Finishing Up

Day three of the walkway project and it's time to wrap it up!

Today I added the other half of the walkway and a short entrance section.

I had stolen some of the brick pavers from the border of the bed itself.

Those I replaced with landscape timbers.

And then I was done.

No more long, unruly flower bed whose weeding boggled the mind! Instead, four smaller, unruly beds to tackle one at the time, a prospect I could wrap my mind around!!

I know!!

It is hard to enjoy the new wobbly walkway with the LARGER THAN LIFE propane tank

in the picture, but don't worry,

I have a plan.....

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Watch the path of your feet And all your ways will be established.

Proverbs 4:26

Now The Hard Part

Early the next morning, I went out to tackle the hard part of this project-the actual walkways. The flower bed wasn't straight, so placing a walkway that appeared straight was going to be, as my dad says, a little tester.

I used 10 ft. treated 2x4s to lay out the path and then stepped back to check for straightness. I had purposely refrained from bringing a square or level out to this project. These circumstances were going to call for a whole lot of "eye-balling".

When it looked straight, I set the boards with stakes, added sand and landscape fabric, and started laying the pavers.

Worn and wobbly- present and accounted for!

Getting hot; time to go in.

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

The time will come when winter will ask you what you were doing all summer. 

~Henry Clay

Divide And Conquer

That was it!!!

Take this long, overgrown flower bed that I couldn't even wrap my mind around, and divide it into four smaller, more manageable beds!

And I would do it with a lovely brick walk way!! (These are the kinds of revelations that make James slowly turn to look at me with raised eyebrows and doubt-filled eyes.) I had never built a brick walkway, but I had built a brick patio. Sure my dad was there to help me and this time I would be on my own, but, hey, why not. Besides, James and I had just visited Porches restaurant in Wesson.

The brick walkways around this old, country home turned favorite lunch spot, were worn, wobbly, and charming. Surely my best effort would at least duplicate worn and wobbly.

So I started with a center medallion.

There was a big stack of pavers up by the pole barn, and not wanting to look a gift-horse in the mouth, I planned on using a bunch of them.

Then I framed the medallion with treated 2x4s and called it a day.

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

An "unemployed" existence is a worse negation of life than death itself.

~José Ortega y Gasset

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

~Elbert Hubbard

Another Week, Another Project!

Here you go.....

This week's problem, umm, I mean project.

When we purchased Pine Cone Lane, I inherited lots of great flora from the gardener that lived here before us, but I also inherited this nightmare of a flower bed! It is about 40 ft. long and ranges from 6-8 ft. wide, and it has been the bane of my existence since we moved in!

I'm pretty sure I wrote about this monstrosity last year at which time I boasted of adding perennials to the bed, doing some quick weeding, and having the whole thing under control in no time. Ha! Pride goeth before a fall.

I did add some perennials and they have come back this year if you can find them beneath the OUT OF CONTROL weeds and briars. When I say briars, I mean the kind that rendered Sleeping Beauty's castle unapproachable!!

This flower bed and how to defeat it, kept me up at night!! At one time I decided that I should just douse it with Round Up, till it under, cover it with black plastic, and send for a priest to exorcise it.

But remember when God said He would spare Sodom or Gomorrah it there was even one good man in the city? Well, in the end, I treated this bed the same way. Here are the 'residents that saved the city' so to speak...

Then the solution came to me!!!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Night time is really the best time to work. 

All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep. 

~Catherine O'Hara

Sunday Schoolism #25: Find Me

Approach each new day with desire to find Me. Before you get out of bed, I have already been working to prepare the path that will get you through this day. There are hidden treasures strategically placed along the way. Some of the treasures are trials, designed to shake you free from earth's shackles. Others are blessings that reveal My Presence: sunshine, flowers, birds, friendships, answered prayer. I have not abandoned this sin-wracked world; I am still richly present in it.

Search for deep treasure as you go through this day. You will find Me all along the way.

                                                                                    Sarah Young

                                                                                    Jesus Calling

Wrapping It Up

So the wee vegetable garden is done for the year. I'll give some updates as the growing season progresses, but before we move onto something else (something far more sinister), I'd like to give a shoutout to my talented project friend, Liz. Here is a picture of her latest project and isn't it great!

And in a past post I reminded you that it is always worth your time and effort to attend estate sales, and here is the proof - a wonderful, rickety $17 garden bench!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Weeds are nature's graffiti.

~J.L.W. Brooks

But make no mistake:  the weeds will win; nature bats last.

  ~Robert M. Pyle

And Last, But Not Least

And last, but not least, the new vegetable garden's gate needed an arbor to hold the New Dawn climbing rose already inching its way up the fence.

This was one of those quick projects that come to you at 2:00 in the morning and you can hardly wait for the sun to come up so that you can get started. There was plenty of scrap wood in the pole barn so, happily, this project didn't even require a trip to Lowes!

First a really long 2x4 was cut in half and screwed to the posts on either side of the gate.

Then the cross boards were cut and attached to the top.

Quick and easy!!

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and there is no known way to kill it that does not involve nuclear weapons. 

~Dave Barry

Intruders

Now, every garden needs a fence to keep intruders out; those that can actually be kept out (dogs and rabbits) and those that we pretend to keep out (raccoons and deer).

