Making Progress

I'm hoping to get the garden mostly done this week. We don't have sunshine in the forecast very much longer.

I would love for it to be sprouting by the time Rob comes home.

This is what it looks like right now. The stones making the meandering edge were already here when we moved in. I just had to move them. I like the shape they make.

I was debating whether to put down plastic and get new dirt or to just pull up the grass and plant my flowers in the current dirt, and have to deal with more weeds. I generally have an issue with paying for dirt to put in a yard full of dirt. I think I'm going to do as much as possible with the current materials before I consider buying anything else. I've only spent about $30 so far.

I also want to smooth out the dirt underneath the large square stones. I want it to sit pretty evenly. right now the dirt underneath is so uneven that some of the stones wobble a little bit. I wear heels quite often, and I don't need extra obstacles when carrying a squirmy baby.

You can see I also miscounted how many of the small grey stones I needed. I think I need at 2 or 3 more, but if I want to continue the line up the side of the stoop, I may need as many as 8 more. I will measure instead of guessing this time, though.

I planted the first plants that I chose, today, too. 3 cannas rhizomes. They grow to be 4 feet tall with broad leaves and showy red and orange flowers. They're in the box in the corner, here.

As for the primroses you see waiting patiently on my stoop, they are probably going to be planted in the 6 corners created by the stepping stones. I have 12 plants, so that may work well, or I may put 1 plant in each and find some other way of using the others. They definitely need to go in the dirt that's already there because of how deep I'll need to plant them.

I'm daydreaming of a flowering bush for this corner over here. I think I put up the photo of the bush before. I just need to get up the nerve to order it.

Part of my procrastination was from the fact that my gutters were so full they were overflowing over the front and dumping right into where I would be planting. I climbed up the ladder the other day and cleaned them out, though. Now all I have to do is ask for a spout to keep the water from coming directly down the pipe and digging a hole in my garden. I should ask maintenance here if they have any. Of course, if I had some way of curving the spout away from the garden instead of draining into it, that would be ideal.

Gardening & Skim Stuff

I now have 13 facials completed. Only 87 more to go by March 31! I have 2 of them scheduled already, and I have about 7 new names, not to mention all of the people I know already who I haven't called yet.

I got a little done in the yard today. I realized that I have more driveway than I thought. I might get some edgers to keep the dirt from running back into the driveway again. I think the edge looks neater like this. I wonder if it will affect how the water puddles out there.

Before & After :











I'm also half considering collecting my grubs and earthworms and selling them down at the pier. It's almost baffling how many we have.



We also get banana slugs.


I found a bush in a gardening catalog that Sandi (my Mother in Law) sent me. I think this would look nice on the far side of our front window. It gets to be 4-6 feet high, 5 feet wide and is pest resistant. It's only $9.99.

Maybe I'll buy it with Mary Kay profits.

I kind of bummed myself out today. I splurged at the grocery store and picked up a box of cookies. Nilla Wafers so that Donovan could have one or two with me - and I got home and opened them up and found out that I bought the REDUCED FAT version. Dag-gummit!

Okay, fine, I figure, no biggie. It won't kill me to eat one box of reduced fat cookies. So I went for the milk, and found out I bought the SKIM variety.

I really must be more careful about reading what I'm buying. But since there seems to be a theme here, maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me something. I'm not eating badly, though. I eat potatoes and oatmeal and fruit and veggie pizza and - well, I did bring home a couple of cupcakes from yesterday's party - but it doesn't mean I need to be buying the fat-free stuff yet.

Speaking of cupcakes...

Lovely Days

Yesterday I got some more stones moved, and I put down the rest of our stepping stones to extend our patio. I think I'm going to buy one more to complete the square and I might pull these up to even out the dirt underneath them. I'm also wondering how far over my blacktop comes for the driveway. I don't know if I dig back some of that dirt if I will find more blacktop, or just more dirt. I don't want grass between the driveway and patio, though, so we'll see what I come up with.

I think I'm going to outline the patio on the far side and the left side with plants. It's going to look pretty good when it's done. I think I want to get some yard lamps too - the little walkway lamps. I can't remember what they're called. Lanterns?

