Weekend update

Alrighty then...could I have really gotten that much done this weekend? In a word, yes.

I didn't have the Master Gardener class this week (Furlough...damn economy!), so I was able to get my hours in early and get out of the office on Friday around noon. We used that afternoon to get organized for the weekend. That meant cleaning out all the crap that was located on my front side yard like the kids old 1/4 pipe skateboard ramp, some old wooden boxes and a few planters that I was given last year. It also meant moving the old boat that was parked in out drive way right next to the side yard so that I could get in there the next day. Then I dug into the back edge of the side yard and connected into my main irrigation pipe to add a spigot to it. After all this, A~ and I ran over to our local nursery to pick up some seed potatoes, since after all, that was the point of this whole exercise. Our newest addition....The potato garden!

I mentioned last fall that we had plans to expand the garden further this year, and so we have! This newest garden will not only give us an additional 200 sq feet of garden area, but it will officially move us "out of the closet", err..."out of the backyard" that is. It's in the front of our house, albeit on the side front, but the front nonetheless. Besides the obvious goal of producing more of our own food, I hope to keep this garden looking interesting and nice enough to maybe let my neighborhood see that growing food isn't just a backyard sport.

So then, Saturday we were off to the green waste recycling center (located at our landfill) to pick up a truck load of their overwintered compost. The stuff was still steaming when I got it!! All told it was just shy of 4 cubic yds of compost and A~ unloaded most of it herself. What a woman!! No I wasn't just sitting there drinking beer and watching, I was tilling. We were able to borrow a very nice tiller from a neighbor who is adding a garden this year and had gotten it from a friend.It worked great! Whatya think? It seemed like it'd be a perfect place for an additional garden so why not. Just to the left of the picture, we have a couple of large rocks, a small aspen tree and some flowers just along the sidewalk, and with the half fence to the back it's a natural little nook right there. But wait...there's more! (I always wanted to say it like that...sounds so carny doesn't it?)

While we were on the way home from getting the compost, we spied some sweet salvageables at one of the homes I was telling you all about before. The ones being torn down for construction reasons. We were able to get a bunch of nice red brick pavers that were part of an old patio. I ran into the guy in charge of the salvage operation and asked him about them and he said I could have them. I cannot overstate the importance of asking before salvaging. You can see them along the top edge of the tilled garden area on the picture above, but here's a better picture.They aren't lain permanently yet, so don't leave me comments on how bad my paver laying is OK? We just wanted to make sure we had enough.

We also picked this baby up on the way home from getting compost. It's been a long time coming too let me tell ya. I don't think I've ever shared my current 'barrow with you, but suffice it to say that it was a found, salvaged, last leg one ten years ago when we got it. This was a well earned investment! And oh can it cart some compost!

There's one last thing. We also were able to get a hold of another bit of very good salvage material that will really finish this area off perfectly. Any guesses? I'm gonna make you wait until tomorrow to see it. So make sure you come back by. I still haven't made it through Saturday yet, I'm telling you, it was a BUSY weekend!

All the best to you.
P~