Finished!

We are finished wood chipping!  Oh my gosh!  I thought we would never finish.  I guess it's a good thing my husband is out of a job because he suddenly had tons of free time to dedicate to yard work.  I wanted it all done by the end of August so that I could start formal lessons with my kids the first week of September without having the stress of trying to fit in yard work as well.  We ate pizza on paper plates more often the last two weeks of August than we normally do in two months and house work went virtually undone while we spent 4-6 hours working on the yard each day, but we finished!

    I've noted a few things you might be interested in.  

    First, while the cardboard boxes and wood chips to cut down on weeds they DO NOT fully prevent them.  Grass will be killed, most weeds were killed, but nothing kills bind weed. It's like the cockroach of the plant world, it could survive a nuclear blast.  BUT, it does get the weeds to a manageable level.  

    Second, it's HOT.  Is it hot where you live?  We should be cooling own to the 80s here in Utah, but instead we are experiencing a heat wave with temps near 100.  The lack of greenery in my yard is making it hotter.  I know it sounds crazy, but did you know that having plants growing can drop the temperature?  In fact, if you have a bit of water and plants you can drop the temperature in your yard by 10 degrees!  Shade from trees is cooler that shade from a building because the tree holds water.  I didn't think the weeds would make that big of a difference, but it's enough to feel it.  I need to get some plants in ASAP.

 Ok, so what's next?  Like I said, I need to get plants in as soon as possible.  As you can see in the picture with the wheel barrow I also need to finish a few berms that I have been hiding from.  They kind of intimidate me.  They should have been planted first thing to avoid erosion, but I wasn't sure what to plant and I'm always worried I'll mess up.  I have asparagus and strawberries in two berms, I might just do more of that, or maybe raspberries. I'm still not sure.  The front two will be flowers, I've already decided that.  Anyway, I'm going to get a trailer full of nutrimulch from the turkey farm and when I want to plant something I'll just put a pile of dirt and start a guild.  I've definitely got to make sure to have nitrogen fixers because as the wood chips break down they will cause a nitrogen deficiency.  I also want to cover the paths in a walkable ground cover.  Near the house I plan to use walkable mint and thyme as it should help discourage wasps.  Under the grape arbor and the rest of the paths I'm thinking microclover. I also want to plant microclover under my globe willow when it gets a little bigger so I have a nice soft spot to sit in the shade on a hot summer day.

I've got to be honest with you, so far the prep work has been torture.  I hate yard work.  I love gardening, but I hate yard work.  Especially when it's hours every day in the hot sun.  Last summer and this summer it was hours and hours of hard labor getting in the framework, but now comes the fun part.  Now I get to design fun garden beds and guilds, plant beautiful flowers and all our favorite foods.  I can put in the final trees and bushes, and a plethora of perennials.  Now I get to beautify our space.  The little pond and creek we have planned is an extra, there isn't a big rush.  The grey water system can come later as well, but I NEED plants.  I was going to wait until Spring, but why wait?  If I leave now I can still make it to the garden store before it closes.  :D  

The "back garden"
you can see the boxes that didn't
get completely covered and my sun chokes
getting nice and tall.