The Big Thaw, and Planting Bricks

So, the first wave of really cold weather is over, and this weekend has been completely glorious… the sort of Winter weather most of us signed up for with our Austin citizenship cards.

Saturday for me was the big unveiling of all the heavily-covered food crops. Lots of towels, bedsheets, blankets, tarps, drop cloths and a roll of carpet to pull back, air out and put away. Not to mention a number of extension cords, strings of lights, and jugs of water.

The happy news is that nothing at all got nipped by the cold other than a few onion leaf tips that refused to stay inside the raised bed walls. I even noticed that a few plants thrived under the blankets, most notably the strawberries. They seem eager to get some growing done, as several of the plants developed new growth in the three days they were under wraps.

I spent the latter half of Saturday planting bricks in the ground, completing the walkway entrance to my new garden areas. Part of the equation was to knock out more grass and extend a native plant bed.

The brick is all reclaimed, most of it begged-for and received on Freecycle. The bricks are held together (or perhaps locked in place is a more apt description) with pea gravel brushed into all the cracks and crevices. All of the stone and brick walkways I’ve made have been put together this way. Some of the installations are 4-5 years old, and seem as durable as mortared brick.

Now, let’s hope all that newly-planted brick doesn’t freeze this coming week when the temps drop into the 20s again.