Saturday, March 17, 2012

Saturday, In The Park

There were two more fruit trees that needed a dose of fish emulsion fertilizer.
I'm heating the water now to shower the smell out of my nostrils. It embeds itself forever wherever it splashes and has been following me around all day. The plants that got a splash said, "Ah, what a lovely smell."

Earlier this year before LRHG hung up her fur coat
After feeding Little Red-Haired Girl, myself and Orphan Annie Whitesocks, I donned a pair of latex disposable gloves, took tin pale in hand and went "Easter egg" hunting, (pooper scooper duty).
Little RHG has been following OAW to stealth out her drop spots and has been beating me to the punch. I know. She cannot tell a lie. Huff, huff....ewe! Stinky face. EWE!!! I have tried putting OAW's litter boxes up in the back of the bed of my old truck where she lollygags around all day,
but nooooo, she has to go wherever I have freshly tilled the dirt.
So, I am trying to out cat the cat. Out dog the dog. Chicken wire everywhere.

The two leaf bins above were tackled after the Easter egg hunt and fish emulsion. They have been sitting for quite some time, one longer than the other.
The older one was heavy with moisture. It was hard to pull the wire off. Once I managed to pull it off and turn it over, the leaves on the bottom were perfect for mulch in the bed I built a few months back. It's been full of sandy soil and not conducive to planting.
I pitch forked and shoveled it into the trash bin and dragged it over to the planter. (the wheelbarrow was embedded in my web of building materials, too far away and too much trouble to get to.)
I moved the empty wire round over to the corner near the road where there are missing fence slats thinking once I plant it with something, it will cover the bare spot.
I re-loaded all the dry, under-composted leaves from the top of that bin to its bottom and then went to tackle the second bin.
It fell apart in layers. I took the dry leaves over to the first bin, the grassy mesh I layered on the bottom of the second bin and then I put the not-completely-composted other leaves on the top of the first bin because it is bigger and can have more new leaves added. The nearly-composted leaves from the second bin, I put on the top of the second bin and watered them both to a spongy saturation.

I forgot to distribute the ash, but there is always tomorrow.




I did give several plants a little of the heavy mulch, rich and ready...


But most of it went to the planter. Then I threw more dirt on top, raked it around and watered it in.
Now for a nitrogen fixing cover crop. Any suggestions for hot, hot Arizona?
The little trees that will be a wood


The little leafy stems in the picture above are some of the trees I mentioned that sprout up everywhere here like weeds. I let them have their way as I envision myself living in a wood someday. The only ones that don't survive are the ones directly in a walking path. Even those I try to sidestep.
Anyway, it was a wonderful, achy, breaky my back, Saturday in my Park day.
I didn't water much as we are expecting a big, big storm tomorrow. Did I say snow? Can't tell by these pictures. That's the desert for you.

3 comments:

  1. I'm using leaves and dried grass for mulch this year. I have lots of live oak leaves. I tried to get some straw or grass hay for a little change but none is available that I can find. All the hay went to Texas where prices are even higher than here because of the drought.
    I have one 10 foot row left to plant.
    Every year it gets easier as I learn. I'm still in that area between 0 and 1 on the learning curve.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're an inspiration to me. I'm way behind you on the learning curve, but I love every sun drenched minute of being outside.

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  2. Here's a great website for organic gardening enthusiasts
    http://eartheasy.com/blog/category/organic-garden/

    ReplyDelete