Yard Work Never Ends

And that's just the front yard. Last year we made a bold move - put 3 raised beds in the middle of the lawn and set up a few veggie beds along the walkways.

This year we took it a step further. Or rather I did since Chris is on crunches and can only help with a few key tasks like pulling a few weeds and digging.So I've been busy with the front yard garden since we got back from NY.

I wish I could say I'm done, but that's simply not the case. Part of it has to do with budget limitations. Another reason is our car. You see, it's not so big. Its load capacity is 10 bags of mini bark nuggets. So it takes me a lot of trips to Lowe's to get everything we need. On the plus side, I get to make friends with cashiers there and they know us quite well.

The third reason is our yard. Our yard is pure clay. Which really wouldn't be all that bad. Except that it's pure clay mixed with A LOT of rocks of all sizes, from dime-sized to brick-sized. It's extremely depressing trying to dig holes for trees and bushes in this kind of soil. Fortunately, I have Chris who, even on crutches, can dig better holes in no time and stay perfectly calm (I

curse like a sailor after the first 100 rocks).

So here's what we've done so far:

• Planted a row of blueberry bushes along the driveway (and a few lingonberries in between)
• Lined up 3 existing beds in a nice grid and added the 4th bed (Chris built it last fall and all I had to do was to move it from the backyard and filling it with soil)
• Put yardscape fabric and mulch on the paths between and around the garden beds
• Put stepping stones between the blueberries and the garden beds
• Enlisted a neighbor who happened to have a rotary cultivator to till soil along the woodline
• Planted a strip of shade-loving perennials in the tilled soil (Chris dug up all the holes)
• Moved goji berry to the backyard and replaced it with a dwarf peach tree (again, Chris did the impossible and dug up a huge hole for it through all the clay and rocks)
• Created a new pathway

Of course, now we have just a few more things to do

• Finish putting mulch in the paths around the beds
• Line up the outside edges of the mulched paths with logs (the cheapest, free really, option we can think of; plus it's very easy to install and remove)
• Plant herbs in the pots and set them in a nice sunny location (it's a challenge to find one in our front yard)
• Bribe the neighbor to come over again and till the rest of what needs to be tilled
• Plant the rest of the veggies (peppers, eggplants and tomatoes)

And a few odds and ends here and there. So tomorrow morning I'm getting up early to a) pick up a few logs at the neighbors who recently cut down a tree and b) to pick up 6 bags of compost and some tomato cages at Lowe's.

Back Online

Finally, my Toshiba is back online. Its original AC adapter gave up the ghost almost 2 months ago and I just got around to ordering a replacement. Well, ok, it's more complicated than that, but I don't want to bore you with the details. The main point is that once again we are a two-laptop family!

So, I'm trying to catch up on a lot of things, all while watching the Victory Day celebration live from Moscow thanks to RT On Air. I'm planning on staying up for the Victory Day Parade, but it's still more than an hour away (it'll start at 10am Moscow time which is 2am EST) and I'm not sure I'll stay awake that long.

Anyway, as promised, here are the highlights:

It's strawberry season here in the Piedmont! So last weekend our good friends - Kelli and her 2 little boys - went to pick strawberries with us. Or rather we went with them since Kelli drove us all in her new mini-van.

The kids picked strawberries, ate a bunch too, petted the goats, played on the playground and generally had a great time. Did I mention, there was a big red tractor there too?!

While we were busy enjoying the berries, Chris was hard at work demolishing the lower part of our deck. That's where we're going to build a cool little playground for M. That's one of our new 3 projects.

We, and this time it was all 3 of us, went to the grand opening of a new Art Museum. The museum is, as far as I understand, is pretty striking, with lots of very cutting-edge features and excellent collection of art (I'm not even pretending I understand much about art, but I did pick up a museum brochure and read it).

Of course, that was the day M. chose to stay in PJs all day. Well, what can you do with these 3 year olds, right! At least he changed out of his rubber boots that he wears around the garden.

