Friday, July 25, 2008

"A Day on the Homestead"

Today was a very tiring day. I hadn't really worked in my garden with the exception of watering since I got back to town last Monday. I haven't been feeling well. I have a sore throat, some body aches, and just a general feeling of malaise. Plus, my back is a little dicey.  I would go out and look at the plants, see if something needed tending but I didn't feel up to really getting out there and working to my full capacity.

I decided that had to stop today. I have some new plants that need to be transplanted and I wanted to get my fall gardening area situated. So I got up this morning with the mindset to set those things in motion.

One thing that has slowed down a lot of my progress was the leftover debris that I moved out of the chill center and onto the other part of the yard. Remember the very first photos of the areas that I needed to work on?

This is how it looks today. I made a section for flowers that only a few buds are coming up in. Plus, Pumpkin likes to use it as her play area and today I saw her use it as her personal toilet. So I put up a barrier to keep her out.

This entire section will one day be transformed into the chill area. This is where I will house the grill, hopefully a gazebo, a table and a few chairs. I hope to go around the borders of the fence with flowers.

I also decided to use the "Toxic Turtle" to plant some flowers in as well. It will hold a nice mound of soil and will be a different sort of flower pot.

I also raked the yard today. I added some more soil, and leaves, and pine straw and the bin of materials from the house into the compost bin to continue cooking. I also added fresh leaves to the area of the yard that I am trying to train Pumpkin to do her business in.

I strung out a load of "Teenager's" laundry and I went through the plants to get rid of dying leaves and to check on each thing individually. The cantaloupes are growing so good that I put them on a bin to give them some height. Look at all the pretty yellow flowers:

Here are a few of the other plants:

Pepper flowers are budding and so are the watermelons:

But, I will have to say that "THE" most fulfilling project that I took care of today was this: remember when this section of my yard looked like this when I transfered the junk pile over:

Well, here is what it looks like today:

This morning, teenager and I systematically took every piece of the debris to the dump. I had been trying to get a truck to no avail but knew that if I didn't get this area cleaned up soon, I would have to go back to school and fall planting would be imminent. So yesterday while out, I bought a nice, heavy duty piece of tarp, draped my trunk and the rest was history. What was wet, nasty, too bug infested or downright rancid, I broke down as best I could and placed it in 39 gallon bags. I was so focused on the job at hand that I neglected to take pictures which I am now regretting. It took 5 trips to the dump but I got the area clean, was able to transport it, albeit slowly to the dump and now my area is ready to get ready for the fall planting. Can you say HAPPY? It was a VERY hard, back-breaking job ( and my back is dealing with it tonight) but I plan to rest this evening and just do some minor planting tomorrow. So all in all I had a VERY busy, yet VERY satisfying day on "Ye Olde Homestead".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!!! The work you have done is nothing short of amazing. Love the "before" and "after" shots. Glad to see you back doing what you love to do and what I enjoy reading about. Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

You are doing such a great job!! I can't believe you got all those piles off to the dump in one afternoon and your plants are looking wonderful! Looks like you are all set for fall planting! Congrats on your progress! FM :-)

Anonymous said...

Just wonderful!  You are doing some fabulous things and it's really beginning to show.

Deb