Day 6 Yard Clean-up

Today is our last day of vacation and our last opportunity to spend a whole day in the yard.  Back to work tomorrow...boo.  We got up early this morning to see about the vegetable garden.  After discussing for less than a minute, it was off to the rental place we went...really need to buy a rototiller...  The guy at the rental place looked like Hippie Hal and he made some stupid comment (complete with eye roll and head nod) about me making my husband put in a garden.  If only he knew...the other guy there really was a little better...believed us when we said we knew how to use the thing.  once home, Husband maneuvered that thing around the garden for about an hour and the result was beautiful...yes, freshly turned dirt can be beautiful.  The next plan was to return the tiller and go to the local landscape place and pick up a yard and a half of planting mix.  Cheap dirt, but it has magical nutrients in it for planting gardens etc.

Isn't that just the prettiest dirt ever?  

I had to giggle silently when we pulled back into the rental place.  I'm pretty sure Hippie Hal thought we had broken the machine, since we returned it so soon.  He seemed surprised when he pulled the pull cord and it started right up.  Clean and full of gas.  This is not our first rodeo.  

Really need to own one of these!

After returning the machine, we went to Sierra View Nursery, which is literally right around the corner from our place.  We looked at a really pretty purple flowering plum tree (plan was to come back and get it)  and got a yard and a half of planter's mix.  Got home and unloaded the truck of the soil.  My job was to place the mix I needed on that raised rows I had raked after the rototilling was done.  Did that...Fish helped, although I'm pretty sure she might have preferred to do her Chemistry homework.  After Husband helped us out and got the 4x4s in place for our center walkway, he went back to Sierra View and got the tree.  Took about 7 minutes to plant, since there was already a gaping hole in the ground from the dead maple tree.  This tree is so much nicer and according to both the nursery man and the pot it came in, it is "hardy".  It had better be in this yard!  Nothing weak survives here.

Love this tree!  

Since I was overcome with extreme thirst and serious hunger and was nearly going to pass away from these conditions...okay, I was really hungry and so was everyone else, Husband and Fish went to get food.  While they were on this extremely important mission, I put the soaker hoses out on the raised rows and got the watering situation in place.  Tested it out, and hallelujah, they worked!  Just when I thought I was going to pass out from hunger and my first sunburn of the season, those guys got back. We decided that it was time to just go inside and relax.

Soaker hoses down!

Our center walkway...now we need rocks.

After we ate, we started thinking about the upcoming weather situation forecast for this week.  Not having checked in with Storm Warn 30! lately, we had heard a rumor (through what I consider to be much more reliable sources than the tv news) that there will be a storm rolling in tomorrow night (after volleyball practice, I'm sure...ugh) and it will go through Wednesday.  Then another storm is going to surface Thursday and run through Friday.  Those folks at Storm Warn 30! must be so excited!  Anyway, with that looming in our not so distant future, we thought it best to get the weed block fabric down and cover the remaining planter's mix with a tarp.  The weed fabric took about 20 minutes to put down...a slight relief to my aching muscles and stupid sunburn.  I didn't take a photo of the blocked garden, but I will tomorrow and post it.  It looks so good and professional.  The best part is that keeping the pesky weeds under control should be so much easier this year.  That paired with no grasshoppers...the mansion next door has enough greenery to distract those horrible creatures, so I'm hoping my vegetation will be safe from those beasts this summer.  

Day 6 is now drawing to a close...I pampered my hands and nails when I came in and nursed my sunburn...now it's looking like it's time for bed.  8:19 p.m.?  Um yeah!  :)  Good night!