And speaking of the garden, we started seeing some produce coming in. First - radishes (spicy, but not woody or bitter), lettuce (very tender) and that's about it for now. We planted lots of tomatoes, some cukes and squash and sweet peppers and also various herbs.

Tomatoes are doing very well. Some are supposed to get up to 9ft tall! Wow, we figured we better build some kind of support for them. And then we started building (it was the other one of our new 3 projects). Ok, by "we" in this one I mean Chris. He planned the whole thing and built it in 3 evenings. And let me tell you, it's probably the prettiest tomato support I've ever seen! My hubby has so many unexpected talents! I also planted some vining flowers and beans between tomato plants.

M. came down with a cold. Even though it only lasted a couple of days (not counting some lingering cough), he gave us quite a fright. As our pediatrician explained, there are fewer summer colds than winter ones, but the ones that are around are much more severe. Well, leave it up to M. to get aquainted with every little cold virus that happens to float his way! Hopefully this is the last one for a while though 'cause him being sick every 3 weeks is getting ridiculous.

And that's all, folks!

Last Month or So - Real Quick Recap - Part IV

We've also been busy with yard work and bread baking. Let me tell you, based on the results, our family should really stick to bread baking and leave the yard alone.

We are trying to prettify our front yard. Remember, we have a bunch of raised vegetable beds in it. Raised beds are things of beauty when there are lush veggies and flowers growing on them. Our spring crop of various lettuces and radishes, however, isn't doing so well. It mostly gets eaten by all sorts of nasty bugs. And whatever survives grows increadibly slowly. Our lettuces, the ones that were supposed to be ready for picking a week or so from now are still in their infancy. And don't even ask about radishes!

Anyway, in an attempt to bring some curb appeal to our otherwise weird-looking yard and in order to avoid being hated by neighbors we decided to plant a border of decorative bushes and perennials out front. Except, of course, that we are on a budget and so everything we bought was pretty tiny. So we planted a tiny lilac and 2 tiny gardenias and super-tiny goji berry and a few perennials that are supposed to grow big quickly, but are very unimpressive for now. Years from now it will all grow big and tall and will look just marvelous. In the mean time, it is completely hidden by the grass since smart gardeners that we are, we didn't remove the turf nor did we put down any kind of weed barrier.

Bread-baking is all done by Chris and M. Look at the pictures. It really shows not having me managing the process! I mean, the loaves turn out just so pretty and they are very tasty too. Take my word for it!

3 Projects Completed

Remember the three projects we started working on back on February 21st? Well, we're done with those:

1. Prepare the front yard for veggie garden
2. Decorate the living room
3. Organize M's arts and crafts collection from last year

Ok, the #3 was the easiest of all and took me just a couple of days. It would've taken even less than that, but I had to wait until M was in bed or else I wouldn't get anything done at all.

I wrote about project #1 - veggie garden - some time ago. Here's an update - not only did we prepare the veggie beds, but we planted some of them mostly with greens. The radishes and lettuces are sprouting already!

Now, decorating the living room is kind of a really big project. What I had in mind was to put some kind of art work on one of the walls that looked bare and also to get a side table of some sort.

The art work project was done and I now have a place to show off my (for now very small) collection of sea shells, pebbles and driftwood. As for the table, we didn't have the budget to buy one. I thought about getting an old (antique) wooden crate at the flea market and make it into a table. But luckily I didn't get around to it.

Instead, I got a different and a much better idea (from the Decorating Junk Market Style book). Basically, it's a tree log from the tree that was cut down back in February. My super-strong hubby hauled it inside and screwed in 4 casters that we just happened to have (we misplaced them months ago, found them recently when cleaning out the upstairs linen closet and were getting ready to stick them into the attic). I think the end result looks very nice and it's totally FREE.

Now we are ready to select new goals and start working on them. Will update you on those as soon as we get them on paper.