I Guess This Was A Learning Year

POOP! The veggie patch has all been eaten, I was able to save 4 radish roots - not even plump. Something also ate ALL the flowers in the wild flower garden. I feel like posting a help wanted ad - Wanted, strong person that's willing to help for NO money and unless the garden works, NO food. LOL.

Rewards in the Wild Flower Garden

Every morning I like to do a little walk about to see how the plants and trees are doing. Its just an enjoyable 15 minutes or so to say, "Good Morning," to the garden. This morning I was greeted by a beautiful red flower. Its little successes like this that make me feel rewarded for the hard work I've done.

I have little white flowers, little orange flowers, little yellow flowers
and one beautiful red flower :-)

Here's my beautiful red flower :-)

2 Little Spring Flowers

These 2 little Spring Flowers were found in the Garden area. Yesterday I moved them to Wildflower Garden #1 and put them in an area that had not sprouted. A wonderful bonus was that I also moved a worm, lol. I hope he / she likes its new home. I'll be moving more things in as I see them sprout. It's best to have Wildflowers that grow naturally in your area, rather than trying to grow something you don't know.

By the way, the fence around the Veggie Patch is STILL not done, lol.

Over these next 2 days we have high wind warnings so not much is going to get done. They are calling for sustained winds of 25 - 35 mph with gusts over 50 mph. We are praying for rain. It seems strange to me that just 2 States away they are dealing with flooding while we are dealing with drought and high wind (fire danger). I wish there was a way they could send some of their water this way.

Photo Update of the Garden Project

Yesterday I was able to get some pictures of the Garden Project, enjoy.

In The Veggie Patch
Baby Radish

Baby Lettuce

Wildflower Garden Area #1
Wildflower Garden Area #1 is starting to really green out.

This little flower came to visit - I need to learn its name.

Bonsai Oak Overlook
In this picture you can really see how Bonsai Oak is bent.
I can't wait till the buds turn into leaves.

Prepackaged Mullein?
PVC pipe for inserting fence posts. This Mullein decided it was a good place to grow.

Baby Yarrow

One of the little garden areas is a Corner Garden that my Mother created many years ago. Those are Scruff Oak in the center, she transplanted some Yucca, encircled the space and that was as far as she got. The green behind the Scruff Oak is a Cederwood (just a Bush now) and the tall green way in the back is a Ponderosa Pine. Over the years some Yarrow came to play in the little area.

Here's a closer look at the Baby Yarrow that came to visit.

At this stage of life they look so much like a little fern.

Snow In May

What happened to all the work going on in the Mountain Garden Project? Snow happened.

And that's what living on the mountain is all about, ha ha.

So right after all the great little seeds were put into the ground - we had a few days of snow. On one hand it's good, all the garden areas got a good soaking as the snow melted. However on the other hand, I'm afraid a few things may be lost.

Today - May 5th - the weather is wonderful and I'm heading out to take a good look around.

Spring Is Just Arriving

At 7,800 feet above sea level Spring comes a little later - and that's a good thing because I have my work cut out for me. I arrived on the Mountain late night April 12, spent a few days unpacking, and this morning I had to head out to see how the Mountain Garden Project faired over the winter. The first thing that stuck me were all the deer tracks on the paths. It looks to me like the deer kept to the paths as they walked through. Below is a picture of a small area, but these tracks were totally up and down all the paths.

Also up and down the paths are a lot of plants - mostly Mullein. It looks like I didn't get them out as well as I thought I did.

And this is my first Spring Flower! Actually, I LOVE Dandelions.

This was the BEST find. That's little green plants coming up in Wild Flower Garden #1. If you'd like to see the work that was put into this area click here. Even if it's all weeds, I'm happy because something is actually growing.

PROGRESS with My Families Help

My Son was one of the biggest helpers I could have ever had. He's a hard working, good looking man and he moved more wheelbarrow loads of rocks than I could have done in a year. Thanks to his hard work two paths really took shape.

This is the path that goes around the workshop foundation.
It is now all marked ready for sand.


This is the path to Bonsai Oak Overlook.

My Granddaughter was in charge of sand sifting
and wheelbarrow riding (both very important jobs).

See the nasty mess on the right? Those barrels were for a water
storage system (that never exactly happened). One of my
Brothers helped me clean the area up. AND, below the mess
is REALLY good dirt! I think this will be an herb area.

My other Brother helped me get a perfect circle of rock around
Bonsai Oak Overlook. Notice how the rock slowly increases
in size? This is to account for the grade of the land.

My Mother bought a bag of wildflower seed - specifically for
this altitude and this climate. Those seeds were planted on
Oct. 20, 2010

Many hands make - lighter - work. I am deeply thankful for the help.

Wildflower Garden Area #1

It became quickly apparent that I couldn't finish the 'creation' of the garden area in this first year. This is a project that will continue - most likely - the rest of my life. As much as I love doing this, that thought is perfectly okay. I scaled down my wild fantasies and decided to focus on one small area, and spread the seeds in Fall. My Mama needs something beautiful and growing - so this shows the work that went into creating Wildflower Garden Area #1.

In my last post (Inspecting The Area) I showed the very first flat spot that my Father created on the land (in about 1980). It was made as a level place to put a grill. I decided that the flat spot would be perfect for a bird bath and possibly a potted plant (something for Butterflies). In front of this area is where I'm building Wildflower Garden #1. It's just a little area but it really needs some color. I started by placing rocks around the area to mark it.

The next step was moving local clay into the first layer of rocks to fill in holes. This would help to keep good dirt in stopping some of the water wash that happens with our torrential rains (when it does rain, it rains hard). This clay will pack in with the next rain.

After the clay had packed in a bit the LONG process of sifting had to start. This took several days of sitting in the dirt and playing with the sifter. Why did I feel I needed to do this? First I wanted to dig down about 1 - 2 feet removing the huge rocks. The area was also full of pine needles, pine cones, and many little rocks. I also found a barrette I lost 30 years ago, ha ha.

Keeping a healthy amount of little rocks is important up here to keep the soil aerated. I also gave many, many worms a good home. Mom loves fishing and she had some worms in a container that she wasn't going to use. Instead of just dumping them out, they went into this area (and I did feed them). After this ground was sifted I mulched in local grasses, plants, and coffee grounds. From there several buckets of dirt were added and on Oct. 20 the wildflower seeds would be planted with a few prayers for Spring germination.

This boo boo was the end result of all that work.

From beginning to end of this little part of the project was July 15 - August 09, 2010.