A Brilliant Week

 Where to begin?

It's been a lovely week. We've just been getting on doing things and took a day trip. 

Today is our dog, Brunel's birthday (and we got him ice cream at Andy's (his favourite place) and cupcakes to celebrate it with Lightning and Rover). Yeah we know we're crazy but hey, it's ok, we have nobody to please but ourselves.

I've been doing lots of plantings. Today I've tried a hack I watched on a video, and planted grapes in banana segments, apparently it helps them get started. We shall see. I transplanted some more gardenias that had started rooting. Once Mark has the one side of the fence finished, we will plant some of them and the roses and cannabafolia down the fenceline to help add another layer of obstruction so's the dogs can't get out through it. They will also provide food for the bees.

Our beehive arrived and I have painted the sections with primer, and ow just have to wait for it to cure so that I can then paint it the pastel palest sage green, on Monday. Then, just have to wait for that to cure another week, and the we can get it put together and go to the Carolina Bee Company and get some bees. I'm hoping that using the honey as a sweetener will help Mark with his allergies to all things in our area. His allergist said he needs to move to the beach!

My plumeria cuttings are doing good. The white willow cutting was, but then the leaves shrivelled, so I've messaged the person I bought it from, to see if that's something that happens sometimes, and if it will still grow. I hope so. 

We have an abundance of tomatoes and blueberries on our bushes, so I'm very happy about that. My potatoes are not enjoying this heat but aren't ready to pull yet as they haven't flowered. The peas and beans are doing well and shooting up. I'm very happy with my crops thus far. The watermelon seedlings are still growing taller but not getting many leaves yet, and my cantaloupes haven't sprouted yet.

My poem, The Storybook Witch, was published as a children's book, this week, and is now on sale on Amazon, in paperback, and at Ingram in hardback. I'm working on some other projects and beginning to learn how to do what I need to, with Canva.

Our day trip was on Tuesday, to Helen, I did my usual chocolate shopping at Hansel and Gretel, and we went down by the river after eating lunch at Hofer's. Mark got some river rocks for my stream that he's started digging out. The only mar to the day was the journey, both ways we ended up behind folks doing 35mph on single lane roads where we couldn't overtake, it just seemed like our travelling was never going to end! We were both very stiff at the end of the day, but we'd enjoyed Helen and we have chocolate delights in the fridge for a few days of treating ourselves.

Mark has started removing grass from the areas that are going to be my stream and my pond, and moving the turf to the front yard (where everything washes away from, every time we get rain). We're hoping it will help bolster it up a bit.

We also got permission from a local building site to get rocks that they're digging up as they prep to build a subdivision. We are working on the 7th pallet now, and trying to figure out how to get some of the bigger rocks - which may entail Mark taking his tractor down there, with me following in the truck, so that he can use the shovel part to like some of them and put them in the bed of the truck. Then, once we got home again, he could use the tractor to unload them from the truck and put them about where we are going to want them..

Yes, it's been a nice week!

I'm getting so excited

 Not long now, and my book will be available on Amazon and other sites. Feeling pretty good. It's taken me long enough to get to this point, but hey, I'm getting there and THAT'S the main thing!

NEVER gie up on your dreams!

More Plantings and Planning

It's been another busy week, prepping for the pond and greenhouses that are going to be down in the field. We had to postpone the greenhouse erecting until next week as the heat has already got unbearable, and is going to be hotter this afternoon. I don't want my hubby and grandson dying from heat exposure putting up 2 greenhouses for me. 

The white willow that I put in water (per the instructions that came with it) already has 2 little shoots on. I've started watermelon seeds indoors, in peat pots, and am going to do cantaloupes today, the same way. I'm well prepared for when they grow and fruit, I have little supports for the fruits to keep them off the ground.

Today we tasted our first blueberries off of our blueberry bush - they were sweet but tart - very tasty. The tomato plants are dotted with green tomatoes, and the potatoes, peas and beans are growing nicely. 

I'm still awaiting the arrival of 2 more varieties of plumeria, but the one I got the other day seems to be doing ok. 

The rockpile is growing, as is my pallet collection (which will be used inside my greenhouses to put my pots on.

Wherever we go, we are now picking up pallets (that are free by the roadside), and rocks. Likewise cuttings of wild roses, or off bushes that people will let me take a stem from. Today, I got a pretty yellow rose stem, and have dipped it in rooting powder and popped it into a nice wetted soil pot, and put it on the windowsill along with a wild rose cutting and the white willow. 

