June 9, 2008

fter I got off work last night, (I only worked 8 hours yesterday!! WooHoo!), I got some topsoil from a local dealer and filled the back of my pickup. Bucketful by bucketful, I drug it into the greenhouse from the truck. I think it looks right smart in there!  It will look nicer after I get gravel in. Actually as I type this, maybe I will use stone and sand. That will look really nice. I have a bunch of slate here that I can use up for this project. I hope to get my plants in the beds in the next couple of days. 
 

I woke up at a quarter to 6 am yesterday to get another two times around tilled on the garden. I am so glad I did, as the skies were black and there was nothing but thunderstorm after thunderstorm today.   My chives, walking onions, horseradish, peonies, West Virginia garlic and many other things are blooming or soon will in my flowerbeds. I have made a point of not eating my West Virginia garlic for 3 summers and this year I think I will have enough bulb and top set to plant for next year to be able to have a harvest for culinary use.

Before work yesterday, after tilling, I also cleaned out the root cellar for its Spring Cleaning, took some dead spuds and garbage from the greenhouse, like broken pots (and ones which would shatter from having too much UV from the sun) and took a truckload of debris to the dump. I feel bad about it, but all in all, I think I have less than a black garbage bag of garbage a month.  In an average year, "DTTR" has less than a black garbage sack of waste and most of it is recyclable.  I am hanging onto the pots for a bit, but I may put my large pots on Free Cycle or a Share Shed as I am not convinced I need them any longer. 

This afternoon after work, I got to put in my plants finally. I am about a month late getting them into the greenhouse, but I really wanted to get the raised beds done before planting out. The plants do not look any worse for the wear. 

The middle bed has the watermelon I try to get to grow each year. I have been so close to harvesting one so many times, even when I lived in the apartment and I had 30 row feet of garden on my patio there. Now I just grow them to see **if** one year I will succeed for fun. The challenge is on!! The middle bed will also hold my Yugoslavian Red Butterhead lettuce (it is my favorite lettuce in the world) as well as some more herbs. Love my Basils doncha know. 

Picture Above: Finally, I got the plants in the raised beds in the greenhouse. In the bed against the wall, I have 5 kinds of tomatoes, 6 kinds of peppers, celery and a butternut squash.

Picture Below: Some of the tomatoes and celery. 

Taking tally on my New Year's Resolutions to see how I am doing, since it is the 6th month mark...

z I also want to get a potting bench done. Done.

z Get back into my yoga routine each day to help my back out. On Hold. I was actually told by a fitness trainer that I still might want to hold off on Yoga yet and told me of some other exercises which may suit me better at this point. 

z I also resolve to finish those three socks which do not have mates yet. On Hold. I figure I have September, October, November and December to get them done. And maybe some more.

z Tackle the spare room to get it in order again, so my guests do not have to sleep on the living room futon anymore. On Hold. Soon however, now that I can back my truck up to the front door. I did finally get the mud room done a week or so ago however and it was just as bad. 

z In my job, I want to be able to use the position to help as many people as possible. Done and ongoing. At least once or twice a week I have people come up in the street/store hugging &  thanking me for what I have done for their cause or concerns to bring it to the public eye. It makes me feel good to be able to help.

z Five minute repair jobs around here once a week.  Done and ongoing. It may not be every week, but I am staying conscience of looking for little odd jobs which need to be done. And I do accomplish  them.