

And I planted them in the bed next to the garage.

Which meant cleaning  it up.

So I raked and swept up the leaves, then went to work digging it up and turning it over.

Here let me insert a garden tip:  Knee pads.  Get some.  If yer like me, the simple thought of kneeling on concrete is painful.  If your knees are still in good shape, you should be taking steps to keep them that way.  I've had the long kneeling pads in the past and found them to be a pain in the... neck.  You have to keep moving them and that's kinda difficult when you're kneeling on it.
Good old fashioned sports knee pads don't have that problem.  They move with your knees.  I got mine at K-mart going on 5 years ago for $9 bucks.  They get dirty, I throw them in the wash.  They're still going strong.  The knee pads are essential equipment for jobs such as this.

With my knee pads on I got down to work.  I wanted to keep as much of the leaf litter in bed as possible.  One of the good things about all the trees around here is all the free organic material to throw in the garden.  The stuff in the bed has been laying in there since last fall, it's all mostly broken down.  I just turned it all over.  I, of course fond bits of trash and old metal stuff, which I removed.  Every yard I've ever dug in had bits of trash and metal in it.  It's amazing the stuff you find when you start a garden.

Sunday I found a Wooly Worm...

Sleeping under the mulch.

I covered him back up, before the chickens saw him, and left him sleeping under a pile of mulch.

And the chickens were out and about Sunday.

I had plenty of company in the yard Sunday.  Hope and Drifter were both out.

Chiana was out...

Riley went out with me, but I didn't see him, I wondered about that...

Of course Jake,




Was always close by.  He stands around all puffed up and posturing, and doesn't seem to get that nobody's impressed.  The dogs think he's playing.

Lola stuck close too.  I guess these 2 are gonna be my yard buddies.






Once the clean up was done the Hyacinths went in the ground.

With that task completed, spring planting has begun!

And I moved onto the window box. 




We're wining it here.  This is Guerrilla Gardening after all.  I don't have the money for enough potting soil to fill the box.

And the seed package says the lettuce prefers a light, well drained soil.  So, I'm making up my own planting medium on the fly.

First layer is old straw from the pasture.  The horses don't eat every bit of a bale.  There's lots of old hay to be had.  I figure this will help to keep the box from drying out.

I didn't take any pictures while I was in the pasture.  I was too preoccupied with staying on my feet and keeping Daisy from tipping the cart over.  She put her big horse lips all over my water bottle, kept trying to steal it.  After he checked out the cart, Ace wanted scratchies.  I was a little busy in the pasture.

The next layer in the box...



Leaf litter from the patio and sidewalk.

3rd layer...



Manure from the pile that's been sitting at the other end of the garden since last spring.  I dumped it and never got around to spreading it.  So now it's ready to go into the box.

I topped it all off with what was left of a bag of potting soil from last year.



I poured a gallon of water in to wet it all down  and see how the box drained.  It drained fairly well, so I'm not putting any holes in the box.

Cleaning up Sunday, I figured out why I hadn't seen Riley all afternoon.  As I was walking to the house I heard a plaintive cry.  It was Riley.  He went into the garage when I got the tools out and got shut in.  You'd think the cats would learn to come out when you do, but they don't.  Around here it frequently happens that you'll hear a plaintive meow, have to track down the source, and let whatever cat, who's shut in where they no longer wish to be, out.

Well. everything is all ready for planting.

It's been cold the last couple of days.  Monday was drizzly.  Tuesday we had thunder storms.  I have to work today, which is a bit of a bummer, since it looks like it's going to be a very nice day.  Maybe I'll get back early enough to do something in the yard....

Tomorrow is supposed to be colder with the chance of rain.  The forecast says a low of 26 for Friday night.  Don't know if I'll be doing any planting the next couple of days.  Depends on how it feels to be out and about.  The wind out here is a force to reckoned with.  Monday it was bright and sunny and warm everywhere I went, till I got back out here.  Out here, with the wind, it was hat and gloves cold.

I want to make up a mix of potting soil and the seed starting mix and transplant some of the seedlings.  The Tomatoes need to be thinned out and the Squash plants are getting too big for the starting trays.

The next thing is to get the planter box filled.

I did get some straw and manure in it Sunday.  But I gotta get it filled and see about moving the Strawberries.

Maybe we'll actually get some this year.

My future to do list is...

Fill the planter box
Re-stack the firewood
Pick up pine cones and sticks and wood
Rake up the deeper piles of leaves and move it all to the garden
Transplant seedlings
Set up the bird bath, fix and fill the bird feeders. -  Want to set up a full service bird station on the front lawn.  The beginnings of it are out there.

