Project #3 complete, on to Project # 4

 The privacy fence portion of my yard fencing is done!  I managed to create a pretty sad gate out of one fence panel, which I cut in half.

I started adding a few personalized touches here and there, like solar string lights and the lettering I've been collecting for a few years.  I also managed to get some blocks under the soaking tub and level it out.

 

 I had my tractor guy here to work on a few items, one of which was covering the protective bottom mesh on the back of the fence with soil and rocks to keep naughty kitties from digging under and naughtier wildlife from digging into the yard.  I used four foot tall plastic coated welded wire fence as the barrier material, which is fixed to the fence with heavy duty electrical staples, and lays out across the ground about three feet.

I'm still trying to decide where to place the lower gravel patio.  Until I figure that out and get the materials delivered, I can't put up my net cat fence.  In the meantime, I'm working on my pond and bog garden, AKA Project # 4. 

I laid an old rubber-backed area rug in the pond hole to protect the liner from sharp rocks (should have filled it with sand, but I'd rather use what I have on hand), then set a few key stones around the perimeter to hold the liner in place. For the bog garden I had my tractor guy scrape out about 8" of ground, then put a black plastic liner down.  I punctured it in the very middle to allow for some drainage, then put some of the soil back.  

 The next day I put a few bags of play sand in the bottom of the pond liner to weigh it down, then added some river rock and a few larger stones for the bottom to add structure for anything that might want to live there.  In the bog garden I mixed garden soil with humus and compost into the native soil.  I'm going to need a bit more of this material to finish the area.

 I rushed to get this part done, because the weather reports are calling for nearly two days of rain.  This morning, I was elated to find the pond half full.  The cloudiness should resolve on its own after a few days when everything settles.

Rainwater is supposed to be better for the pond than hose water, and with our well still being dangerously low I can't add any water.  I'm holding my breath hoping there are no pin holes in the membrane from my walking on it to spread materials.  I really can't wait to put water plants in it next year! 

While I had my tractor guy here, I had him pick away at the rock wall along the driveway.  He removed quite a bit of stone and shaped the bank.  He's also my plow guy, so opening up this area makes moving snow much easier for him.  The goal is to shift the retaining wall diagonally towards the old barn.

I had him move the boulders to the other side of the driveway, to create a more defined parking area.  At some point I may bring in more road pack to make the parking area less grassy, but for now the rocks are just a marker for how far into the pasture he can push snow.  We'll pick away at more of it next year. 

The hyacinth bean vines I planted inside the bird cage had a massive growth spurt the last few weeks.

The new plants I put in around it are all doing fantastic.  Mom and I went to the last sale of the season at a local native plant grower's and I picked up more cat safe, shallow rooted plants to add here and there.  I've decided to plant perennials along the privacy fence to hide the uneven bottoms.  I'm still trying to decide where to plant my magnolia tree, yellow twig dogwood, and witch hazel.  I have an ever-evolving end design in mind for the lower level of the yard, but much of it hinges on where the second patio ends up.  I'm also second guessing the bank, which I was planning to leave as is with grasses, weeds, and wildflowers.  Now I'm envisioning a bank of tall ornamental grasses that will sway in the wind...clearly I watch too many gardening shows on tv.  

                                             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Later that day...

One rock is completely submerged - c'mon, RAIN!  Fill that hole! 😁

                                          ***********************************

Update, 48 hrs. later...

Not quite full but daaaang, that's a lot of water! 

Project #3 - Stones...why did it have to be stones?

 Well, the fence is up.  No, it isn't perfect.  Yes, I had a helluva time digging holes for the posts, which is why 1.) the posts aren't all at the same depth, and 2.) I ended up having to stagger the panels.

Everywhere I dug I seemed to hit massive boulders underground, despite the recent excavation of most of this area.  Also, the land slopes down away from the house, which would mean with this type of fencing my last panel would have been about three feet from the ground to the bottom of the panel.  I'll never use this doweled fence again, that's for sure.  Perfect for flat ground, not for this piece of property!

I ended up trying to stagger the panels to eliminate the bottom gaps by screwing them into the posts with decking screws on both ends for the first staggered panel, then for the next panel I screwed one end to the post and the other side I managed to set the dowels into the holes in the post.  I was going to do the same for the last panel, but it ended up being perfectly in line with the other post, so both ends have the dowels in the holes.  I'll have to do some creative cutting to block the open areas near the posts, but I think a few single pickets might work.  I need to cut a panel to make a gate, so I'm going to try pulling some pickets from the leftover portion to do that.

While it looks a bit messy from the back, if you look at it straight on, it's not so bad.  That one post that sticks up too high irritates me, but it's sitting on a bit of ledge.  I could have cut the post, but I honestly didn't have it in me to haul the tools out to do it at that point.  Sometimes you just have to say good enough and move on.

Not too bad for a 53 year old overweight ex-smoker.  My suggestion - if you're going to do fence, have someone there to help.  I needed Mother to hold posts and panels a few times, and by the end of the process I could barely move the panels into place alone.  It's these kinds of projects that keep my chiropractors and acupuncturist busy. 

