Asparagus Bed, oh where oh where should you be?

Wow sorry about the prior spelling error. I barely remember writing this but I guess that's what happens when you can't sleep and decide to blog at 4 am. Monday I was talking with Johnpaul McGreal, a professional horticulturist here in Peoria, about interplanting my Asparagus between a line of Rose bushes and Russian Sage. He thought it might work.

Now of course I'm wondering about the soil composition. Since the idea of adding asparagus grew out of my interest in Front Yard Edible landscaping and also because Asparagus is a perennial I've been really struggling with where to put it.  And it would be easier if the bed wasn't already planted to prep it in fall and such because this bed is already made of course but it's not "finished". I need to go ahead an edge around it. Then I was going to add a bunch of chopped leaves as mulch but then I was going to top it all off with pine mulch.

But now that I'm thinking about the Asparagus "trough" I was also going to add mushroom compost with the clay I dug out and add it back. Plus to make things even weirder I have both crowns (yes I'm late planting because I just couldn't decide where so may not be good anymore) and I have 6 1 year plants in pots I bought at Farm and Fleet. And no one talks about buying asparagus "plants" just seeds vs. crowns. But when I saw them already growing I thought wow maybe I could get a bed somewhat in this year after all. But I'm fully aware it could be my 3rd Asparagus bed failure. I'm ok with that.

My thinking on where to put Asparagus.

Originally I was thinking there was more room between the roses and Russian sage and there may be I'll have to shoot another picture later this morning when sun up to see if it's just the angle is confusing.

Current look of that bed

From another angle still doesn't show spacing well

Close up of the double knock out roses

Prior bed was in my "proper edible garden" came up first year with lovely fronds in a raised bed. Second year only a few came up again. I think however it was my fault because I misunderstood some directions I was following about when to chop down the fronds and didn't wait till they were full dead/brown. I just though come fall I was to cut back and compost. Now that I know more I realize the energy from the fronds probably needed to be returned to the roots. BUT it also could have been another problem entirely.

First Year

Last year or Second Year

So anyone have any ideas?

Lavender

I keep having to rein myself in from buying 20 lavender plants to line a sidewalk or front walk I should say that hasn't even been built yet. Meanwhile these 2 will suffice.  I also managed to get some new lavender plants going by ? Shucks mind has gone blank.  I had long spindly plant was blown over and so I let the branches stay that way and tucked into ground and now several new plants. What's that called?

Everything looks cooler on instagram.

Almost dried up.

Hopefully no more rain.

Not what I meant when said I wanted pool!

Well that didn't work.

So when my friend Mike was here last he said we should probably rent one of those machines with ability to pull dirt out swivel and dump into dump truck. No idea what it's called but not a skid loader or ditch witch and so I figured meanwhile I could still dig out with shovel because my parents need some dirt, we need dirt other places and not sure how to get dump truck in yard and until figure that out we'd move dirt that we can. Then I say to Pat this isn't so bad maybe you and Joe could help this weekend. 

OK so 60 wheelbarrows later I was this far:

Not quite a foot down and maybe 1/3 dug out in horizontal plane. So with 2 men helping surely we could get 2 feet down in a weekend. BUT then it got HOT!!!! So after 15 minutes of Pat digging on Saturday he says this is crazy call around for equipment. All I can find is walk behind skidloader without teeth. He thinks it should be better than digging with shovel. We do that all day Saturday and half Sunday. 

Hard to tell but now we're talking about 2/3's dug out some parts almost 18 inches. Um that's a long way to go and then half way through Sunday the sky opens up and it rains again last night  and today and now we have this:

And I'm afraid most of the mud slid back in that was piled up on West side and rest caved in some and shoot we're practically starting over!

Fargenugen!

So see I'm afraid Mike was right but still don't know how we'd get that dump truck into back yard without wrecking (more) of the front yard landscape.  And backhoe? Is that what it's called?

Long Way to go

Pool digging today is going to be very very very hot.

Pat just came out and helped for like 15 minutes and said ok start calling the equipment rental places this is ridiculous. lol I was grateful as I was already melting in the heat.

But this is how far I got before he left to pick up the walk behind skid loader. 

The tunnel trellis is up!

Out of Africa

This is my 3rd or such favorite movie. I'm watching when Dennis takes Karen lying or the first time and she sees the world as "God sees it". It reminded me of John Brookes appreciating the landscape from above in a whole new way. They are holding hands and now I'm crying.

"If I get eaten off here burn me here..." Karen
Denis "Whatever's left."

I think this movie does a great job of capturing the spirit of what it was like to be able to appreciate cultures and lands before they were "spoiled" by civilization and a woman who struggles to be independent yet trapped by titles and dependence in a male world and surrounded by selfish men. But I admire her drawing a line in the sand so as not to give away too much. But tragedy is always around the corner for her. Yet she stays steadfast in doing what she believes is right by the people of Africa.

