Reworking a garden area

Good morning Folks,

Hope you are having a good week so far. Our weather has been perfect, although we really could use some rain. Grass is crispy, and I have to hand water things I want to live, often.

Lately I noticed the awning that is over my potting bench is turning down on the side where it’s attached to the pine tree that came down in hurricane Wilma.  It’s been 6 years since then so gravity and rotting has taken a toll on what’s left of that tree. I told DH what I had noticed, and after looking at pictures of the tree in 2007 when we started working on that area,  DH suggested taking the tree out after lunch, so that’s what we did.  It took about an hour and a half.

The garden that is to the south side of potting area where this leaning pine was, has been somewhat neglected as the heat of last summer made me feel ill and my garden muse had deserted me back there. We are going to fence off the back/north side of this area and make a new entry on the driveway/east side.  Then I should feel a lot better about being back there because hopefully the neighbor’s dog won’t pay me as much attention with another layer of fencing between him and me.

This is how the shed looked right after Wilma

Here’s the start of new garden area in January 2007. The roof of shed was repaired along with a new sidewall. On the other side of the privacy fencing at the back of the property is where the ‘pit bull’ lives that slams himself against the fence and growls and snarls when we are back there.  Needless to say, that has taken the joy of potting anything up back there.

March 2007

2008

The stainless steel sink was dumped curbside by a restaurant that was remodeling many, many years ago. It is heavy about two feet deep by ten and a half feet long.

This is after we put up the awning.

The area is a wreck back there right now, and we are working on reclaiming this space for me. The new entry will be on the side where the donkey/cart planter is.

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Below is the first picture taken Sunday before I trimmed the cape honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, morning glories, and an Old Blush or Bon Silene rose, not sure which, from the fencing. Then DH unfastened the tree from the awning, strapped a strong cable to the tree, hooking it over the hitch on his van, while I pushed up the end of the awning with a 2”x2” 8’ board, so that he could pull the tree up out from under the awning. Good grief, this is embarrassing, look how bad it had gotten.

The next series of pictures are in sequence.

We put it beside the caravan’s garden fencing for the time being and will move it later. DH took off the outer decaying bark and the core of the tree is very hard pine and he wants to keep it and use it for some project or other.  Heart pine wood is really hard and supposed to be impervious to termites. We have it up on blocks.

Tork is checking it out and has already used it as another one of her outdoor scratching posts.

I cleaned up all the debris and there it sits.

This next picture is right after I had done the first clean up once we had the thing out of the ground.  There is still wood and roots there, but we’re just going to leave that for now and let nature run it’s course. 

Below you can see that I added another layer of bricks and tightened up the bed. I did this Monday afternoon.

In this bed there are three wonderful aloes with wide, fat leaves which get a stalk of yellow flowers when in bloom. DH found this aloe dumped curbside a year or so ago. Little ones are coming up around the main one.  There are also two blue agave plants, which are small, several spreading callisia fragrans, or basket plant, plus gobs and oodles of mom-of-millions, and other assorted growing things, weeds included.  I look forward to working on this bed making it pretty and presentable.  Right now it stinks. I look forward to the cape honeysuckle and the roses taking over the fencing again.  Besides Old Blush or Bon Silene, there is also Prosperity thriving back here.

That’s it for this little project for now.  I’ll keep you posted with it’s progress.

Thanks for looking.

FlowerLady

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Half the interest of a garden

is the constant exercise of the imagination. 

Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897