We collected pounds (!) of tomatoes from the garden today. Tonight: making spaghetti sauce
Tomorrow: eating spaghetti sauce, with spaghetti. MmmmMMMMmmmm!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
New house & gardening
We went over to the new house this weekend to do some yardwork and see what all we would want to do. There is a LOT of work to be done. We all came home and made lists of what we want to do - just to start. *sigh* I do love projects but this is a ton. First there is a lot, no that doesn't begin to describe it - there is a massive amount of english ivy there. It's growing up and over the back fence and garden shed and must be pulled down before it pulls down the shed. There's Ivy all over the front rockery climbing the trees and pulling the front fence down too. We pulled part of it from the front just by the entry stairs, it's a lot of work. The property is much larger than our current property and has a lot of mature plants onsite including an apple and pear tree! I'm excited about that and with the addition of our plum and peach tree we'll have a small orchard going! There are also a few raspberry bushes so we'll have those and our blueberries.
Then there's building the new chicken coop. We've decided to make it a few feet longer and wider since we plan to add 2 ducks and a few more chickens (2 I think) and we picked a space for it. It will be perfect, right next to the garden and on the opposite side of the house from the BBQ and patio area except there's a full grown juniper there right now...actually 4 of them. *rolls eyes* Fortunately they have grown sideways so you can actually walk behind them and cut them down - we'll need to remove 1 completely to make space for the run and we may end up moving them all so we can put the fruit trees there. I'm so very thankful that we can get a chain 'saw and wood chipper from the tool library!!! The mulch will come in quite handy.
Once some major pruning is done, the chicken run is built and the ivy is under control (work party, anyone?!?) we should be able to do some fun things! Jen thinks a rosemary hedge would be nice on top of the rockery and I LOVE this idea! Also, I'm hoping to cover the front of the rock wall with some sedums, Iberis and stonecrop. It should be really beautiful. We would also like to make the raised beds taller and are considering using cement blocks but most likely we'll end up using the burlap since that will be free. There are also some overgrown concord grapes that we would like to build a larger trellis for or perhaps an arbor!
There's lots of list making and planning going on right now, I guess I'm glad to have fall quarter off from school since there will be so much to do...I'm hoping to get some help from classmates though for some of the pruning and perhaps even some plant ID...
We'll going to try to post before and after pictures but things are busy right now so we'll likely be behind. :)
Then there's building the new chicken coop. We've decided to make it a few feet longer and wider since we plan to add 2 ducks and a few more chickens (2 I think) and we picked a space for it. It will be perfect, right next to the garden and on the opposite side of the house from the BBQ and patio area except there's a full grown juniper there right now...actually 4 of them. *rolls eyes* Fortunately they have grown sideways so you can actually walk behind them and cut them down - we'll need to remove 1 completely to make space for the run and we may end up moving them all so we can put the fruit trees there. I'm so very thankful that we can get a chain 'saw and wood chipper from the tool library!!! The mulch will come in quite handy.
Once some major pruning is done, the chicken run is built and the ivy is under control (work party, anyone?!?) we should be able to do some fun things! Jen thinks a rosemary hedge would be nice on top of the rockery and I LOVE this idea! Also, I'm hoping to cover the front of the rock wall with some sedums, Iberis and stonecrop. It should be really beautiful. We would also like to make the raised beds taller and are considering using cement blocks but most likely we'll end up using the burlap since that will be free. There are also some overgrown concord grapes that we would like to build a larger trellis for or perhaps an arbor!
There's lots of list making and planning going on right now, I guess I'm glad to have fall quarter off from school since there will be so much to do...I'm hoping to get some help from classmates though for some of the pruning and perhaps even some plant ID...
We'll going to try to post before and after pictures but things are busy right now so we'll likely be behind. :)
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