Friday, April 11, 2008

King of the Hill



This is the hill that backs up to our pond. It grew only rocks and sticker canes. Dave decided to take control of this hill and spent several days removing the rocks and putting them up on the retaining wall and surrounding the pond.


This is a man who thinks big.



My Hero


After clearing the slope of debris and rocks, he used our mini-tiller to turn the lumpy mess into this sweet blank canvas, all ready for me to plant.



It was a HUGE HUGE job. This slope is so steep I saw a worm slide down head first.

(No arms or feet to break his fall).
click
You may recall that I bought St. John's Wort as a ground cover. 32 plants barely covered 5 square feet.

Did I mention how very steep this slope is? One of our garden books mentioned that vining crops could be grown on a hillside. Just dig a hole, fill it with good compost and plant a few cucumber seeds. When the growing fruit is starting to pull the plant out of the ground, make a support from a mesh onion bag, and pin it to the soil. Sounds like a plan!

um..where does one get mesh onion bags?

I am also planning on putting watermelons and pumpkins on this slope. I am pre-sprouting the seeds right now. I pre-sprout by putting the seeds on a wet paper towel and covering it with plastic wrap until I see white tips appear, which tells me that this seed is ready to plant. The cucumber seeds sprouted literally overnight.

I will have bushels of cucumbers. This has happened to me before. I never learn.


10 comments:

  1. Hero indeed! Look at those muscles...go Dave go.
    This is so great to watch even my husband is checking in daily to see what you're up to next. We are gardening vicariously.

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  2. Yay Super Dave! We wont recognize the place the next time we visit - it will be so different!

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  3. Anonymous10:44 AM

    You can find mesh bags in various sizes at www.gourmetseed.com. I'm sure they are available elsewhere too.

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  4. Anonymous11:01 AM

    I can picture the worm, sliding down the hill, screaming like a little girl on a roller coaster and unable to cover his eyes!!

    And Dave, wow. You are a beast!!

    teri

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  5. when I buy my onions or apples at the grocery store, they come in a plastic mesh bag. Look around the produce section of your grocery.

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  6. Dave's prowess in clearing and hauling is impressive.

    If you put out a call to all of us who read your blog for mesh bags, I'll bet you'd get more than you could ever use ... and in a great variety of colors and sized holes. I can almost picture your hillside of colorfully bundled produce still on the vine.

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  7. Anonymous6:27 PM

    You guys are definitely in need of help there, don't fool yourselves, get someone with some big machinery to move the stuff. When is the landscaping man coming back?
    Your soil looks so dry already, only 2 days ago it was pouring, where did all that water go?

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  8. I hope you are planting burpless cucumbers. It looks wonderful!

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  9. Anonymous9:55 AM

    Where do you get mesh onion bags? From mesh onions, where else????

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  10. Wow!! Dave looks great!!

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Hello,
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