gardening update

Due to the miserable weather I didn't get any gardening done this past week. So I guess I'll just write about previous gardening progress instead.

I don't think I ever said so explicitly, but you might have noticed from the photo that we finished turning the septic tank into a flower bed a couple of weeks ago. We still have to even out the path around it, but it's basically done.

With two truckloads of soil in there, it ought to look more impressive. I guess it will look better when it's full of flowers. We planted pansies in the front, a few snapdragons, and then I sowed all the rest with tall zinnias. I had to cover them with straw to protect them from frost (I had jumped the gun and sowed the seeds during that warm spell two weeks ago). But I took the straw off last week and lots of them are sprouting. And to make the bed more fun, I made my first foray into lawn ornaments.

Once that was done, we started on the next project: raised beds for the vegetable garden. Georg and I did some digging before he went to NY, and then while he was gone I got one of the two beds entirely put together. 4' × 10' × 12" high, plus we removed the native soil to a depth of 6". We didn't use treated lumber because we were concerned about chemicals leaching into the vegetables. So we coated the wood with linseed oil, and lined the bed with roofing shingles. I guess we could have used treated lumber after all, since the shingles make a barrier between the wood and the soil. Oh well, next time we'll know better.

It took way longer than it should have because I wasted all afternoon making 3 trips to Home Depot: first, I discovered that my screws were too long. I bought 2" screws, only to find out that 2 by 12s are really 1.5" thick. I was told later that all lumber is like that. It's 2" thick before they mill it down. So I went back to the store and got 1.5" deck screws. Which was actually a good thing because the new box came with a screwdriver bit, which I didn't have.

Next, I had just gotten started attaching the shingles to the lumber when my staple gun ran out of staples. No problem, back to Home Depot and buy a box of staples. Only to get back home and discover the staples don't fit. Who the *!@# had the brilliant idea not to make staple guns in standard sizes? Sheesh.

By this point I was feeling out of sorts and cranky, so I had to sit down for a few minutes and calm myself before going to Home Depot for the third time. (I should also add that on all these trips I was wearing the same clothes I'd worn all day, including getting the truckload of soil in the morning: my work pants, which are baggy knit pants with paint stains all over them, and a sweatshirt whose front was completely covered with dirt. The whole shirt was one big smudge. Plus a dirty gray headband, and a "don't mess with me" look. Oh yeah, I was a sight.

Anyway, I finally got the staple situation resolved and got back to work. I had one very clever idea: using concrete blocks to hold the wood in place while I drilled the holes. I would never have been able to assemble the bed myself otherwise. Unfortunately, this brilliant idea was offset by one extremely stupid idea: to assemble the bed up by the house, where my drill was, rather than down the yard where it would be located. Did you know that lumber is heavy? I didn't know that before, but I sure do now. With difficulty I could pick up one of those boards by myself; now I had to move three of them, plus a dozen roofing shingles. I thought I was going to dislocate a shoulder dragging that thing halfway across the yard.

With the bed ready to go I wanted to get started on planting right away, but the weather kind of messed up my plans. There's no point sowing seeds when it's this cold anyway. I did manage to plant a couple dozen snapdragons on the bank along the driveway. And I bought about a hundred marigolds for down by the road. I like those little French marigolds, not the big ones that look like yellow pom-poms. I really need to get started on weeding down there. That's what I was going to do today actually. I even went outside to do it a couple of times, but then the wind would blow and I'd hurry back inside. It's way early to plant marigolds, but as long as I protect them from frost I think they'll be okay. I brought them inside tonight just in case, but this is the last possible frost we're supposed to have this week, I hope the last one this year.