Gardening vacation from work

There's so much to do!  I have been working very hard in my garden.  I cut out more paths and read every Florida gardening blog and website I could clap eyes upon to learn the best method to prep the paths for weed control.  Lots of people said layers of newspaper works great both as a weed blocker and as a soil enhancer.  I thought, "Super!  I will bring home the utterly useless Alligator from campus."  It's the student newspaper and is truly fit only for worm food.  At the end of every day for a few weeks, I thieved the leftover papers from the secretary's desk and squirreled them away until I was ready for them.  Most people agree that black weed cloth is the best blocker but it adds zero nutrition to the soil.  I decided to try the newspaper method but I couldn't lay paper until I had mulch to go on top of it, naturally enough.

In the meantime, Logan began his carport leveling project on the opposite corner of our little patch of earth.  This project was to be the source of my dirt for my raised beds.  And is still to be.  I just need more.  He is in the midst of, oh, I don't know, three or four rather large and time-consuming projects at the moment-- and only one of which involves him giving me my dirt!  Anyway, I have a large pile placed exactly where I want it in the shape I requested, and it's great.   It just needs to be three times its current size.  

Logan took a day off work to finish up the area he started over the weekend.  When I arrived home from the library late that afternoon, I saw 8 glorious new piles of dirt!  In the wrong spot!  In fact, he dumped the dirt ON MY PATHS!  Being the goodly and kindly wife that I am, I let no anger flush my cheeks.  I allowed no poisonous thoughts to enter my mind.  I simply went inside the house with the mail, asked how the day went, fed the dogs, and soon enough my curiosity was satisfied.  He offered, "I think I put the dirt in the wrong place.  I only realized it when I dumped the last load."

"Why, you are correct.  You dumped the dirt on my walking paths."

"Yeah, I don't know why I did that."

Hey, at least I got more dirt out there, right?

One day as I worked in "my area" (as I now refer to my garden: "I'll be in my area if you need me!" is what Logan hears often.) my neighbor across the street called out a greeting.  We don't know each other very well because she and her big family moved in only recently.  No, they moved in last year!  I am a terrible neighbor!  My, but how time passes.  I remember last winter when she got a load of free mulch from the city.  They dumped it right in the middle of their yard.  She didn't do anything with it.  It just sat and sat.  Until this glorious day when she came over and offered to give it to me!  She said her son would wheel barrow it over, if I would show her where I would like it.  I showed her.  I wanted it under the Sweet Gum by the road, close to my precious walking paths.  Remember, it is July in Florida.  Proximity is crucial here.  I needed it close at hand to lessen my chance of heat stroke.

The day came when young Austin started his enormous chore.  I showed him where I wanted the mulch, in this large area right here.  See?  Here's a palm frond marking the spot.  (How did I get a nasty palm frond in my yard, anyway?  I eradicated the beasts years ago, except for two ancient ones nowhere near the Sweet Gum.)  It was a nice, shady, and round area.  He had only to go directly across the road to hit his mark.  I am SO GRATEFUL to receive this glorious gift of mulch!

Behold in the pictures below how the men in my life choose to undermine my female authority (as my mother put it!).

Notice the mulch piles neatly lined up, one by one, all along the road.  It was all supposed to be in the vicinity of the first pile on the left.  Yikes.

Logan buried a beautiful root :(  My roots are no longer menaces; they are now prominent features of my garden!

I had to get that mulch moved, and fast.  And that meant the dirt had to magically find its way to its proper spot, too.  I moved two piles over to the started bed, but the rest went to a closer area to make a circular raised bed.  Remember, proximity!  I wanted a raised bed there, anyway, so it worked out fine.  Now I need a LOT more dirt in both areas....

I decided to take a week off work to get that mulch moved, finish my paths, work on some horse goals, and go plant shopping.  I think I very well might be crazy because, hello, July in Florida!  Yet it had to be done.  I laid the newspaper on a 6 foot length of path, sprayed it with the hose to keep it from flying away, then brought over the mulch.  Repeat a great many times over the course of the week.

I had to stop because, ahem, there were still dirt piles in the way at this point.  Don't worry; once Logan saw how much work I accomplished that day, he moved the dirt for me that evening.  He is not one to stand in the way of garden progress!

The week felt both long and short.  My days were filled to the brim with gardening, hydrating, standing in front of my beloved fan, showering, making lunch for us every day, and getting my horse time in.  I also worked on a few library things that couldn't wait.  But by the end of the week, sure enough I felt like I needed more time.

