Fresh Woodchips For The Vegetable Garden

It was a relatively warm day and there was no snow covering it. I had to return my empty dung boxes for refilling and had noticed some mighty fine looking fresh piles of woodchips down by the river in my travels to and fro. Seemed like the perfect chance to load up on some woodchips for the roadside vegetable garden. My layer of chips was getting thin. The stuff just keeps decomposing making my soil better and better every year.



One load of fresh woodchips is spread. Would you look at what is still growing in the vegetable garden a few days before Christmas. The strawberry patch of course. They are perennials. But there are spinach, leeks, beets, carrots, radish, giant split turnips and freshly sprouted mache. I really should be ruthless and harvest or toss most of it. Why is that so hard?

If I was really ambitious there are a number of true season extending procedures I could put into place for the cool season crops. That can wait for the economic collapse.



It will take another three loads to finish the whole vegetable garden. I fill old plastic mulch bags with the woodchips at the dump site down by the river. Then I just carry the bags to where I want to put the chips. That saves me from having to pitchfork the chips twice.

There is plenty of time to get the woodchip mulch done before the garden season returns. I can fetch chips when the conditions are just right.



And then there's the dung from the horses I work for. It will be added to the roadside vegetable garden for the best garden ever. I have three big piles like this plus the two wire cages full of the stuff. It needs turning. That is supposed to speed things up. It is cooking despite my inattention. On frosty or snowy days there is usually a warm wet spot at the top of the heap. Maybe I'll turn the piles later. At least one of these heaps needs to have some finished product by March. Maybe later. Yes I'll turn those piles later.



While I was up there working along the scenic byway, I thought I might as a well get the gawkers perspective as they slowly drive by. At this time of year I am fully exposed to prying eyes. Lots of folks wave. Sometimes I wave back.

The regulars get to check in on my progress. They are sure to have noticed the glass bottle edging and the new short dry stack wall.



Maybe I am getting used to being a roadside attraction. I'd better because Ku'ulei A'ina is only going to keep getting more attractive over time.

Just Looking

I stacked a few more rocks on the upper wall beneath the cozy cabin when I came home this afternoon. It's not quite done and needs more rocks to finish it off. The lower wall will get some touch up work after I fill the floor to the proper level with the gravel base. I need a load of gravel delivered to get moving on this. In the meantime I can fetch rocks I suppose.

From this angle I do believe there just may be a bit of wow going on. The basement patio is turning out rather nice. It will make a fine space for beverages and candle light suppers.



Then I just need to turn all this space into a garden that wows.



Give me a decade at least.

That's Done

The sun just barely makes it over the top of Hebo mountain across the scenic byway to shine on the cozy cabin right now. Only five days to go until the winter solstice. It looks like I will keep the 10am to 3pm solar heating assist when it is available. Until the trees in the garden to be grow taller anyway. They have habit of doing that.



The new section of dry stack wall is done. That didn't take long at all.



I said it was going to be short. It is really more of a bed edging and path definer than a retaining wall.

It was a might nippy today. Dropping rocks on the dirt path sounded like rock on rock. The ground was froze solid. Good thing I cut my footing for the wall when I had the chance.



It was a might nippy out. Even in the sun, dumped bucket ice didn't manage to melt. You can't let a sunny day go to waste though, particularly when the winds not blowing.



Look mama there's a crazy man out there gardening in the dead of winter. Yes there is and he got one more thing done before lock down.



Now I just need to get the front and back porches painted before the company comes in May. And maybe a few other things.

An Advancing Spectacle

I can post thousands of pictures on the world wide web of my ongoing endeavors and think almost nothing of it. The slow moving traffic along the scenic byway makes me a little squirrelly though. Granted a good deal of that traffic is hunters driving around in circles. That always puts me on edge. They are driving in circles looking to kill things. I sit in one spot building things.

I'd love to be a tick on a hound dog just so I could hear what they're saying about the guy up on top of the mountain.



There is this tug of war between being more restrained and trying to blend into bland and going all out. Pearl Fryar wouldn't be who he is with just a couple of topiaries. You're seldom wowed by half measures. I want wow.

More likely I am suffering from self consciousness and delusions of grandeur. I'm a long way off from matching the likes of Lotusland. A man can dream though.

The new short dry stack retaining wall is half way to completion. I even got lucky and found a stash of rocks nearby that I had forgotten about.



The rose flowered lichen rock was placed into the glass bottle edging. I faced the lichen in the same general NE direction that it was pointing where I found it. You never know what slight little detail can promote or hinder a life form like this.



That is 34 feet of new wall. It really amounts to an extension of the two retaining walls that created the basement patio. Mercy, I have moved a lot of rocks.



I might not be quite over the top into wow territory yet.



But I have plenty more rocks. I'll keep working at it.

