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I'm meeelllllttttiiinnnnggg, whatta world!

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 3:27 am

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It's so hot and hazy here! Then it gets cold at night, which makes the yellowjackets grumpy when it gets hot again. In short, I haven't been able to do much at ALL in my garden, hrrrumph! But, I did find a tree removal guy who keeps a pile of woodchips at his place, with (the best part) a big FREE sign on them. Hey, even I can afford that! So hopefully I can get some work done when the kids head back to school this week, woohoo!
I recently found out that it's illegal where I live to cut down an oak tree. Now, I love the oaks so this isn't a huge issue, but the fact that those who monitor such things have taken aerial photos and circled the oak trees out here is, well, more than a little "big brotherish", dontcha think? And someone took me to a website where satellite pictures of my property are. Creepy! But with the weather patterns changing so much here, who knows how long they'll be growing. My pine trees are drying out, and I've lost some very old branches off one of them. I do miss the rain! Guess I should be looking at xeriscaping, eh?
Got an enameling kiln at a garage sale this weekend, and have grandiose visions of brightly colored enameled-copper windchimes for my garden next spring. If I actually get anything decent made, I'll be sure to post photos here.

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Another thursday photo, my garden shed

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:56 pm

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well this is going well so far! Guess I'm having a good brain day. This one is my studio/greenhouse. The greenhouse side gets way too hot this time of year so it stays blocked off. You can sort of see the path to the left, going between the birch and the maple back to the toolshed. OK, enough playing with the computer, that path isn't going to build itself!


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Thursday and it's Windy!

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:11 pm

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Here's my attempts for the day to upload more of my artwork. The bunnies is a painting from several years ago, but I still have the bunnies!

I'll try a bigger rooster, but if it doesn't work I'll have to get my tekkie husband to resize it for me.

OK, gotta go dig out for a new garden path. Ya know, I suspect I'm much more into garden construction and design than I am weeding, ya think?

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rocks, sand, and bunnypellets

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:26 am

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I got my fuschia in the ground today finally. It's in a great spot, exposure wise. My painting cabin will block the winter wind and the hottest of the summer sun. But I raked out a wheelbarrow full of potato-size rocks, and man am I sore!
I beefed up the remaining sand, soil, and smaller rocks with lots of bunny compost. I used the stuff from under the cages. Just scraped away the least-aged stuff and used the fertilizer underneath. Since it's a fuschia, I'm not TOO worried about it being still a little acidic. I had to move a small maple tree that was in an awkward place beside the cabin. I soaked the daylights out of it in the spot where I moved it, but won't hold my breath that it'll make it.
Another strange thing about the ground out here is that there is just no knowing what will do well. I planted a rhodie, and it barely struggled along for five years. Then it suddenly took off and has turned into the most beautiful bush ever, even though it's just the standard pink. On a wild hair, I planted a clumping birch tree quite near it (they aren't so fond of acidic soil) and the silly thing is flourishing! I can pretty much throw the rule book out the window around here! Like, my well is 125 feet deep, yet a stones throw away there is a bush growing that one usually sees in swampy areas. Keeps life interesting, I think I have about 7 different biomes on my place.
I still haven't worked out all the details of getting any pictures up. I'll just put in this disclaimer- I had a traumatic brain injury some years ago that really fried my left hemisphere, you know, the one that controls math and technical stuff. So techie stuff is NOT my forte!
OK, I follwed a link to imgspot, lessee if I did this right. Should be a tiny image that I tried to make an avatar out of.


Last edited: Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:56 am

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bunny fertilizer, and sand?!?

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:43 pm

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I weeded out the site by my cabin to plant my new fuschia. Apparently, that's where a bunch of sand leftover from a construction project got dumped. Huzzah, another garden challenge (grump) Think I'll just beef up the area as best I can with bunny fertilizer before I stick any unsuspecting plants into it. All my bunnies are shedding like crazy right now because of the hot weather. Garnet actually let me pick him up and cuddle him a bit, and I came away with a white angora shirt from it. Garnet is an albino minilop, and has the Worlds Softest Fur! Unfortunately it would be a royal pain to gather enough to spin a decent amount of yarn from, but it crosses my mind every time I pet him. His mother, Esther, produces a most prodigious pile of pellets for my garden, bless her little bunny self.
Bunnies produce a "hot" fertilizer, though not so hot as chickens do. I either let the pellets age under the cages or pile it behind some trees to let it mellow a bit. In the winter when the garden is asleep and it's raining constantly, I just take wheelbarrow loads and spread the pellets throughout the garden. It works down through the shredded bark mulch and makes a good bed for the spring growth to get started in.

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day 2

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:22 am

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OK, so here's where three of my paintings are on the web, I'll try to post more http://windygate.home.att.net
My animal inventory stands, for the moment, at 7 bunnies, 4 chickens, 2 goats, 2 dogs, a cat, outdoor goldfish, and 2 parakeets. I've pared waaaay back from what I used to have!
Anyway, the grocery store in town had hardy fuschias for 5 bucks, so I picked one up to plant by the little cabin/greenhouse where I like to paint and where I start seeds. Now I just need to get the weeds out of the patch where I'll plant it, and try to convince my old-timer doggie that it isn't a good place to take a nap!
I think alot of the wildfires I know about don't make the news. I hear the engines tearing by every few days now, they are probably getting the fires out before they amount to much. One came within a few feet of my neighbors house a couple of weeks ago, and I've seen the fire department roll down there a couple of times since, probably checking for hot spots and such. It's so dry out, a bit of glass magnifying sunlight onto a bit of dry grass can start a blaze going. ugh!

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All rocks and no soil, a gardening challenge!

Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:07 am

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My gardening challenge is simple but enormous. I live on a rocky prairie. On land that, when my grandparents came out West, made them roll their eyes and keep on moving to found a town on more friendly soil. Seriously! The ground here holds onto marks made in it for a looong time, and running through what is now my goat pasture are a set of ruts that were probably made by a horse drawn wagon!
Anyways, that part of my place I maintain in wildflowers. I have to mow the whole thing 2 or 3 times a year to keep the nonnative brush down, but as long as my riding mower holds out, it isn't too bad. And if the weather would go back to my old familiar mild-and-rainy, the wildflowers will go on doing well. I have everything from meadowlarks to california quail, wild bunnies to porcupines visiting my bit of prairie, and I love it. But, to create a green fire break near my house, and to continue developing my Pseudo-Japanese garden near the evergreens, is a really huge challenge. If I plant a tree, and at the same time a friend with decent soil plants a tree, within a very short time the difference is obvious. A crabapple I planted here 15 years ago is far more spindly and scraggly than I would like!
So, I raise bunnies. Not only because, well, I adore bunnies, but also because they produce a nice fertilizer. I let it pile up & compost for a while, then spread it around the garden. So I'm gradually getting a bit of actual soil going. But I still have a long way to go.
I plant my veggies in raised beds. My sweetie built these almost 15 years ago, and they are rotting slowly despite being cedar. Gonna have to work on that. They have landscape fabric under them to keep the soil from washing away.
Whew, that's enough for one night. Hope it rains soon, the wildfires around here are getting scary!

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