Gardening 2024

[cineater]

They ordered way too much rock and no Jim, that isn't 1000 wheelbarrows.     First move went well.  It only took 3 hours to fill the greenhouse and the hoop house.  Watered it down so it would get in between the bigger rocks and we'll go at it again tomorrow.  What's left we need in other places in the garden and we can offer up some to the Master Naturalist to do their greenhouse floors.  It's all good.

[cineater]

Can't be more happier to be associated with this group.  Had enough people show up to help we were tripping over each other.  Kristine showed up with three loads of edging stones and people came over to unload her each time.  We were done before noon and off tomorrow.

So the leftover rock.  Extension Counsel is doing a brick fundraiser.  They could use a lot of that rock to install those bricks.  We're offering it up to them and before we can say free, they offer to pay for their share.  Yeah we're going to take that.  They are the ones defining our relationship.  We've given them $5,000, made property improvements and even repaired their building.  And one of them is going to yell at us when we hear they have extra they need to spend but don't want to give it to us.  Yeah, I'm still pissed.     It's that guy's wife who fueled his fire and she's in charge of the brick fundraiser.  Do I think she would feel bad about taking from us and giving nothing back?  No but it makes me feel good when it's so one sided.  And now that the relationship has been defined.  We're going to play their game.  Careful what you ask for, you may get it.

[cineater]

Okay this time I did probably upset one of my leads.  I emailed her and now I'm calling to make sure we are okay.  She has two gardens and wants to give up the bigger garden.  I don't want that.  She's a good lead and knows her stuff.  The littler garden can just go away if you ask me but I shouldn't have said that. 

Redid one of my beds with some Rattlesnake Master and Agave.  Divided the Russian Sage into three plants.  Moved a few of the coneflowers to the other side of the bed.  Got a pattern going on.  I think I'll fill in the open areas with zinnias next year.  Should be low maintenance.  Was going to put a grass in my clay bed but there's no getting a shovel through that.     Put it into the other bed where I can basically dig with my hands.  The clay soil bed, native seeds blow in there and grow on their own.  I'm good with that.   

Busy week ahead of us.  While I'm out getting the cinder blocks, Catherine's team is going to start removing the edgers.  We'll probably go at that on Saturday.  We still have to get all the stuff back in the greenhouse.  We're digging up the perennials we sell next spring and putting them in pots.  I need to get the stone bed cut down so they can store them in there.  I am not digging all those canna bulbs out this year.  If they die over the winter, okay.  I'm tired of the design in that bed anyway.  Then again, if they live, I won't have to do anything but get the plants we are selling off them.

I may have hit the brick wall for my age.  I have never recovered this year to my go, go, go state.  I am dragging.  It feels good to be out there but my drive is gone.  I didn't take this on to be somebody but the status kind of grows on you.  Now that I'm backing away, it just feels a little weird.  Decisions are being made without me.  Other names are taking the place mine once had.  I remind myself, I've done this sort of thing many times.  Go into something a nobody and rise to the top only to walk away at some point, back down to a nobody again.  Might not do it again, I might be "old" but it is my nature.

[cineater]

Phebe is bow hunting Bambi this week.  We're supposed to go get the cinder blocks tomorrow.  She texts me:  "If I shoot one, it's anyone's guess.  Could be as early as 10:30 or as late as 2.  Oh, and I hope you don't mind that there is some dried deer blood in my pickup from the one I shot Friday.  The truck doesn't get washed until we are done with this managed hunt."  Knew I should have just spent my money and brought these blocks.     She processes it herself too.

[cineater]

41 cinder blocks, 30 pounds a piece.  Load them up and load them out.  We just set them at the entrance to the garden.  Phebe and I had to join Eleanor to get in the harvest.  We're getting our first frost tonight.  Only 40 cinder blocks to go.  

Good news, in under 127.  I'll go as low as 124 but my pants fall down after that.  

Beka is so good.  She is presenting the Herb garden with two other options for building the beds.  Bring them in around $2000 instead of the $3400 they had making them out of wood.  We meet with them tomorrow.

