Having That Space

I've had something on my mind for awhile, how to keep cedar bark from traveling via the wind, or as a result of the cat two stepping while batting at winged things or sometimes he gets filled with the dickens and high tails it around the place, and rocks and things go flying. He's a pretty big cat. So I had alot of the left over ends of tree stake poles from the green house and was tossing around the idea of using them as edging. Hmmm......it's too busy....

Looking further back, I recall thinking that I would like to weight the Blue Salvia stems to the earth so that they will sprout and multiply, and the flowers have all but dwindled. So why not now, while I need some space away from the edging to work out the details.

Coat hangers are perfect to press into rocky soil and hold the stems in place against newly placed black compost rich soil. A snow load would bend the stems down to touch the soil naturally and allow it to occur of it's own, possibly one fateful spring, if this were such a place.

You can see the new soil that has been placed atop the now secured stems.

Looking at the bed where the work was just completed, the energy created by the new edging is frenetic and that is what I was feeling when I was working out the pattern, so I still need some space as the resolution is conjured.

Planting an Aloe in another part of the garden, I know that I am not really working on the pathway per se. I am working on the green house plastic and venting system. I am having That Space.

Then back to the task at hand, and laying the tree stake pole pieces on their side end to end takes care of that frenetic energy, and it is alot quieter now and more in keeping with the overall feel of Black Mountain Garden's theme, Western Zen. This project away from the greenhouse plastic is a nice distraction.

So the cat dancing can resume, and just in time. It seems like he did most of it after dark anyway.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Looks Like Heaven

Back to building the raised bed. I excavated the soil out of the center, scratched the base with a pickax and raked up the rocks. The depth will be just over 6 inches. The plant's roots can venture into the highly alkaline, devoid of organic matter putty colored dirt if they desire.

Here is the irrigation and I am using what is left, I can't seem to keep this stuff around.

Tomato Lady Soil is my favorite soil in the world and it will fill the bed. This will hold 10 cubic feet.

So here is the new bed with the transplanted green beans from the traveling pots. There were lettuces at their bases when I dug them up so they came along too. There will be casualties unfortunately, but we must not dwell on that. Husband says this looks like a tar pit.
Apparently he's seen a tar pit. I am thinking it looks like heaven.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Circle of Influence

I joined another online gardening community, out of a fondness for the writings of one of the members who was in another group I belong to, and as these members reveal more as I read their posts, they are a remarkable group of people. There was a post recently and it really touched me as it spoke about grandparents caring for ill children, and using tinctures and potions from yarbs (wild herbs and potion stuff) that grew out back, in the back hills of Tennesee or somewhere. It conveyed a quality of sentiment that was intertwined with the herbs and yarbs, and I felt a desire to lift up my herb area to a higher frequency for lack of a better word, and freshen up the soil and relocate those that were elsewhere into this common area, and add a few new herbs too.

So this is the bed with the addition of tree stakes segments that were cut with a saw from 6 to 9 inches and slightly buried for stability. They help define the area and convey a sense of intimacy and elevation for the new herb bed.

The green marble disks presented to me for taking over the care of my daughter's beta fish come in nicely to add some subtle bling to the area. The tour at Diane's yesterday crosses my mind and I smile and appreciate that I can be influenced by the sharing of gardeners. The green marbles are a reminder of that tour.

And I appreciate that perhaps I can influence too. The circle of influence circles on....and I excitedly await it's return.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Vegetable Knot Gardens

I have been waiting a whole week to plant today. I planted all of the tubs,

and this one received the little bonsai sunflower!

While planting the tubs, and looking into the circular shape, I just couldn't allow myself to sow seeds randomly. There was a strong pull to plant everything in rings and all I could think about was designs like fireworks and synchronized swimmers. After everything was planted then it was time to draw the layout, of the vegetable knot gardens.

Thanks for visiting. To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Are You Staying or Not

The tree wants to live at the neighbors. It finds the wind tunnel uninhabitable.

A 40 ft. tall tree right there sounded like a great idea in my it'll never get that tall scheme of things. Husband thinks we should saw it in half, and I already see the dozen small branches that have been whacked off by the wind on the one side, and think "Oh great, then it'll look like a tree stake with branches coming out just the one side, and I'll have to listen to what Zen would say every time I come out the door!" " Nope, Zen won't let you do that!"

The bare root fruit trees are coming up for sale in Sept. and one of them might like it here being as though that eucalyptus has halfway moved out. Just saying....

I think the lizard likes it here. He was hanging from the curtains in the living room, so we had to go over that "here" for him meant staying outside.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Carry On and Hurry Back!

Let Wrangler Drive

This morning I started filling in the raised bed with base material before I head out to get Tomato Lady soil to finish it off.

The cannas are looking great with very little sign that they were ever ressurected.

This is the iris planted in the black dirt on July 20th. This is remarkable in comparison to the iris that I purchased from the iris sale on June 28 that was planted in a planting mix from a garden center. With the black dirt they take off running.

The iris in the front yard are starting to take off too. These were the tiny pups.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Carry On, and Hurry Back!

The Right Train

The traveling three pots have been relocated to the hottest part of the garden. They are going to be moved again because now there is a raised bed going in against the wall. The base of the raised bed will be the local amended dirt that is being exchanged for black dirt as I go. The top half of the bed will be my new favorite stuff "black dirt",and the bed will be for cool season crops this fall.

I suppose that now that I have my most favorite stuff people will try to talk me out of it, try to convince me that it is just no good, offer me up all kinds of others that are just as good or even better, but I am not going to get off at that stop, I am going to stay on the black dirt train and just look out the window and see what I want to in the glass.

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Carry On!

Another Leap

Black Dirt is moving in. I just replaced the cannas with the stuff yesterday, and from the way I took the photo I'm lucky I got leaf in the photo. Habit is helpful sometimes.

I just started a new blog "Black Dirt Chronicles." It is located in Great Places to Visit down the sidebar and I am excited to share it with you. I hope you like it.

I promised I'd share the bird water bottle when finished. Clef notes begin with the bottom of, and the lid of a gatorade bottle with a hole in the lid which serves as a spacer to lift the grey water bottle lid up in order to have more water fill the base least it be extremely shallow. (Inhale)

Cut a hole in the lid of your chosen water vessel.

Glue the lids together, get a man to hold it for you, test complete. So now the water flows through and fills the base. (Bottom of grey lid not to exceed height of base wall.)

Then commence with latent jewelry making techniques using landscape wire. Play with it in it's slinky state until you become annoyed or bored then make little straps to make it stop doing that.

Then run out and hang it in a tree and then go play in the dirt....

Thanks for visiting. To all of my crafty gardening friends, Carry On!