It’s supposed to be in the 90’s today with storms this afternoon, so there won’t be any digging of holes or other big projects. However, there are always small projects that can be done quickly and are perfect for a day like this. There are two projects in this small area that won’t take long to do: clean the waterfall and replace the pump, and finish the sink area.

A couple of new solar pumps were delivered yesterday and one is for the waterfall on our patio. This is a two piece waterfall that came with an electrical kit and was easily adapted to solar with a small 1.8w fountain pump. I cleaned it out and hitched up the new pump and it’s ready to go.  The second project for this little area is to finish covering the landscaping fabric. Because of the water use near the sink and hose, we decided to put a bag of river rocks rather than mulch that would easily be washed away.

Rob finished another project today. He had previously dug out the grass and put down landscaping cloth and stones to keep it from growing again. I put bricks in front of the bed to hold down the other edge of the cloth.  Today he added two bags of cow manure in preparation for planting corn next weekend.

Each autumn when the corn is harvested, we lay the stalks down on the bed to break down over winter. By this time each year, they have mostly broken down and added good organic matter back into the soil. Sweet corn is a heavy feeder and needs the input of the manure each year, but it is so worth it!

The process of giving St. Fiacre an updated garden area will have several steps. Today, I dug up the ramps that we have planted in that area.  They are an over harvested wild leek that we are working to have naturalize in our garden. We had  planted two, and one divided, so we now have three. I also bought some seeds and will be planting them in a few different areas to see where they do best. As our trees mature, there is a “forest” area that will not be disturbed and they should do well there.

And lastly, I started scraping the “bathtub” that St. Fiacre stands in. It looks like it was once painted blue and more than likely housed a statue of Mary and Jesus, and later it was painted silver.  The plan is to scrape it down and clean it up and leave it white.

There will definitely be future additions of statues to the garden, but for now St. Fiacre will remain in the place of honor.  St. Fiacre is the patron saint of gardeners and worked with healing herbs. He was a gift to me from some of my sisters on my 50th Birthday. =)

It did reach almost 90F today and there were enough showers to water everything. A few more of the smaller things are completed and we can move on to bigger tasks tomorrow when the weather is cool.

Talk to you then!