I didn't quite finish but I was supremely happy with my progress.  There were still two big piles of mulch left by the end of the second weekend and a load left in my trusty wheel barrow.  When I ran out of newspaper, I switched to weed block fabric.  I figure it will be a good experiment to compare the sections.  Here's a picture showing the S curves of the path and the small raised bed started inside the first bend of the S.

Lots of Progress!

Lots of progress!  I love progress.  I hand-tilled the paths, cleared the turf, and couldn't resist buying just a couple plants that I knew I wanted for particular areas.  Plus, who can resist buying plants?  I suppose if your neighbors have plants you can use AND they're willing to let you thin them out or give you cuttings, that might curtail the plant shopping.  Might.  I have one neighbor I can ask for plants and she very happily let me take some cuttings.  They are rooting and sprouting as I type.

Here is more path taking shape.  I think it's appropriate that I began with a horseshoe shape even though my boys aren't shod.

My new echinacea!  I saw some red echinacea on Pinterest and wondered if I would be able to find some.  Lo and behold!

I picked up these dwarf canna lilies because they were irresistible and the chartreuse sedum is something I hope will thrive in my garden.  I only bought one to try but I hope to use it copiously around most of the roots.  In the very upper left corner, you see leaves of a lupine.  I love this plant.  It was here when I bought the place in 2005.  Every time I transplant it, it dies a horrible crispy black death.  Knowing what to expect, I transplanted it one [hopefully] last time.  And then it turned black.  I chopped it down, put a big rock next to the three little stem stumps remaining, and settled in to wait.  Oh how I hope it comes back this time!

Last but not least, my two new portulaca.  I adore these plants and they have always done well for me.  Their color is magnificent, no?  I had to wait to take a picture of them until I was actually home during their blooming hours!  I wish the flowers stayed open all day long.  They look gorgeous spilling over that root.   Oops, I almost forgot about that darling echeveria there in the top right!  Seems like I found more plants at the store than I thought.  Doesn't that always happen?

The first path begins to take shape

One day last week, plus a spare hour in between monsoons/horse time/housework over the weekend, three blissfully rain-free hours tonight and my first path has shape.  I used my Fiskars steel tiller to break up the centipede grass and get those roots exposed.  I hand tilled the path halfway from the brick walk to the Sweet Gum that first day.  During the spare hour, I re-tilled to further expose the root systems.  It's so hard to get rid of this grass; one does not simply pull it out just as one does not simply walk into Mordor.  And you can't use the cut-n-scrape method of normal turf.  At least I've never successfully done it.  So tonight I continued to till the whole way to the Sweet Gum and I picked up the now dead grass from the first section.

You can see the shape of the meandering path, one of the famous roots, and what dead centipede grass looks like (it's that brown circle in the foreground).  You can also see my Chinese elm and azzie babies, alongside some ANNOYING fallen Spanish moss.  The base of the Sweet Gum is crazed with lunatic lantanas, baby Sweet Gums and baby Live Oaks, thanks to the squirrels.  That will all have to go.

Before the next monsoon arrived, I was able to transplant my two pink hydrangeas from in front of the porch to the protection of the Sweet Viburnum.  Neighbors passing by complimented me on my dedication to the process.  They'd been watching.  Yikes.

I decided to stomp down the freshly turned dirt on my new path and then I walked the other imaginary paths until the wind arrived.  The Spanish moss was flying at near horizontal degrees as I thought, "Shall I walk on, or shall I seek shelter?"  I apparently chose the wrong option because Mother Nature whacked my forehead with Sweet Gum debris.  Shelter it was, then.

This storm traveled the whole way from the Gulf to grace us with its presence.  Most of our monsoons are of the pop-up variety.  Make no mistake, I am not complaining about these storms. They are infinitely better than The Storms Which Shall Not Be Named.

Not a good time to be planning a garden

In the midst of planning to reroof our house, select paint colors for our house, screen in the back porch, build walls around our carport, build shutters for our house, and did I mention PAINT THE HOUSE (oh yeah, and prepare the existing landscaping for such an adventure)... I decided it was time to re-think the front yard.

Aaaaand... it's the rainy season here in Northcentral FLA.

Landscaping currently, or very nearly currently, consists of overgrown azaleas (thanks, azzies, for staining our house!), overgrown and crowded spirea/hydrangea/rose/bleeding heart vine/yellow-berry-plant-whose-name-I-can't-remember MESS, fire spike, mondo grass, insane invasive ferns, 4 o'clocks, wisteria, and a humongous sweet viburnum.  Those are all along the front of the house and fence.  At the edge of the property by the road, starting at the parking area, we have a sickly cassia, a crepe myrtle, our mail box (I'll need to reserve space for a path to this serviceable device), two baby azaleas, a baby Chinese elm, and an ancient Sweet Gum tree that kindly provides shade and plenty of Spanish moss droppings.  The overgrown azaleas recently received a good hack job in preparation for painting the house.  They shall be transplanted (staining!).  An old and sunken brick walk leads from the porch to the parking area.  My focus here is the front yard from the walk to all points to the west on our .33 acre property.

