These days in the garden, at this season of my life, I feel like a squirrel, whittling away at a incredibly hard shell that surrounds a very delicious nut. It feels like I'm eking things out one millimeter at a time. I max out at around the two hour mark, and if it's heavier work, one hour is all I can manage without going into the 'damage to the body' zone. If I go there, I lose the next day or two stretching out the overworked and strained muscles and connective tissues. If I'm careful and aware, I'm out there the next day in fine form.
I know my limits.
Here's the construction zone at the moment:
I have moved my shelter to the other corner of the garden and made it larger. I cut a nice piece off one of the largest ones S. gave me from her floor remodel project that just fits perfect for the shelter. I have a lot of carpet pieces and rugs in my garden right now. I admit that they look pretty funny. But they are SUCH useful things for keeping weeds down in the walking areas that I cannot resist them. I am not willing nor really able these days to groom large areas. Especially ones that get compacted from walking on them. It's one thing to reach down an pull up a weed from loose soil and an entirely different thing to have to get a shovel and dig them out one by one. And since I don't have access to an unlimited supply of grass hay to mulch with, I will make do with my 'jakey' -as my mother would say, rugs.
Here's the view from the shelter. Right now the shade, as you can see is not very useful because of the angle of the sun. But as we get closer to summer, it will move and actually block the sun where I want it to. You can see the volunteer violas there in the distance. I'm hoping to transplant those more into the flower bed area because it is my intention to plant most of what you see here in grass. Yep, I'm going to plant a lawn area in my garden. I'm hoping to make it a friendlier place to sit and take in the beauty. I am also hoping it will make for a cooler place to be. It can get very hot here in the summer and too much bare dirt is just unbelievably scorching. We shall see if my plan works.
This is a different angle from the shelter. I'm making inroads into the chaos, I promise. As a matter of fact, right after this photo, I installed a post for the border of a path:
I don't have a master plan for what I'm doing, more's the pity. So there are a lot of moments spent sitting in the shelter and just looking at what I have and what could be done. Many ideas are born and die within thirty seconds let me tell you. Just think of the paper, pencil lead and erasers I am saving!
Anyway, I'm documenting this part of the process so I can compare it to what I end up with later on. The bar is not that high actually, because when your 'before' pictures are this bleak, almost anything would be an improvement.
One last thing, here's the puddle with water in it now. I stopped letting water go in it for now, as I need to still do some work with potting soil around it and I don't want to be working in mud. But eventually, it will turn into a swampy place somewhat.
I'm still on the lookout for nicer flat stones for the edges. . . Time for a field trip!
