A Beautiful Mess

A recent warm spell has broken, and along with clouds and chilly weather, there's a bit of rain. This gives me a nice excuse to take a break.

I've been tearing up the back half of my back yard: a 10 x 25 foot rectangle (plus a little 8 x 4 foot bit off in the corner).

As I've likely mentioned, my yard has a lot of roots, a lot of rocks, and a lot of clay. So I didn't expect miracles when I borrowed my dad's rototiller. But it's really worked. I occasionally need to pull out the pickax to get through a rough spot, and I've chopped out about 10' of roots and 3 buckets of rocks. But the topsoil is looking good, and the earthworms may not be happy about the churn, but there's lots of them.

Over in the corner (that little 8 x 4 bit), I was able to get up quite a mess of hard dirt and weed and mulch it over. I'm not quite sure how I want to rehabilitate that patch, because I need to be able to walk (and drag a wheelbarrow and lawn mower) over it, but I figure leaving it covered for a year or so won't hurt it, and it gives me time to think about my options.

The big section is where I want to put in raised beds for a garden. I'd also like to put in a nice avocado tree.

Now that the ground is mostly prepared, I need to figure out what I'm using to build the beds. I'd been thinking cedar or redwood (2" x 12" x 8' boards, to make 8' x 4' x 2' high boxes), but now I'm considering interlocking concrete blocks of some sort. I'm planning to make up my mind next weekend, so that I can get started.

I'd really like to grow my own tomatoes (and carrots and broccoli, and maybe grapes) this year.

The strawberries are giving me encouragement. My one little plant has spread out to cover its whole patch of dirt, and both the parent and all of its offshoots are in bloom. Hopefully the return of winter weather won't hit them too hard.

Oh, Hey -- It's 2011

Hi there. Remember me?

I guess it's time to do one of those "2010 in review" posts, and fill in all of the things that I worked on, but didn't blog about.

• That raised bed from the front of the house that I was emptying out? I finished emptying it. I also knocked out the concrete blocks that had formed a short retaining wall for the bed. I am grateful for the existence of sledgehammers and wheelbarrows. (The transplanted bulbs survived, and are loving my back yard.)
• The gate on the west side of my house was warped, broken, and termite-riddled, with a decoration of peeling red paint (possibly 30+ years old). My dad and I took it out, and the new gate is straight, whole, and weatherproofed with a lovely honey-yellow stain.
• The section of fence facing the road on the east side of the house was missing a board, bowed, termite-riddled, and leaning. I hypothesize that the previous owner took that section of fence out temporarily while removing her jacuzzi, and didn't put it back quite right. (I also think the kids next door used the gap where the board was missing to squeeze in and retrieve balls they'd hit over the fence.) My dad and I took it out, and the new fence matches the gate on the other side (but taller).
• In the garage, I took out a section of shelving that was too narrow to be useful, and put in a wire shelving unit from Home Depot. It's worked so well that I'm planning to take out the plywood shelves on the west wall of the garage, and replace them with another shelving unit.
• I bought my very first Christmas tree this year. It turns out that I had a number of ornaments and decorations that I'd acquired over the years: just enough to fully trim the tree.
• I took out the unused track over the master bedroom closet (which hasn't had doors since I moved in), and my brother-in-law came over and helped me hang a new curtain rod. Having curtain doors on the closet is working very well.
• I bought a new bed, complete with a full frame and headboard, and moved my old mattress on to the frame in the guest bedroom, which is now ready for company.

In 2011, I hope to both do, and remember to write about, the following projects:

• Tear out the combination of weeds and crabgrass in the back yard, and put in raised beds and mulch.
• Start my very first garden in the raised beds.
• Start a compost pile. (I have a small compost pit at the moment, but I'd like to start composting more efficiently.)
• Put down paving stones where the raised bed used to be out front, and put potted plants over that.
• Tear out the other raised bed out front, and figure out how to fill in the exposed area. I might just plant grass, and extend the lawn a couple more feet.
• Choose a contractor, finalize a plan, and remodel the guest bathroom.

I'll stop there, because I actually have a very long list of projects, and I have to keep reminding myself that I can't do them all in one year.

Happy New Year, y'all.