Keeping a gardening in triple digit temperatures

....can require a little creativity

If you are hoping for something like this

And trying to avoid this

And don't have money growing on your trees either (no matter the weather).

Yeah, that's us. Our garden came to a scorching halt early last summer, because of the intense sun.

But this year... a wonderful idea fell upon us during our Great Landscape when we noticed that we had tons of weed barrier fabric leftover.

Since that money tree is broken, we've been trying to reuse and up-cycle as much as possible, so naturally we had to get some more use out of this stuff that is so amazing and super cheap!


We bought really big rolls to do our entire yard, but you can get a 3' x 25' roll for around $10 at Home Depot. Could you imagine buying outdoor fabric for that cheap?

It's not the most stylish or even interesting looking stuff, but in addition to blocking weeds look at all the other stuff it does:

• Saves Big on Watering, by conserving the soil's moisture
• Provides complete weed control
• Only fabric that is hydrophilic treated - letting air, water and nutrients through
• Fabric is black on the back side, for the ultimate in light blockage
• Uses multiple-layer technology

Letting air, water and nutrients through? Blocking light? Hum... You see where we're going with this??

We didn't need this to block weeds in our garden bed, but what if we put it OVER the plants to slightly limit extra sun?

GENIUS!

Ok, to be fair I should specify, Kevin's genius idea, but where would the idea be without the actual crafter behind it right?

Before

After

The nice thing is that it still gets rain water through and it doesn't completely block the sun like an awning or many other covers.

Plus, we left the sides open so the vine plants like our cucumbers and pumpkins can crawl toward more sun if they need it.

Why didn't we think of this last year? Our garden was done by July for sure. But not now that we found the fountain...er cover of youth! Who knows how long we'll be growing now!

Busted!

I've forbidden myself to work on any new projects until my huge Patio Make-Over is complete.

You know what that is called?

Motivation

And I could sure use an extra dose right about now, so I'm sticking to it! Now, I'm sure you all will understand how desperate times calls for desperate measures right? And I know that you've all used a Sesame Street episode or two to get you through some deadlines in the past... I mean, who hasn't been a teensy preoccupied while their little darlings played along side??

During my briefest moment of preoccupation while trying to get before-shots of the patio project, I realized I've been listening to silence for too long and turned around to this picture... (Literally, since I had my camera in hand)

Me- "What are you doing, Sweetheart?"

Sienna thinks to herself "Don't make eye contact and she won't see you." Do yours pull that too?

Me- "Sienna, Mommy asked you what you're doing. Are you supposed to be picking in Mommy's garden?"

Sienna- "Uh oh Mommy, what happened?" (Go on just keep playing the innocent card here... how does she already know this??)

Me- "Where did you get those?"

Sienna- "Right there!!"

Me- "Those aren't ready to eat yet. They're still too little, they might be yucky. It makes Mommy sad when you pick in the garden without asking." (She does this often).

Sienna- "Sorry Mommy, I go timeout"

And this is what I discovered when she walked over to the swing to put herself in "timeout"

Looks like she'd been at this one for a while...

The question is who is really the busted one here me or her???

The Great Landscape!

It's been a year in the making... and now we are proud to present phase 1 of The Great Landscape DIY style.

Our canvas


One homogeneous streak of dirt shaded sidewalk, rock, house and a red roof to top it all off.



Our masterpiece (phase 1 of course)


A little more personality, a little more functionality, a little more color and a lot of sweat and hard work!

Design elements and inspiration:

Functionality, functionality, functionality
First of all, let's face it, where we live a "cool summer" night is just low into the triple digits! We need shade! So we planted a second tree to eventually shade the large front window. We also hope to mooch some added shade from the 3 hibiscus covering the two arch windows to my sewing room :)

Second, the expression when it rains it pours must have been coined somewhere very close by. Luckily it doesn't rain often, but when it does we could dock a boat next to our front door.


Why was I surprised when we used an entire day of free baby-sitting up on hauling dirt, sloping and trench digging? We tackled this beast by first adding dirt that sloped away from the foundation. Next, we dug a small downward sloping trench behind a retaining wall near our front window and covered it with large river rock to create a stream for water to flow to the street.

Last, we added about 6 tons of rock to help keep down the weeds and to cover the dripper system we built to water our new plants. We wanted to change the rock color, but it turns out the ex-duelers had very expensive rock taste. Who knew the "sidewalk" color rock was so coveted?? Anyway, turns out the most cost-effective option was to simply add to the existing rock rather than haul away and replace or buy enough to cover all the existing. In the end, I think I like how it turned out!


Color, color, color
Since "sidewalk" wasn't my favorite crayon color, we decided we needed some serious greenery and maybe a few pretty flowers to break up the monotony. Thanks to Home Depot and their trusty by-the-four-hours ditch witch rental we dug 31 holes over our entire property!








You can see the fruits of a number of these bad boys here in the front- a few hibiscus, some 'torch glow' bougainvilleas, purple ruellias, orange jubilee vine over the wall and callistemon shrubs (seen in the very front). We didn't quite get them in these shots, but on the far right of our property we planted a "wall" of yellow bells and jubilees to add a little privacy from our neighbor.

The hardest feature to appreciate in these pictures, but easily one of my favorite additions is our little brick paver in the corner by our walk-way. Kevin's promised me a big beautiful pot of whatever kind of seasonal flowers my heart desires as soon as I find one I like!!!

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of landscaping, all I can say is I know why they used to make concentration camp prisoners move piles of rock back and forth aimlessly all day... it is torture! Then again, when you use it as your date day, you end up finding some way to make it a little fun. Shhhhh, don't tell Kevin I said so or he won't think twice about coercing me to taking on his share for the backyard. I suspect this is one of those "not as fun the 2nd time" type deals.

My not so secret anymore garden!

It's no secret anymore that our two favorite things to grow around here are gardens and babies!

Look what we absolutely devoured this weekend, and it was straight from our garden. This was the most flavorful and almost sweet tasting cabbage I've ever had. Even my 2 year old couldn't get enough. I guess the fruits of your labor taste good at any age!



The best part is that I know it's truly organic, not just packaged differently and slightly more expensive :)




Next to harvest:
Carrots, onions, garlic, snap peas, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, squash and lots of herbs.

I can't wait for dinner at our house when it's all in!!