July 17

Our "mound" continues to develop. Today we took moss from another part of the yard and placed it on the mound area. The moss is pretty cool to work with. Just takes a gentle touch to pull it up in sheets. We gave it a good watering today. Tomorrow we'll try an idea we got online to fertilize it with buttermilk. (!)

The really wonderful aspect of creating our yard space is that it is so dynamic.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Rock on!  We had a ton of rainbow boulders delivered along with some other special rocks.

The rock delivery guy kindly moved the 315 pound
bird bath rock to the ground where we could roll it into place.

We wanted to create a mound with plants and moss.  The base was 6 wheelbarrows full of yard matter from our burn pile. Then, three basalt stones and clay soil came next.

We then covered the mound with gardening soil and put in new plants. Tomorrow we'll plant some moss and cover it all with compost.  

Thursday, July 8

Our Wednesday project was to establish a raised bed garden on the western slope.
This will be a pilot plot to see what can grow with 6-7 hours of sunlight a day. 

First we put down a metal mesh to keep out moles.

Then cardboard to cover and kill anything growing underneath. The cardboard will become compost over time.

then flexible piping and gardening soil,

then anti-deer netting and lettuce, kale, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Deer barricades

Deer resistant doesn't mean deer proof.

The deer have begun munching on our new plants.

So we have put metal fence around the small trees and are working on putting anti-deer netting over other plants.
In the meantime we are erecting barriers to discourage the deer.

Monday,July 6, 2015

Today was window blinds day.  2 guys, 1 hour and all three bedrooms
and the master bathroom had blinds installed in them.

Master bedroom blinds

that can go down or go up.  It will be the first time we will be
able to sleep in the dark since we got back.  

Semi-transparent master bathroom blinds for privacy and yet still be able to see the trees if desired.

and a shade on the north guest bedroom door.  Looks like it will do a good job darkening the room at night.
All the blinds have clever child safety cords.