Retaining Wall In!

Well, actually the wall was poured a week ago, but we let it cure until today. Grumpy neighbors notwithstanding, it looks great. Bill, the earth mover guy was here today with a small bulldozer and a little hydraulic "steam shovel" like thing. "Little" should be in quotes too. I shudder to think what the statement for this project is going to turn out to be, but we've basically quadrupled our level, landscapable, gardenable yard space!

We also have a 10' wide roadway that runs along the south side of our property. This will allow us to bring soil amendments, stackable retaining wall blocks, and so on, right to the spot where they're needed.

It looks great (did I say that already? Who cares? It does!) and having that navigable path will make other projects a huge pleasure instead of backbreaking. It is so cool.

Also, Dan-the-builder (assistant & long-time buddy of Ray-the-contractor) mentioned to the Amigo today that he has another buddy who rebuilds old water pumping windmills. Now having small rain catchment tanks whose contents are pumped to a larger tank at the highest point on the property just might be too hip of a project to pass up. We'll see. Talk about $$ (I'd rather not).

Feeling Our Way Along

I'm just about ready to dump the whole contents of the worm bin into the garden.  The worms are surviving, but they seem more than content with tunneling through their bedding.  All the kitchen scraps I leave (and I've tried all sorts of them) go moldy before they attract any worm-ish attention.

Clearly I'm not doing the worm thing right.  Still a garden can always use a few hundred more worms, so it'll probably be a good thing to put those guys out there.

Speaking of the garden, we're getting some produce.  Last night we had a very tasty salad from the thinning of one of the south rows.  Overall, however, I think that the garden lacks some key nutrients.  Our plants are not developing as quickly as one would hope and expect given the good conditions of sun and water.  This is not too surprising -- and not at all discouraging -- for one's first attempt at creating a thriving garden from notoriously bad soil.

There is a WSU extension nearby and I'm going to call them and see if they can recommend a soil testing service.  There are probably some good things we can do this fall to insure that next year's harvest is greater.

Angel and I have been very busy on the ornamental landscape front.  We've added a retaining wall (nearly 40' long!) along the west side of the driveway.  Yesterday, I worked the soil of about half of it.  Angel did a major weed removal and added a few more plants.  This area will eventually feature blueberry and blackberry fines, but they are merely twigs so far... albeit twigs that have green growing from them!

We are also developing a plan for a large, secondary garden just to the east of the main garden area.  This will require more fencing, but it's another great spot with southern exposure.  And this spot can be fed by rainwater captured from our roof!

Last night I realized that I have years' of projects available to me.