What have you done today in the Garden?

Was out checking the pastures for any new signs of ground critters , or deer scat. Nothing so far. Was chased back inside very fast before the rain storm hit. One nice thing about living up on a hill I can watch the clouds form in the valley below before it hits .

My friends next door had a chat with the new neighbors using their yard for target practice . They were very understanding about the gun issue. It was their oldest son a teenager shooting while the parents weren’t home. The parents assured us that the guns will be locked up and it will not happen again. I hope so…

@Oreti have a nice trip and lots of fun over the Holidays. Take lots of pics to share when you can. I do like seeing different areas of England and other countries from members. The climate is very similar to the PNW.

 

Pac— that sounds like a good and normal result. Fingers crossed.

 

I'm glad they were understanding and a solution was made. We have gunfire around here sometimes. I don't know what direction it comes from. Also, I think there are some people who... I don't know what to say online. Let's say I sometimes have safety concerns. I try not to think about it too much.

Back to my garden, I did some work on the raised bed renovation.

Dug down to the wire mesh under it all. That helps keep tunneling animals out of the bed itself. Leveled and tamped down the soil. Added a recycled, hard foam underlayment in hopes that will prevent burrowers from pushing soil up into the cinder blocks, which makes them unstable.



Replaced the bottom row of blocks.



At this point, my practical, somewhat good judgement side was arguing with my stubborn, bull-headed side. The good judgement side was saying it didn't matter at all if I completed this project today, tomorrow, next week, or in two months. Plus it was making my back hurt. The stubborn, bull-headed side was saying, just one more cinder block. And the back didn't hurt that much, yet. Plus, I can roll them instead of carrying. Then one more block. Then one more. OK, stop when the bottom row is in place. So that's what happened. Then the better sense side took over and stopped me, which is good.

Also, I need to check against a straight 2X4 to make sure the row of blocks is straight. Perfection is not an option, but I at least want good enough. I'll also check with a level make sure the blocks aren't leaning outward.

While I was working, the county arborist came by to clear tree branches that might hit power lines in heavy snow or ice storm. I think that's good. I want power in the winter, very much. I asked them if they wanted to cut down the worst offender, an old spruce tree. They said it was too big, I have to hire someone. They could only cut offending branches, which they did. I don't want to trigger tree trimming PTSD so I won't post a photo. I also asked if they would like to remove two younger trees- a Norway Maple and a towering columnar plum, and they did that. I might look into replacing one with a dogwood, I hope is much smaller at maturity. The plum wasn't supposed to grow that big, and would always be a hassle. The flowers aren't that pretty. I felt guilty, that I had planted that Norway Maple as a seedling. I didn't know what they were, and they are invasive. The leaves don't become a nicer color in the fall, just brown. They removed those.

https://www.invasive.org/alien/pubs/midatlantic/acpl.htm

They also topped some of the bamboo. That's good, because some fall over every winter. They have shallow roots that don't hold well in soft soil.



Looking at it, the bamboo seems to be a lot lower than the wires, but I don't think their pruning hurt anything. It gives great summer shade for the hens.

I asked if they could come by during cherry-picking season. He laughed and said it would be handy, but no.

 

Wow, That is some serious work those guys did. Too bad about the cherries. Better luck with that next time.

The work on your raised bed is coming right along. That was a comical conversation you had with yourself about the work. That is so familiar to me…well to us both actually. The Bride is sometimes more driven than I.

You were right that you still have a couple of months before it MUST be finished. Good luck with your future conversations with yourself. Heel veel sterkte daarmee.

Addendum: I was just thinking: would it help to pound wooden stobs or metal rods in the cinder block holes so that they cannot shift?

 

Nothing until the week-end when I'll be giving the wisterias their final prune.

 

I completed the side wall rebuilding for the big raised bed.

Before.


Today


My stubborn side won some arguments over my common sense side. Oh well. Next, fill the soil inside, back against the wall, smooth it, and clean up the path, remove the muddy wood chips to the compost pile, and put in clean wood chips. Also clean up and re-install the drip irrigation line.

Also, wash the remaining mud from the cinder blocks.

Last year, this bed had cooking tomatoes. Next year, onions. I'll be less ambitious, and grow them from onion sets.

At the far end are two rows of winter onions. I need to clean those up too.

Now it's time for a break. This was a hard job.

@Sjoerd, you had a smart idea there. I am thinking about how to do that. The pavers on the top can be easily moved, if I decide to insert a pole or rod in the cinder blocks.

 

Some idiots think because they live out in the country they can shoot guns, (oh what fun ). Bullets travel thru anything . It’s illegal in most county’s it’s a distance rule & permits required. It’s scary not knowing which direction the gun fire is coming from and quite frankly, (sorry Frank ), not long ago a notice from the sheriffs dept sent out notifications informing of the current regulations and fines up to $10,000 and all guns can be confiscated .
Gun safety is a real issue. As in the current new neighbor incident a teen out shooting a rifle with his buddies.

Tree Trimming PTSD is a real thing for me. I’m not going to say another word… because each superlative in my repertoire is not acceptable but right on for trees which are the victims of a massacre . Unfortunately not one single arborists is ever involved with those companies hired by the county.

Daniel I used heavy cinder blocks in a similar garden applications - 6 blocks high - wall. I placed a few inches of gravel down first to sustain zero slippage, then placed the cinder blocks. Added rebar down each section to help stabilize, sledged hammered down a few inches down in the base, then capped the tops. Never had any issues with slippage, sinking or wobbling. Unlike wood or treated wood, cement blocks hold up forever. The heavy type of blocks.

 

Daniel— illustrative before and after foto’s.
The Bride made surprised sounds and was impressed to say the least.

Well, I hope that you can figure out some kind of system to prevent the bulging phenomenon.

That work of yours looks really smart.

Pacster— you be careful out there with unsupervised children popping off rounds. We can’t miss you on here, y’know. Haha.

 

Well done Daniel with your raised bed.

 

No garden work in the garden today. I have to rest various parts that are not happy with me for working so hard on the raised bed.

One of the hens was missing again tonight. Now I've learned not to lose hope. None have been AWOL like this for a few weeks. I can usually find and catch them all but not tonight. I guess it's their year of living dangerously.

 

Sorry a hen is missing. Hope she is ok. We get attached to our animals feather or furry buds they are always a part of our lives we get along thruout every day… and only one constant expectation from us are only food and play.

Daniel like your new avatar… Rufus is your garden buddie and a huge basket of veggies. It’s definitely a good characterization.

 

What a good new avatar you have created. It was thoughtful to put your mate, Rufus in there.
What a shame that one of the chooks have done a runner. I hope you get her back.

 

Daniel like your avatar and i hope that your hen will be ok.

 

Today I cleaned up the muddy woodchip path, next to the refurbished raised bed. Those will be composted.

Rather than filling in the soil immediately, I filled in a small amount to make a flat bottom, and used that for trench posting kitchen scraps. I covered them with soil, and will repeat that process until the trench is filled.

I usually dig holes for trench composting. This is easier, since it's already dug.

Earthworms love that method.

I laid a recycled plastic weed barrier, anticipating covering that with wood chips. Mother Nature reminded me it was time to stop, by starting to rain.

That hen is interesting. I spent at least 15 minutes looking for her, including inside the chicken coop. She was no-where. Then this morning, when I opened up the coop, there she was, inside!

The one thing I didn't do, was look up. Might she have been hanging upside down from a rafter, like a bat?



Maybe she's a vampire chicken! I better eat some more garlic now.

 

Thanks all for the avatar comments. I'm a fan of Wallace and Gromit, so I used a claymation look this time.