The Return of the Gardener

I’m really happy the weather has seemingly made a turn. With it, my willingness to claim I even have a yard/garden has returned, and the urge to hibernate has receded.

This weekend I had a very productive time of it in the yard. The usual mowing, weeding, trimming, etc. But some of my effort was motivated by the city’s bulky brush collection day in our neighborhood. I wanted to get the dead chinese tallow out of the yard for good.

Another small project involved a few pieces of 50s-era pine I got from my friend Grog. He’s been remodeling his own kitchen (yes, he did most of his own work), and he tore out some old cabinets. Those had some very serviceable 1×12 pine boards that immediately looked to me like good material for a raised planter box:

Here’s what the box looked like after it was put in place. The box is in the middle of the photo, and on the lower portion, I attached a 12″-piece I built out of some old shipping palettes. I piled a bunch of shredded grass/oak leaves I had saved in them so they could compost down.

It was nice to have a couple cuties visit, too! And, in the background, you can see the box with my bush beans. I’ve not gotten tons of green beans yet, but as of tonight I’ve had two solid handfuls in the past half-week… enough for two people to have them as a side at dinner. And many more are on the way!

I don’t see a lot of mantises in the yard (though I have at least seen them consistently), so was a little thrilled to see this mama staking out my compost pitchfork:

Lots of other good visitors, blooming things and volunteers – the rain has been a huge blessing. But more on that later.