Building Fences

Garden Nbr. 02 was in need of better fencing. Deer roaming the neighborhood and nearby Connelly Creek Nature Area often wonder in, nibbling away on tender garden plants. The area is also full of rabbits so our fences need to be high enough to keep the deer from entering, and protective enough to keep the rabbits out. On my way to the gardens, my first stop was the hardware store where I purchased eight fence posts.

When I originally got this second garden plot (see last year's blog entry - More Garden Space), there was a wire fence running through the center of the space and around a portion of the perimiter. I took that fence down because I did not want it dividing my space like it was and to make it easier to clear the space of weeds, work the soil and build my raised beds. It looked like good wire fencing so hoping I would eventually find a use for it, I rolled it up and stowed it away in a corner of my garden. Now, more than a year later, I am finally getting around to building my fence.

The sun was shining, but ground still very water logged from the last several days of rain, so pushing the fence posts into the ground was not too difficult of a task. It would have been easier I am sure if my hammer would have been about twice its size when it came time to give those posts a few extra pounds in order to set them deep into the ground, but I did the best I could with the tools available in my garden tote. I also had some long bamboo poles and spaced them intermittently between the fence posts for additional support. Then I secured the wire fencing to the posts with the twine that I had saved from the bales of straw I had recently placed down in the walkways of my gardens. At that point, the fence was deer proof, but not rabbit proof as the holes in that wire fencing were large enough for rabbits to get through, so I still had one more issue to resolve. I had enough discarded fish net on hand to drape over the wire fencing and posts, so that was the final task to make my fence building project complete. 

It was so much more enjoyable to be working out in the gardens when the sun was shining rather than the constant drizzle of the last few days, and I left feeling confident that my garden would be safe from the nibbles of the neighborhood deer and rabbits.

Floods at the Gardens

It may not be official, but it feels to me that we should have set some sort of record in Spring rainfall this year, and it is no surprise here that we have some flooded areas at our Happy Valley Community Gardens. I took a little stroll around the soaked grassy paths between the individual garden plots and snapped a few photos of some I found the most intriguing. In reality, just blooming weeds and dead plants from last fall reflecting in a small trench dug around a raised bed without a frame, this garden reminded me of canals running through more exotic lands.

While there were many pools of rain water on this black tarp and the ground around it was extremely soggy, the fact that there were so many water logged pallet boards and huge clumps of sod stashed in this particular garden, I found it eery in a way - like maybe there was something ugly hiding under that huge black tarp that might come out and prowl the gardens only at night. I am curious now to see what really grows there in the summer.

This garden has been a work in progress for two years now and has challenged as many gardeners. Last year, a man and his son put in the back breaking labor of turning the sod with a shovel. Very hard work in such heavy, water soaked clay! Rows of corn and spinach were planted, only to remain mutant dwarfs with the corn tassling once it reached six inches tall. We have a new gardener there this year, a college student looking young lady that spent several days turning the soil once again, then built this raised bed and plastic covered hoop structure. She lugged in those orange buckets filled with something to mix into that soil. She has worked extremely hard so far, and I feel deserves to be the very first one in our community gardens to harvest this season's tender fresh vegetables.

This is a very pretty little garden and I like the raised beds with plenty of sawdust put down in the walkway to make it passable once you figure out how to get past the flooding over the slate tiled walkway at the entry. The gardener here has a small bed of some of the prettiest tulips I have ever seen. She told me once that she brought those tulips with her when she moved to Washington State from a state far far away.

Scattered randomly with newspapers tossed onto the walkways and over the raised beds, this was a rather interesting garden with all its puddles. Newspaper decomposes rather fast, but I'm a little curious what their goal could be and wonder what they were thinking.

This is my Garden Nbr. 02, and as you can see, I have an area that is flooded too. It might have taken me half a bale of straw just to fill in that low spot, but rather than use straw for fill, I have decided to pick up a bag of the most inexpensive dirt from a local garden center to dump in that hole before covering that portion of my path with straw.

Gardening in the RAIN

It didn't surprise me that I was the only one out working at the Happy Valley Community Gardens today. After all, there was constant rain and our high only reached 45 degrees F.  Wearing my Muck boots, a fleece jacket covered with big rain poncho and my souwester fisherman's hat, I managed to stay fairly dry, and it really was a rather comfortable temperature for working in the garden. We've received so much rain lately, our rivers are once again close to flood stage, and as it turns out, so is the rhubarb in Garden Nbr 01.

 The strawberry bed has standing water in places too.

My goal for the day was to remove that pallet board (visible here on the upper left). The remnant from the compost bin I've deconstructed, this seemed like as good a day as any to get it out of there. Water soaked from all the rains, these big pallet boards are quite heavy when wet. Heavier than I expected anyway. Having been in my garden for a few years, it was also somewhat rotten on the bottom. With a thick layer of mud from sitting in the dirt for so long, it was probably just as well that I was the only one in the gardens today. This certainly wasn't one of my more glamorours garden tasks.

I left the pallet board that served as the back of the compost bin in place. I did that for a couple of reasons. First, it creates a bit of a privacy wall for me and I am hoping it continues to help shield my view of the garden directly behind the north end of my Garden Nbr. 01. For three years, that garden has remained an eye sore. The lady that gardens there does not pull weeds, barely works the soil, plants very little and harvests even less. Rarely does she even show up at the garden. It amazes me that she continues to maintain a lease there. Anyway, enough of that! Secondly, I left that pallet board in the back because I can use it for vertical gardening. Maybe I will attach twine to it and encourage squash or cucumbers to climb, allowing a smaller footprint for vegetables that normally require a larger amount of ground space. Just a thought anyway. I attached boards at an angle to the back pallet board and the raised bed frame for extra support. I like how it opens up the growing space in the middle of this garden. Here's how it looks now.

The raspberries seem to be enjoying this cool, rainy weather. They are sprouting out nicely since I pruned them, and all those new little plants that I dug up and transplanted last week are looking strong and healthy. I could tell that they had grown - maybe doubled in size already.

The weather forecast says more rain, heavy rain, for the next three to four days. Let's see if I brave the rain again and head out to the gardens. Do you garden in the rain?

Commuting

Gas prices keep going up. Most stations around here are selling gas in the $3.79 to $4.29 per gallon price range, depending on the grade. While working in my Garden Nbr. 02, I looked up as the bus stopped to pick someone else up at its stop near our gardens. I am very glad this bus stop is so convenient to the gardens.

When I had my car in town over the weekend, I did manage to find regular gas at the low price of $3.679 per gallon at that cheap station out by the airport. I can't believe I'm calling $3.679 per gallon cheap, but filled the car up before heading back home. By using the bus to commute into Bellingham more and more during the week days, we'll just see how many weeks I can get out of this $35.00 purchase.

Connelly Creek Nature Area

With the Happy Valley Community Gardens conveniently located practically in the middle of the Connelly Creek Nature Area, some days I can't resist a walk after working in the garden.

Finally, the north end of Garden Nbr. 01 is cleaned up and ready to plant.

The rhubarb is growing nicely this spring. Soon I can make that pie.

By carefully stepping from one clump of grass to another, I manage not to get my feet wet as we make our way through the wetlands behind the garden to join the trail.

Gardening chores complete, Torrie enjoys our walks too.

A map and more information about the Connelly Creek Nature Area is available on the Cty of Bellingham's website here - Trail Guide - Connelly Creek.