The last of the raised beds in now in place! I have no more reasonable area left to put any large beds in. I’m done. Yes, there is land around me, but it “technically” belongs to the empty lots on either side of me and I’m not supposed to expand over there unless I want to fork over the lot rent! (Ha Ha ha… ahem. No.)

I think 600 square feet will do just fine for a family a three. And a guinea pig that LOVES fresh produce.

It’s a little hard to see, but it’s at the end of the line of boxes, next to the utility hookup and all. Tim stained it before he put this one together this time, so it’s all stained and pretty and the others are still raw wood. I think tomorrow I’m going to see if Maggie will stain the others for me. She likes to paint. And stain and seal.

My Lowes has fruit trees on sale for $7 each. That’s a steal for bulking up your own permaculture in your homestead! I now have 10 semi-dwarf fruit trees. Apples, peach, pears and cherry. Four of them are heavy with fruit this year and they are not that old. Last year I got one apple… this year the apple trees alone have at least 20-25 apples on them each! I plan to watch and possibly thin some them so that it’s not too hard on these young trees this year. One or two have already dropped, so I’m going to let Nature work for a bit, see how it goes.

Tim planted an apple and a red pear on either side of Maggie’s bird feeder poles. We are hoping that they will grow up and provide a little cover for our bird friends as well as perches in the winter for them to wait their turns. And we don’t mind sharing the fruits with them either. It’s really neat to landscape with edible fruits. The trees are very pretty when they flower and are just as nice looking as any other ornamental tree. I plan to start adding more herbs and edibles into my flower beds. It just makes sense.

Look at all these little apples! How cool is that?

And the coolest thing? My little peach tree has a bunch of little peaches on it! I didn’t see them at first but Jessy found them and it was so cool. I’ll admit, the peach tree was a last minute purchase the very first year we were here. It was planted near the back door and it was getting bashed by the door and it was just too shady for it. So I moved it last year. And it really loves being out at the front to welcome folks, but I never thought it would fruit since we only have one.

Well, apparently with the serious increase in bees we’ve had this year, our little peach has found a mate! I’ve looked around and I have not seen any peach trees around with my neighbors, so I don’t know! Maybe it didn’t need a friend to pollinate, but well, I thought most peaches needed a friend to make fruit magic.

I can’t wait, I absolutely LOVE peach jam. I hope that enough make it to full size that I can can a couple jars of my own peach jam for the winter months! That will be a real treat.

The two potted cherries are doing wonderful by the doorway! They are bushing out nicely and are in full leaf. Luna was using the left one as a scratching post and I about clobbered her when I caught her. I promptly planted some little daisies around it so that she is now uninterested in dealing with them to get to the little trunks. I’m going to get a little tree wrap and give them both a little extra protection from feline attack.

I got a pair of pots to put some herbs in, sweet basil and catnips and catmints. I’m not ready to introduce some of these slightly evasive herbs into the beds yet. My chives and oregano are filling out their boxes very completely and I think if given the chance they would take over! Tomorrow, I need to harvest the chives and let them regrow. My first harvest!

My purple iris are blooming, the big ones. The SIberian and Japanese iris are getting close, reaching tall and beautiful. Those are SO beautiful when they bloom, just can’t wait. Yep, my yard is a lot of purple plants. I just luvs purple!

My elephant garlic is coming up and the red candy onions are doing great. They are the only things that I’ve actually got actively growing at the moment in the raised beds. I have another basket of candy onions to plant, but I think I’m going to put them in another area and see how they do there. I like doing a few little tests to see where some veggies like being. I’m pretty sure that the south side of the Moby is definitely my “money” side of the gardens but the north has done nicely in the past as well.

The front looks a little different without the half dead pines. Tim dug in two little Bartlett pears and then a deep purple lilac in the middle. The pines were just not happy. Two of them I pulled right out of the ground by hand! Easily, I might add. After two years they still hadn’t even gotten much in the way of roots out into the ground. The underneath was all brown and dead and they just were kinda hanging on, waiting for a mercy killing. They just did not like being there. It’s hard to cull something, but well, it was the front of my little Moby and every time I drove up, I was not happy. They were contractor’s specials for $8 each, and I got them too late in the season. I think they were already shocked and unhappy when I bought them. I might actually have the receipt somewhere and I suppose that I could bring them back and get three more, but I’m not sure that I want three more! I wonder if you can get credit towards something else. Hmmm. I might give them a call. After all, I have been a very loyal customer and get all my stock from there. Most everything has been wonderful. Good reason to save receipts!!!

For the last raised bed, Tim dug out the compost from the pile to line the bottom of the bed and he said it was nice and rich dirt! Yeah! It works! (ha ha) Of course, the top was still cooking, but the bottom was perfect. But we did make some compost mistakes that I won’t do again. We added intact cornstalks and sunflower stalks to the mix. They were still pretty intact. And made it hard to get some of the compost out. I think that super hard fibrous stuff might not be the best for a small pile. I read somewhere about running a lawnmower over it, or taking a little hatchet to the stuff, but that seems a little rough. I might bundle that stuff up next year and take it to our community composting facility. It’s just a mile from my house. And keep our pile for weeds and clippings and house veggie scraps and such. I might stop at the Circle K and ask if they would save coffee grounds for a day for me now and then to add some yummy browns to the pile. All a learning curve you know. But it’s wonderful to see that you can make big mistakes and still get good end product! And nope, I never turned or stirred the stuff. Just piled and let it work. Super easy.

Well, it’s getting late and time for bed, another day is already on my mind. I’ve got a little client work to finish up, but this whole week is going to be a home week, without a lot of outside commitments. The last couple weeks have been pretty hectic, hence the lack of daily postings, but this is a good solid week without too much going on. And no rain!!! Maggie is finishing her last bit of school and all the heavy lifting and building outside is done. Heck, even the puppy is settling in to our routine and Gypsy is already showing improvement with our Bag Balm treatment! All is good with the world. And tomorrow… finish fabric in the beds and we WILL PLANT!!!

All is good with the world!