[cineater]

The frost wasn't that bad last night.  We might be in a little protected area.  At least I don't have to start cleaning up right away.

Greenhouse is all put back together.  I got stuck in a 3 hour meeting.  The herb girls agreed to a design change to the metal raised beds kits.  Really not that much cheaper.  And that is about as far as we got in the decision process.  They don't want to do the labor but they don't want anybody else to do it.  They don't care what we do but they won't let us do it.  And they want to add extra support because they don't trust the engineer's design, and bed liners, and they don't want to order supplies and pick them up.  Beka is going to work with them to see if she can nail some of this down.  We did establish she would be the project manager and it would be a trainee project next year.  Actually, it was just one person dragging their feet and throwing in obstacles.  She can only do one thing at a time, not a multitasker.  I don't think she's going to be able to handle 20 people showing up to tear it down and put it back up.     Hopefully, she doesn't show up on those days.

Serviceberry tree planted.  I got enough soil out of the hole to finish filling in the hole that makes me almost fall into the greenhouse everytime I mow.     That's been on my hit list.  All the tomatoes came out.  Kevin is going to run the zero turn through the compost pile, taller than I am.  Everybody is ready to wrap this up.

My back did okay once it got warmed up.  Phebe offered to go get more cinder blocks.     Actually, we don't have any more room to store them until they move some.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

[cineater]

I'm down three leads.  I probably have the perennial garden covered.  Need people on compost and the lasagna garden.  I'm wondering if we can build compost bins out of cinder blocks.     Bekah is still leaning towards cinder blocks on the herb garden.     Free materials and we're on it.

I'm still liking these steel raised beds.  Easy install and they last so much longer than wood.  With the price of wood up, I'm thinking we need get away from that and go with structures that last longer.

[cineater]

I had a great idea.  We built the lasagna years back and basically can't demonstrate that method any more because it has turned into soil.  I'm thinking dig it out and use the soil for the new higher herb beds and we can start demonstrating the lasagna method again.  Why keep buying soil when we can make it?  Problem is it is highly organic, herbs don't like that.

Cleaned out half of the bed where the canna bulbs are.  I'm not going to be able to leave them in the ground.  They make the soil too uneven for us to set pots on top of them.

Another one of my leads injured her back and she can't do fall clean up.  Not a big deal, it's a small bed.

[cineater]

Oh here we go again.  A while back Extension had a fundraiser to shore up the creek in back of the property and billed it as save the gardens and sold off naming rights to our greenhouse and individual beds.  They never asked us.  Now they are saving the bricks they are selling is to pave one of our paths.  Yes, we will benefit by having a paved path but we were fine with the path we had.  You're using our hard work to raise money for yourself.  If they had asked if they could promote it that way, we would say fine and probably get some people to buy bricks but without asking, it just feels like they are taking.

I hate canna bulbs.   

[cineater]

How would this look replacing the rotting lattice work on the compost bin?


Maggie's idea.  I'm loving it.  She already makes things out of wine bottles and I'm assuming a good source for those bottles.   

[cineater]

"Watch each card you play and play it slow."  "It's a lesson to me."  I can manage a lot of moving parts but I have to get on it.  Had all the fall projects set up but then things kept getting thrown in there.  Quick to grab them up and try to get them moving but they were crashing mid development and not by me.  I don't like to do fire drills.  Makes your people less reactive when the real thing needs to get going.  Took 41 cinder blocks to slow me down.    We're going back to doing the projects we already had lined up.  These new projects can just stay on radar.

The brick pathway.  Turns out she has to get approval from the same group where I got shit for asking for money.  There's not a lot of profit in that fundraiser and it could go belly up.  Good luck with that.  I'm not removing the stepping stones we have there until she's a go.

I don't know about that bottle wall replacing the lattice work.  Looks like it could be a easy project but those steel rods aren't cheap.  I can get wine bottles but I'm thinking they are too big for that little area.  And five panels of that might be a little too busy for my taste.  Maybe just one in the middle and something else for the other panels.  I've been looking for something.  It's a possibility but I want to see some more options.