I want to use some of the edgers we have and put a border around it.  I'm planning on using the old saucer sled for a bird bath.  Somewhere along the line I need to get another hook to hang a Humming Bird feeder.  I need to do something to keep the feeders from sliding all over the place.  Out here the wind is strong enough to move the feeders even when they are full.  I'm thinking a couple twist of string and Duck Tape ought to do the job.

Then it's time to start digging a trench for the pallet fencing....

It's a start...

Well, here at Happpydale the season has officially started.  I started work on the 2015 garden this weekend.

Kathy's been moving manure and ash here and there all winter.  But, we'll count that as the tail end of 2014.  It's stuff we should have done last fall anyway.

I've got plants going and this weekend I did actual prep work on the garden to get it ready for planting.  Not much but I did get a start.  I was gonna try to put peas in today, but the dogs...

And I'm 99% positive it was those 2, ate them.  I wonder about my dogs sometime.  The other day Dusty found a whole ear of corn in the field and treated it like it was a gourmet banquet.  Kathy reminded me about last year's lettuce seeds.  For Pete sake, what self respecting dog eats seeds?  It's not like they're starving....

So, no peas today.

Rotten dogs...

Saturday the 21st of March was a pretty day.

We had another large flock of birds around the house all day.

So a washable hat was advised.

Monday Mar. 23, 2015

I frequently get waylaid by graphics.  Went off to put that together in My Memories, and then it got late...

This was a deceptive morning, all bright rising sun, birds, wild and domestic, foraging and frolicking across the pasture and lawn, looks like a beautiful spring day.  Then you get out there and remember it is only March.  It was a bit nippy this morning.  It's starting to cloud up now and the birds are chattering in the trees.

Saturday I worked on the garden a little.

I checked over what's there....

We've got a Peach tree at the end of the row.  Shouldn't have to do much with that right now.

The Elderberry is looking a little spindly still.

The Blue Berries all looked OK.  Drifter helped me check them out.

The Strawberries are already starting to come back.

They're going to move this year.

 Kathy built a planting box for the Strawberries.

Hope was keeping me company too.

Starting at that end of the garden, where the tomatoes were last year.  I've got lettuce that can go in now.  The leaf lettuce will be in the window box.  I've got some Romaine to put in the ground.  I'm gonna see about getting some more seeds at Rural King today.

Gotta go get food for my ungrateful dogs.

Saturday, I spent the afternoon digging up weed clumps, braking up the ground.
 

Cleaning out crap from the fire pit.

We've got a lot of ash over on the fire pit, years worth.  It would be great for the garden, except a lot of crap has been burned on that fire pit.  There's all kinds of crap in the ash.  Till we can come up with a way to get most all that crap out, we're not dumping anymore of it in the garden.

At that time, I thought I was going to be planting peas the next day.  So I got it all ready to go.

Hope and Drifter were with me most of the time.

Drifter was being particularly photogenic.

That's his Play Cat pic.

Lola and Jake stuck close too.

I found more marbles.

Sunday was nice enough to be out and about too.

But we'll do that post later.  I gotta go work....

Starting from seed....

I started seeds.

This is my first time ever starting seeds.
So far so good....

We have a mix of herbs in the big grey tub.  It's an herb kit I got at 1/2 price at Dollar General at the end of the season last year.  I tossed in a few extra Basil seeds.
The square tray is all peppers.  There's Banana Peppers, a Bell Pepper mix, and a hot pepper mix.  We'll have to wait a while to see what we get out of that.
There's two different types of tomatoes.  Goof that I am, I threw the seed packets away before writing down what kind of tomatoes.  They're both heirlooms of some sort.
There's 2 Different types of squash.
And some Lavender.
I started them on the 8th or march.  Got them set up in the down stairs bathroom with a heater and sun lamp.

I need a bigger spray bottle.  The plastic wrap didn't last long and keeping them moist is a struggle.
I mist almost every time I'm in the bathroom.







Saw the first sprouts on the 14th:

Those are squash plants.  They were about the first things up.
There's something in the spice planter, but I'm not sure what.

The tomatoes came up shortly after,

The first pepper popped up on March 17.

Today, March 22, 2015, things are looking fairly good.

The peppers are doing well.  I need to see about thinning out the tomatoes.

The squash is getting snaky.  I'm thinking about transplanting them to larger containers.

Still have no idea what this is, and it's still the only thing coming up in the spice container.

Still no sign of the Lavender.

As promised....

Base: Happydale

Home of the Future, a Picasa web album I put together back in 2013 when we were looking at/moving to Happydale.

