Another Weekend of Work

We worked on putting in the kitchen garden today. We put in a variety of hot peppers and sweet peppers, black beauty eggplants, 4 short rows of clemson spineless okra, 5 short rows of butterbeans, 1 row of brocolli, 3 rows of red and green cabbage. We also worked on a small bed for rubarb. Having never worked on a garden of this scale Steven stopped about midway and asked, "Isn't there a machine we can use to do this?" Hoeing rows was kicking his butt. Using a pry bar we lifted the fountain in the side garden and managed to get it to sit level. One side is resting on the ground, the other has bricks under it. The vinca and the ivy and plants hide the fact one side is not touching the ground. The solid mass of concrete is so heavy we tried to lift it so we could shovel in soil to help level it but there was no way we could lift it. The statue is back on the base and the pump works to send a trickle of water cascading down from the top. It is a lovely sound. We spent hours cutting and pulling and clipping and cleaning in the garden in that area. At the end of the day, you couldn't tell we had done much at all. We cleared 2 carts of clippings and debris, old lights, wires ... I cannot believe the people who put in that fountain had buried an indoor extention cord to power the pumps. It was an electrocution waiting to happen. The ivy was pulled down out of the tree. We found about 5 old metal birds and butterflies that had once been staked out there. There was a tiny cedar tree growing in the mass of leaves between the trunks of the tree that had to be cut out. I cut back the azaleas branches that were scraggy and near bare. The liriope got a much need hair cut. I was choaking out the new grown trying to sprout. We really needed to work on the boxwoods somemore on that side of the house but I was too tired to start. Taking down 3 feet off the height of those things requires a ladder and a lot of stamina in the upper arms. My arms are too tired for it. Maybe I can work on it tomorrow and tuesday before the rains come. I am not going to complain about the rain this week. We have predicitons of rain from this Tuesday night thru next Tuesday. I want the rain since we put in the kitchen garden and well water just maintains it. It is the rain that really makes things grown and I want it to rain. Even though rain means we won't get much more done for more than a week. We installed a new series of low voltage lighting around the side garden as well. We set the timer for the lights to come on around 4:30am and 7:30pm and to go off at 5:30am and 11:00pm. It really looks pretty. I took some photos after dark but the flash on the camera washes out most of the lighting. The solar lights around the koi pond look inviting at night. I can imagine on warm summer nights sitting in either garden and listening to the night music. I can't wait for those sultry summer nights. The day was long and during the hottest point, the sun beat down and we couldn't drink enough water. After weeding one more bed we called it a day 6:30pm. I drank water all evening and just knew I would be up half the night running to the bathroom, suprisingly I guess my body needed the water. I didn't wake up once and I wasn't running to go when I woke. All in all is was a very productive weekend. Steven always acts as if we didn't get near as much work done as we should have. I am always asking him to please stop selling himself short. We are making headway. Everything is showing vast improvements. The mountain of debris is over our heads out in the back, evidence is piling up to attest to the amount of work we have accomplished. Still he thinks we could more. If I could find a handyman/gardener I would hire him. We do need help out here to get this work done. I have asked around and no one is interested in minial labor. I would like to have someone, maybe a retired man looking for some extra cash, who would work 4 to 5 hours a day for 2 or 3 days a week. Perhaps I should put an ad in the paper. However I am not looking forward to a formal arrangement where I would have to file SS and tax payments. Whatever happened to teenage boys who did yard work for pocket money? Posted by Angie at 08:29 PM | Comments (2)