I just cannot do it all. I'm sorry, but I simply cannot do all that I once did. Now that garden season is upon us, I am finding very little time to do proper research for my blog posts, and so my posts will be sporadic for a while. It may end up eventually being just a weekly post, but chock-full of information.
I simply have too much on my plate right now between gardening, cheesemaking, charcuterie, and of course, blogging, cooking my meals, household chores like dishes and laundry, and of course sleeping!
Just last week I decided to convert a huge section of my "lawn" NOW into more edible food forest garden area, so there's a lot more than my usual spring gardening work pending, and there just aren't enough hours in the day. (But if I can pull it off, it will mean a lot less mowing and weed-eating in the next few years. At almost 72, I'm not getting any younger, hardier nor stronger.)
I simply have too much on my plate right now between gardening, cheesemaking, charcuterie, and of course, blogging, cooking my meals, household chores like dishes and laundry, and of course sleeping!
Just last week I decided to convert a huge section of my "lawn" NOW into more edible food forest garden area, so there's a lot more than my usual spring gardening work pending, and there just aren't enough hours in the day. (But if I can pull it off, it will mean a lot less mowing and weed-eating in the next few years. At almost 72, I'm not getting any younger, hardier nor stronger.)
I need to get some heavy equipment brought in to remove some huge overgrown shrubs that are simply way too large to dig up with a shovel even if I could hire a strong man to try. That means I'll have to take down some fencing between me and the neighbor so they can come across his property; a backhoe is too tall (and heavy) to cross over the creek on my covered bridge shown above. But as long as the backhoe is here, I might as well have them dig the area for a greywater filtering system (bogs) I had planned for next year, and maybe get some holes dug to plant trees if I can swing it financially. (I do everything on a cash basis, refusing to take on debt,... not that I'd qualify anyway with just my social security income which is below the federal poverty level.)
The hardest physical work for me is going to be dealing with the sod removal before planting all my planned new garden stuff, unless I win the lottery and can have the backhoe man scrape the sod off with the loader blade. Since I don't buy lottery tickets, it's not likely that I'll win, so all sod removal on at least 100' x 100' will have to be done by hand. Ugh. The planting holes for my new fruit and nut trees (in rocky, hard-packed clay) will have to be done by hand too if I cannot afford the backhoe to do it. All that work will be hard on this almost 72 year-old body!
It's regrettable that the huge area I covered with deep sheet compost last fall turned out to be over the mis-marked septic drain field, because it would have been perfect for part of the garden expansion, and without needing any sod removal. Sigh.
I'm also taking a grafting class this month, which is very exciting for me, and all participants will take home 5 apple grafts. I haven't plugged those into my new layout yet because I don't know what apple varieties I'll get; mature size matters for placement in my newly designed yard.
Darius, if you have the time, instead of removing the sod just place cardboard and newspaper to kill off the grass. That will accomplish two things: getting rid of the grass (of course you will need to dig up any thistle) and keeping the organic matter in the soil.
ReplyDeleteSher, see my reply below to Neener. I intend to turn the sod upside down once it's scraped off... not waste the organic material.
DeleteThank You For All YOUR HARD Work on your Blog it's time for you to slow down a little on your posts and move forward with the pressing yard and garden things, keep up the good work I LOVE YOUR postings
ReplyDeleteThanks Again
Stan
Thanks, Stan. I DO or WILL have things to post about things I'm trialing in the garden this year. Doing it and writing about are both parts of a labor of love!
DeleteSolarize that sod Darius!! Even newspaper will work with some straw on top or better yet black plastic trash bags weighted with whatever you can find or held down with ground staples etc. It will come up a whole lot easier if it is dead. Takes a couple of weeks in full sun. You could do a small area at a time and move forward from one to the next.
ReplyDeleteKnow what you mean. Too much on my plate as well. Have my small amount of container veggies planted and that is about all I am doing. No hanging baskets, few annuals if any. Tired of tending and watering and fussing. I need a summer off from the whole thing.
If it was just sod, that might work. Whatever the growing green stuff in my yard is, it has roots to China and lateral roots to Washington, DC!
DeleteThat's what I did last Fall, with the area that turns out to be over the drain field, and with a good payer of cardboard, 8" of compost and another 5-6" of wood chips, the "grass" is still growing up through it. sigh.
Darius, I'm continually amazed at all that you do -- we will miss your posts, but I figure you will have more to share with us when you do have the time! Lovely bridge, by the way :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I love the bridge, even when I fuss about the low clearance! I do wish it had more character, though.
DeleteI plan to have lots of things to post, starting with the grafting workshop I attended today.
I'm also taking a grafting class this month, which is very exciting for me, and all participants will take home 5 apple grafts.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you're going to love it. You'll have to start stooling or trench layering your own rootstock. Rootstock is pretty cheap but producing your own eliminates a dependency. I just finished doing my first grafts. It's a bit too early to tell if they've taken or not but the buds are definitely swelling.
I'll be interested to hear about your course experience.