Gates with Thresholds to Nowhere

The newest curb cut makes the garden entrance more inviting.

It was a delightful long weekend spent working on the new garden. The three gates to nowhere got concrete brick thresholds so they shut and seal along the bottoms, the last two post holes were dug and the posts embedded in concrete.

My favorite work was Saturday. Three concrete blocks were chiseled out of the driveway curb, and irrigation water lines and landscape electricity lines re-routed to make way. Digging two trenches resulted in relocated sprinklers for the oleander and a new, strategically located garden faucet -- my seventh.


Then two blocks were set facing inwards, paving bricks laid, a step to nowhere created, stucco repaired and painted, and some decorative Mexican tiles glued. I'm beginning to like Liquid Nails a lot.


The gates still go nowhere because we have to finish stringing the aviary wire. Although the gate frames seal well, there's nothing to keep javelins and varmints from feasting on the salad buffet.

Soon enough, the wire will be stretched, stapled and nailed, another two-foot wire stretched along the ground as an apron, then covered with dirt, and the gates will be finished.

Meanwhile, one Texas purple sage bush went bonkers from watering. It's amazing how much desert plants thrive on weekly watering. Plastic PVC pipes trenched and buried all over the place give me seven garden faucets from which yours truly enjoys hand watering each weekend. I need one more, down in Coat Hanger Valley.

The New Garden: Gates to Nowhere

This past weekend, we set up three gates to nowhere around the new garden and embedded enough posts in one-foot concrete-filled holes to create the perimeter.

The gate on the left is on the northeast. There's one on the southeast and a third on the northwest. It makes a little more sense when you walk the property, which is easy to do now because aside from the three gates, there is no barrier.

Two yards of dirt were delivered on Tuesday. All three raised beds are loaded up and ends closed. Shari has tomatoes, scarlet runner beans, and Thai basil planted in one bed.

We have enough dirt and space left over for two more smaller beds -- but that's in the improbable future. Still, it's nice to have space to expand.

Soon, probably this coming weekend, we will stretch and staple the aviary wire and the ongoing struggle to exclude javelinas, rabbits and any other varmint we possibly can will open its first chapter.

Saguaro Flowers

It's that crazy time of year when saguaro cactuses put on funny hats.

The saguaro in front of our house is using every branch to its fullest to bring out flower buds.

When the sweet red fruit appears, that's when the local wildlife really gets to feast. Birds eat the fruit, sit on a branch somewhere to attend nature's call, and presto: baby saguaro cactuses sprout on the ground below.

The New Garden

Happy May Day! 

Spring means desert blooms in the Old Pueblo. Palo verde trees have been blooming in the basin for a week or more, and trees in the Foothills are only a week behind. One quickly notices which trees have been getting enough water.

Saguaro cactus are budding and we have our first full blown flower in our yard. Prickly pear, acacia and mesquite are in flower, agave shoots are attracting bees and humming birds, and the hanging cactus is still blooming.

The new garden is waiting for topsoil. Sifting the existing dirt is only a start.  There's not much organic material in it. I'm thinking of collecting horse manure from the trail in the wash.

Shari already has planted a couple of tomatoes (plants, not the red things). She has scarlet runner beans growing in pots and they are past ready for the big time, but we need good dirt.

The news is that the three raised beds are pretty much done -- but for dirt. Once that's wheel-barrowed inside the beds, I'll close off the remaining ends. Last Friday I prepared the base and laid the first course of concrete blocks. Then took a nap. 

Does everyone know what caliche is? It's hardpan. Thick layers of caliche is why we are located on a hill overlooking the lower elevation in the Tucson basin. It takes a pickaxe to break it up to dig out level ditches in which to lay the concrete blocks.

Saturday I bought the remaining blocks and the caps for all three beds, and presto. Quicker than you can count the number of empty tubes of Liquid Nails in the garbage can, it's cocktail hour, I'm bushed, and it's time to marvel at my accomplishment and take pictures.

They look like remnant foundations from some ancient civilization.

I'm working up the energy and inspiration to put up the perimeter fence. Shari came up with the idea of posts bolted onto concrete piers and embedded in concrete for gates and corners. Friends have used aviary wire (finer and prettier than chicken wire), so we'll stretch that between the posts, then lay some more wire on the ground around the fence so little critters can't tunnel underneath.

At least, that's the plan for now. Seems easier than digging a one-foot deep trench for about 150 feet, much of it through caliche.

Then we need new PVC pipes and three faucets, landscape fabric and wood chips to keep the dust down, about three gates, and shade cloth.

No rest for the wicked. If only I didn't have to work for a living.