Finally yesterday we got a bit of a break in the weather...again. It was in the upper 70's and sunny all day. A few days ago, I brought home some more old RR ties from mom n dads and decided to go ahead and made the new greens bed right next to the other one. Of course, I had to move the compost bin, the solar dehydrator, and condense down the woodpile about 6 feet. I added the 3 new ties to the end of the other four, giving me a second 8x8 bed. There was one untreated landscape timber in the pile I brought home, so I used it in the center to divide the new bed in half, one side for spinach and the other for garlic.
When the kids were still living at home, I had to make a spot for parking for them and for one of our vehicles. (an older lady lived here alone for 30 years and only needed the one spot) I had surrounded the area with RR ties, and on the upper end, wrapped them around a big oak tree, making a flowerbed at the end. Of course, I later decided against using the space for pointless flowers, so I removed the ties to use elsewhere, but left the soil that was in them, leaving just a 6x4x1ft deep mound. This is where I got the soil for the new bed, pulling the now grass from the top and taking it by the wheelbarrow load to fill the bed. YAY for getting rid of a bad spot to mow around and for using the soil for something more usefull.
Of course, as always, I'm working outside with the garage radio blasting to make my day to better. ( yesterdays selection was a beautiful mix of Yngwie Malmsteen, Rainbow, and Rough Cutt). I work much better with music, though the neighbors must imagine I am crazy singing along and having the occasional garden rake guitar solor hahaha. I got pretty warm around 11:00, so again, as always, I took off my shirt which left me with a lovely sunburn by the time I stopped around 5:30 to make dinner. I ALWAYS manage to give myself a monster sunburn on that first hot sunny spring day, so yesterday was no exception. Ah well, it's not too bad this morning.
Today is going to be another trek to my friends farm for more branches and vines for the garden trellis's/oblesques. I thought the pile I had last week would last a while, but of course I was wrong. I had enough to make 2 full ones and have just enough left to make 1 more. Today I plan on filling the truck as much as I possibly can. I made the first one with just 3 legs to see if it was stable enough. I put together the tripod legs, then started wrapping the vines around it from the bottom to the top, then created the wreath at the top, then wrapped the rest of the vines back around in the opposite direction back to the bottom. I hung one of Lisa's small windchimes inside the wreath, and I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the results. I made a second one with four legs and gave it the same wreath at the top, and put a windchime inside it and a little fake birds nest with plastic birds I got at the dollar store. I was just going for a little more of that "cuteness" that people seem to like so when I get some in the yard to sell they might just have that extra *push*. I still say it's worth a shot, people love that cutesy garden stuff lol.