Yard Work is Hard Work

It's been far too long since I've posted. I spent the better part of 2 months with no internet (unless you count a "smart" phone which I don't) which makes it very hard to blog. On the upside I've gotten more done in my newly acquired large yard than I would have if I did have the distraction of millions of people to socialize with.

So, how is my garden doing you ask? Meh. When I attempted to move all my lovely herbs from the former living space the few that survived the rough truck ride died shortly after arriving here. My chives hung on the longest but in the end they too slowly withered and had to be tossed. No worries though! I started new projects and my hubby thinks I'm even more crazy now... don't tell him he's probably right.

I ventured into my greenhouse the other day and was pleasantly surprised. It was relatively clean and free of bugs. Come spring it will be minimal work to clear it out and start my seedlings in it. The downside is the panels that make the walls need to be washed and the plastic seals holding them in have to be pushed back in constantly. Kinda cheesy design but very good for the price (FREE)!

I threw a few peach pits in some water to see what they would do. That was almost 3 weeks ago. They have long hairy roots coming out of everywhere now and I must transplant them into soil in the next week or so. Leaving fragile roots like that in water is never good for too long as it causes rot and roots don't like seeing the sun. Luckily I still have potting soil and LOTS of worm goo.

That brings me to my worms. I thought they were dead. I looked all over for them in the drawer and couldn't find one. I just left the bin sitting there for months until we moved thinking there was no point in feeding imaginary worms. When I finally threw it in my truck I saw that there were little red things slowly oozing through the soil and so I rejoiced! "They live, they live!" I texted my hubby. The wrigglers currently thrive in their same bin in my garage and I feed them about 2-3 lbs of vegetation each week. The bin gets heavier as time goes on and soon I will have to migrate them into a new one so the plastic doesn't crack under the pressure. My plants will love me this spring!

Onto my roses... a bit of a painful topic to be honest. My grandfather passed recently. I took a rose from his funeral and decided to try my best to keep it around somehow. My propagation may or may not work. Even if it doesn't though I pollinated one of my well established roses with it. The rose (on the bush) quickly started forming a hip (what rose seed pods are called) and I am monitoring it daily so I don't miss harvesting it at peak ripeness. I will harvest many rose hips this year as I rarely had time to prune the dead flowers. I will try to post more on this later with some photos. Of the over 50 bushes that were here at one point only 9 survived the mower. 2 are threatening to come back since I started watering them daily - thankfully the well established root systems of roses give them a good fighting change even after years of laying dormant.

My tomatoes are still growing and blooming. A few branches suffered from frost during the first freeze of the year but I'm amazed at how well they are doing this late in the year. Being against my house helps keep them warmer I think.

I started an outdoor compost with husband. That was a bit of an adventure... As we cleaned our yard up we spotted a plywood box that had been covered with plastic and overgrown with weeds for several years. We thought it would make a great compost container and started digging a 12" deep spot for it in a far corner of our yard. When we went to move the box to its new home though we quickly discovered yet another wasp nest - a very large one! I bolted as quickly as I could for the back door and even contemplated jumping the railing to get on the deck quicker. My husband climbed the fence on the other side of our property as they came after him and soon knocked at the front for me to let him in. We waited till this morning to spray them and plan to finally move the box to its hole tonight where I will layer grass clippings, fall leaves, dirt from the hole, and eventually some kitchen scraps. Should be god for the yard next year.

My oak tree turned colors the other day. Crazy how one day the tree is every color of red, orange, yellow, and green and the next day it looks bald. Nature had to give one last colorful show before winter set in. I wish my phone would let me transfer it to the computer so I could post... :(

No lovely photos for you today, sorry. I'll get on that for my next post.  ;)

Thanks for reading!