Pool and strawberries

 Still alive.  

Two, no....3 Years later....

 Well,  lets see if i still know how to do this.   

So,  its been 2 years and a lot of changes.

A divorce which was best for both of us.

I was away for about a year...

Covid happened and is still continuing.

The Molly-dog passed away. She got a cancerous tumor in her jaw and had to be put down. I did get to arrange a visit with her before that but it was still hard.

I got back home around August last year and spent a lot of time rearranging things and clearing out the house.  I didn't have a lot of time or resources to spend on the yard that year.  I spent the winter rekindling my fish tank hobby and learning about gourmet mushroom growing.  Crocheting too of course.  

The grapes really needed to be gotten under control.  That was my first major outdoor task that needed doing in late winter.  Luckily it was a less snowy winter than previous ones-  which was mainly why it had not been done the year before i left.

I removed a lot of material.  I may have over done it but these guys really needed a clean sweep.

See how bad it was-  and i was about halfway through at this point. 

Spring arrived and i about went mad with the things i wanted to do and trying to arrange how i'd get them done.

I wanted to move the pool.  This is at least its third season and its one of those fairly inexpensive (at the time) Intex ones that aren't expected to last for very many years.  My first winter alone taught me that the spot where it was placed-  too close to the driveway-  is a bad spot when you need to snowblow said driveway. It really should have been centered more in the middle of the yard...

That was when it occurred to me that i should see into having the whole land use rearranged.  Move the garden,  move the shed, move the pool, widen the driveway so its two parallel spots instead of the long single-file thing that has made me crazy for years,  finally have that blasted tree (overgrown cedar shrub) cut down... and deal with the fence.

I wanted the garden where the pool is,  the pool sort of where the shed is and the shed in the back left corner the way i had wanted it for years.

Rough sketch:

So far the shed has been moved,  the rest is waiting on time and circumstance.

My dad masterminded the moving of the shed.  It was a pretty cool operation.  We used huge PVC tubes as rollers and my dad used his tractor to portage that sucker across the back yard and spun it half way around so it faced the right side of the yard instead of straight ahead.  We jacked it and put the concrete blocks under it and shimmed it level.  It was pretty cool.  I would have been happy with it just moving sideways but dad decided it would be better turned to the current direction and would give me more room in the end.  It took some pretty careful work and finesse,  it was like landing a space shuttle on a dime using rocks and sticks.

Of course before we could move it,  i had to clear it out. Around 18 years of stuff had to be moved and sorted and either tossed or organized.  You know how sheds just kinda get all the odds and ends?  Like a basement or attic.  Yeah.  It took me at least 8 hours to drag all of it out to the driveway, sort it, clean the shelves and storage containers of dust and debris.  The actual moving of the shed took less than 2 hours and then it was back to refilling the shed. Much less went back in than came out but it was still one exhausting day.  My Pokemon Go game indicated that i had walked something over 12km-  almost 8 miles and its usually on the low end of crediting me with movement.  I had help refilling the shed so it didn't take as long but i was totally beat by the end of that day.

I wish i had taken pictures of it being done but we were too busy doing it.  Yo can see the sandy squareish patch where it used to be.  The cedar tree behind the Dogloo is the one needing to be dropped.  The blue tarp contraption is a PupTent that i put together for my oldest daughter's new dog. Moving the shed took the shade away and putting the dog on a zip line instead of a ground stake gave her more room to run, but we had to limit her ability to reach certain areas differently.  Its an eyesore but it is a functional temporary solution if she wats to be out when it's hot-  it is shady in there mid-day. And she has her own pool too.

So,  that's where the shed is now.  I still have a lot of yard arranging to do and want to build a lean-too on the side as well so i can store bulky things that don't need to be closed in.

The garden used to be in the foreground.  I decided not to "big garden" there this year because that's where we are going to drop the tree. I have two temporary raised beds to play with instead of fighting to do everything this year.

I wanted to buy a new pool and set it up in the sandy area but there's a pool shortage or something. You can't buy direct,  the prices are jacked and Amazon isn't what it used to be.  Still gotta drop that tree anyway.  So we may try to move the current pool at the end of the season or wait and see what happens to prices and availability next spring.  But i won't be snow blowing around that pool in that spot this winter.

To deal with the driveway i had to move my dwarf Asian Pears and pull a fence post.  Winter wind had knocked down two panels on the front fence so i carried those away, dug up the broken 4x4 post, pulled the end 4x4 post and replaced the broken one with that one. Then i stapled 6' black vinyl coated wire fencing to the posts, used spare pickets to cover the staples and make it more stable and planted 3 types of hops to grow along the wire for some road privacy.  Crystal, Cascade and Magnum.

I moved the Asian Pears to where the Elderberries are/were.  The Elderberries are weird.  They are brittle in some places and ultra sturdy in others.  They just get messy looking and since the wild birds discovered them, i haven't gotten a berry in years. So,  out they go,  sort of.  I dug one up and it was crazy how deep those tap roots go. The other i'm just going to keep cutting back until it gives up. Digging is something i have done enough of for now.

Just for fun,  i planted a mini Hubbard Squash plant up by the front door.  I got a Dr.Ruppel  Clematis on discount that i hope recovers.  It was pretty badly broken.  I'm thinking the Hubbard leaves will give some shade while the Clematis works on gearing up.

You know,  i think i planted these blueberries about 10 years ago.   They're supposed to top out at 4' tall....  Its taking them forever.