Because I am in the middle of a SheShed project, a nightmarish cutting-garden pathway, a porch addition, and backyard landscaping job, I only want to do a little bit of gardening in a tiny, wee garden this year. However I don't want to rip down this year's fence and start over next year, so this year's fence needs to be modular and movable so that the wee garden can grow as the years go by.

  And how do you build a modular garden fence, you ask??

Feed lot panels!!!!!

There are different types of feed lot panels- goat, pig, cow. They each have a different sized square in the wire. I used goat panels at Turkey Creek Garden to make my chicken yard. Here at Pine Cone Lane, I'm using cow panels that are 50" tall and 16' long. They are easily cut with wire cutters.

I added 1" chicken wire to the bottom to guard against rabbits. 

The front fence that contains the gate is permanent, so I attached the panels to the existing wooden fence posts and only had to add one additional post.  The side and back panels I attached to metal posts so that I can move them next year as I increase the size of the garden.

The metal post on the right will be replaced with a wooden post next year. Then the panel attached to the right of it will swing out to elongate the side of the garden.

When the garden reaches its permanent size, these fence panels can be finished off with boards to make it look a bit more professional.

But with the current trends leaning to rustic farmhouse, I might just leave well enough alone!

I added soaker hoses to the beds and called it a day. 

Here are a few additional pics to give you a better idea of the size of this wee, tiny garden.

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill

except for learning how to grow in rows. 

~Doug Larson

I Said I Wouldn't....

I said I wouldn't garden this year since I still had a couple of back-yard projects left undone, but then I went to Katherine's house and watched Olive eating cherry tomatoes by the handful.  'Oh, if only I had put in the garden', I thought, 'Olive would be able to pick her own cherry tomatoes, and wouldn't she love that.'

So literally the next thing I knew,  a few veggies, some Black Cow, and a few feed lot panels had hopped into the back of the garden truck, and there was no turning back.

James bought me this old Ford last year to use as a garden truck. It swallows 8 ft. landscape timbers with ease and beneath the tool box provides a shady ride home from the nursery for plants.

If you'll remember, there was a 50 ft. x 100 ft. garden on the property and I had done a tiny bit of gardening (3 rows) in it last fall. But this time around, I wanted to start what would eventually become the permanent garden- I just wanted to take it in increments. 

In January, I started moving plants from spots that were wrong for them to better locations. I relocated lantana, spirea, forsythia, roses, and daylilies to what would become the flower beds surrounding the nonexistent veggie garden. So I decided to start my spur-of-the-moment garden by building beds around them. 

I know this was the absolute wrong way to go about this, but I had no choice!

The plants needed to be moved in January and so I moved them- bed or no bed.

I used this product to edge the beds. It came in 30 ft. pieces and was super easy to install.

Crazy, right?! Building beds next to a fence that doesn't exist!

The only things remaining from the previous owner was the gate and a few random fence posts.

I covered the grass with newspaper, and then the newspaper with mulched leaves.

I'll add soil and compost to build these beds up as I go along, but for now this is good enough.

Slowly, but surely, the beds began to take shape....

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

What is a weed? 
A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Even the richest soil, if left uncultivated will produce the rankest weeds. 
~Leonardo da Vinci

MIA

😳

Forgive me, dear friend, for being MIA!!

Things sort of went off the rails here, but are now back on track. 

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Every day has a little bit of beauty and a little bit of chaos.

~Tanisha

Life is not a final. It's daily pop quizzes.

~Author Unknown

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.

~Grandma Moses

They're Following Me

If you have ever been out in your yard enjoying or working in the pleasant cool of the morning and had your brain gradually become conscious of the incessant "one, two, three, four"   "one, two, three"   "one, two, three, four" chirp of a bird, then they are following you, too!!!!

Who?

The tufted (Chinese water torture) titmouse!!!!!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Tufted+Titmouse+Call+Song&&view=detail&mid=33CBF5A4EFAC6A7CBBEC33CBF5A4EFAC6A7CBBEC&&FORM=VRDGAR

They are tenacious little singers. They can keep it up all morning!!!

I was hoping they were native to Louisiana only, but, no!!!

I guess earplugs are in my gardening future.

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

Dawn-giddy birds chirp as if every morning is a special occasion. Wise, wise birds.

~Terri Guillemets

Sunday Schoolisms #24: Don't Be Afraid

Trust Me, and don't be afraid. Many things feel out of control. Your routines are not running smoothly. You tend to feel more secure when your life is predictable. Let Me lead you to the rock that is higher than you and your circumstances. Take refuge in the shelter of My wings, where you are absolutely secure.

When you are shaken out of your comfortable routines, grip My hand tightly and look for growth opportunities. Instead of bemoaning the loss of your comfort, accept the challenge of something new. I lead you on from glory to glory, making you fit for My kingdom. Say yes to the ways I work in your life. Trust Me, and don't be afraid.

                                                                                                    Jesus Calling

                                                                                                    Sarah Young

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid...

(Isaiah 12:2)

From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint;

lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

(Psalm 61:2)

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer.

Want to know more?

https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/5-facts-about-the-national-day-of-prayer

Until tomorrow,

Shelli

No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it,

but he suffers from it.

~Guy H. King