I could have added one more panel, but I would have had to really stagger that one, so I opted to end where I did.  I've calculated the cost of the dog fence I was hoping to have installed but it's well out of my financial reach, so I'm cooking up some alternative ways to build my netted cat fence.  Today I'll mark out where I want the boundary to be and estimate my material list, and hopefully get the gate made and hung.  After that I'll need to affix some metal fence at the bottom of the panels and back-fill it with soil and large rocks to ensure cats don't squeeze under and escape, and to prevent outside creatures from digging under the fence.

Next up after this?  My pond awaits.

Saturday Musings Part II

New plan of attack to keep the cats out of the vegetable beds - this better work.

 

And I don't know what's going on with the little pond.  Either I've put a hole in the liner, or the water is evaporating because I don't have floating plants in there yet.  At any rate, it's nearly empty, and I've refilled it twice.  I won't give up on it until I've put the floaters in and see if that makes a difference.  I have a few more weeks before it'll be warm enough for that, so it's a hurry up and wait situation.

Updates

Two updates.

1. The fence laid down over the garden doesn't keep one of the cats from using it as a toilet, she just does her thing and walks away without attempting to bury it.  Clearly this is one feline who has zero effs to give.

2. After two days, the solar fountain stopped working.  The company is sending a replacement fountain, so we'll see how the next unit fares.

Prepwork and Scheming

The spring cleaning and prep-work for the gardens continues.  More raking, and more musing as to where I'm going to put what.  I want to move things around a little this year as far as vegetables in the container gardens, but the late spring and weather conditions put me behind a little.  I suddenly realized that I still hadn't planted my peas, and May was upon us!  Peas like cool weather and I usually plant them as soon as the pots are cleared of snow in April.  In a panic, I planted them in the same containers the other day just to get them in the ground.  So much for shaking it up.

The little bed where I normally plant tomatoes is going to be dedicated to bush beans and radish.  Unfortunately this bed attracts the cats, even though I've built them an outdoor litter box.  Maybe it's because they're confined to a small yard, but I've found nothing yet that will deter them from using my gardens as toilets.  Last year I tried hundreds of plastic forks planted in the dirt around my plants, and the cats just dug them up and made room to do their business.  I've seen plastic mats with spikes on them that you can cut to size for your garden, but I would rather use something I have on hand.  For the half moon garden I'm trying laying down short wire decorative fence.

I figure it should leave openings enough to deter digging but allow plants to grow.  Time will tell.  As it is, I had to dig the top layer of soil off and replace it with fresh dirt.  It didn't go to waste, though.  I'm trying some hugelkultur gardening!

Hugelkultur (translation - hill culture) is a type of gardening that involves mounding materials to form a hill shape, and planting into that.  Generally you start with logs and/or branches, then layer materials like leaves, sod, and compost over that, and finish with soil.  The idea behind this type of gardening is that you're putting the power of compost to work over a greater period of time.  The logs and branches take a longer time to break down and tend to hold moisture, making watering sometimes unnecessary unless there's a drought.  The rest of the materials provide nutrients as they break down, as well as heat that's created during that decaying process.

Over the winter I had a bunch of pine branches come down on the mule shed, so instead of hauling them to the burn pile, I piled them up where they sat.  I added some leaves I had raked off the back yard, then tossed on some mulch hay that I had used as insulation against the house foundation, and tossed the nasty garden soil into the mix.  Once Reputa the Beauta (my trusty garden tractor) is out of her winter storage mode, I'll haul down some composted mule manure to add to the pile.  Then a layer of dirt, and finally...I don't know yet.  Again, what to plant where?  Should I try veggies?  Flowers?  I've seen hugelkultur gardens with a mix of things, so maybe that's a possibility.  We'll see!  I still have a long way to go prepping and protecting before I start planting.

To protect the new raised bed, I'm thinking of using some old fencing I made from grade stakes.  I'm hoping laying them down across the soil will deter the cats.  I'm thinking the tomatoes will go in this garden.

 

It's been heartening to see the daffodils popping up around the property, and everything is greening up nicely.

The black flies are out en force, unfortunately.  I've put the bug curtains on the mule shed and they don't come out of there until the dark of night, when the black flies disappear.  They are so thick right now that any outdoor chores are miserable.

One non-gardening chore that needed doing was having the septic pumped, so I dug up the tank cover before the septic company came.  The cats were immediately drawn to it, as it's cement and holds the heat of the sun and the heat generated from the tank itself.  They spent a good part of the evening writhing around on it.  Ew.

 

My goal for this weekend is to swap out my stock tank water garden for a more permanent water feature.  I've purchased some pond lining fabric to replace the plastic tank and a small solar fountain to provide aeration.  Depending on the size of the fabric, I may make the pond a little larger and deeper than the stock tank.  I'm excited to get started, and will document the upgrade in my next post.