John worked on hooking up the solar today and  I amended a bed I made with choir and planted a jasmine shrub, two rose bushes and some rosemary, that will be be a hedge... I see it used this way a lot and sure like the way it looks.  I think of all the topiary I've made in the past, only to lose it to indoor winter kill and I can smile and not worry about losing it!   I used prostrate, however, which is a creeping variety.
I wonder how long I will remain giddy at all the things that I can plant and not have to worry about. Yesterday I planted a variety package of gladiolia. I can finally plant bulbs!  Canna, dahlia, elephant ear.....wow.
Also I planted garlic. Tomorrow I will plant 105 strawberry plants, some boysenberry, blackberry and loganberry.  I will also plant the broccoli, more spinach and kale (5 varieties!) walla walla onions, brussels sprouts, more cabbage, swiss chard and rhubarb. It's really nice that you can plant stuff in stages as the weather allows, and you can plant a garden twice a year, and keep greens going all year long.  I have several books on edible landscaping which I am utilizing and will be making use of underplanting which is part of the permaculture system. Nice.

End of January

Wow..End of January already. It's so nice to work outdoors all day long. John has been working on getting the solar going and I put in a kitchen garden and patio. Living on a hillside means that everything you do involves shoveling soil to make level. We still marvel at what we could have been thinking when we picked this particular spot on the property in which to build, however it's true...the soil is nicest right here compared to anywhere else-and it just feels good right here...hillside or no! Logic just does not rule.

New Patio

John Working on the Solar

  Maximus our newest adoptee is doing fine. He's got some serious OCD problems that are really weird though. He looks for dust bunnies, snaps at the air and we can almost imagine some sort of pretend dialog he's having with the dust. He's aways looking for something that's not there...or at least nothing that we can see.  He snaps at the dust in sumbeams that stream in. If he is focusing on something, he will wiggle his head so it appears that whatever it is- is  moving and lunges at whatever it is that he sees. Now we know why he had a container of rocks removed from his stomach, and....he charges Tansy, Willow and the cats too.  Max is weird, but he is also intelligent, extremely sweet, loving, affectionate and has obviously  had a lot of love and obedience training. Oh, and you cannot touch any of his feet, or touch him when he's relaxing. If you bump even one tiny hair, he screams like you've just  about killed him! What Would Ceasar  Do? hmmmm......

Today I will be work on the big garden, planting the broccoli, more kale, brussels spts, swiss chard, giant mustard greens, strawberries... i also need to begin digging holes for the berries and other fruit trees. We've got two apple trees already planted, but want another variety, and then Asian Pears, pommegranite (seedless), grapes, apricot, plum citrus, olive and citrus. The olive variety will be for salt curing and the citrus, probably mandarin which is good for here. The grapes will be seedless variety used for raisins and the plum is a prune variety. All good for curing, drying and longer storage.

Jan~ We've been taking advantage of the beautiful weather by putting in a kitchen garden outside the front door (me) and John has been working on the veggie garden. We both finished up distributing the manure/soil and it's ready to plant. We're excited to get a crop of kale, spinach, lettuces, mustards, and chinese cabbage. I also got some strawberries, garlic, herbs, and a few flowers. John seeded out some basil and I've got cilantro going already. Lovage is next on the seeding list.

We're also making our list of fruit trees/bushes and vines,while we wait for all the solar components to arrive so we can get the power of the sun up and running...With all the sunny days we've had it'll be great to get off the generator.

Jan 7th~ Had a wonderful time with our neighbors Chris & Kelly last night. Jill is also back from Nebraska so we fired up the outdoor cob and made pizzas, which was a real treat. We finally got the temperature regulated, but I need to work on my pizza crust. The Boboli crust they brought worked out perfect, but I'm challenged to make my own, so I hope to make it a weekly event so I can perfect it. Chris & Kelly will be leaving for Thailand in a few weeks to attend a permaculture workshop so we're excited for them and look forward to sharing their adventure when they return. We're so fortunate to have such a vibrant couple to share ideas, books and experiences with. Finding folks that have the same interests is a rare enough feat, but having them right down the road is superb!

Jan 9th~ ran around today together looking for a few more leafy greens to plant, and a few bare root apple trees-our favorite 'Pink Lady'. When those are planted we'll return for some asian pears, grapes, and other berries. The ground is so doggone hard for lack of rain, so we'll need to get the pick ax out!

Also got some pressure treated lumber and rebar pieces to make some stairs, and begin a terracing our hillside for fruit trees and edibles. Living on a hill has it's challenges, but the view and location is worth the efforts.