Gardening Update

Gardening must be about as boring to read about as dog biscuits ... but that is my life these days ...

Jim made me two box frames 6 feet long, one foot wide, and the depth of a 1x8.  When I got them home I stacked them and went looking for nice pieces of cedar to hold them together.  All my cedar bits and pieces are different lengths so I will have to saw them before attaching them.  I hate sawing and am an incompetent hammerer, but this job is very straightforward so I hope I can't mess up too badly.

I didn't have enough soil to fill the box so off I went to the village to load up once again ... 9 bags of soil and one of sheep manure.

The trip down the two hills had to be done in stages ... but all of the bags are now reposing in the zany zen garden where I will mix and fill the box and the tree stump pots for nasturtiums ... they are the ones with the edible orange flowers and the peppery leaves ... and will plant the climbing beans and zucchini in the box and the rest of the nasturtiums in the stumps.

Then the really hard labour begins ... I have to create little gardens for the various herbs by digging down through the gravel to earth, filling each spot with good mixed soil, and then planting.  I will do it one herb at a time ...

I am a little concerned that this might not work very well because there is so much rock beneath the gravel ... that there will be insufficient room to give each perennial enough soil.  Oh well ... all I can do is try.  If it doesn't work I will resort to pots and next year I will have another square foot garden made.

I am doing this as a gift to myself to celebrate the completion of the house and my seventieth birthday ... but I must say that it is the least cost effective way possible to get fresh vegetables.

The dogs are outside waiting for me to fuel up before attacking today's gardening chores.  More another time ... maybe I will even do something more exciting than mix soil ... and will actually have something to write about.