Mother Nature and A New Garden

 Mother Nature was in a very bad mood this last weekend

and she dropped over 6" of rain and hit us with some crazy winds.

 We lost one of the older Lemon trees.

It was really top heavy with fruit 

and a bit diseased.

 We lost a huge low hanging branch on one of the old Oaks too.

 Guess we will have some fire wood for next Winter, right?

 There is debris everywhere and lots of power out all over Ojai.  

All I have heard all day is the buzzing of chain saws.

 A few neighbors lost some really huge Oaks, so we feel pretty lucky.

 Today the sun finally came out 

and the little seasonal creek was so pretty full of water.

 How wonderful would it be if it was always like this?

After all of the rain if you want to dig a new bed, now is the time.

 The soil is heavy but can be worked fairly easily...well not really easily,

 but at least you can get a shovel into it.

 This new bed will be a lavender garden.

I like Lavendula "Grosso", 

which I have used in many other spots, 

but this garden will consist of about 100 plants grouped together. 

 Grosso is the "go to" Lavender for crafts 

and drying because of the smell and the vibrant blue flowers.

I have been wanting to do this project for a while, 

but knew that I would have to dig this when the soil was really saturated.

 I start these beds using a pitch fork.

  This works great because the fork doesn't get hung up on rocks,

large and small...which are everywhere. 

 I swear the rocks are having babies like bunnies!

 After the pitch fork process,

 I throw in a bag or two of this stuff...

I also use this in the veggie garden!

 Then we get to fire up my fave little garden toy... 

the  Honda tiller or "Tilley" as I like to call her.

She is a girl of course...she's really cute.

I love my Tilley

...she may even need a bow or some lipstick!

 The Lavender garden will be next to the raised veggie beds and adjacent to the English roses

 This took about 4 hours and I will finish the other side tomorrow...weather permitting.

 We rarely sit here, 

so I would rather see a beautiful bed of Lavender, 

instead of empty chairs.

I'm hoping to get the beds finished and planted next week 

and we are also still working on the Master Bathroom

...UGH!

Stay Tuned  

&

Happy Spring 

xo

kelley