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.