The rain keeps me out of the garden, but not out of the library gardening books. According to the BBC gardening by the month book, now is the time to do cuttings. There's a hedge nearby that has a golden fuzz on it. I've seen it in catalogs...I wonder if they'd let me get some cuttings off it. I'll have to wait until littlest is a bit more cold-hardy though. He's been coughing all week. Sigh.

It's also time to collect seeds along the sidewalks. I got some seeds off the local school's bushes last Fall, and they're flowering in pots this year in my garden--a blue flower bush.

I've been adding on to the sprinklers for my side garden. I've been sod-killing all summer, so hopefully I can plant next year. Some areas need more amendment though--it's all Geneva slag and sand.

I want to add roses to the back corner where foot traffic likes to come through, but it needs some nourishing and turning over. It's sandy and under some pines, and probably has slag buried below as well, and even if I borrow my neighbor's pickax again, I don't really want to hack through slag. I'll work on building it up.

And then there's the flower bed I'm starting in front of the pine trees where the grass always dies in the heat of the summer. I'm putting all my sod from around the hedges and the paths there, but it still isn't shapely enough or deep enough yet. I did put sprinklers in already there though, so it's a matter of depth, not of water. I'll put that flowering bush there once I get it healthy enough, soil-wise.

And I have to redesign the sprinkling system for the vegetable garden.

So I guess it's okay that it's been raining all week. With a list that long, it's nice to have a break.

Sunflowers

We're growing sunflowers for a science project--measuring it's growth week-by-week. A nearby house had a circle of sunflowers in their flower spot in the front yard last year. It was so artistic and dramatic compared to all the tame and repeated flower beds in other yards. Of course, ours will look a bit like a farm rather than a city lot, but I think that's a bit of the flavor I crave--the wildness as well as the cottage garden.

volunteers

Don't you love volunteers!

I don't have any this year, being the first full gardening year in this spot, but I received some pepper starts today from a friend, from a pepper she composted last year!

And she gave me a soft, delicious lettuce too, which was new for her last year, and she let one go to seed and planted a whole patch this year from last year's plant, which I will do over the next cycle as well.

I still have seeds from deadheading at our last garden, and I'm looking forward to seeing which plants will thrive here (I know some will have finicky roots--our last place wasn't friendly to basil, for some reason). But I have to plant them in weed-free spots. After they come up I can transplant to less ideal locations when they will have strength to battle the weeds and win. My nice garden space is becoming premium space. As usual, I overestimate the area I have to plant. I'm already planning where I will expand for next year!

A local grocery had English cucumbers on sale today. I'm going to see if they have any viable seeds inside to grow for this year. The Japanese prefer the seedless variety (which may make it hard to produce :), they make pickles just by salting and draining them overnight? longer? Ahem, I am the daughter of an Idaho potato farmer/dairy farmer. I am not a gourmet chef. Unlike the Son of a Dietitian who I married (whether or not that is a curse or praise depends on the tone of voice...)

Killing sod without backpain

Our hedges are suffocating, and there is a lot of digging to do to take out all the sod by hand. BYU recycling bundles and sells their newspapers to an outside company, and though they recommended elementary schools as a good place to get newspaper, the newspaper has colored ink, which has heavy metals in it--not good for the environment.

But DH got us boxes from work when we moved, so I've taken him up on it again. I covered the offensive sod with cardboard, hide the visual offense with grass clippings, and soak.

I figure if it doesn't biodegrade, when the sod is dead, I can run over the remaining cardboard with the lawnmower and make mulch.