05/23/21
I think I started writing in a real garden journal at some point but I'd leave it too long in between entries and get stressed about how much new stuff I had to record.So I'm starting clean here. All the plants are in. Yarrow, hummingbird sage, baby blue eyes just started to bloom! Biggest anxieties are the interminable weeding, lack of groundcovers (the plants surround by the native oxalis all look much happier than those surrounded by mulch) , having a lot of stachys chamissonis which doesn't provide much interest (swap for stachys pycnantha one day!), and lepechinias not looking great (prob they were too root-bound, so I'm watering liberally). Oh also one vine maple looks great and the other has like 3 leaves. Not sure what to do tho, just gonna let it figure itself out. Discovered that an unknown weed I've been pulling is actually miner's lettuce seedlings. Glad that there are still a ton coming up. Tons of yarrow, fescue, soap plant seedlings to plant out yet as well.
Also our new neighbor friends want to liven up their yard at some point so I'm going to start propagating stuff for them this winter I guess?
03/02/21
Kept on digging weeds in the SW corner. Also dug a ditch around the stump, filled the patio hole some more. Only the N side weeds left to do. Bought a bunch of seeds: baby blue eyes, riverbank lupine, miner's lettuce, red fescue, common yarrow.song in my head: paper thin walls- the mouse
03/01/21
Piled some more dirt onto the raised bank surrounding the sitting place. Spent most of the time filling up the big patio-hole with dirt scraped off of the top of various places that haven't been weeded, some from the remnants of the SW dirt pile, some from the slightly-too-large laying-in-grass hill, some from various places that could afford to come down. Tomorrow I'll get back to weeding. Then I'll move more dirt until its just right, order/shlep/set stones, mix everything (sans patio-hole) with a good layer of compost, and start planting! Need to order seeds, stones asap.02/28/21
I only got to work outside twice since people have been here. Just dug weeds both times. Today I switched the sitting place to the other corner (NW) and massaged the dirt in the NE corner into a slight hill for laying in the grass. This corner catches the afternoon sun much better, so it seems particularly nice for grass-laying. I also potted the YB cuttings that had been sitting in water. Some of them looked quite sad. While potting I made a new friend, fellow native garden enthusiast David who lives over on Arguello- gonna go check out his garden next weekend.song in my head: "I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in...."
02/18/21
Built a hill + sitting place that will be under a tree and have the exact right view of the fire pit + beyond. 2/4 big piles of dirt done! Moved some YB cuttings outside.song in my head: Polar Opposites- Modest Mouse
02/17/21
Moved some dirt from the big pile in the north-east corner to the east fence edge. Dug up a ton of weeds. Read TWoB and realized I was not using the patterns *Garden Seat* and *Sunny Place* to maximum effect, so I replanned to create those patterns more fully. Also I had a half-assed *Entrance Transition* and no *Trellised Walk*, so I sketched the latter to solve the former. Got very excited making a more detailed sketch and deciding where to put the hill for the *Raised Flowers* (wraps around the *Garden Bench*).on the speaker: Lonely Crowded West- Modest Mouse
02/16/21
Dug a bunch of weeds from the south east corner perched upon a cardboard situpon.on the speaker: Over-Nite Sensation- Frank Zappa
02/15/21
I think I probably dug weeds n grass.on the speaker: Soft Bulletin- Flaming Lips
02/14/21
Back hurty. Cut the yerba buenas from yesterday into various cuttings to propagate. Some in water some in soil.02/13/21
Back hurty. Bought some yerba buenas and a shelf for them! The first plant for the garden!02/11/21-02/12/21
Back hurty :/02/10/21
Dug weeds from southeast corner.02/09/21
not sure.. prob weed digging? hbd chris02/08/21
Moved extraneous dirt, dug weeds, built the fire pit. Think this is when I knacked my back.02/07/21
Tamped all the gravel and removed all remnants of the old overgrown shrubs save one stump that was too heavy to throw over the fence.02/06/21
Split open all of the bags of gravel. ANd poured them into the pit.02/05/21
I did not labor I guess.. prob to sore from schlepping.02/04/21
The random shrubs are all gone. The gravel came and me n juhi moved all 2 yds^3 of it from the front to the back. Quite knackered.02/03/21
Finished digging out that second shrub in the back I think.02/02/21
Re-filled even more of the hole. Tamped and evened the hole bottom.02/01/21
Re-filled hole more. Purchased a tamper. Rain!01/31/21
Re-filled hole some.01/30/21
Re-filled hole, cleaned up edges and jon dug around near the base of big shrub #2.on the speaker: beats by jon