What Did Grandma G Plant?......Post Views....17,840

.......In the cover of dark?

Why, it's 3 inch squares of Irish moss....
Grandma G's solution to "no mow green".....
I had bought 9 of them a few days earlier and wanted to get them in before the rain set in that evening......figured that as they grow the dirt areas will cover over.....

Saturday morning revealed a tidy square of little green patches....

Keys and Jake came over to finish shoveling the dirt from the neighbor's driveway....


Half of it to the front where eventually I (hopefully) will fill in the gap. The other half in the back for future planting....








Zach digging holes for trees to landscape along the garage wall




 Gram G making progress....
designing the stepping stones pattern

Like all great innovators, I lay awake one night thinking of ways to hurry on the "seeding" process...
I know one can buy "sod" for lawns.  I wondered if one could buy moss sod....or seeds.  Next day I ordered 500 Irish moss seeds for $4.20 and $2 shipping.  More on that later....
A couple days later after observing how quickly the clumps of moss were growing little fibers I figured they would have greater opportunity for expansion if the middle fibers were not crowded by all the competing outer fibers....oh yah.....SO....cutting the little critters in 6 or 8 pieces and distributing them would probably result in faster ground coverage.....correct?   (See pictures above....those brown things are NOT worms, rather "whatever" from the neighbor's trees)  

   Now for the rest of the story......
 
      A few days later I received a 4 by 6 inch shipping envelope in the mail.  Hmmmm.....wonder what this is all about....a sample of an advertising ink pen?   Upon opening it there were 2 green Styrofoam packing peanuts and a folded piece of paper. Hmmmm.....now what?  Inside the paper was an itty bitty 2 by 3 inch plastic packet with a label reading "500 Irish Moss seeds".

 Instructions read.....
sprinkle and mix into sand or peat moss with some lime, keep moist and seeds will germinate in 4 weeks...
SO.....guess I'll think about this a day or two.....

Back to the store I went for another 15 three inch squares of Irish Moss....

     But wait.....What is this?  It's not brownies....Nope.....
Why, its a pan of dirt sprinkled and mixed with......
500 Irish Moss seeds....Yep.....

 

Grandma G is going to sow them directly onto the ground and let nature do whatever nature does with 500 Irish Moss seeds mixed with dirt.....no lime, please....check back in 4 weeks.....

 Oh, I have to remember there are 4 three inch squares of Irish Moss in the car....
Need to take them out, cut them into 16 tiny squares of Irish Moss 
AND....plant...

Grandma G's green space yard from the outside....

Grandma G's view looking out her living room window....

Someday soon all that brown will be "no mow" green.....

Oh, yah, Baby.....
You all come to visit, you hear?


This has been a good "what did she plant" day in life of Grandma G. 

"A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path.....some fell on rock....other seed fell among thorns...Still other seed fell on good soil.  It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."
(Luke 8: 5-8)

Grandma G, How Does Your Garden Grow?....Post Views.....17,876

Grandma G, Grandma G....
Quite extraordinary....
How does your garden grow? 

WHAT GARDEN???

MY PEBBLE YARD?

I have been looking at this out my livingroom window for 2 and 1/2 years

    Time to upgrade....

                                             Oh, yah!!

    The journey....well, the project...started 2 weeks ago.....the planning and researching has been going about 8 months....
     How does a strength-challenged Grandma G economically transform a pebble yard into a PNW green space that doesn't have to be mowed....short of raising goats to graze there? (Big business in Portland...)
    Since you asked....here goes the journey...and the questions to be resolved...
   How to remove the rocks?  What to do with them?  
   How to obtain fertile, viable dirt? 
   What about the useless "weed barrier" lining the entire yard?  
   WHO will do all this?  What will "all this" cost?
   Can I do this NOW so there are a few weeks for plants to settle?
   Who will water for me while I am away on my "Midwest tour"? 
   How does one grow a green space that doesn't need to be mowed?
   What will grow in mostly full sun?
   Will the weather be agreeable? 
   Who has a wheelbarrow I can borrow?
   Where will Gram G get the energy to do all this?
   Will she have time to BLOG?  (Obviously she didn't)
   Will she have time to garden while keeping up with socializing?
    Will she have time to visit the friendly local dentist a few times?

    First it's off to various nurseries to see what is available for what cost.  (This was combined with "hanging with friends" on several occasions.)

   Then it's browsing stores for discount and half price accessories...
    Asking Jake and Zach if they are willing to shovel dirt for Gram...
    Was Jake available and willing during his spring break to work?
    It was also measuring the length and width of the desired yard. 
    Finally it was time to call (at the suggestion of a friend) a local recycling company to see if they have dirt and do they deliver....for how much....and how much dirt do I need?  The speaker thought 1 cubic yard would do it, plus $40 for delivery.  But, hey, I like a bargain so I said how about 2 cubic yards since there will be other projects in the future and then no further delivery charges....
    Then to see if the neighbor was willing to let them dump the dirt in HIS driveway since it lined up nicely to my backyard. 
    And back to the store to buy a tarp to dump the dirt on....

