Yard Work....Yard Work.....Yard Work....

Work...work....work....it never ends:) Our tree in our front yard was out of control. It was PERFECT for shade, but it was very top heavy. That is not good because it has shallow roots. We almost lost it last year. It blew over during a monsoon and David had to cut off half the limbs and straighten the trunk the best he could. We were lucky to have a mild monsoon season this year.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It took David 7-8 hours. He wished he had an electric saw. I think next time we will try to barrow one. As he cut the limbs with a saw or clippers I drug them out to the street. I love that once a month bulk trash automatically comes by and picks up anything left out on the curb. It doesn't have to bundled, boxed, canned, etc.... Just thrown in the street....PERFECT!!!

After the tree was done, we ate dinner and then went to plant another section of our garden....IN THE DARK. There's not a more perfect time to plant a garden in AZ. We just hung a light from our dolly and went to work.

We are experimenting with our garden this season. We are doing the Rich version of Square Foot Gardening....which is much cheaper:) We have separated the garden into 4 sections with walk ways in between each isle. We are not using rows and we are condensing the plants. We can use are space more wisely this way.

We planted our first section this past Tues. night. We planted carrots, beets, green onions, lettuce, and chard. The seeds have been in the ground for 5 days now and today we got our first sprout:) David has worked so hard preparing the dirt and planning out where everything is going to be planted. He calls me from work to remind me to water the garden. We have to water it at least 4 times a day until all the sprouts emerge. Then we will put in a soaker hose on a timer. This is his baby and I LOVE that he enjoys doing it.

Our second section has cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. In a week or two we will plant the third section and then the week or so after that the fourth section. This way it will lengthen our harvest.

We have also planted bell peppers, strawberry's, and tomatoes in some separate boxes next to the garden. We are going to make little green houses around the bell peppers and tomatoes as it gets colder. This is all experimental because we have never done it this way. Growing in AZ is different from CA. We are crossing our fingers!!!!