I also potted the stems of the rose posy we had bought from Publix a couple of weeks ago, that I'd had in water. The heads had died but there are tiny buds of new growth on the stems, so I deadheaded and then re-rooting-powdered the bottom and popped them into pots of soil. Now I'll just leav ethem on the front porch for a week or so and see how that works. If all goes well, then I'll have to repeat the process with another posy. The next one will be multi colours though.

Made a decision, today, to do the stream first, since it will be easier and give me running water more quickly. That will also mean that we can take our time in getting the main pond how we want it. My plans are getting bigger, I'm seeing a whole "garden of Eden" down there. Various plants and trees, a walkway, bridge and stream, and - of course - fountains and waterfalls. 

It'll take time, but step-by-step, slow and steady, I'm hoping we will get it done.

Ask and ye shall receive

 I'm bad, and I know it. I glean all the while from building sites. I ask to speak to the site foreman and then I ask if I can help myself to their thrown out stuff. When I was gathering for my train set and other projects, I gleaned wood 4"x4"s, 2"x1's and all sorts, now doing the pond and waterfalls, I'm gleaning rubble where they're clearing for the subdivisions. I've also been asking for old carpeting for my pond, having been told over the weekend to line the pond with carpeting BEFORE putting the underlay, and liner, for added protection.

So, today began with us stopping by the local new subdivision being built and asking if we could take their rocks. They were quite happy, and have no problems with Mark taking his tractor over to get them. They were really nice, it saves them money in needing it hauling away, and saves us money that we'd be having to spend in order to buy rocks as we get on with the project.

Then we stopped by to pick up a rug from a lady on Facebook, which will become part of our pond underside. 

Later I have to pick up some pallets that will be going in one of the greenhouses that my hubby and grandson are going to be putting up for me this weekend. My container gardening is doing really well this year, my potatoes and tomatoes are flourishing, and my peas and beans are now starting (since I planted them late having thought I'd already started them off when I'd started the tomatoes and potatoes. Not sure how that happened).

It's definitely been a good day thus far.

It's Monday!

 Am I the only person who likes Mondays?

To me they are a fresh start. A chance to rework things that I maybe didn't do as well the week before, or to do things that were supposed to get done and somehow didn't. A fresh chance to evaluate what's important (or not) in the plans that I have for the week, and to plan or re-plan those that I give the most importance to.

I like them even better now that hubby doesn't work them because it means he can also lie-in on a Monday morning instead of having to heed the 5am alarm and head out the door by 5.30am. That only happens Wednesdays and Thursdays now, since he's semi-retired and gone to part-time. 

Mondays, we try to plan for his medical stuff, his chiropractor and his allergy shots, and I try to do mine for Tuesdays. The dogs aren't as happy that he's home more, as they like to come in on the bed when he's not here, and if he's here there's just not enough room for the 3 of them and both of us. Maybe if they were chihuahuas but with 2 40lb-ers and 1 70lb-er, yeah, that doesn't work. Plus they don't behanve as well when he's on the bed, they don't settle as well and try to walk over him all the while. Not conducive to relaxation, whereas right now, with him at his allergist, they are just sprawled and sleeping.

In a mo, they'll follow me into the kitchen as I have to wash their blankets and disinfect their crates. Takes me awhile as I sit to do it and have to use a grabby thingie to pull the blankets out, bones and their ice cream containers. Yeah, these boys aren't spoiled, not at all.

I'll leave you all and wish you an awesome Monday and a brilliant week.

I've been such a bad girl!

I'm not sure why (all of a sudden) I'm a big spender but I think it goes back to my stay in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. I realised my own mortality wasn't such a distant thing any more, and that - if I wanted to do or have things - I'd better get started asap because time was not on my side. Water calms me, as most of you know, and I can't always go to natural water places to settle myself when my blood pressure acts up, or my A Fib starts. So, I made a decision to make a water garden down in our back field. 

Temu and Amazon were happy to process my card, and a pond liner, pond underlay, solar aerator, and plant cuttings started arriving by Fed Ex, UPS and USPS fairly quickly.

My attempts to share the vision, that's in my mind, with my hubby (unfortunately) wasn't very easy. I tried to sketch what I was thinking ... a 2 year old could have done a better job. However, a pond tour, anabled me to show him some examples of what I was looking at, and some that weren't what I wanted at all. 

I want nature, a couple of waterfalls into a pond, stones and rocks, plants, my own Zen garden without the more angular regularity that those tend to have.

