Catnip Cottage 1930: And the work continues...

Rudy says I write too much about what I'm doing in the garden, and not enough about what he's doing. Whatever. LOL. Just to prove that he is working, though, while I'm outside, sweating buckets in the hot, scalding, relentless, blazing sun, here are a few pics I just took when he emerged from the attic. He's caulking some of the million holes and cracks up there. I have to admit, that hardhat gives him a certain flair.

Draw, pardner! Look out, he's dangerous with a can of foam in his hand!

So, enough about him! Let's talk about me and my garden. LOL. When Rudy and I bought this place, I mentioned a fall garden. He scoffed, and asked why I didn't just NOT do one this year. I thought about it, agreed, but the closer it came to September, and the more we ate frozen grocery-store bought veggies, the more I wanted to plant *something* here. Just to see how it goes, I said. Well! Before I knew it, I was ordering seeds (http://www.reneesgarden.com), clearing out some of the old pecan leaves, tossing snails (my new hobby), and making little tags that said "Turnip," "Collards" and "Mustard." Yes, dear readers, I succumbed to the lure of a fall garden.

I'm trying something new here. Other than the one experimental raised bed I wrote about in my previous post, I don't intend to build a lot of raised beds like I have in the past. For one thing, in the past I had no dirt because topsoil in the Texas Hill Country is as scarce as hen's teeth. So I had to build raised beds. Here, in Taylor, we have very deep topsoil. I'm still gobsmacked at the idea of going outside, digging a hole and putting in a seed, lickety-split. Amazing stuff, dirt!

The seeds are up in the experimental ugliest garden bed in Texas

Here, I'm practicing what I call "pocket gardening." I find a space that's next to an existing shrubbery, or a bare patch of lawn, or an old pathway, plop in a marker, plant some seeds, and wait. Lots of people tell me they don't have space for a garden. I just planted my fall crop of mustard greens underneath a pecan tree, where the previous owners grew oxalis. The space is only a few feet long, but that will make plenty for us two. If it doesn't work out, I can dig them in or throw them on the compost pile I started here.

Compost pile made from wooden pallets left behind by the house levelers and leaf mulch tube to right for corralling leaves left in neighbor's yard and small branches

Greens will grow along the front of my new herbs 'n chickens bed

Beans will grow in an old pathway beside the boxwood hedge

Mustard greens will grow in this little pocket of found space in front of the cottage

And collards will grow at the base of the pecan tree:

I am throwing handfuls of our homemade compost on top before watering in the seeds. This soil is sandy, and probably fertile, but lacks enough organic matter that will keep the soil moist if/when it rains.

More later....Husband's running the compressor and I find it hard to think over it. Doesn't he know I'm trying to BLOG, for pete's sake? BTW, this is my first post from the cottage. Yes, wireless internet has come to the old gal. Ain't technology great?

And speaking of that, here are a few random photos I snapped this morning...