I discovered yesterday that we have a new street light on our electric pole behind our back fence gate. I have no idea when the city put it in, but it lights up my yard. I also found out that some maintenance fairy must have fixed the light on the side of our house near our rainwater problem. It suddenly works and never did before. This solves some of my lighting issues. I'm not sure the "Man" thinks it is a good thing.
What does all this mean? I was out working in the yard until 8pm last night and would have been out longer if the "Man" hadn't come out to ask me if I wanted to run some errands with him. Yes, I am addicted, but I think it is a good addiction. If I had known I would be able to garden at night and before the break of dawn I would not have had to get off the phone with my friend L, because I wanted to take advantage of the available light to plant the perennials I was waiting for from Barton Springs Nursery. I still like gardening better in the sunlight, but I was able to water my ollas this morning before I went to work instead of worrying about them being mostly empty and my veggie garden wilting even more in the afternoon sun because I got distracted (inspired?) last night.
I'm loving the cooler weather. I also love gardening during light rain or after the rain is over. I know it can be bad for the ground because it is easier to compact the soil, but digging is so much easier. The air smells better after the rain and the light is amazing. I also find that the plants I put in the ground after the rain seem to be happier overall. I'm hoping that since I am not standing in the planting beds i.e. only compacting walkway soil planting in the rain is not so bad, though disturbing the soil brings up weeds. So far, I'm liking most of my weeds. I'm even hesitant to start working the area under our big window because I don't want to disturb the big cluster of wood-sorrel and horseherb growing there. The wood-sorrel seems to love growing around the wood that I've used to delineate my planting areas from my walkways.
I also spent some time last night digging a trench around our side door to help mitigate some of the water that pools there. I put in some river rock so that the trench doesn't end up with dirt again. Hopefully this will help until we have the time and ability to lower that whole area, create a swale, take out the side walk, build a new walkway, etc. I also found a cool new project while browsing the intertron yesterday. A cinder block planter wall. I am going to build it along the side of the house to get the water from our neighbors yard to flow around most of the house rather than adding to our water issues and the picture of it I've seen looks super pretty. I have a cinder block and wood placed between the side of our house and the channel that the recent rains have made from their back roof to our side door. It is working pretty well to redirect the water except the wood is not tall enough which is how I started searching for short wall ideas.
As much as part of me wants a privacy fence instead of chain-link on the sides of our house another part of me likes having the chain-link. I really enjoy talking to our neighbors (sadly they are renters not permanent ones) on the rainwater issue side and I like being a nosy neighbor and seeing what the quiet guy who won't even look at us is doing on the other side of us. Our talkative neighbors are irritated with the landlord and most definitely moving when their lease is up in December and encouraging me to call the city about the water flowing onto our property from their rented house. It was a nice break last night chatting with them. Having the chain-link and great neighbors to talk to really builds a sense of community. I guess depending on who moves in next I may be really motivated to start working on a fence, or wishing my plants to grow faster.
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