My Gardens: July 2006 Archives

The rain has come today. A steady rain, enough to quench my thirsty gardens and containers. It seems that my last few days of gardening has been focused on watering and now I can relax. Today I can catch up on my reading, phone calls, bill-paying and such.

Saturday afternoon brought an interesting offer of maple logs and kindling. My neighbor finally decided his beautiful maple was, indeed, dead and that it was time to take it down before a storm did, indiscriminately, upon his house. Neighbor Randy cut most of the trunk into pieces fit for our forced air fireplace (the box is not very big - pieces cannot be longer than 16 inches), and cut the major branches as well. All of this was conveniently dropped about 25 feet from my log pile over the fence line using his Kubota tractor with the handy bucket scoop in front. (One of those toys my husband not-so-secretly covets.)

The rest was up to us to collect. I paid my oldest (that was the only way I was going to get her out there) to help me pick up, break or cut pieces, and load them into the yard cart. We made about six or seven trips and now have an impressive pile of finger-width to arm-width kindling to go with the logs.

I feel like the ant in the Ant and Grasshopper story, even smug that I've begun "storing" away needs for the winter. Since the hike in gas prices, we are among the many who heat their homes primarily with wood in the winter.

I struck on the idea that I should keep track of the changes in my backyard efforts. I took a number of "before" pictures to set the benchmark. I also drew a rough diagram of the backyard so that as I refer to various zones and post pictures those of you who are interested can follow more easily. Eventually, I'd like to repost each of the "before" pictures with the "after" pictures. Knowing how plants develop as they mature, pictures beyond the "after" pictures would be cool, too.

First, is my diagram. Although the picture is not to scale, I have a fair sense of space so it is accurate for this purpose.

The vegetable garden was the first of my tasks. I felt it was important to get it opened and extended given the nature of annual vegetables and herbs. Too bad there isn't a true "before" picture.