My fabulous Manperson woke up this morning wondering if I had been drinking werewolf zombie blood. I mean that was the very first thing he said to me today as I passed through the bedroom at 7am, "Have you been drinking werewolf zombie blood?" because I have been living on 3 to 4 hours of sleep each night and getting up absurdly early. (Most days at 5/5:30am, but I am one of those rotten morning people, luckily not a super cheerful one just industrious, though if I sleep in forget about getting me to do anything for the rest of the day). I've been either really hyped about working on the yard or working on the yard is mitigating my insomnia. Thursday, Friday, Saturday because of the rain and cooler weather, I worked on my yard projects in one way or another most of the day as soon as it was light enough to see outside.
Most of the rest of the time I spent reading about gardening and making "plans within plans" then changing my mind once I got more information. The Austin Area is labeled differently depending on the book. One book calls the whole area "the Edwards Plateau" where most soil types in Texas can be found. Another says Austin has three distinct regions depending on what side of town you live in which in include "the Edwards Plateau" with Limestone underneath everything, the High Plans, and "the Blackland Prairie." I had originally thought our house was in the "Blackland Prairie" part of Austin both because of the description in the book and because the trees in the front yard are often found in that area naturally, but we have alkaline not acid soil. I also redid the soil texture test this time remembering to add detergent and it looks like 20% clay, 37% silt, 37% sand.
I spent a bit of time observing the rain and how water drained in the holes we made cutting out ligustrum and it looks like it is pretty fast draining, maybe even a little too fast which considering that our neighbors yard has no grass and is slightly above us and the water from their roof puddles by our side door is not such a bad thing. I'm thinking we will need to do something about that because I'm starting to worry about flooding if we get an even heavier rainstorm at some point, though it was pretty heavy. I managed to harvest two trash cans of water and could have easily set out another two trash cans in the same spots and gotten two more full cans. I just wish I thought about getting some stuff to keep mosquitos from breeding in the water before I decided to participate in rainwater harvesting this week. We got some today, but I've already been bitten a few times.
I've been doing some research on what our options are to deal with the water flow next to our house, since it is really bad for our foundation to have all that water running along it. Poor Manperson is definitely tired of hearing me go on about rain gardens (sadly won't work because we don't have the 10 feet of yard on the side that is required), planting certain kinds of plants for heavy rain, but drought tolerant too (I had no idea that the plants would hold the water too much and also 'cause problems), French Drains, Erosion control, and rain barrels/rain water harvesting. I'm still researching our options, but I also promised him that I wouldn't blab on about gardening to him for the rest of the weekend or as little as possible for the rest of the weekend especially since he has done so much for me recently and deserves a break.
I took a few days off this past week before busy season starts at work to take advantage of the of rain and because I was excited about my delivery of compost and garden soil. I know the "Man" is very tired of hearing about my current gardening obsession, but luckily being the super, wonderful, bestest husband ever he is willing to help me and help bankroll my new hobby. (Yes, he does read this blog, extra ammunition. If I was the type I would be more careful what I say since he spent one day teasing me about having gardening opinions after I mentioned he didn't have many, but being careful is boring.) He has been sawing down evil tall weeds, hacking tree stumps with his mattock (I've never knew I could be so horrible and gender-biased in objectifying another human, but wow there is nothing like my Manperson swinging a mattock), digging up ligustrum roots, cutting down poison oak even though he didn't want to get within 5 feet of it or even bother with it for a while, and most recently building me raised beds.
Since Austin's fall planting season starts in Mid-September, I had asked the "Man" if he could have my raised beds finished by this weekend. I am happy to report that he has finished them.I got a 4 x 4 and a 4 x 8 and they are super pretty. I do love wood. I wasn't able to go with him to pick up the wood at Lowe's because as you can see below they filled up one side of the car.
He got both rough cedar wood and a smoother grade to see what the difference was beside the slightly cheaper price on the rough. He also got some linseed oil to help preserve the wood in case of rain. I did help him rub the linseed oil all over the wood after he cut it and it was hard work.
The darker pieces of cedar are the rougher cuts. I really liked how they turned out.
It is always cool when the "Man" and I work together on something. There are our shoes side by side above the wood.
Tomorrow, I will post pictures of my beautiful new raised beds. It is bedtime, now.
I don't know what kind of wood we used for the raised blueberry beds. It was the leftover posts from the fence. Shane liked it b/c they match the fence. :)
ReplyDeleteWe need a new fence and I'm planning on reusing at least part of the old one for something or other.
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