Look Herb girls.  You've got to make up your mind what you want to do out there.  You work with Bekah and get it together.  You're off next year's project list until you know what you're doing.  

My people who wanted to set their edging stones aren't responding to the free rock but you have to get it now.  We're just going to side step that and move the rock into the amendment bins and put that on next year's project list.

In the meantime, back to what I know what we can get done.  The cinder blocks are going in Saturday.  By all estimates, we still need 15 or 35.  15, we're buying those.  35, I'm going back to get the freebies.  And we still need the toppers, buying those.

Tom and I are scheduled to finish doing the shelving tomorrow.  The greenhouse crew is moving the rest of the stuff back into the greenhouse.  The new floor looks good.  Now how to move all the leftover rock when it's sitting on the tarp we wanted it to sit on in the new location.  I have a old queen size air mattress we can use and then throw the tarp over the top of it.  Or hey, why don't I just go buy a new tarp out of my own money.    Little tired of digging up freebies for this place.

We do deal with plants at the garden.  One would think that's what it is all about.  I have a garage floor full of drying canna bulbs waiting to be processed.  I still need to collect up the oxalis bulbs I have been propagating all over the place.  And Donna has dig and divide going on with the plants we are selling at the plant sale next year.   Speaking of next year's plant sale.  I picked up a rack for another set of lights.  I can now grow 15 flats and 21 if I have to.

[cineater]

Tom and I got derailed on the shelves.  Some of the greenhouse tables needed work.  The greenhouse is almost reloaded.  Helped Catherine dig the trench for the cinder blocks.  Trying to get that done before the guys come to set them on Saturday.  The Arbor gave up a border I was able to use around the Bee Bar.  And they took out a bunch of bricks I can use for a border around the Chocolate Garden.  Kind of excited to get started on that.  Not sure which design I'm using yet.  The plant debris waiting to be processed for compost is too wet to chop up and it's turned into a mountain!

Good workday at the gardens.  Weather is good and people are showing up to help. 

[cineater]

I got an interesting invitation to travel the world with an archeologist.  She's top secret military, something to do with training drone flyers if I remember right.  No idea how she got from her degree to that.  She just got back from Peru which is some place I would like to go.  She wanted to know where I wanted to go.  I didn't mention wanting to travel but I guess I showed interest in where she had been.  But is that even safe to go traveling with someone like that who's on vacation?  She could be accused of spying in some countries.

She did have some cool pictures.  What people thought was an amphitheater from the air was an advanced terrace gardening system.

Greg stepped up to be the compost lead but gave up turf.  Then decided he could still do turf too.  Nobody has taken lasagna yet so I'm one lead short.  New guy, who has built retaining walls, offered to help with ours on Saturday.  I did get the group to move the cinder blocks down to where we want them.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise"

You're suppose to travel when you retire.  I use to travel.  What better way to go then with an experienced traveler?  Then again, Joan and her husband sold off everything and learned to sail a boat.  I could go couldn't I?

[cineater]

Raided the parks burn pile.  Only got one board we can use.  Moved some of the screenings back to the amendment bin.  11 wheelbarrows of screenings and I quit.    Was doing them half full and five at a time.  Took too long of a break after number 10.  

I did apply for a grant for the Herb Garden renovation.

Check this planter wall block for making a raised bed.  You just ram a rebar rod through the hole and add wood planks in the slot.  Quick and easy install.  The lady talks about it here:  https://graceinmyspace.com/easy-raised-garden-bed-diy-without-tools/

[cineater]

Marsha's husband, Bob, showed up to help on the retaining wall.  We got about a third of it done.  Catherine thinks we only need about 10 more cinder blocks.  Then I said what about the areas where we need to double up?  Don't care any more, just buy them!    

Bob also has 5 or 6, 4x4 panels already constructed he wants to get rid of.  Perfect size for the compost bin panels. And he has some extra hoses.  Score!

Gabby wants to go hike the Alps.  God no.     "Woman belong on top", but not on top of that.

