The lawn guys came yesterday, and I was able to get a few (literally) clippings in my bin. I knew I wouldn't have a lot, but when I went to take a look at what they dumped, I guffawed at my "reward." Oh boy... I better get creative, or move on to
vermicomposting the kitchen scraps I've been saving.
During my walk yesterday I noticed the city lawn service collecting the park's lawn clippings in a truck. I may stop by next week with an empty container or two and ask if I can take a load. I'm sure they put them back into keeping up the city's parks, but maybe they'll see giving me some clippings as less work they have to do for the day, hehe. I don't know my neighbors well/yet, but maybe a good introduction could be interrupting them while they're all sweaty from mowing their lawn to ask for their clippings... I have visions of a steamy bin and want to stick with this project. Cross your fingers for me!
I think this section of the yard will be my next project. It's a 24'x2' section running along the deck, and as you can see, the CA poppies are about done and looking pretty gnarly. Also in the bed are random weeds, a stump, and ugly black wood chips.
It'd be nice to remove what is there now, and make a raised bed. I'm thinking of 4-5 sections, and the two below the bars for the canopy on the deck containing a few vine vegetables. Perhaps sweet potatoes in the summer, peas in the fall. The vines would look nice growing up the canopy bars. The other sections would either be filled with bulbs/wildflowers, strawberries, or more vegetables... I'm hesitant to have food growing there because of the boys playing in the yard. I'd be ok if flowers were accidentally broken, but probably more upset if food crops were hurt by flying balls, falling bodies, or a curious toddler.
This is another project area on the right side of the lawn that I have planned for the spring of 2010. This is the spot where I want to put a 4'x'4 bed of strawberries. I think it'll end up being a little bigger than 4'x4' because I want to have the strawberries bordered by herbs and flowers. After my first experience I previously mentioned with strawberries not being pollinated, I want to encourage as many beneficial bugs as possible to visit this bed.
The two issues I foresee with this spot are the shade to sun ratio (haven't payed a ton of attention to yet), and the tree that shades the spot. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but it's in the neighbor's yard, and in the spring, it drops a *TON* of pollen and fuzzy seed pods in that spot. We're already planning on cutting it back this fall (don't want to kill the neighbor's tree by pruning at the wrong time, ya' know?) so hopefully that will help the pollen count.
I thought I'd share a few pictures of our orange tree today. The orange oranges are actually from last November's blooms. I pulled a few off over the past few weeks, and although they're very sweet (or so DH and Boy Wonder tell me--I don't like them), the insides of them are about halfway hard or containing just pulp now. The green oranges are also from November's blooming, but they didn't start growing until around February I think. The small babies in the third pic are from blooms we had two weeks ago.
I need to do some
reading and asking about how to care for the orange bush/tree, but it's not one of my top priorites right now. Probably because I don't much like the fruit.
I spotted this grasshopper chillin' on my containerized Yolo Bell peppers. He's the biggest I've seen so far so I scared him off. The little babies I've spotted have been squished (sorry guys), but he would've been a little too gooey between my fingers. blegh.
I also spotted this caterpillar (you'll need to click the pic to see) on the underside of a bush bean leaf. I think he along with the growing number of white flies, are the ones making holes in my leaves. He's gone now too, but I didn't squish him with my fingers like I do the other little pests I see... Plucked him off with tweezers.
I am finally seeing some little bees on my snapdragons. I haven't seen any buzzing close to the house before, so it's nice having them visit. The window box overlaps one of the kitchen windows, so I can get nice and close without scaring them (or myself) off.
Laslty,
a quote I like to remind myself:
"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -Janet Kilburn Phillips
AFTER:
The LO did a good job hanging out with me and not getting in the way too much. He enjoyed getting the rocks I dug up, and putting them in his bucket. He must've tasted a few, and been rolling around in the dirt when Momma wasn't looking, because he had it everywhere. In the creases of his neck, arms, a nice dirt 'stache around his lips... Oh, and somehow, even with pants on, that boy managed to get dirt in his diaper! ROFL. *sigh* At least he let me get some work done, and he enjoys baths.
As we were heading back inside, I noticed my Meyer is missing 2 of it's 3 lemon babies, but the last one has turned yellow. Now grow, grow GROW lil lemon!
