Long Weekend

Hello!  I had a four day weekend and it was amazing.  The Lady Bean went to see her grand parents and I stayed home (and mostly in the yard).  I accomplished many 'yardie' things.  I even secretly built a tipi structure from some old fallen limbs and saw my very first swarm of bees... eep.  It's a bit unsettling.  Here's a video of what a swarm looks like.

 Now for the lawn stuff...

Yes, you've seen this; a photo from the day the window boxes went up.  I'll have new photos soon, but let's compare...

The front of the house a few weeks ago.

The front of the house (two years ago).

Different angle.  I still hate that Yucca, but it's long gone.

The back corner of the lawn on Sunday.

The same area two years ago after I removed a large pile of trash which included: a mattress, box springs, porch railing, various types of fence, glass, garbage, etc.  The mattress was growing things.  Ick.

Two years ago I bought a glider that matched the chairs on the front porch.  I bought it for 75% off and I had the perfect spot for it.  It would live in this corner (above photo; adjacent to my future, fabulous garden) surrounded by all the pink peonies that I had scavenged from Freecycle.  I had such great plans.  As you can tell from the more recent photo, that never quite happened.  The glider sat in the garage for two years.  I never even opened the box.  Oops.  

Everything is different now though!  Amidst a swarm of bees, I put the glider together.  I have a few pillows to sew and then I'll take new photos and you'll  see my project that was two years in the planning is finally finished.  Woot!  Why do I put pillows on all of my outdoor seating?  I don't know!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo,

swarm of b

Gardening

 

This is (almost) how the garden currently looks.

 This is how the garden looked just a few months ago.

This is how it looked a year ago.

I have three 4'x4' beds and one 2'x2' potato bin.  I tried to put everything in last year, but it didn't work, I got the super poison ivy.  This year however, there were a few very early weeks of warm weather and that's when I finished building.  So I am in my first year of gardening and I've already learned so many things.  I'd like to share them with you.

Squirrels

First of all, squirrels are jerks, really horrible fuzzy little jerks.  Damn them and their little squirrel hands.  I tried to start some seeds this year and I used the break apart biodegradable starter trays.  When I first started them I left the trays outside; the squirrels tore into them.  I moved them inside until they were ready to plant.  The squirrels tore the little pods out of the ground and took the micro greens.  I decided to re-plant with some purchased starts and some seeds.  The squirrels scooped out my row of seeds. 

Birds

Birds really like nearly ripe strawberries.  I've also read that they like other berries as well, but I haven't experienced that yet.

Seeds

It is best to sow herbs and greens directly into the ground.  You can start them inside, but greens are an early crop and herbs are resilient.  They do best directly in the ground.

Otherwise I can tell you that herbs thrive and don't require much maintenance.  My herb garden has exploded.  I'll post pictures soon.  I don't have a picture of the re-planted third bed, but it's coming.  This weekend, I will probably be planting again  (squirrels are jerks) and adding fences.  I think if I tack chicken wire to the sides and maybe do netting or more wire over the top, I will also get to enjoy strawberries and salad greens.