Rain Delay

So I spent the day at the house next door cleaning up after the floor man so I can put the house back together. Why oh why do I wear my glasses when I clean? It looks like the floor man got into a fight with the glue for the vinyl floor in the napping room and lost. Then there is the sad fact that many things in that house have not been moved in fifteen years. And when I do something I might have a slight tendency to be a little compulsive. I had to stop half way through from exhaustion and exasperation.

Doesn't the fog add a whole new mysterious element to the garden to be. One day the two holly trees on the left will frame an entrance into another part of the garden.



The low light and thick fog kind of make my low budget hardscape elements in the garden to be almost interesting, maybe even intriguing.



All of this can be seen quite well from the scenic byway during the barren season. I just know there have to be people scratching things as they drive by looking.

A Warm December Bloom Day

At this time of year chances of me having a live bloom of any sort are slim to none. I did have another warm sunny day in the middle of December. That alone is worth celebrating. I spent my day wiggling big rocks into place. I may not have any blooms, but I have made more progress on an actual defined flower bed.



The short dry stack section has begun. I need more rocks. They keep getting further and further away. There will be a lot more fetching in my future.



All I have is an empty flower bed in the wilderness for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. It will have flowers in it come spring. Maybe you better just go to Bloom Day headquarters now for a flower fix. I'll wander off and see if I can scrounge up something to compensate for my flowerless condition.



Would you believe I used up all the wine bottles people have been saving for me? I need about fourteen more. That shouldn't be too hard to accomplish over the holidays.



Hmm. What is this? Looks like a fresh green sprout. Maybe it is one of those extra Iris reticulata bulbs that fell out of the sack while I was planting bulbs somewhere. Not blooming yet. It is an early bloomer though. I hope this warm spell hasn't confused it.



Ok, this is my official Bloom Day entry. We can call it a rose flowered lichen.



I noticed the rock first of course. It's a fairly big one. I can wiggle it another day.

Gardening In Mid December

It must have gotten over 60 degrees today. I never looked. The sun was out. The wind was calm. The snow had all melted. I had to strike while the ground wasn't froze. Who knows how long this will last. I bet I can make it to the end of the glass bottle edging.



Indeed, a corner was turned. The bottles connected to the path entrance and the first stones for a short retaining wall were laid. Big stones, the no lifting, wiggle into place kind stones. These big rocks were just laying around. I thought I might as well use them since they were the right size for the height of the wall I have in mind.



Now of course I want to pull these other large stones out of the planting bed and into the new wall. I gave them a wiggle test and think I can do it. I'll just ease them on down the hill.



This end of the bed comes to a rather unpleasant sharp point. The lay of the land and the garden access road make this point a little hard to avoid. If I cut back to a curve I end up with a sharp drop at the path entrance needing more steps then I want to put in. I'm going to try putting more glass bottles inside the bed and inside the point with a curve in the bottle edging and see how that looks. Maybe that will soften the unpleasant aspect of the point.



My new short retaining wall needs to go from the end of the dry stack wall in the basement patio up to the garden access road. I will not have enough of these big rocks in close enough proximity to build the whole wall out of single stones. The plan is to use the big stones as accents along the length of another dry stack wall. This one will be short and shouldn't take any time at all to build. I'm even going to be a bad mason and build it without a gravel footing. Gravity and a slight batter will be the super glue.

I'll be needing more rocks. I see a lot of fetching in my future.



From a distance the stone and bottle outline wrapping the cozy cabin is taking on the image of some archeological dig revealing an ancient ship's hull. I have discovered where the ark landed.



A new ark rises from the ruins, ready to sail on the turbulent winds of history.

New Floors For An Internet Newbie

A few projects have been going on at the resident gardeners house next door that I got to oversee and not actually do myself, praise be. The wood floor was sanded and stained. It is now two shades lighter. It brightens the room dramatically and works much better with the tones of the wood walls.



Now this is where I give the warning that camera lighting and computer monitors never give a perfectly accurate rendition of color. You can see in this second picture the floor looks darker than in the first. The newly sanded and stained floor is indeed a uniform color within the natural variation of the wood.

I give this warning because my mother is just now learning how to use a computer. She can find her way to this blog and wanted to see her new floors. I need to warn you that what you see is very close to the real thing. Your naked eye will see the true color much better.

E-mail is our next lesson.



She waited fifteen years and decided that was long enough. Now there is flooring, cheap vinyl sadly, but better than the sub floor she lived with for all those years. The closet and napping room finally have finished floors.



My mother is learning how to use a computer so she can visit this blog and visit her own garden while she is away. Being able to see her new floors right away is an added bonus for a beginner. But this is just a gateway blog. She'll be hooked in no time.

Me, I have to go back to the resident gardeners house and clean it from top to bottom. All that sanding made major dust. Moving all the furniture and most of everything else stirred up even more. The so called cleanup crew for the flooring man gets a big fat D for a grade. It has to be clean before I can put the house back together again.