Poppies and Yardwork

I spent half of the day working in the yard and my attitude is much better.

I went out for coffee this morning and these were on my way,



They are red poppies, but not like California poppies, they are huge.

These are Sarah's raspberries trying to spread into my side yard. I can't imagine that these will get berries, they do not get enough sun, but it shows you how invasive raspberry plants can be. I only remember the blackberry bushes in Michigan, but I used to walk through the ravine across the street when my family vacationed there and they were just growing wild everywhere.


This is my ammo box ready for dirt and plants,


I was trying to figure out how to brace the lid to hold it open and then I realized I could just take it off. I set the lid under the planter to elevate the planter off of the cement. Then I was trying to think of what to line the bottom with and I saw these hanging basket liners that I was going to buy, but then I realized I have plenty of grass cuttings. The liners look like grass anyway, so I put grass cuttings in the bottom a few weeks ago and now they are nice and dry.

Next goes the compost. I've been putting food scraps in an empty Folgers coffee container, which soon became so nasty I had to put it outside. Every once in a while I mixied in some leaves and some grass cuttings. Now that it has been warm my compost is doing well fermenting in the sun, but it smells! I am waiting to spread the compost until I am ready to add dirt and plant. I can't add the dirt without plants, Spit will see it as a giant catbox, which she might even with the plants.

It took me half of the day to mow both yards and do the edging. I have not done any edging this year, so that was quite a job and I was dreaming about a power edger.

No one has gardeners here, so everyone does their yard work on the weekend or after work. This makes for a quieter week, although everyone here seems to have a chain saw that they need to use on the weekend. I watched a neighbor trim a small tree last weekend with his chain saw, which was just dumb, and I watched another one cut down a tree with a chain saw this afternoon. This afternoon's job was worthy of a chain saw, except either the chain saw was crap or the guy couldn't operate it, because it kept starting and stopping.

Spit and Cruiser do not like the mower, even though it is just a push mower, but they hung out in the yard while I did the edging. I was working in the nice warm sun and both cats lounged in either the sun or the cool grass where I have not edged yet and I felt like, this is what I missed, this is why I am here in Idaho. I missed working in the yard in my bare feet and getting my hands dirty and seeing my cats so content. So, with that, I felt better and not caught up in my feelings about the job.

I finished just in time for it to start raining.