COLOR

There's a little notebook in which I started making notes about what vegetables were being planted, where, and when, at Stu's suggestion, in order to track what works and what doesn't and how things progress.

There's been an ongoing list in the computer of birds seen in/from the backyard, going back to 1999. This month, besides "the usual" I noted a white throated sparrow foraging with the golden crowns, the return of the chickadees, the departure of the goldfinches; last week a sharpshinned hawk leisurely flew across the yard at eye level while I was on the phone with my mom, and today a red breasted sapsucker was busy on the apple tree.

It struck me that I would like to make regular notes on the vegies, the birds, and also the front yard as plants there make it or not, and that starting it on January 1st would be a nice starting point. My thought was to do it as a word processed document, like the bird list. But today I realized it would be a very good use for this blog (um, pretty obvious, right?), so I think that's where it is headed.

These are two shots of fall color taken today while on a truck run for more fir bark. Do click to see larger versions. If I remember to carry the camera to work tomorrow and Wednesday, there will be more.

After putting in the fir bark, we went to the nursery for cheap flats of bedding annuals to fill in empty spaces: put in pansies, snapdragons and stock, plus some more small natives I'd grown from seed (Calfornia bee plant, rosy yarrow, and cow parsnip) so all of a sudden there is color in the front yard beside the one glorious California poppy that started blooming three days ago.

FALL

The front yard project is about half done; gravel and fir bark paths are laid in (although will likely need to be added to) and over half our native and xeric plants are in, watered and mulched. It is supposed to rain later this week; hopefully within the next two weeks we shall be done.

Fall sends mixed messages. Our coyote bush is in bloom, small white flowers sending out a heady fragrance that brings hundreds of bees. The three rosebushes outside our bedroom window are still glorious, and the crepe myrtles downtown have amazing red flowers. But our snowball bush and grapevines are turning color, and all around town trees are amazing shades of orange and flaming red. The hills above us to the west are slowly showing areas of soft yellow and rust among the many shades of green. Clicking on an image will give larger view.

LAWNLESS

Start with a plan, a diagram of the shape and dimensions of the area to be worked with. Draw in the paths for access and design (I laid them out tentatively with a long garden hose and walked them, making adjustments as needed) before starting on plant placement.

Price your materials. On two folks’ recommendations we went to Denbeste. We showed up and Lisa Denbeste, who owns the company with her husband, was in the office with her tiny new baby napping beside her. She helped us through the process. Half-inch crush, a nice gray gravel that packs well underfoot, is affordable at $35/yard, but there is a $65 delivery charge. She told us our little 4 cylinder pickup would handle a half yard at a time. This would also give us the advantage of built-in breaks (for driving back and forth) instead of shoveling like mad all at once.

So Wednesday evening, after I got home from work, we went out to the front yard and cut away the black plastic from the area where the gravel path would get laid out. Then we covered the area with a porous weed-blocking cloth, followed by a layer of corrugated cardboard.

Thursday morning we brought home a half yard of gravel. Heavy rubber-like plastic edging had to get wrestled into place to delineate the path and keep the gravel stable, held in place under the edges of matching stakes. Stu and I were working on this when our “yard guy,” Mickey, arrived full of caffeine and good cheer. He and Stu took turns shoveling the gravel off the truck into our wheelbarrows while I told them where to dump and then worked on getting it spread properly. The first load went pretty quickly so Stu and I drove back to Denbeste for another half-yard. I shoveled off about a quarter of it before Mickey returned from a break and I returned to spreading.

At this point, Mickey suggested we needed river sand on the outside of the edging to stabilize it against the weight of the gravel, so he and Stu went to get 700 pounds of sand (for all of $10). It only took about 10 minutes to get it offloaded and in place, with a bunch left over to use as a soil amendment for our native plants that need lean soil with good drainage.

That done, we had a path but it was not quite deep enough. We paid Mickey and thanked him, and off we went to Denbeste for a final quarter yard of gravel. We used about 1/3 of it to finish off the gravel path, then Stu backed the pickup truck into the middle of the front yard, to a space I won’t be planting right away. We opened the tailgate and I shoveled most of the remaining gravel out into a mound. Stu finished it off and cleaned out the bed of the pickup while I washed up and got ready to go to the dojo.

The only remaining task on the path is smoothing it. Our next door neighbor, Rick, has a large, heavy metal rake suitable for this, so that’s how we’ll start Saturday morning. Then we’ll be back at Denbeste for a load or two of fir bark for the smaller secondary path across the yard.

We have between 25 and 30 native and drought-tolerant plants in pots waiting to be planted. Unfortunately, Thursday through Sunday nights we are under a frost warning, so they all had to be moved into the courtyard last night. It will probably take another couple of weeks to get them all in the ground. Meanwhile, with this weather, I suspect our tomato and tomatillo plants will be in the compost pile this weekend.

SLOWING DOWN

Partly it is the seasons changing: darkness in the morning, winter vegetables poking out of the soil, rain falling from the sky.

But more than that, it is that in many ways, nine months in, the transformation has happened and our new lives are simply here now. The quotidian events are just that, and so I don't feel a particular need to write essays about them.

The past month has seen the County Fair, a big quilt exhibit, my artwork up at the Ukiah Players' Theatre, watching a dress rehearsal of their youth version of The Hobbit, taking on the responsibility at the aikido dojo for being present once a week, my mom visiting for a week, lots of tomatoes and tomatillos ripening (if you live where they will grow, I heartily recommend growing tomatillos from seed; they are large attractive plants and keep on growing, flowering and bearing tomatillos for ages), and the killing of the lawn.

This month offers lots of hard labor creating a new front yard area, with gravel and fir bark paths, native and other xeric plants (and room for a couple of bare root roses in the spring), Kris Kristofferson headlining a benefit for volunteer firefighters, a visit from my sister, sewing baby gi orders and, one way or another, actually getting the studio up and running for painting.

So this blog is not going to be discontinued, but I do expect it to slow way down. For a treat, here is a LINK TO A FOUR MINUTE VIDEO OF THE WINNING RUN AT THE SHEEPDOG TRIAL AT THE MENDOCINO COUNTY FAIR.