Once again it is time for the somewhat annual spring planting and gardening Episode at the New House Blog, and as usual every one of our defined gardens has been updated and/or added to. As part of this garden updating we encountered a tricky root, and found some long lost garden sentinels. Additionally, we dug up a pre-Bishopian artifact, dealt with a water leak, and acquired a couple of new tools. As a bonus, there may be some subtle (or non-subtle) hints and clues regarding another not-quite-complete project that we will be discussing in an upcoming Episode. See if you can figure out what the project was. :)
Garden 1: Food Garden
We'll get things started with our food garden. Every spring we clear out the weeds and remnants of the previous spring's food garden and we prepare the ground for fresh planting.
This is the freshly-prepped ground for our 2016 food garden. The green plant you see is our strawberry plant that has been going strong since 2012. One change you may notice is that the catnip is gone. We have moved the catnip from the garden to a spot near our blueberry bushes, so as to provide easier access to the catnip.
This year our strawberry plant got some new friends in the form of some hula berry plants. Yes, hula berry. We had never heard of them before, either. While approaching a local Home Depot to purchase some garden soil we saw signs for hula berries, so we picked up a four-pack (they were only available in four-packs). Each four-pack consists of three hula berry plants and one red strawberry plant that is a pollinator for the other three.
Here you can see the new plants surrounding the established plant. Hula berries are supposed to be white, and the taste is supposed to be similar to pineapple. One week after planting they seem to be thriving.
Other plantings so far include: various lettuces - including deer tongue and rosette tatsoi, persian cucumbers, crenshaw melons, honeydew melons, and blue Hopi Azul corn. Still to be planted, as of this writing, are potatoes, more lettuces, and onions.
Garden 1b: Discoveries
While prepping the garden for planting we made some unexpected discoveries. First up was the discovery of a substantial tree root of some kind. We were surprised that we had not encountered this root before, and it was in the way so it had to go.
We've battled roots before, but they were closer to the surface and not quite this entrenched. How could we get this root out of the ground, or at least remove the section that was interfering with our garden? There was no room to swing an ax or pickax, and it would have been a prodigious endeavor dig a hole large enough to permit ax/pickax swinging. Likewise, there was no room for a traditional tree saw. What to do?
I had in my mind the idea that maybe there existed an attachment for my DeWalt cordless drill that would make it a circular saw - a kind of circular saw bit. Alas, such a thing does not seem to exist. Time for a new tool! After a thorough search of a local Home Depot (not the same one where we saw the hula berries), and after questioning a HD staff member, I discovered the tool that would make short work of the offending root.
I chose the pictured Dremel Multi-Max MM45 oscillating tool, and as you can see it made quick work of the root. I had no idea such a tool existed, but now that I've seen it in action I can think of a lot of other potential uses. Yes, both of the pictured blades were used.
This is the new view into the hole. So far none of the local trees has shown any signs of trauma or loss of vitality.
Discoveries 2
The next discovery items are the result of a family visit about two years ago. Said family left some garden guardians, seen in
this Episode, and at some point they were missing and presumed lost, but we have uncovered them again and restored them to their rightful place of guardianship.
They have lost some of their original color, but otherwise appear to be in good shape.
Discoveries 3
This third discovery takes us into BYA (Back Yard Archaeology) territory, for it seems to be another pre-Bishopian artifact.
As you can see, it appears to be some sort of rusted metal washer, about 1" in diameter.
This is the reverse side. We don't know why the pre-Bishopians buried this washer, and we still have not been able to determine why they used so much rusted metal.
New Team Member
Welcome to our newest team member. Meet Hatch. Hatch is...well, Hatch seems to be a useful combination of hatchet, sickle, machete, edger, and saw. We have found plenty of use for Hatch, mainly involving weeding.
Garden 2; Cactus Garden
At least one of us is under the impression that our cactus garden is open to continuous expansion and enlargement, and to that end we have added a second new cactus this year (the other new cactus, the eve's needle crest can be seen in
this Episode).
This is our new San Pedro Cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi f. mostruosa). According to one web site, this is a very rare variety of San Pedro cactus.
And this is the overview of our cactus garden as it is now. We're happy to report that everything survived the wet winter, and we're seeing a lot of new growth already.
Garden 3: Pottery Garden
We have refreshed and replanted our pottery garden, as usual.
This picture is from last April, but it looks pretty much the same, so I didn't feel the need to take a new picture. For herbs this year we have basil, parsley and thyme. For peppers we have yellow, green and red bells, along with super chili peppers and Big Jim peppers.
Water Leak
We recently discovered a water leak among the piping at the top of our water heater, and we thought it best to stop said leak. Fortunately, it was a small drip and not a gushing fountain.
Here you can see where the water was dripping. These pipes, the shutoff valve, and the expansion tank were installed brand-new when the water heater was installed. As such they were still under warranty, so we called up our friends at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and asked them to come and take care of this. They repaired the leak and flushed our water heater during the same visit.
This is the offending assembly. Our theory is that it was not adequately tightened when it was originally installed, which allowed the leak to develop over time.
Looking into the offending assembly you can see some nice build-up. This is part of why we use a water purifier for our drinking water.
Garden 4: Succulent Garden
We had a couple of supposedly-professional work crews out at our New House doing a large, complicated project, and one of said crews carelessly trampled several of our succulents and some of our asparagus ferns. Our succulents are hardy plants, but we lost several and had to replace them. We decided not to just do straight replacement - we chose new and different succulents for added variety and beauty. The asparagus ferns were straight replacements, however.
Replacing a trampled coppertone stonecrop is this beautiful Sedum Comixtum (top left) and a Crassula Pagoda plant (lower right). The comixtum should be a spreading plant that will provide ground covering. The pagoda should grow tall and straight.
In this photo you can see two damaged succulents and two new. At bottom center is a damaged perle von nurnberg, which is slowly recovering and growing again. Just above you you can see the damaged black prince, which is also recovering and growing. At the left of the photo you can see a stalk from one of our damaged kokino aeoniums.
This closeup shows one of our new Crassula Marginata Variegatas. We planted three of these beautiful little guys, and we hope they provide plentiful ground cover.
Looking between the stalks of a Madagascar pencil cactus shows another carssula marginata variegata (middle), a Rainbow Elephant Bush (portulacara afria variegata)(bottom), and a Green Jelly Bean (sedum pachyphytum)(top right).
Here is a better view of the green jelly bean.
My favourite of the new succulents is the beautiful Pen Wiper (kalanchoe marmorata), also known as Audrey 3 (center bottom). The other new succulent in this picture is the Lavender Steps (senecio crassissimus). Audrey 3 replaces a stopmed-on kokino aeonium, and the lavender steps are more of an addition than a direct replacement.
Have you figured out what the other big project was?
bIsh
