June 1, 2009

I'm failing in the update arena again this year... ironically it's the photographing that slows me down. One would think in this digital age I could snap a few shots more often, but when I'm all dirty and grimy from working in the yard, I don't want to handle the camera.

This is the before picture of my garden... taken Saturday morning. I've been wanting to make the makeshift cinder block wall prettier, and stop the weeds and grass from growing up through the center of the blocks... but still make it possible to easily take apart in case I decide to change the shape of the garden later.




It only took two years, but I finally found the paver stones that are the exact size of the top of my cinder blocks. I give you... the neat and tidy garden wall.



Such as it is.

I lifted all those myself. 50 paver stones from the shelf at Home Depot to the big flatbed cart... through the store and out to the truck, where I loaded all 50 into the trailer. At home Dan drove the trailer to the top of the yard, and I pulled each stone off the trailer and onto the wall, pulling weeds and straightening bricks as I went.

This is one of the reasons I go to the gym... so I can do projects like this without killing myself.



The plants themselves are coming along. Something ate my crookneck squash plants, so I've replaced them, and added a couple other veggies. My peas are growing like crazy, just reaching the bottom rung of my volley ball net-like climbing wall.



Here is the herb side of things, just prior to me chopping down the oregano (that's that tall leafy thing on the far end) We've gone a little crazy with rosemary this season. I wasn't convinced my big plants would grow back, so I bought some replacements... then the big stuff kinda sorta came back. It still looks a bit woody... and half of one plant is gone forever... but the rest is turning green, so I've stuck a few extra little rosemary plants in my herb garden, they'll probably find homes around the yard next year.



I whacked down over a pound of fresh oregano. I thought it would make the garden look barren, but it just looks like it got a hair cut.

We are doing a *lot* of projects around the yard, getting ready for a summer of visitors and parties galore... next weekend I'm planning to pace the yard and shoot all the improvements we've made (oh, so many decorative pots and we even finally bought a wine barrel planter!)