    Yeah....all the info was lined up...only one problem remained....
     Did I, Grandma G, have the imagination, gumption, energy and motivation to start AND finish this little green space project? 

     April 10... Friday morning...actually afternoon 12:05. (The dirt company gave a 3 PM time for dumping.) I was off to pick up Jake about a 25 minute drive from here.  We arrived back here at 1PM....Just in time to see a big, o honkin truck drive past my house.... driver said he was close by and "who doesn't like to get off work early"?  Is it OK to dump the dirt right now?  

 (trees and red bush belong to the neighbors...)

 

First off,  a bunch of the rocks have to be raked up and spread around the rest of the back lot....

             Loading dirt into Grandma Carole's rusty antique wheelbarrow....across the wooden bridge....

Two loads down.....HOW many more to go?????

 Grandma G is working, too!!!!

OOPS......this project is now interrupted because of a broken, rusty antique wheelbarrow.... Sorry, Grandma Carole....
   Jake and Gram G are off to buy a new one.....


And assemble the

new one....
While Gram is off to figure out how to put air into a WB tire...
with the help of willing stranger and friendly attendant.... 










Almost a full yard of DIRT.....

Jake, one more small project.....
a hole in the back for my 
lonesome pine.....

Night comes....rain is threatening....Jake's folks take him home...though there is still a mound of dirt in the neighbor's yard... cover it with another tarp....there is a promise of returning in the morning to move what amounts to 1 cubic yard of dirt remaining....what to do with it????

Grandma G is seen planting WHAT in the cover of darkness?

Check back tomorrow .......

This has been a good "recalling green space creating" day in the life of Gram G.

"And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done."

(Genesis 2:3)

Spring Break/Part 1..."It's Too Far".....Post Views....17,555

     Ah....the wonders of spring break even if one isn't a student and one "didn't go anywhere".   This "one", Grandma G, had a great week of adventures...

"It's TOO FAR"

Wednesday, April 8, I joined a senior trip to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast.  Leaving a cloudy Vancouver/Portland area we drove an hour and a half into sunshine and blue skies 20 minutes from the coast.

On the way through town the our van drove by the coast where I saw the tide way out and Haystack Rock surrounded by beach with people walking out it.  (The van drove by the Rock so we could "observe" it.) Reaching the end of town the van turned around and drove by the rock again on our way to midtown. At this point I asked the shocking question, "Are we parking somewhere that I can walk to the rock?" "It's Too Far.  It's TOO FAR.  It's too far," was all I heard. 
      WHAT?  Come all this way and the rock so accessible and NOT walk out to it?  Unthinkable.....at least in MY mind.  
      Once the van parked and we were on our own for 4 hours I walked 3 blocks to the beach.  No sight of "The Rock".  Echos of "It's too far. It's TOO FAR.  It's too far" resounded in my head.  Bummer.  What's left except to wander aimlessly on the beach...
while negative thoughts bombarded my brain.  How can a kid see the cookies on the upper shelf and not devise a way to get at them? Or know there is ice cream in the deep freeze and not plot how to get it?  
    A short stroll to the left on the beach brought the coveted goal in sight. Four hours to do whatever one desired (within limits).  Having decided that I can eat anytime or shop anytime I concluded I could NOT walk to "The Rock" anytime.   How far down can it be?
How far is "too far"?  I started a leisurely walk about 10:20 AM.  

"Selfie" practice shows progress to the goal

 












Almost to Haystack Rock.....

Happy folks exploring 
Haystack Rock

11:40 AM.....
Happy Grandma G about to
explore Haystack Rock.....
Hour and 40 minute leisure walk...about 3 miles?   

About 20 minutes earlier people could walk out to touch the large rock on the right.....tide was starting to come back in so attendants were setting signs......had I not dawdled I would have been there in time..... 

"Other side" of the Rock....

Time to walk back to town.....12:05....

        A look back to Haystack Rock.....

         A great, rewarding walk in the sand.....

1 PM.... time for a Chi Latte at the Insomnia coffee shop.....

I did find out that almost everyday when tide is low people can walk out to Haystack Rock.....If one parks close by the rock one does not have to go for a long leisurely walk to get there...... 

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach at low tide is now near the top of my PNW "to do" list.....

2:30 PM...all us seniors are back on the van for one more stop before returning to Vancouver.....

This one senior did not even brag to the others that I walked to that rock that was "too far"...... so that is that.....

(My leg muscles were rather tight come Friday.....)

But my "I did it" attitude is still elated.....

Haystack Rock at high tide......(website picture)

This was a good recalling "It's too far" day in the life of Grandma G.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)