Alpine Madness

 I've been saying for a few years now that I'd love to try my hand at an alpine garden, and today...well, today there's no turning back!  My super awesome neighbor came over with his tractor and dug out a depression in the back yard, then set rocks in it.  And so begins the alpine madness...

 I'm sure it just looks like a bunch of rocks, but I can see it filled in and full of amazing alpine plants.  I have a stockpile of smaller stones that can fill in the gaps, then over that I'll need to add gravel - drainage is key.  Then a mix of sand, sharp pea stone, and soil will top that off.  

I love some of the stones he placed deliberately - the square stone that I can put a bird bath or statuary on.  

 

The cubby area that...hmmmmm...I wonder if I could finagle a water feature in there?

The triangular and flat topped stones that can be used as seats along the garden's edge.

 I probably won't get the garden planted this year, save for the little blue spruce tree I've been hanging on to for a few seasons, but I am so excited to spend the winter researching the perfect plants for my new rock garden!

Autumnal Musings

 We're finally into autumn, and not a moment too soon.  As much as I love the gardens and new projects every year, summer has turned into something I just need to get through.  The heat, the droughts, the unbearable humidity levels...the older I get and the more our weather patterns change, the more I dislike being outside.  Luckily, the past few weeks have been beautiful, though dry save for one rainy day.  Sleep isn't so challenging and "hot" is upper 70sF.  

Taking stock of my efforts this season, I have some valuable lessons be mindful of next year.  

*Don't wait so long to plant cucumbers; waiting for the peas to die off takes too long.  Plant them in late June instead of late July or August.  I think I'll give up trying to grow them up the hay ring, and use homemade trellises like I used to.  The perennial sweet pea is probably better grown up the arch.

*Don't plant vegetables that need to be hilled up with ones that don't.  Trying to keep my leeks buried but not the carrots was a futile effort at best.  

*Get the sumac removed from the hillside as soon as possible in spring.  They shade out too much of the vegetable garden and result in poorer yields.  

*Amend, amend, amend!  The beds all need a good shot of compost.  Not adding manure to the cinder block bed is partially why my onions did so poorly.  Of course, lack of water didn't help.  

*Which brings me to water collection.  I really need to get that 275 gallon tote set up for next year, but with the amount of water we hauled in over the last few months, I'd go through that much in a week or less.  I think next year I'll try ollas in the raised beds, and maybe that will be a better watering method. 

*Finally...stop biting off more than you can possibly chew.  I need to concentrate on one project from start to finish, otherwise I end up with something like my track fencing that's still not done after how many years?  

There is still time to get a lot of my unfinished projects done.  I've already begun transplanting perennials - once again - out of the hillside garden beds and into the cottage garden and wildflower meadow.  My neighbor is going to try digging an area for the alpine garden, and moving large boulders into it.  I still have the forest garden area to clear, and the summer's manure pile to move to that area.  I don't have the luxury of boredom, thankfully.  And it really was a beautiful summer...

 

What is this water falling from the skies?

 RAIN!!!  Glorious, wonderful, beautiful rain!

After a quick round of thunderstorms last night, the clouds decided to have mercy upon us and have been releasing a steady, slow rain since the wee hours of the morning. I took advantage and planted the asters that were dug up to make room for the arbor earlier this summer.  Despite the already half inch or more of rain, only the very crust of the ground is damp; an inch below it is still dry as a bone.  Still, this will help some.  I split the Alma Potschke (vivid pink) and soft purple asters and dotted them throughout the wildflower meadow.  The shorter lilac colored asters have taken seat in the cottage gardens.  I was able to dig up some self seeded rose campions from the hillside beds and move them into the cottage gardens, as well. Before the day is over, I'll hopefully sow a few rows of carrots where the onions were, too.  Hope springs eternal and all that.

Speaking of hope...I was hoping I'd hauled the last of the mulch this weekend, but it looks like I'll need another truck load before I call it good.   I've got 98% of the bank covered at this point; all that's left is one little spot around the backside.

 The bulk of this load went toward a path I decided to make at the top of the bank, leaving space between what's left of the miscanthus grasses and the edge of the wildflower meadow.

 Not only does it give me enough room to access the meadow from the back, but it's wide enough for the wheelbarrow.  I honestly never intended to mulch quite this much, but I'm happy that I did.  I like the look of it, and it's a little bit of order among my ever growing chaos.  

 At the bottom of the slope I've decided to continue with my cinder blocks and caps to define the edges of the bank.  I should have enough block left to do that, but the block pile is most likely harboring - you guessed it! - more hornets.  I'll have to carefully pick away at that.  

