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.

Weed?

This is what we saw today, ragamuffin Little Red-Haired Girl and I, as we walked along our favored path.
Since she lost part of her fur coat, the limp seems to have subsided.
Coinkydink?
Cross fingers.

"Come on, Mom."
She was ready to go, go, go...

As we started down the alley, she started looking left, which makes me look left.
It was our friend, Solomon, doing work in a neighborhood yard. Solomon is everywhere. He does everything, and I guess he's Irish now.
I think he just wants a kiss...

He was soldering a fence and jumped right up to greet us. When I asked to take his picture, he went and posed in front of his soldering tools, but I can't get that picture to load with him standing up.

When we got home, we admired our own beautiful nature stories.

"A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance."

There are some nuisances I don't mind sprouting in my yard.
We (this area) have a prolific tree that sprouts up everywhere. Many people don't like them. For years I too pulled them out thinking they were a nuisance. As the years went by and I studied them more, (as well as when the electric bill started to look unmanageable), I realized how fast they grow, how sturdy they are, what great shade they make, and if they get too numerous....dah, wood for the fireplace! dah!
Girl needs to get a clue.
It's near impossible to grow a garden in the heat of the summer here; but people who have mesquite trees, often garden in raised beds under them. Perfect.
So I'm no longer pulling these little nuisances up. I may very well be living within a wood someday.
That will suit me just fine.

Oh, and they are deciduous, so winter the sun can come through.
Can a wood be deciduous?
I'm not sure if these are them or not, but I think they are. They grow everywhere here. Shaded alleys, yeah.