Outside outside outside!

It just calls my name. A real child of the fifities I guess. We were locked out of the house to play in those days, and forced to entertain ourselves outside, so whether it was early training or natural propensity, I love to be outdoors. It is always my preferred place to be...and hence why I am still called to the west....an unturned stone in life....anyway- If it is warm I will be outside and yesterday was acceptably warm. Today is cool, cool enough for hard physical labor, but not for me, so I am in writing this blog. Yesterday I took some photos of the latest task at hand. Mulching.

We are mulching for several purposes. First to try to create organic material in the soil which is really just sand, dry sand to be exact. That is why we are using pine bark mulch, that stuff degrades quickly, in a year or two.  Organic material will improve the fecundity of the soil and keep it moist. Living here is like living in the desert....I guess who needs the west?....everything dries out in five minutes here. Lots of water, but none that stays in this soil. So getting a watering system and improving the soil are high on our list. We must raise some food so we can eat, and we want to grow some flowers for color. We have had some success with this ongoing mulching program, but it is that time of year so we have to get this years contribution to the process completed.

Actually yesterday also culminated another project related to the mulch and planting. Last week we created some beds outside the kitchen when trying to neaten the place up for guests. The mounds of soil and shells  dug out from the crawlspace had been dumped next to the door and they needed to get neat fast.

The solution was to sift the shells from the soil, and then make the beds. Nobody is sifting all the shells from the soil, we learned that quickly, but it did make for acceptable planting medium, very silty sand and so we are going with it. It will be the herb garden.

I have a huge Rosemary bush that I grew from a stick. I grew it in a pot at our last house which is a bit south of here. That house has a wonderful protected southern exposure. Bringing my rosemary from there to here has presented some problems. I finally found a south facing spot for it, but not where I wanted it to go. I wanted it to go in the herb garden I planted yesterday.....but there was not enough sun. The herb garden was planted on the south side which is partly sunny here. I had to plant the rosemary on the south/west side of the house so it could be a bit sheltered. Time will tell if this plan will work.

Old man cat watches us quietly from his flowered perch.

The herb garden looks good though. It is outside my kitchen which is where I have fought to have it. It is important to me to place it there because I love to cook with the herbs I grow. Fresh herbs change a meal for the better, much better. We didn't quite think it through in the pressure to spread the mulch, so we spread the mulch, then planted. Quite backwards...so us.

I transplanted a bunch of herb plants into it that had been growing in containers, so I hope they flourish with more soil and broader range. All the transplants were started last year and were happy returnees this spring. I was very pleased. Three rosemarys survived the winter, but my guess is that they are not happy here because this is a very windy place. I tried to place them as much out of the wind as possible, but that is an impossible accomodation here. Two grew okay, one was nearly dead with only one surviving limb.

Maybe their new location will be better. I fear that there is not enough sun in the new spot. I will have to monitor them. This is their new location below.














This is the sage that survived the winter very much intact. It looks pretty healthy and hearty as I write.
Its the second plant from the right in this photo above, nice and gray and textured.
This varigated sage lost all its leaves and  I thought it had died, but it is coming back slowly so there is hope.
I pray that it likes its new home better than its old.

For the first time ever I had tarragon return in the spring. It has three new stems and I think it will do well. It is encouraging. This growing zone is warmer than where we moved from and I like that it is much kinder to perenniel plants.

The oregano is booming, the chives are at full speed too,

and I cut in a bunch of Stella d'Oro day lily tubers for some color in that garden.

Oh, I forgot. The happiest citizens of the herb garden are the French Lavendar plants. They are fuller and about six times bigger than when planted, they have lovely color and they were completely unperturbed by the wind. They seem to be oblivious to it. Makes me think that French lavendar is going to be a close friend for a while.

So all of those were moved and transplanted so that the kitchen entrance of the house could be mulched and made neater. We are hoping that the big purchase of mulch will make us not have to weed in order to keep the outside of the house looking neat. I hope it works! We are putting the mulch along the base of trees and in all other garden beds. Here are some before being mulched.

A spectacular redbud tree edges the property.







Lilacs have been blooming for a couple of weeks, and they line the street too.
We will not be mulching all of these! They are on their own!