In the meantime I can continue adjusting and fussing with the rope fence.  I've decided I really like it, and by next year the stakes will have begun to turn grey, matching the big fence and the arbor.  I'm also going to do the same type of rope fence along the raspberry patch, which has not been supported and is going in all different directions.  I did get some fruit this year, but the birds and wasps have eaten most of the berries before I could harvest.  I'll know better for next year!

In hydroponic news, my mesclun is growing like crazy.

 There's almost enough for one salad.  Next time I sow seeds, I should sow some in dirt and do a comparison of which grows faster.  Or maybe just eat what I have and move on.

The Backside of August

 It finally rained!  Not a lot, but it wasn't a gully washer thunder boomer that just ran off the packed, dry ground either.  It was an overcast day with multiple rounds of light but steady rain, and the gardens drank it up.  I wish I could say they're back to their former splendid glory, but that won't happen until next spring.  The brief dousing did, however, stave off a certain death for some.  

Not for all.

Somehow, a very large wood rat managed to drown in the mule's water bucket.   I have a photo and it's an impressively large rodent, but I'll spare your eyes.  

How about those hornets?  I found yet another nest in the back tube gate of the paddock and had to foil and tape those over.  Going out the back door the other day something caught my eye and I discovered a thriving nest in one of the outdoor electric receptacles.  

 It's so creepy when I open the door and they pour out onto the cover, then all turn to stare at me.  I can't get those covers open quickly enough to spray into them, and I'm not sure that's the wisest idea seeing as there's electric components involved.  I've taken to going out through the garage during the daylight hours for the time being.  My mother discovered a massive yellowjacket nest in one of her gardens, as well. Drought years are the worst for ground nesters - they seem to congregate toward the houses.  I won't mow or cut back brush until autumn this year because I'm deathly afraid of hitting a nest.

We continue to haul in water for the gardens despite that rain.  It wasn't enough to sustain anything for more than a day or so, unfortunately.  And it didn't do much for the well.  We're still only showering when necessary, limiting laundry, and I'm recycling grey water for my houseplants.  I'm not really digging my baby wipe "baths", but it is what it is.  

I was hoping to spend the holiday weekend finishing the bank mulching project, but the landscape company closed for the long weekend.  Can't say as I blame them - we all need a bit of R&R now and again.  So what's a gal to do if she can't shovel yards of mulch?  Well, I started a new small fence project in the wildflower meadow.  Some of the plants have encroached on the path and are covered with stinging pollinators.  I'm happy to provide them sustenance, but not so happy to get them riled up as I try to brush past them, knocking into plants and forcing them to drop off.  At this time of the year, even the docile bumblebees are getting testy.  I wanted something tall enough to hold some of the goldenrods back, but not so busy that it would block the view of the garden.  I thought about doing a grade stake fence as I had in the past, but then saw a rope fence, and decided that's what I'd try.  I'm learning some fancy knotwork from a YouTube video and this is just the first pass.  I'll need to do minor adjustments all the way around, but so far, I think I like it.  I may replace the grade stakes with sapling stakes next year.

 I'd love to say I'll have this done in a day, but again...bees.  So. Many. Bees!  Trying to work around thousands of bees, hoverflies, wasps, and the occasional angry hummingbird is exhausting.  I've been picking away at it during the cool hours of the morning or evening.

Since I'm not going to plant fall crops, I decided to take advantage of a sale on Amazon and purchased a tabletop hydroponic system.  I've been fascinated by this method of growing, and thought this would be a great way to grow some greens and get to know these systems. 

My unit arrived on the 22nd and I set it up on the 24th.   This system has 16 planting holes and holds 7 liters of water.  There's a small pump in the reservoir that cycles on periodically, and it comes with little removable plastic domes to increase humidity for germination.  One of the reasons I bought this particular model is that not only does it have the grow lights above the planting holes, but also below the reservoir, in a space you can use to start other seeds.  I think this will come in handy when I'm starting my flower seeds this spring.

I planted mesclun mix seeds into the conical sponges that slide into removable holders that keep them sitting in the water.  I was amazed to find the seeds had all sprouted within two days, and one week later I have some healthy seedlings chugging along.

 I'm supposed to pull all but one seedling from each grow cone, but since these are leafy greens I'm going to leave them and see what happens.  I did purchase some other seeds that are supposed to be ideal for hydroponic grow systems; dwarf tomatoes, peppers, and more greens like lettuce and kale.  I may be addicted to this already...