Her farm burned down, her Dennis, died in plane crash, Farah always faithful, Bror bears the news. She must return to Denmark out of Africa and leave her farm. As she leaves the Men's Club allows her in or a drink. She was tough. I loved the clothes they wore.

But back to my little peice of land in Peoria. I believe I convinced my husband this weekend that if we all work together we can dig out this hole together and get it done!

More Digging

Last year I was not happy when the pool that was on backorder finally came July 25 and my husband then said "how are you going to put that up?" We picked this out together so it wasn't like he didn't know anything about it. So then THEN he informs me we have to level backyard before we can put it in. Argggggggggh!
So August 5th when pool finally assembled the weather cools down from all those 90 and 100 degree days and never gets over 90 again!!!!

So this year when he wanted to dig a hole and put it half way in I started months ago trying to recruit help and plan ahead. BUT it rained so much this spring there was no digging until a week or so ago and now the people that can help are busy so what do you do!

You dig it yourself!
I realize if one of them becomes available in the next week or so I'll barely have made a dent. BUT if they're not available for several weeks heck maybe we'll get it in without them. Or so I believe. My husband? Yeah not so much.

My helper

Corner closest to fence and neighbor's tree lots of roots!

Still one big problem where to put the dirt!

Giant Root

Starting with the edge

That's about 35 wheelbarrows (not full) removed

So if anyone in Peoria needs dirt let me know. BUT do me a favor and at least bring a pickup to the house where we can load you up. We can deliver if you don't have one but it would help my back if I don't have to do all the work. THANKS!

I dug and I dug some more....

I intended to work a few hours when I saw it hadn't rained yet. I was pretty sure it was going to rain so I just kept working thinking I'd stop when it rained. But it never happened. And wow I got so many things done today!
1. Weeded and covered with leaf mold blueberry bed
2. Dug out 2 blueberry bushes from front yard added to that bed
3. Planted 5 strawberry plants in that bed
4. Planted 4 apple trees
5. Planted a weeping willow
6.  Started another expanse of hugulkultur in parents backyard and now encompasses almost entire back border of fence
7. Mixed entire pen of leaves with grass clippings
8. Mowed both yards
9. Moved all the bricks to mow the future herb wheel really low
10. Cleaned up my area of garage
11. Took fence panel out of parents fencing to access backyard better and had to chisel out a stripped screw
12. Cut down a large weed tree except the highest branches next to parents house
13. Set  up my dad in backyard to watch me with seat cushions and a root beer with a straw
14. Trimmed grass next to trees in their backyard
15. Moved all the wood piles and sticks to form the first layer of the hugulkultur
16. Filled one garbage can with leaves mostly wet and grass clippings and tied the lid on so I can roll around and speedily have some leaf mold
17. Put up 8 tomato cages
18. Put up a support for an eggplant
19. Stuffed all the tarps in a galvanized trash can
20. Put the stuff Pat left in yard for trash in trash and also dragged some carpet to curb and moved recycling bin back to house since we had wrong week
21. Raised Rylie's bike seat and took training wheels off yesterday and today filmed her riding without training wheels for first time!
22. Added dirt to potatoes and made one potato cage
23. Put back up wire cages around blueberries
24. Raked up straw for strawberries

Needless to say I am very, very afraid that I WAYYYYYYYYYYYY overdid it! Oh boy. 11 hours later.

Dwarf honeycrisp that soon will be pruned back to prepare for espaliering!

I forgot to mention I twisty tied all the daffodil and allium globemaster leaves together! Maggie trampled them and they looked terrible and you're not supposed to cut them before they die back so this way they were out of my way. Oh and I planted 9 sweet potato slips along the front of the blueberries.

Strawberry new bed

Another dwarf apple, think this is granny smith?

Willow tree!

25. Planted 9 sweet potato slips

26.  Twisty tied the daffodils and allium plants in blue berry bed

27. Moved lime and lemon to front of house

Wow I'm tired.

Mother's Day azaleas in the ground

Well I planted the azaleas into the Hugulkultur bed this am. I must confess I did top off the many layers with some sphagmum peat moss. :-( That's what happens when you buy the plants BEFORE you have the bed ready. But I also needed some peat because the leaf mold and pine needles were not bringing the pH down enough in the Blueberry bed. They were originally planted in mixture of peat and clay. Then I have composted the Christmas tree two years in a row by adding all the needles to this bed.  I've added leaf mold.Still the pH I measured this weekend was 7.0. So since this is their 4 year and still no blueberries I was desparate.

You can't tell but the blueberries run between the box on  left at back fence to boxes on right. I also removed all the pavers, flipped the tarp and spread it out and measured and centered.Now it marks where we need to dig out dirt for pool. If I can must some energy I may dig some tonight. I know I can never dig it all by hand but I sure want to start. 

I have so many projects in holdidng pattern til pool in. I know we'll have to bring in at least a thing that is like a mini-bobcat. Now I can't remember what it's called. Skid something? 

I love the copper details that tied together the whole yard!

