Sunday, June 02, 2013

It's Been Ages!

Yes, Richard and I are still here - so are all the animals.  We went through the winter with bouts of sickness - your basic cold/flu stuff, nothing bad, just annoying. 

The weather has been different this Spring - lots of rain and storms.  Even now, it is hindering our garden building.  We are making raised beds, since we live on a ridge and have no good soil. 

It has taken us nearly 4 weeks to finish the first bed - first, we had to cut down some trees.  Then we had to buy 4 truckloads of cement blocks (they weigh so much Richard could only haul 20 at a time and 2 trips take all day).  Then we got soil.  In between, we got a load of gravel for some places in the driveway.  Then came fertilizer and mulch.  Then we had a clear day to actually build the bed.  That took all day and some of the next day. We finished in the rain.  We waited a few days for the rain to subside, and then we got plants because it's too late to grow some things from seed; they won't mature before fall.   

 
5 tomato plants, 4 watemelon plants. 

 
This is my deck garden.  Last year's was somewhat successful, so I decided to try again.  Some things are to be planted in the ground, but we are waiting or the rain to end so we don't have to get all muddy.  So - left to right - bell peppers, habenero peppers, rocket salad, orange tree, jalepeno peppers, tomato.  On the rail - lemon tree, aloe vera plant, lime tree, winter hibiscus.  The lemon, lime and hibiscus might not make it. They had issues while in the house, I kept watering them, but when I went to re-pot them, I found their soil at the bottom was soaked, and I believe the roots rotted. 
 
No picture - but a few days later, I happened to be in town and got more plants which are on the deck for now - a peach tree, zucchini squash and cucumbers, plus an herb garden with basil, oregano, thyme and parsley.

 
And for the moments of beauty - a pot of purple petunias.  The hummingbirds are already dipping into them.