[cineater]

Damn it, I need 4X34" for panels.  I hope we can cut his down or he was wrong about the size.  He wasn't sure what they were.  I put a call out for any leftover stain people have from staining their decks.  Mix a few of them together and I should have enough to stain the compost bins too.  Got a fold up wagon from my sister's gambling booty.  We can probably use that for taking things to the farmer's market.

My other garden club is making burrito pillowcases.  Why?  And what is a burrito pillowcase?  Google it, nothing to do with gardening and er, not my taste people.     I'm skipping the sewing lesson.

[cineater]

Oh Greg.     He can be pig headed.  His words not mine.  I tell him how to do something and why and he does it his own way.  Later he admits he should have did it my way.  Love the guy he volunteers for stuff.  He just volunteered to be the compost lead.  He gets out there today and calls me complaining about the stuff people are putting in the compost pile.  Yeah, I know just kick it around and run it over with the mower.  He wants me to send out an email today telling people not to put certain stuff in there.  The mountain of debris waiting to be processed for composting has been on my hit list.  Tell him it's on my list for today and I'll be out pretty soon to help him.  Get there and he's gone already and hasn't chopped up any of it, just threw some of it on top of what is decomposing.  You can do it that way, just takes longer. 

An hour and a half later I text him a picture of the mountain now reduced to a chopped up pile.  He wants to know where I put all of that.  In the pile!  Ran it over with little tank, the name of the mower, and used the leaf blower to blow it into a pile.     Thinking, I've been at this a while, listen to the voice of experience.  He texts back I should be the compost lead.  I send him back the mountain of rock I'm now moving.  He stopped texting after that.   

I'm not all that.  You take a leaf blower to chopped up, dry plant material and blow it towards a pile with the wind blowing at you and you get covered.     Shhh, don't tell Greg.

[cineater]

   Greg texted this morning, he needs to know how to run little tank.  He also likes to text me early in the morning, like before 8.  I think it's just to remind me he's still working and I'm retired.  Text back, "I'm on my 8th wheelbarrow on that rock."  Yeah, I've been working, you're just now getting there.     Pretty much happens every time he does that, I'm at the garden.  I'm sure he's cussing.

We're mid 80's today.  I did not want to be out there this afternoon hauling rock.  Got there with the dawn.  I have a meeting at 10 to work on what we are growing for the gardens next year.  After that, I'm going back to bed.   

Edging is coming my way.  We have a lot of brick.  I think the Chocolate Garden and the planter box around the Compost Bins will get that.  I got some interesting wood on rebar to use around the Bee Bar and I think I have more of that wood in the big tool shed that I can make enough to do the whole bed.

[cineater]

7 wheelbarrows in and Paul took over.    He almost cleared the pile.  Took Kevin over to look at the rotting compost bin.  He was going to wait and work on it next week until he got a look in my new Dewalt drill bag and decided he wanted to play with that.    He took some of it apart.  We need those panels before we go any further.  Tom and I put a new top on one of the greenhouse tables and did one shelf.  One shelf left to go.  Catherine brought in the rest of the cinder blocks.  I sent newbies over to move those down.  David agreed to install Maureen's edging around her bed.  Good work session.  We're in the middle of fall projects.  I'm beat but I really want to finish the rock.

The grant people acknowledged my request for funding for the herb garden and it has been passed to the people who actually are in charge of the money.  Sounds encouraging.

Rain coming in tonight.  I think we went all of October without much.  Our vegetable garden is close to done.  Figs are almost done too.  Just need that killing frost to take it all down.

I did go back and finished the rock, yipee.  It's crushed rock so the dust that gets on me and mixes with my sweat is a thin layer of concrete in my hair.   

[cineater]

That rain turned out to be a tornado warning at 2:30 in the morning.

All the leads turned in their budgets for next year today.  We're going to come in a few hundred over last year.  And I'll request an additional $2500 for the herb garden renovation.  Not sure if that will get approved.  We talk it over tomorrow.  Phebe brought a metal raised bed for the pantry garden instead of wood.  She's willing to reimagine that garden, cool, it's been looking like shit.  Wood panels come in for the compost bin tomorrow.  Hope we like them.  With a little bit of luck, we will close the gardens by Thanksgiving.