I had to garden in something this year and i never liked 5 gallon buckets.  Last year i found these clever little bricks and saved up enough money to buy enough 2x6x8" pressure treated lumber to line the beds and build two of these raised beds.  Next year if i am able to garden directly in the ground i can use the bricks and lumber to make the beds on the other side of the house match and the almost 130 cubic feet of soil will enrich the veggie garden itself.

I built this up then lined the boards inside with black plastic.  I read up on it and modern pressure treated lumber is considered safe to use in food gardening but it is recommended to put a barrier between it and the soil.  It also keeps moisture and dirt in so its not a bad idea anyway.  I put down a few layers of cardboard to smother the grass.  An excellent use for all those boxes from all the online purchasing we did when covid was at its height.

Pegged down the bricks and filled.  I used StaGreen soil in the 2 cu ft bags,  they were on sale at the time and cost less than half the price in volume than if i had gotten the 4 cu ft bags. (If i worded that right) They were much easier to handle too.  I already bought 7 of the 4 cu ft bags earlier in the Spring but it still took me 2 trips buying 28 2 cu ft each time to fill both beds.  I got it just in time for the last 2 days of the sale. I loaded and unloaded it all myself.   From the store pallet to the flat cart,  from the cart to the van, from the van to the side of the beds and then tipped up,  cut and poured in.  It was another exhausting day.

The next day,  i put the pvc in for the Remay and planted undercover as the very late seedlings started to emerge.

I had thought to not bother with a garden at first this year.  With so much to do,  i didn't want to make too much work for myself,  but later i decided i could do at least this and it would make me happy.   So the seedlings were late and the puppy ended up stepping on one of my flats.  I planted eggplants, peppers and some flowers in peat pellets.  I used some very old seeds just to finish them off. I wrote what was planted in each row of pellets in my notebook but with the pellets getting mixed up and some mashed i had to guess...  and then i lost my notebook. 👀 So one bed has a mix of mangangi,  ancho/poblano, King of the North, Biquinho , and maybe purple marconi peppers,  and Meatball, Shooting Stars, Aswad and maybe Mitoyo eggplants in it.   If i ever find my notebook,  i'll have a better list but still no guarantee on what is what until i get fruits.

I'll get more pictures and update later.  i have lots to catch up on.

Hardly a garden.

It has not been a great year so far. The weather has been amazing but I've been so busy.
All I started for seeds were some ancho peppers, mangangi sweet peppers, some king of the north bell peppers and some mitoyo and shooting stars eggplants.
Of course I did manage to get the tomatoes started too. But I was really bad at labeling so I only think I planted chocolate miracle, and sugar white of some sort. I am certain of the Cherokee purple, pruden's purple and black krim.

I bought some cucumber and squash plants from the Bonnie Plant offerings locally.

I finally got them planted and watched my peppers and eggplants begin to disappear one at a time. I thought maybe transplant shock on some. ( Late planting and quick onset of Summer heat - it made sense) Some of the unplanted cucumbers got destroyed because I also bought catnip and foolishly left the pots together in an unsecure location in the yard where the local cats found it and rolled around in it, snapping the cucumber stems below the seed leaves.
So watching the veggies continue to disappear or flop over, I thought maybe cutworms.  I went back to the Bonnie sale and got two very stout black beauty eggplants that were already 4 times the size of my own and installed them.
Within 48 hours one disappeared entirely and the other was lying about 4 feet from its spot with a roughly snapped or twisted off stem.  It was a fairly fresh break and the soil was well soaked so I tucked it back in its spot thinking it just might root itself back. Nothing to lose at that point.
The next day the plant was simply gone and so was one of the two zucchini plants I had just put in.
Went back to Bonnie and restocked.
After work last night I noticed the second zucchini was snapped off and gone.
I was glad I bought extra then. Plus,  more cucumbers.

So, today I have it all replanted and if more plants disappear,  I think I'll simply throw in some random seeds and let the thing go. Maybe do some green manure.

It's so strange.  I did put in beans and radishes in one corner and nothing has bothered them at all.
It is fenced in again this year,  which took forever to accomplish but I won't plant anything until that is done because of all the woodchuck trouble I've had.
I don't quite know if the assassin is coming from above or below.
We do have some gray catbirds this year . Normally I see one here and there but I think 2 pairs might be here now. They got into my strawberries but I wasn't too bothered because that patch needs redoing anyway.  They've enjoyed the cherries, gojis and probably a few blueberries but I don't know what they would want with my pepper and eggplants.
We might have rodents, because when I pulled the 2 year old plastic off this spring the soil around where the Jerusalem artichokes are was tunneled all over and not many JA's ever came up at all.  It was a very thick patch that needed thinning but now there might be 15 plants growing. If that.
Even then,  I have not noticed further evidence of mouse, vole or mole activity.

Every year there's something.

So long Stanley.

Seven years of failing. Black knot, aphids, mold from aphid pee and other assorted associated trouble. Hardly any edible fruit to speak of. I think we got a few the first year, it was very good so I tried just about everything I could to limp this tree along but it is too susceptible and was a losing battle.
I can hear Bea Arthur's voice as Dorothy

 saying good bye to Stanley.

In Stanley's place is a Bonfire peach.  Fruit quality varies by opinion.  I bought it last year at a pretty good discount and it had a rough winter because it was left in the pot  and we had a very cold winter.  Much of the top died off but since I got the plum tree cut down and dug up I had a place to put it finally.
It should recover well.  We've had some warm weather and a good amount of rain this Spring.

This is Bonfire about midsummer last year.

This is also my first attempt at getting into my blog and posting since I finally figured out the email and blog account issue. I have to learn more about formatting through the phone.