ONION SETS AND GARLIC PLANTED.....WILDFLOWERS SOWN

I planted my first batch of onions, Texas 1015's and Reds.  It was a bit monotonous, but I came up with a way to not damage the end of the onion bulb and roots.  I held each one with two fingers at the end.  I planted with my fingers and had a system going by the time I planted FOUR bunches.  Will plant more later so they don't all mature at the same time.

I also planted a bunch of garlic that will mature in the Fall.  I wasn't real sure how I went about planting garlic...so I asked a friend....told her not to laugh.  She didn't...she had to ask the first time she did it too!  You really do plant grocery store garlic!  I had three BIG cloves of garlic.  I separated all of them, dug a trench, and buried them about 2 inches deep and 4 inches apart.  It apparently doesn't even matter which end goes up.  Supposedly it is the EASIEST thing to grow.  We'll see....

 See my "topiary tree" on the right?  I planted wildflowers all out in this area....bluebonnets (my favorite...the State Flower of Texas), Indian Paintbrushes, and all kinds of flowers native to Texas.  Can't wait to take a picture of this same tree with wildflowers abloom! 

These wildflowers, once established, will come back year after year.  This is my goal.  I am planning my ENTIRE landscape with perennials.  BRING ON SPRING!!!

RAISED-BED COUNTRY GARDEN

We worked HARD yesterday, but knocked out the hardest part of our new country garden--building and filling the raised beds.  My husband and I built pine beds..30' X 3' X 1' tall.  THEN, we had to fill all of these boxes with rich black dirt.  We're lucky because all of this awesome black dirt came from our pasture.  Most people have to pay good money for this kind of garden fill.  And do you know how much backbreaking work it is to wheelbarrow this stuff?  So we cheated a bit....

All of this West Texas rain has wrecked havoc on our new roads...mud puddles everywhere!  So...luckily, we have a friend who owns all kinds of heavy equipment and is willing to let his guys work on the weekends without charging us oilfield prices.  So...every time we finished building a box, he would come over with a bucket of dirt and fill these things.  It took 2 of these loads per box.  It would have taken us a month of Sundays to manually do what we did today by multi-tasking! 

Here is what our garden looked like Saturday morning.  Notice the high fence?  In order to keep determined deer out of a fenced-in area, the fence should be at least 7 feet high.  So...the bottom 3' is tin....buried just a bit; then a 4' panel; then there will be a strand of slick wire.  The awesome part about burying the tin is...it will be as snake proof as possible.  My husband knows that if I run into a snake, he is going to have to garden the rest of the summer! LOL

And then....here is a picture of the garden area at 5:00 Saturday afternoon.  What an accomplishment!

DILEMMA:  Now that we are this far along, I have several questions for my readers....

1)  Notice the rusty barn tin.  Since this is close to my house, should we spend the money and buy new cream & white tin to match the well house and barn?

2)  Are there any master gardeners out there who can tell me what to plant together and where to plant?  I'm planting tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, okra, peppers, and squash...heavy on the tomatoes and cucumbers.  What about strawberries and raspberries?  Can they grow in pots along the walkway?

It's raining again today.  I guess this means no dirt work in the yard.  As ranchers, we are thankful.  As people with week-day jobs, we wish it would rain during the week instead of on our precious days off. 

3)  Any ideas on an inexpensive composter?  I've always wanted one of those...

Have a Great Sunday!!

SPRING IS NEARLY HERE...LET'S GET STARTED ;-)

I'm so excited about getting started on my landscaping!  The snow was great, but so glad I can nearly see Spring.  I've so enjoyed my new house on the INSIDE....I've so been waiting for NOW to get started on the OUTSIDE.

So...here is my first REAL post on my journey to making my new country house a home.  These are pictures of where I envision (I think I'm going to be using this word a lot over the next year.) a pergola.  I already have patio stone that matches the rock on my house.  So...give me ideas so that when the backhoe is finished with that area...we can get started on bringing that particular area to life!!!