So that's what we started with.
And now....

I took these pictures last year, a few things have changed, nothing too major, though.
The pictures with snow I took 2-22-2015.






Places we can plant...



Next too the barn.  There's traffic around here.  Don't really want to attract the chickens and other birds to this location.  It's rocky.  Anything planted would have to compete with the Mulberry bushes, which need to be killed....

Out behind the barn.  Home of the Bunny Gods.  Again there's traffic here.  But, There's space too.  We need to finish cleaning out behind the barn.  Thinking more ornamental.  Not really good for food production.  The Bunny Gods do live here and would be very happy to eat whatever we plant.
Also, Mulberry bushes that need to be killed....



The burn pit.  We could plant here, but....
We like the burn pit with the potential of large, whomping fires.
There's a huge pile of mulch there.  There's the issue of traffic, being the driveway and all.
The ground around the fire pit needs some serious leveling.  Right now, footing is rough, with the potential of face planting in the large, whomping fires.
And there are Mulberries that need to be killed...

.


Of, course here......

Is where we put the main vegetable garden...

The Blueberries and Strawberries run along the back row closet to the field.  We put a pallet down in the green space last year.

Kathy wants to transplant the Strawberries to a box/raised bed.  Which is a good idea.  We'll have to have chicken wire or some such for the Blueberries.



They've almost out grown the milk crates.  Something really enjoyed nibbling off all the leaves last year.  Would like to avoid that this year.

I think we should till what we tilled last year.  Get a couple more Blueberries, or some other bushy plants, and use the green space left from last year for pallets and container plants and raised beds.  The potatoes did not do well in the heavy soil last year.  One of the box schemes might work better.  If we could lay our hands on a couple of cheap straw bales, I'd like to see how they work.

Right now, thanks to Kathy and the girls, the garden has the beginning of a fence.

We've been talking about using some of the pallets for the fence.



I'm thinking, set them in a shallow trench, run re-bar, or some of the metal poles we have, down through the middle to help them stand up to the wind out here.  We can fill them with dirt and plant shallow rooted stuff in the slats or get hooks and some more window boxes to hang on them.  Also, ready made supports for peas and beans, and nice tight fencing.  Dogs and birds would have to go over it.  We could grow vine melons  making slings on the pallets would be easier.
Should we paint the pallets, or leave them as is?

I know we're planting a lot of peppers.  Need to decide what and how much.  I have seeds for banana peppers that I'm going to start.  Last year we had green peppers, jalapenos, and what we came to call the screaming mimis, something called a Hungarian carrot.  You got one of those and you knew it.

The peppers didn't produce well last year.  I know part of that can be chalked up to weeds and critters, but they should have done better than they did.
We should plant onions and potatoes.  Couple of different types of garlic would be nice.
I have seeds for peas and beans.
I'm gonna try to start some tomatoes.
We need to decide what kind of cucumbers.
But, I've side tracked and all this can be a later post....

We have space on the other side of the out building.  It gets a mix of sun and shade.  I think it would be a good space for a cutting garden.  You won't be able to see it form the house or yard, but with a cutting garden you could bring it all indoors.







The Back yard has lots to offer....

There are some Daffodils near the out building.  They should be moved, cuz the wood pile is there now.  I think that's a good place for the wood pile.  Not too far from the house and it gets some direct sun.
Re-stacking the wood pile is on the list.

There are 3 beds out the back door
















 And



And

 There's a long alley between the house and the tree line that gets a mix of sun and shade...
Several little nooks along that line have potential for benches and shaded seating...

There are Mulberries that need to be killed all over....

Some things have changed in the last year.

There's a tree here now.

The chicken coop got moved.

There are some flowers here now.
There's a rose bush under my window.

I'm going to get a couple of cuttings from the the bush at the Granite house.

It's a nice, healthy bush.






There are flowers by the light pole.



The front pasture is mostly fenced.

We have a long run of full sun along the pasture.

There's still a bit of room at the end of the pasture.



Kathy and I both like the idea of Sunflowers out here.  I would like to plant some Lavender.  We need to move some of the Day Lilies out this way.
Really would like to see Happydale as a bee, humming bird, butterfly magnet.  So a Butterfly bush or three would be neat.  Have to ponder the idea of a Trumpet Vine.

And finally we have the area by the mail box.

Can't get too wild here cuz of the corn/bean field behind it.  But a couple of Day Lilies would be pretty.  It does get some direct sun throughout the day.

Well that's pretty much it, from end to the other.
If you've got ideas of suggestions, leave a comment.