Raising a bed.

So, with the good weather, (and some time to myself for mischief...), it's time to get some work done.

Due to poor life choices, I have a decent stash of salvage lumber I need to burn thru.  and these bits are just perfect for raised bed parts.

I've been meaning to do this for a while now.

Here's the mandatory "before" snaps.

it's a site on the north side of the Haus, directly under one of the maples.  This spot gets some sun, but will be "dappled shade" once the maples leaf out.  The ground is abused with little topsoil, and nothing actually trying to grow here.  Even the English Ivy/Blackberry/Clematis civilization hasn't tried to colonize here (yet...).




So, I started knocking the bits together.  Nimbus came out to supervise, and enjoy the sun.

After a bit of work, here's the state of play...

Next steps - Try to level the fool thing.  The yard is not square at all here, and I'll need to do some digging on the one corner to make it closer to level.  I also now need to fill the raised bed with soil.


Oh, and some plants.  That might help too.

Some links

Adding in some interesting links here.

Don't know where this one is actually from, but a list of native plant nurseries

http://www.plantnative.org/nd_or.htm

Pondering

This weekend's awesome weather set records, and I managed to get outside and get some stuff done.  With MUCH help from some Friends (Thanks Cindy and Bill!).

The Survivors so far...Ferngully still has a pair of sword ferns in it.  A couple of Oregon Grape seem to be almost hanging in there.  A pot of bulbs that I thought were dead last summer sprouted!  So I threw them into the ground in front of the house.  We'll see how they do.

The lost ones...Include the Adiantum we planted last year in front of the house.  It was fine into fall, but it's dead now.

And, of course, I still have a bumper crop of English Ivy, Blackberries, and that awful vine stuff (Old man's beard?  Morning Glory? Ugh)

And, since it felt like spring, I am looking at garden blogs and thinking green thoughts.  I should lie down until the feeling passes.  Lie down and read some gardening books.

Watering

I want to use xeriscaping and native plants as much as possible, but this year is a really bad drought.  Its dryer than the end of August, and has been since mid-july.

This spring we acquired several native plants.  I was hoping they would have time to get established before summer came on so strong.

The salal is toast.  It dried out and died before June.  It was on the north side of the house.

The ones on the slope were a mixed bag.

Ferngully is where these two fellows went in.

 This gulley is where all the Storm water from the street drains down.  I am a little concerned about this, so in go some native plants to hold the remaining soil down.

There's also a couple of Oregon grape hidden in amongst the weeds.  A thimbleberry and a vine maple round out the cast of characters so far.

This is a wider view of the slope.  Steep, crappy soil, and getting hammered with storm water.

I need to hit this with something to trim down the weeds.  That would open it up for the desirable natives, and make it look better.

But that would also expose them to more sun.

We will see who makes it to September...

Some minor weeding

The east side of the house was looking a little ragged

looking north, up the hill

Looking south, down the hill

This vine stuff was wrapping around the CATV wires.

So I grabbed some tools, and went at it for about 15 minutes.

Looking north, up the hill, after

And, looking south, down the hill, after

This is where I am envisioning a fish-ladder like rain garden to manage the stormwater coming down the hill.  I need to keep it out of the neighbor's yard, and out of my basement.

But for now, I need to clean the brush up.

In medias res

Some friends of mine have suggested the KonMari method of home organization and tidying up.  So I decided to have a swig of the kool-aid.

Before pix.

I started with my underwear.  This picture was taken after I had done just my socks and my underwear.  The paper grocery sacks are a temporary storage method.  The bookcase that has been upcycled into a wardrobe has shelf-spacing that is a little awkward.  I wanted to get started without wasting time looking for the perfect storage containers to keep my crap in.

The below photo is from after completing the project for the evening.  Still to do?  The closet that I am keeping the hanger-bound clothing on.  Laundry is ongoing, and so a lot of stuff will appear as we get done.

Mister Bear is not sure about the whole proceedings, but he should be OK.

Next step?  I need to dive into the closet and see what is in there.  That might have to wait a day or two.

A Friendly tip

A friend sent this to me today.  i think it deserves a reblog.  If you don't like profanity, don't go here.  But this is a SFW blog about cleaning your house.  Think flylady, but for the rest of us...

http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/post/42115227575/emergency-cleaning-unfuck-your-whole-house-in-the