Explorer Family – Learning and Exploring Everyday

New Garden Bed

I’ve been fighting with the sod. I don’t like to water it as much as it wants. So I decided to add in a new veggie/flower bed instead of all the half-dead grass. One trip to HD, some help with the digging and layout. We used pressure treated 2x4s to outline the bed. Same as…

Blackberry time!

It’s blackberry time. Last year we found one wild blackberry plant in the backyard. I took cuttings and now we have the original and 6 more on the hill. They are a little hard to keep under control- they grow absurdly fast and spread quickly. I have to cut them back often. The thorns are…

21 new roses on the hill

I’ve been growing about 30 roses from cuttings for the past year. Since they all had solid root structure I decided to go ahead and plant them. Around 10 are lower in the yard and 21 are now on this hill. I prepped the area first by taking out the few plants I had left.…

Updating the flagstone walk – Part 1

This pathway has been in need of a lot of work. I’m thinking of redoing the sod or maybe replacing the sod with flagstone. The latter would be better for water usage but a lot more expensive up front. To start I decided to clean up the horrendous grass between the stones. Now I have…

Rosemary friend

I found this small rosemary seedling the other day on my flagstone patio. He had to work pretty hard to find a place for his roots. While I love rosemary (despite being highly flammable) I couldn’t leave him where he was. I pulled him and popped him in water yesterday, and today grabbed some nice…

New Finch family

New plants

I have updated my garden beds with 50% shade to help my new plants. I have some baby redwoods, fig cuttings, new roses and of course avocados.

A lovely evening

College visits

What to expect when touring campuses this summer. Coming soon.