I figured out that the mystery plant is probably a weed. I'm pretty confident about this one. After all, there are some growing in my gutters, and I'm thinking that's a great indicator.

I made some macaroni & cheese and beefed it up with some fresh spinach leaves and diced tomatoes. Donovan enjoyed the noodles. I enjoyed the veggies. Plus it looked pretty. Pretty meals make me feel like I'm taking care of myself. Hence the tomato garnish.


Today I took some more stones out of the dirt out front, but I didn't get anything noticable done. We had a pretty busy day.

I took a mile-long walk with Donovan, Andrew, Amelia and Francis, the dog. Basically, that means we walked around the circle of our neighborhood 3 times.

I also went to pick up a free dryer. It's not pretty, but they say it works, and I figured, for free, I'll give it a try. My laundry room isn't proud.


I also got a couple of great photos of the lighthouse and the mountains. You can kind of see the snow-caps. It's skiing season out here.



I got 4 new names today. I have 4 facials scheduled within the next 7 days. I'm excited. Actually, tomorrow's afternoon facial is going to be at least 2 people. Possibly 3 - and the hostess has a babysitter coming, so Donovan and her baby will be occupied.

Things are about to take off in a big way for me. I can feel it. I just have to be brave enough to go with it and not get scared by the sweep of success.

Didn't work today.

I didn't do any gardening today. I did mainly inside stuff - which is really a shame because it was a beautiful day out. But it was a beautiful day inside too.

I got some more boxes unpacked. Located my printer and alarm clocks. Got some clothes hung and into my dresser.

I did want to put up a pic of my backyard. It's pretty barren. It's covered in pine-needles, which make the ground too acidic for many plants.

I'm not eager to get started out there yet. I think the mating season is beginning for our spider-like bugs. At least, that's my hunch since they're starting to show up in groups.

I bet that's a male and female right there. Whew! Lucky I caught them with their clothes on still!

It is entirely too late for me to still be awake. I would have gone to bed an hour ago, but I accidentally erased Donovan's blog entry after I had it ready to publish. So I had to type it all over again. I'm going to bed now, though.
Good night.

Clearing Out

Well, after today's work, this is what that garden area looks like, now. I got all of the vining plant transplanted into pots and now I just have to start digging in the dirt to recover all of the rocks.

All of a sudden I own a baseball, too - do you see it there? I don't remember uncovering it, but I was kind of focused - who knows? The mowers came by today, too, though. Maybe that has something to do with it. Very strange, though.

My neighbor thinks the vining plants would look good on the fence by her driveway. I'm going to have to agree. She is in love with them, but I think they're kind of unsightly. I want a little more consistency in the design and these things were all about spreading and not about blooming and not about anything organized.

These other plants I can't place. I don't know if they're a weed or a flower or what. I might just pull them up and transplant them to the side of the house to see what they do, but I'd hate to do a bunch of work and then find out I planned my whole garden around some weeds.

I also got a photo of that bug I was telling you about. This is the Real Daddy Long Legs - otherwise known as the Harvestman. Not to be confused with the Daddy Longlegs Spider. Notice his entire body is just 1 part. No thorax/abdomen separation like a spider has. It's an arachnid, but not the same way a spider is. And those legs - I've read that if they feel threatened, the legs can fall off (or most of the leg can) and continue trembling in front of the attacker while the suddenly shorter Harvestman runs away. Also, they have no spinnets - they don't make webs. And I've heard that they, unlike spiders, have a penis - though I've not looked. Call me modest.

Here he is on my glove to give you an idea of his size. They supposedly don't bite, either, but I didn't want him walking on me - just a bit creepy, still.

Our neighbor says we get nests of them on the backs of our buildings during the spring or summer. Can't wait.

I've been thinking about trying to attract birds to our yard to discourage the bugs from taking over. Something knocked down my little suet cage, though, and ground beasts have eaten my birdfood. Drat! lol

Anyway, these are my stepping stones. My neighbor says the yard is only muddy in the winter time and she doesn't think maintenance would like running over our stepping stones with their lawnmowers. Plus I was wondering what future residents of our apartment would think about having a walkway directly to their door from the neighbor's place. So she & I were talking & thought it might be wise to put them down as a patio extension out front. I do think that's a great idea.