Two different bars for back yard deck and great copper trim to tie together to copper planter and copper detail on trellis. I love copper!

http://www.hgtv.com/video/creating-an-outdoor-bar-video/index.html

And here's a great way to make an outdoor bar or kitchen counter.

http://www.hgtv.com/videos/curved-serving-bar/70194.html

New Collage Done NOW Bedtime....

After working on this area today for real, I rethought much of what I planned. So this is with the plants I really amusing so far. On one hand I'd love the artichoke to produce some  buds but wow this is half the size they could be and I didn't realize that when I planted in front yard. Now I am glad only 2 survived.

Hugulkultur

Everything I've seen on Hugulkultur always starts with piles of wood.

Almost finished compost.

I was so bummed with this rainy weather. We have 3 day weekend and it's raining and forecast to continue all 3 days. So what in the world can I do outside to fulfill my need to garden? I haven't put the azaleas in my parent's backyard yet and that needs to happen. THEN IT HIT ME! HUGULKULTUR! No it's not a way to grow mushrooms but similar. In a woodland garden the forest floor is rich with nutrients from decaying leaves and branches. It just so happens that they have tons of wood and sticks in a pile in backyard, my leaf mold is aging in a dog pen, and what better way to make a nice bed for AZALEAS that like to live in the acidic, edge of the forest. HUGULKULTUR will be perfect.

Here's an example although this guy didn't use much other than wood. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/permacult/msg0413325228156.html

Turned over one row of the sod by the fence the rest I covered with  cardboard.

I watched a video a few days ago where they made a mound about 20 feet wide and 5 feet high with wood peices in the base then layers of straw, leaves, garbage, junkmail, newspaper, and manure layered up. I used wood, leaf/grass mix that's already started molding, finished compost, Better Earth compost, clay dirt from  my front yard, newspaper, cardboard. Not in that order actually. I can't find that video now which is a bummer because I think it was to reggae music. Here's a similar one but they didn't throw garbage in their pile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sNd_v_Fs6w

Here's a how to document:
http://burlingtonpermaculture.weebly.com/uploads/4/2/8/9/4289790/hugulkultur_-_how_to_acidify_your_soil_naturally.pdf

Where's the video I watched?

Bricks will go around edge of many of these beds later.

Cardboard-Rotting Wood-Leaf Mold-Compost-Newspaper- Leaf  Mold- Compost -Leaf  Mold. Then letting it sit in rain this weekend and will add more after I see how it settles.

I can't find the video I originally watched. Guess I'm going to have to make my own. But too late. These pictures will have to suffice.

New look for front yard by garden gate

I started digging and transplanting tonight in front of garden gate.I am making an artichoke bed. Here's a collage of what I'm going for:

I have no idea if I threw the poppie seeds in what would happen.The package indicates I should have started long before the frost.

A Garden Divided

I could never publish my garden plan from GrowVeg.com because the limit in one direction was 93' 2" and I did my whole yard in one plan. So today I decided to make 2 plans. One for the front yard and one for the back and side yards. So far this is the back yard. It will have the edible garden on the South side and the Shade garden, hopefully future dry stream bread and Japanese style garden on the North side.

http://www.growveg.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=424148

I tried to send up my front yard and it wouldn't go up. So I worked on it some more and tried again and now it's up. Yeah!

http://www.growveg.com/garden-plan.aspx?p=423577

So now you can see my plans. I have a lot more planned than what is time or financially possible this season. But a girl can dream!

Unfortunately I am as behind outside as I am on this plan. I have my whole plot plan in place but I of course think I need to redo it. And I'm way behind outside!

Mailbox Garden ooh la la

Planting below today

A few of my beds especially #8 is really warped and falling apart. So we have been discussing rebuilding the beds and I actually want to consolidate 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8. Then I'll have four beds which I'm already calling A, B, C, and D. Then I marked the current beds according to where stuff will go based on a grid system I set up in GrowVeg.com. I can't believe I never did this before I was always printing my current version of growveg and taking it with me to the garden and trying to gestimate where that was in the actual boxes. Now I would set up string and divide them into square foot gardens. But I never had a system for which grid was which. It mostly worked but this way I can leave the pretty printout inside and just make a list of locations. 

So when we priced what the bed redo was going to cost we estimated it to start at $700 and go up from there. Not really in the budget at the moment. I'm thinking of just consolidating by hammering boards between the beds I want to join for now and in the fall making it look pretty. And may do just beds 7 and 8 over now since that's the beds in the most need.

I love the hot pink or fuschia next to the chartreuse of the berberi.

Chitting potatoes to plant in couple days. Ordered these from the http://www.potatogarden.com/ they were featured on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. What a hunk!

Managed to get some stuff done this morning between raindrops

I realized I better attend to the plant stand today as most of the stuff there needs planted or repotted. So most of it got put in peat pots and put into my new little greenhouse stand. Bought the latter for cheap last year at  Big R I think.