You may ask why, with all those huge and looming projects, would I even begin to consider a garden transformation?  I thank my husband, Logan.  He broke our lawn mower on the Sweet Gum roots that have spread out across this part of our yard.  I also thank my FitBit, for which I thank my husband again for giving it to me for Christmas.  Because of my new walking habits and my desire to save future lawn mowers as well as my sincere wish to preserve Logan's sanity during lawn mowing times, all in addition to my love of gardening, the idea to create a strolling garden formed in my mind.  I spent hours walking on top of the roots, forming paths and flower beds in my imagination.  I got in a TON of steps during those evenings.

Here's one of the smaller roots.  I should really take pictures of the larger, knobblier, more interesting ones.

I took a notebook out with me when the path structures finally became clear and I drew the root system.  I am no artist but it gave me a good idea of the layout for when I was back in front of the computer, Pinterest garden photos on the iMac screen.  I added plants to a board that I plan to transplant and plants I'd love to buy, take cuttings from my kindly neighbor, or plants I happen to like.  It's just an idea for a starting point because part of that non-artist thing means my drawing is not to scale.

Since I started to write this post a couple days ago, Logan chopped down a tree that provided morning shade.  That's fine with me because it was a naughty tree that dropped its tiny fruit balls (berries?) on our cars, and then birds would poop out the berries (?) onto our cars, too.  I have no idea what kind of tree it was but it grew crazy fast and tall in a short time.  So now there's a portion of the yard that gets full sun until late afternoon until that bright Giver of Light and Heat sinks behind the Sweet Gum.  I'm thinking that's where my herb bed will go, for the most part.  I'm also in love with purple Muhly grass at the moment, so I'll have to plop one of those in the ground there, too.

I have two barren, piece-of-crap peach trees on the other side of the property.  I have tried everything, including begging, to get them to bear fruit.  I had them professionally serviced and the man guaranteed me fruit the next season.  Oh, I got fruit, all right-- if one could call it that.  I got 5 peach pits covered in green fuzz for a few weeks, and then they all dropped to the ground.  Fine, I don't care, I give up... plus... I kind of want a circle drive on that side of the house.  Nothing fancy, mind you, like the cobbled paver driveway I had priced out at $10,000 (OMG), just another grass and dirt driveway which is prevalent in my neighborhood.  We have a sidewalk on that edge with two driveway entrances, so it is perfect for a circle drive!  It will save Logan a lot of mowing.  So the barren, POS peach trees shall also be chopped down and I think I'll use the branches to edge my new flower beds in the front.  I have a story about those peach trees....  I was out on a walk with my neighbor-friend one day and we ran into somebody she introduced as our neighbor from further down the street (she couldn't remember her name!).  I reached out my hand and said quite cordially (IMHO), "Hello, I'm Missy."  She took my fingertips (I HATE THAT) and said not her name, but this: "Oh, you live on THAT side of Denise.  I eat the peaches off your trees every year."  I countered her fingertip grab with a snotty remark something to the effect of "those trees haven't produced an edible peach in the 10 years I've lived there."  She had the guts to argue with me about my own freaking peach trees.  Finally I grabbed Denise's elbow and said that we needed to keep up our pace, and moved away from the horrid woman, who will probably continue to indulge in ghost peaches from my soon-to-be ghost peach trees.

Here's a picture I took in the evening of the space I'm talking about.  There are massive roots off picture right, at the far edge opposite, and then there are two shoots angled straight for the corner of the house and another straight at me.  The large, dark green mass at the edge of the yard is the Sweet Viburnum, and the 4 o'clocks are just below.  You can also barely make out the area where I tried out some house paint colors.

And here's my lovely drawing.  The more time I spend in the yard, the more I realize my drawing doesn't help me at all due to its terribleness.

I have so many ideas!  But so little time to think and shop and work on them.  Did I mention that I have two beautiful Appaloosas who call me Mom?  Yeah, I spend a LOT of time with them, too.  Oh, and I have a full-time job that oftentimes requires extra time spent working at home, like right now when I should be preparing a talk I'm giving over Skype to a university in Canada next week.... Oh boy.  And the rain, oh, the rain.