In my mind, "my" water garden begins with a half moon shape at the top, with a waterfall in the center surrounded by fragrant bushes and plants under a white weeping willow tree. The waterfall will come off a piece of slate, with rocks in the middle so that there are actually 2 "waterfalls" from one fixture. Facing it, the one to my right will go at about a 22 degree angle and cascade over 2 other slate "ledges". The other will be allowed to freefall onto some rocks below and then into the main pond.

The right triple cascade will fall into a pond that is slightly higher than the main one, so that this smaller pond then also has water falling into the lower bigger one.

I've been looking into plants to put at different levels to keep the water clean and oxygenated, and hubby wants some fish so they'll be in the bigger pond. 

Outside plants, I've checked into whether plumeria will grow here in SC and it will, but when temps fall below 40 degrees it has to be brought inside. I've ordered 3 different plumeria cuttings, and will eventually plant them in terra cotta type pots that will be at home among the rocks and flowers, and still look natural, but can then be brought indoors in cooler temps. I also the white weeping willow cutting coming, and that will start indoors and then be centered at the back so that it offers shade over the lowest pond.

Our trip to the stone yard the other day gave me an insight into what my rocks are going to cost me but it will just be a work in progress for as long as it takes (to be able to afford them!).

I'm garnering inspiration from pics of other people's ponds, talking with people who already have ponds, and books and resources online. I just wish I could draw so that I could show my hubby what I envisage. As it is, he and his trusty tractor will be doing most of the work and I'll be acting foreman. It will be beautiful once it's done though. For now, he's just started digging ...

 

Plantings and Plannings

For the past week or so, my life has been filled with cuttings and plantings, some rescues that I hope will make it (I hate when stores give up on plants and just stop watering them at all, poor things). Cuttings, we've been getting roses and honeysuckle, and I'll be doing some more gardenia as soon as I have space. I have to be careful with all my water-filled containers as the dogs like to get into stuff, and I'd be really mad (and have a BIG mess to clean up) if they managed to mess with my cuttings. Rescues, we've saved 2 lavender bushes and a lavender tree, got them planted in tubs, well-watered in but able to drain well. The other plant, I can't remember what it is, but it has leaves like gardenia and flowers red, so should look pretty. For now, it's happy having been watered, repotted, and given space for its poor roots to grow.

Today, I've also planted some snap peas and beans ... I only realised a couple of days ago that I'd forgotten to do so this year! I do love my peas and beans straight off the vine, they rarely make it in the house, we just eat them as we pick them.

My potatoes, in the potato grow sacks, are doing good. I have them on a low-level table, so they'll be easy to harvest once they are ready. The tomatoes are flowering, they are doing wonderfully.

So ... plannings. Well, hubby is charging the batteries on my old ridearound which was bigger and heavier than the one we take with us that breaks down into 4 parts to make it portable. The older one is definitely more rugged, and I used to go down the field in it years ago ... and that's the goal now. Get it back to running order so that I can go down the field again. Why? Because I hve decided to build a pond down there, with water features, so that I have my own tranquil place, rather than having to drive to my streams and villages for the sensory relaxation. Temu is my friend, and I'll be getting much of my supplies from them for it, pond liners, plant baskets, aerators, etc. I'm going to start collecting rocks, pebbles and stones now, so that once I can afford everything, I'll hae the wherewithal to make it look natural. 

Also, I'll have plants in amongst the rocks so that there's a nice fragrant aura around as well as some pretty colours, plus I'll have some water plants to help keep the water clear and oxygenated.

I've decided that, one of our side gigs, with hubby being semi-retired, will be for me to get plants and trees growing and sell some. We're planning on vining roses, gardenia and honeysuckle through the fencing down the field, to surround it in fragrance but also to block in the fence with them as a natural barrier to stop the dogs from trying to get out.

We're waiting on our first beehive arriving, and I've ordered special paint that is non-toxic to bees, so that we can get it painted and set up ready for getting our first bees. All of the flowers will provide plenty of pollen for them, and the pond will give them a natural non-chemicalled source of water.

I'm also thinking of trellis in one of the corners of the field, and then getting grape vines to intertwine up it, like I had in Florida many many moons ago.

I need to set up a couple of greenhouses down there as well, with some shelves/tables in to use for propagating, and hopefully the dogs will not be able to interfere with them then. And get about 5 100 feet hoses, to attach to the back faucet on the house, so that I can water everything. I'll have to learn irrigation as I go.

I'm excited.