Everyone wants to come up onto the front of the stoop, but to do so right now, you've got to step in the grass - or what used to be grass - it is mud right now - and probably won't recover as long as there's someone living here. So I'm thinking I'll build a little patio and let the garden area start off the side of it and curve laisily towards the corner of the house.

Also, this is the shape of the stones around the garden area. Obviously the current layout isn't making an effort to work with their shaping. I want to experiment with what shapes can be made with them. There are 31.

By the way, you notice a couple of healthy-looking green leaves still in the first photo - they're growing out of my siding. Yeah, I gotta figure out the best way around that. I can just see the house growing its own flowers for years to come.

From the looks of it, tomorrow is going to be unpleasant. It's awfully windy and cold this evening - and when I was out earlier, the wind felt like it carried a weather change with it. I might not get a chance to go out and work in the yard tomorrow.

I guess that's fine. I got my MK order in tonight, so I'll be arranging deliveries tomorrow. That's exciting!

Welcome to our Blog

Hi, girls.

I just thought this would be a great way to share stuff with eachother. Courtney, you'll have to ask for a digital camera for Valentines day or something.

How is work coming for both of you?

Anyway, I thought I would share my latest project with you: My Yard

I hope these pics don't make it hard for you 'puter to open the page, but I want to show you what I have to work with.

The first one is the view from the driveway.

These 2 are from the other side of the yard.










x




I share this side of the yard with my neighbor, but we go visit them so often that I've purchased stepping stones to put from the front stoop to where the X is in photo 2. I just need to ask her if that's ok with her, I'm sure it will be.

This one is the view of the side of the house. There's not too much room between us & the neighbors.

You may also notice at this point that there are flowers in our grass - there always has been. :) The joys of living in California.

Now, if you'll notice, the gutter drainage pipe comes directly down and ends without the water being diverted. The gutters are so cluttered, it doesn' t make much of a difference yet.

The area to the left here is how I found it when we moved in. The stones are uneven, the vining plant is haphazard (I've already trimmed what was growing over our stoop and transplanted it to the area closest to where I was standing when I shot the pic at left.) though I've heard it has beautiful blooms.

We also inherited the hose.

Anyway, this whole "garden" becomes a pond when it rains because originally, someone put plastic and stones in there. Then someone else came along with some dirt and some plant seeds. I've been pulling stones out of the couple of feet closest to our front door. If you look carefully in the first photo, you can see them. But it occurs to me I'm not going to be able to pull much more out without disturbing the vines, so today I bought some wide planters for them. I will transplant them tomorrow. I want to do it before they start flowering because it will be less traumatic on them. I also have an issue with the slugs & stuff chewing on the vines. I'm going to look into some garlic spray to fix that. I think I discussed that with you, Cindy.

It's a bit of a mess right now, as you can see.

A couple of obstacles I will have to work around are these:

Right now I can't even get the hose disconnected for some reason. I might have to ask maintenance for help or wait until Rob gets home.

Here's some of what I hope to do with it:

A, B, C are spots of interest - I'm thinking bushes, taller plants or possibly some kind of yard statue for B - maybe a well? No Flamingos. :)

D is under the tree (the dot) - and might be a cute place to put some pavers and a small patio set or otherwise hang a swing from the tree - especially a baby swing.

E is a representation (in grey) of where the garden area is now, and where I want to expand it to (faint line) - Also, there are hooks left over from X-mas lights hanging above, so windchimes and such are options too.

F is a patch of some kind of flowers. Lilies? They're yellow & a bit out of control right now.

G is the stepping stones - the blue around them could be either moss or some kind of gravel or mulch - something to further define the path.

H is the tree - even though you can't see it.

I is the adjustment to the end of the drainage pipe - I want it to flow away from the garden.

J is the area bordered by the purple line around the walkway and the front edge of the yard. I'm thinking Phlox or lavender or something low-maintenance, possibly something I could cut & put in vases.

My neighbor told me roses won't do well here because of the ocean air.

Well, it's late & my little nursling and I need to catch some shuteye if we're going to do our gardening tomorrow.

Love you's.

Vanessa & Donovan