Others-Minded Gardening

June 19.

We've gardened, and gardened, and gardened.  And now we would do it for others.

Several years ago, we helped build a garden for friends.  It's so easy for weeds to take over, and when the one family member whose garden it was went out of the country for a year, that is what happened.  Now that I've learned a few lessons about weeds, and now that we had opportunity to share that knowledge with others, it was time to act!

There really are a few flowers growing in the garden above.  It was our job to find and save them!  Our goal was to weed as much as possible, lay down landscape fabric, secure it, and cover everything with mulch.  This is what we did with my mulched veggie garden pathways last year, so we were "experts" in a way!

Greeted in the yard by Sweet Pea.

Because I went straight to work--I wasn't just the photographer this day--I didn't take many pictures.  Here is one halfway done (actually, the bulk of the work is done by this point!), the landscape fabric pinned down over the whole garden, and secured around the edges with the original rocks that were used as edging.

Why won't you play ball with me??

The Lord's Provision.

This family's mom Helen, a widow, had given us permission to spend $20 on whatever mulch we could purchase to complete the garden.  I also had experience with this part of the job, too!  Before heading to the M.'s house, we stopped at Lowe's and loaded up a garden dolly with as many bags of mulch in recovery bags as we could find.  (Click on over to my link above about my garden pathway to find out what these are and how to save money.)

When the sales associate rang up our mulch purchase, we had room for one more bag, albeit full price.  We came in 48 cents under budget!  I was thrilled and knew the Lord had provided.

When Miss J. commented that we may not have enough mulch to cover everything, I looked at her and told her, "The Lord provided this exactly within your mom's budget.  There will be enough."  And there was, perfectly.  I love how the Lord does that.

Gathering up the garbage.

Time for a break!

Miss J. and Miss M., dirty and happy.

Miss M. had just turned 21, so two of my guys went "bar hopping" with her.  Yes, that's a piece of re-bar!

Meanwhile, Danny cleared the side entrance, where guests would be coming in.  There's a bowling alley parking lot on that side, very convenient parking (they get permission for guests to park there).

Because we purchased different types of mulch, the garden looks like a patchwork.  But that quickly fades with a few rains, plus time.

Below, see waaaay back there?  That's still their property--it's so deep--but it has grown in with "native vegetation."  So they had some plastic fencing to put in along the border so that guests would know to stay out.

Fernando got my camera, and me--sweaty, dirty, happy worker.

Finally, we were done.  Time to have a little fun before the girls fed us dinner!  Miss J. had caught two frogs, which survived a few hours in a bucket.  It was time to let them go.

Sweet Pea came to investigate.

She chased one around the garden.  I'm sure it was traumatized.

What a blessing it is to share our knowledge, skills, and time with others!  The M. family's friendship garden is truly that, wouldn't you say?


Back to life,
Christine

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Preparing the Garden for Another Winter

November 9.

On a brisk autumn day, I got my guys out working in the garden.  With all that was happening in our lives, we did everything late this year.   Better late than never, however, so we were out there working.  And taking pictures.  Here's what we did to get the garden ready for the upcoming winter.

First, Danny and Thomas dug up all the plants--tomatoes, herbs, squash--everything.

Joseph patiently removed the Velcro tape which had secured the tomato and pepper plants to their stakes.  I'll re-use this next year.

Here's the result:

Then, Danny and Thomas piled straw over the strawberry plants to protect them from winter's cold.  The straw bale is only about $10 from a local landscape supply store, and it more than covers the plants.  It isn't seedless, so I do have to deal with pulling new grass out as it goes to seed in the spring, but it's very manageable and not too much trouble, so I go ahead and use the straw.

To keep the straw from blowing away, we used plastic netting (sort of like bird netting), which we cut and draped over the bed from side to side.  We did this just enough to keep the straw down.  Some will blow away no matter what we do, so we don't worry about it.

Yeah, that's a good old-fashioned stapler!  Danny stapled the netting right into the wood, and we'll pull those out in the spring.

Above, Danny secured the last of the netting, then sat in the background while I photographed his finished product.  Nice job, Danny, and thank you!

Meanwhile, I put Joseph to work raking.  We have a great big rake, and he worked really hard for a long time.  The funny thing is, we have only two trees back here!  The leaves blow in from the church property behind us, and our neighbor's tree to the east.  So alas, we have to rake leaves.

Joseph raked up three huge piles of leaves!  This is the first year we've really had to rake a lot.  I guess the tree (below) in my special space has really grown!

After raking, the guys bagged everything up.  Here in our town, we're required to put yard waste in yard waste bags.  At least we don't have to purchase the "tax stickers" (as I call them) that some communities require their residents to place on the bags.

We worked and took pictures all afternoon!  What a great feeling to get the work done, just in time for colder weather and winter.  I leave you with a picture of my bench in the autumn setting sun.  It awaits my spring return!

Back to life,
Christine

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Cleaning Up the Back Yard

If any of my guys wasn't working--as in employed--they'd be working for me.  At least, that was the goal of this summer.  So, one day in June, I put them to work.  Outside our back yard patio door, and to the right, is a large grassy area that is used very little.  We've stacked leftover hardwood flooring, pieces of an old picnic table, and several years' worth of Christmas trees.  Yep--we just threw them out there in January, over in the corner and out of the way.

This year, though, we cleaned up a bit to accommodate a nice stack of wood that my parents had given us when they moved.  That wood was at least organized along the back fence.  And, on a nice, warm day in June, we tackled the other chores for this part of the back yard.

Above, Danny used a saw to cut off the branches of the old Christmas trees.  It was pretty easy to tell which tree was from which year, as they were progressively devoid of needles.  My dad had come over with the saws and tools, and, never one for sitting down and relaxing, he joined in the fun by cutting the trunks down to size.

Here's one shot of this little-used patch of lawn.  It's such a big space, and given unlimited funds, I'd build one of those brick fire pits, a little stone patio, and have lots of seating.  Or, hmm, a small in-ground pool would be great here, too.  ;)

Danny and Joseph hand-cut all the branches into sizes that would fit our yard waste bags.  These went to the curb for recycling on trash day.

Here's another image I took of this corner of our back yard.  We stacked some wood for my brother to use when he camps; it's in that box in the below image.

The rest of the firewood was stacked along the back fence, below.

You can see the pile in the far corner (below)--that'll be eliminated once we start sawing the longer pieces of wood (oak hardwood flooring left over from our flooring job years ago).

See the tall pile below?  That's the remains of an old falling-apart picnic table.  We've put pieces of it out for trash each week, and it is almost gone from our yard.

We still have a lot of work to do back here, but a lot of the mess is gone, and things are looking much tidier!


Back to life,
Christine

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