Seedy Saturday - 'Upper' and 'Lower' Gardens!

With four days off in a row, I decided the first two days would be spent in the yard, doing things off my HUGE to-do list. 

There are actually more things to do on the reverse.

But I am trying to learn to accept the fact I am nearing 65 and 3-4 hours in the yard is about all I can do in a day and still be functional, mentally and physically, afterwards. It's tough. Once again, my brain says 'you can do 8 hours or more' and my body says 'WTF!'

In amongst all the yard puttering, I realized with my slope to the yard, I can be very British. I have an 'Upper' garden (front yard) and 'Lower' garden (back yard). It sounds so classy. Which makes me happy to think about my garden this way now. Very 'Monty Don' of me.

Because I have a huge puppy and zero dollars to spend at the present time, I have to erect a very sketch fence around my beds. Monday was spent cleaning up some things in the lower garden and putting a fence around the two vegetable beds. Raspberries were retied up and are starting to bud. So exciting. I hope I get a nice crop from them this year. 

One bed, the larger one, is filled with potatoes. I had to have been out of my mind when I planted so many potatoes. But I did. Red and white ones. And they are starting to peek through the leaves and compost I piled on top. They were all planted in a no-dig method.

I need to get a couple of 6-foot metal poles so I can string up netting for squash and pole beans in the lower garden and start making beds horizontally for vegetables in the lower garden. Those will be for my warm weather plants. The second vertical bed will be for lettuces and later tomatoes - I think.

Then Tuesday I spent the day (4 hours worth) in the upper garden, establishing a second large flower bed. I had to sink the timbers around the edge and take out the layer of weeds, dumping two large bags of soil and compost on it before starting to set out seedlings and transplant some rudbeckia and coneflower in both beds. 

This is the newer bed. I found the 'trellis' at Goodwill for $3 and will have moonflowers and cup & saucer vine growing up it (fingers crossed). The rest of the bed will have my borage, bergamot, poppies, dahlias, and hollyhocks among other things growing in it. I want it packed with flowers this summer.

Also the two blue tubs hold russet potatoes (I have a potato problem this year).

The other bed is where all my blue tubs lived last year. I have planted a rose bush in the center and surrounded it with two types of peonies. I am transplanting dianthus, Veronica, some coneflower and other plants into this bed.

To make the Upper Garden a bit more symmetrical I need to add two 4x4 beds by the new flower bed. And yes, Slider will have enough room to still run around in.

There is still a lot of work to do, mainly repotting primarily tomato seedlings and making the veggie beds. 

But I need to learn 'slow and steady wins the race' rather than 'do it all today'!