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Hope’s Travel Plans and The Garden

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I bet long term readers of BAD saw the title and slapped their foreheads, thinking here we go again. Hope will never learn.

However, I am here to show you differently. For the first time, maybe ever, I have no travel plans for the next 8 months. And that seems like an eternity. (We are going to go to Texas for Thanksgiving this year – driving.)

So with no plans to leave, especially over the summer. It is the perfect year to dig in to my garden. Every year in the past, I have gone somewhere for a week or two, typically Texas, and my garden just falls apart without maintenance and watering and care. But this year…

The long term goal

My long term goal is to create a super low maintenance, mostly edible yard. And this will be the perfect year to reposition and make use of everything I have…3 standing beds, 2 tall raised beds, and 1 typical raised bed. And really make a plan that I can implement over time and as materials are available.

I found this resource on The Soccer Mom Blog while researching plants and positioning and frugal gardening that I thought others mind find helpful if they are interested in frugal gardening.

Foods you can regrow from scraps infographic

I have to admit that we don’t eat a great deal of these items. Maybe about 1/2. But I love the idea of having a continuous supply of the ones we do eat. And have already started a few in my kitchen.

I have left over seeds from last year that I’ve started germinating and am following some gardeners on my social media accounts to gain more knowledge. We do eat a TON of veggies and salads so a good garden would really make a difference, and give us more variety than what we currently have. Our baby carrots that I planted last year are in use now so I’ll definitely replant them. And I am the queen of growing tomatoes. But would really like to be more successful at the vining veggies and fruits. And if I can, I hope to plant some berry bushes and maybe fruit trees (maybe).

If we could eat mostly from our own garden this year and just purchase eggs, chicken, and bacon…that would be amazing. We shall see. (I typically don’t eat as heavy during the summer so a good breakfast plus a salad with protein will be perfect for hot summer days.)

 

 

Yardwork – Ugh!

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The grass is growing again.

I think I could end my post there with all the pain that thought causes me. Don’t get me wrong. I love my gardening and my yard and all that…but the weekly maintenance is a pain. Last year, you all gave me a hard time about continuing to pay for yard service.

And I am trying to do better and take your advice. So I’m taking on my yardwork, and biting the bullet and going to purchase the lawn tools I need. And I dread it all the way around.

I do not look forward to:

  1. Having to maintain the equipment. As good as I am with computers, I am just as bad if not worse with mechnical things.
  2. The weekly chore in the heat of mowing the grass, weedeating and edging, and blowing the leaves and grass.

I am just dreading it! (It is so worth the $50 every other week to have someone else handle this stuff.) But if I’m going to commit to it.

Fix it first

My grass already needs to be mowed. So when April payment gets here, I will find a lawn mower to start. But in the meantime, I have got to fix some issues with my yard.

If you have been around a while, you know I have had a flooding problem. Well, in February, my daughter’s boyfriend came over and helped me clean out the culvert in the back. That has REALLY helped. But I still have a few areas that are of on going concern and have to be address.

The larger hole is about 3 ft deep and almost 5 feet wide, and probably more than that. This same hole has reoccurred 3 times over the course of our almost 7 years here. The city has come out twice to “fix” it. And it just gets bigger and bigger. The other two are places where the cement piping below my side yard is separated and exposed. So last week, my daughter’s boyfriend (actually now ex) was home from spring break. And he graciously came to help me address these areas of concern.

He dug them out a big (pictures) and then we came up with a game plan. (My dad contributed to this plan with his expertise as well.)

For the two, concrete pipe areas, I bought some flashing which we covered with dirt to try to stop water and debris from filling the pipe that is already overflowing when it rains. I was able to find small sheets of the flashing for $8 each at Tractor Supply. Everywhere else required I buy a whole roll for $50-60 that would have also required a special tool to cut it.

Now the larger hole, we dug it out a big more, the filled it with larger “rocks” that he had access to, cost $0, then filled it with dirt. I’m hoping with the rocks in their, it won’t reoccur. So far so good, one rain down and it held.

More plans

I’ve got additional plans for the yard this year. And he has agreed to help me with them when he comes home from school for the summer. (And yes, I did confirm with my daughter that she is okay with this ask.) But I know I won’t have the budget for too much.

But first…a lawn mower. Ugh!

Sidenote: this is the text message I sent to my 3 sons…