Yesterday Mariko said to me, “I have on my calendar written that you were planning on making the raised garden today.” Oh yeah. I vaguely remembered saying that. Well, I had the afternoon with the kids, so I might as well spend some time out in the back putting together the raised garden. Bay and I made a quick trip to Home Depot to get the supplies. We got the wood cut to size (they never seem to charge for extra cuts beyond the single one you get for free), but at checkout I was shocked to see the price. However, when we did a search online for pre-fab cedar garden beds with similar dimensions (11’ x 4’ x 11"), we found that they ranged from $300-400. So we actually saved quite a bit of money, and the cedar planks I got were about 1.75” in thickness and have held up quite well in the other beds we’ve made.

Since I made this kind of raised bed before, yesterday’s construction went smoothly. In fact, I didn’t have any problems at all! It was a really nice experience too. They afternoon wasn’t too cold, the kids played nicely, I had a couple of cold beers, and the baseball game was streaming on my laptop. The hardest part was making sure the ground where the frame would end up was level, and even this went smoothly and quickly. At this point, I was thinking that this was going too easily. The only thing left to do was move the frame from the patio into position. It was pretty heavy, and having another person there would have helped, but the frame went down into the dirt without any problem. It was almost too easy! (Now I am really suspicious of what will go wrong)

When Mariko got home, I had already cleaned up the tools, had the kids done with their homework, and was enjoying my third or fourth beer. She looked outside at the new garden bed and said it was beautiful. Woohoo! Success!

Next step will be to add some good dirt and have it ready for planting. It will actually take quite a bit of dirt to fill, but maybe we can just do a portion of it. I have some extra wood laying around that I can use to section off the bed, so that is an option. When it comes around to planting, we’ve decided to have the kids take care of their own sections of the bed, and decide what they want to grow. I’m excited about my own section, and have some plans which involve lots of peppers and hopefully cilantro. Yes, I’m thinking salsa! But we’ll see. Anyways, I’m planning on spending some more time out in the backyard this summer, and taking care of the garden is pretty fun.

I rarely swear or use the F-word, especially not in normal conversation. But when I am working in the yard, the “gloves come off”. Those weeds really bring out the worst in me. I’d say that 95% of the times I say the F-word are when I am weeding. Just thinking about those weeds is making me mad. Time to think about something else.

Yesterday I built a simple compost bin using instructions I found at Stopwaste.org. I went with the one made from a 32 gallon plastic garbage can. I spent about $20 at Home Depot to buy everything, and it took about 15 minutes to build it, plus another 10 minutes to dig a small hole in the lawn to put it in. We already have some kitchen scraps in it, just stuff like corn cobs, onion peel, coffee grounds and banana peels. I also added in some dried leaves and newspaper. This week I’ll ask our lawn mowing service to save us all the grass clippings so we can use those in the compost bin. I am already thinking that we will need another bin, but it was so easy to make, I am not worried. Just can’t wait to see all the waste turn into compost that we can use in the garden!

A busy, tiring, but fun weekend for us! On Friday night we had dinner at our friends’ house. We had lots of vino, crackers and cheese and then Chris bbq’d chicken and steaks. I had some duck-flavored tofu “meat”, which was pretty good. Tasted like a Chinese tofu dish. The kids watched some Wallace & Grommit vids while the adults enjoyed the great Austin evening weather out on the patio. It was lots of fun. We got home around 9:30pm, and put the kids to bed, then I spent the night setting up my new computer. I finally hit the sack around 2am.

Saturday morning, we went down to Sunset Valley Farmers Market to load up on veggies and visit with Kayo and Take. We ate some great bento too! Then we went up to the Toyota dealership to look at new cars. I am retiring my Sentra and taking the Odyssey, while Mariko gets to drive a new Prius. We have one on order, so we can get the exact color and options she wants. I bet right after we take ownership of the car, the 2009 model with Li-on batteries and 100mpg will be announced. :(

After coming back from the dealership, we just hung out and did a little yardwork. In the evening, I worked on my old computer, trying to turn it into a media rig and hook it up to our LCD tv. But, I kept on running into problems, such as USB mouse not being recognized (I tried two different mice). Because of this, I couldn’t install the drivers for the new wireless network card I bought. Stupid installer program needs a mouse to click it! I got so frustrated, I just gave up.

Sunday was yardwork day. I dug out a bunch of grass in the front and planted some kind of shrub (I forget the name), then laid down the mulch over that little bed and also finished mulching the other side of the front yard. In the back, I weeded a bunch and started digging out the grass for a new veggie garden. I did about half so far. My back was aching so much, and I had no power. Could hardly pick myself up! The cul-de-sac neighbors are ordering dirt this week, so I put in an order for 1 cu. yard. It should arrive Thursday, so I guess Saturday will be another tough day for me.

Last night after dinner I was so tired that I crashed out right after getting the kids ready for bed. Today my body is a little sore, but much better than I thought it would be.

Methley Plums; photo from Arborday.org

This past weekend we spent a lot of time in the yard, getting ready for spring planting. In the front, we trimmed the plants in our flower beds and weeded a bunch. I pulled out some plants that the builder had put in for us. Now there is a large open area with plants. I am thinking of planting a smaller roser shrub there. We used to have several rose plants in the yard of our old house, and they were very nice. I cut up my arms pretty good taking care of those, though, so I am thinking of just having one or two rose bushes in our new yard. Mariko also planted a bunch of Annuals in the garden bed, then I put down a nice layer of mulch to keep the soil moist.

In the backyard, we renewed the soil in our vegetable garden beds with organic soil mixed with compost. Mariko planted a tomato plant and transplanted some small Shiso plants. She also has some jalapeño and squash seeds that are going in soon. The thing I am most excited about is a new Methley Plum tree that we planted. It should take a couple years for it to bear fruit, but it’s going to be nice to eat homegrown plums.

It’s fun to work in the yard since the weather is so nice right now. But come summer, the Texas heat will make going outside tough, so it’s good to get most of the heavy-lifting done now.