I have turned the corner and am making progress on the 4th side. A nice realization, but one that is tempered with frustration. This is the north side...so even though the paint is thick and looks really bad, it's much harder to get OFF. I spent 6 hours on this side yesterday...and a good third or so of what you see done had been done a week or so ago. It takes a damn long time!
The third side looks great. I got some trim painting done yesterday, and was able to put the dog fencing back and dismantle the ladders that made my scaffolding. Now I don't have to worry about the dogs getting out...we had a couple of quick escapes last week, and with Edgar being the bad dog that he is, that could have been disastrous. In fact, since I am intruding on their space so much, I rearranged the fencing so that they now have the whole yard back again. Elliot gets weird when things change about his "bathroom" space, and we had a few incidents of inappropriate use of house space if you know what I mean. SO this should make him feel better about going outdoors. Besides, the whole damn yard is crabgrass now so what the heck.
The gardens were happy this year. I do need to move more things around, though. It's amazing how tall some things get!!! I have to assume that's their normal height, I mean, why should my flowers be any bigger than usual? The bee balm is out of control, and spreads like mad. The perennial mix was great, but when it comes time to break down the gardens for the fall, how am I going to know what is what? There are annuals mixed in with the perennials...it's a huge messy mix.
The veggie garden was a good experiment. A few things that went wrong that will need to be corrected: One, the aisles between the rows are about 2 inches shy of letting my mower thru. Grrrrr. Two, things get bigger and taller than you think they will. PLAN BETTER next time. Three, plant less and plant only what you will really eat. Out of the gazillion radishes, I ate ONE. Lettuce? One salad benefited from it. Broccoli? I was away when it peaked and then it flowered. Four, plant more peas at a variety of time intervals and make their fencing taller. Five, consider taking more branches off of the surrounding trees. Not quite as much sun hits it as I anticipated would.
The flower beds at the front edge of the house will need to be completely cleaned up for fall from all the weeds. Pick thru it to find the perennials, and move them. Then sift out all the paint chips and plant them next year. It will be too much prep work to get anything into them this year, I have got to finish the house first.
I added in this photo afterwards, it's the same shot as the one above it but AFTER I spent many hours cleaning out the weeds, moving the perennials, and sifting out the paint chips. 
The front garden bed was thick with weeds. I made a start at cleaning it up yesterday.
3 comments:
Invisible Dog Fences have evolved over the past 25 years. The expensive and somewhat ugly chain link dog fences have fallen by the wayside in favor of the new electronic dog fences, which use invisible radio waves. Dogs have a habit of jumping over or digging under chain link dog fences or other solid barrier dog fences. An Invisible Fence is a good idea if you want to keep your dog safe. A wireless dog fence is great because you never have to worry about fixing broken wires. A Wireless Pet Fence is a good option for pet containment.
Ummmm...thanks, but did you LOOK at the photos? I have nice wood fencing, not chain link. Also, you do not know my dogs. One of them is extremely dog aggressive, and the day a roaming dog crosses INTO their area will be a bad day indeed. you must be a fencing salesman...
Hi Erika, love seeing someone else doing raised bed gardening - it's something we really want to do next year. Maybe we can chat more about it!
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