Thanks, Mom!
On my Sunday phone call to my parents, Mom pointed out it had been more than a week since I'd posted to Prairie Tide. Yikes! Time for some catch up.

In the Prairie Tide world, Harry Potter is all the rage. I turned my graduation garb into a Halloween costume, and became Positively Hogwarts for one day. For one entire day, the word "Brilliant!" spilled out of me over and over. I wore the costume to work, but apparently, none of my other coworkers thought Halloween costumes were a good idea this year. Brilliant!


Laurie Potter

The late-fall gardening bug bit me this past week, I worked mightily to make up for my garden-variety laziness during the past few months. Below is the small bed I hope to turn into a Square Foot Garden. It is November, but I'm already dreaming about next summer's brandywine tomatoes. If next summer's plans produce fruit (or veggies), we may see this little plot expand.


Small Garden Thumbprint

The bed below was full of some really ugly plants. We're talking snaggle-toothed! A few were promoted to the first yard, but most of the buggers are on their way to becoming compost. With the bed cleaned out, I added a bunch of top soil and compost, plus I added some peat moss and some sulfur, with the goal of lowering the pH in our soil. This bed is really quite large, and I really want to plant two blueberry bushes here. I know, I know, the brick wall around this bed is hiddeous. Rebuilding the wall is a project for another year. Should the blueberries survive an entire season, I want to find space elsewhere for strawberries and raspberries. It's Berry Delicious!


Blueberries, Anyone?

In other gardening news, I cleaned out a bunch of brush from "the woods" that border part of our yard, and I shredded piles of leaves, and we're makin' compost. With the help of Randy and his dad, we cobbled together two compost bins out of some fencing material. The bins are quite large and full to the brim with leaves.

The black tarps in the picture below are killing the grass on the slope in the backyard. That hill is murder to keep mowed, and I want out of the mowing business. Next spring, we're digging in groundcover plants to keep things green, weed free, and lawnmower safe.


Into the Woods

Brilliant!

- posted by Laurie @ 7:13 PM