Herb Garden Reno

The husband and crew had some time to kill before a concrete pour yesterday, so they worked on the herb garden. I wanted to see what was living under the billboard tarp, and sure enough, when they pulled it back, a two-foot long garter snake came scooting out. (All of the garter snakes around the chicken coop are big, no doubt due to their high-protein mouse diet.) I did not want the poor snake to get stepped on, so I picked it up and relocated it underneath the front porch.

The guys put the weed barrier down and placed the raised beds. A load of gravel and a load of topsoil were delivered yesterday morning, and the husband will move that over today.

I got the heaviest-duty commercial-grade weed barrier I could find. It’s what is used in playground installations. If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see that it only comes as far as the gate. We decided to make the herb garden slightly smaller. The husband will run a line of fencing to close off that end, which will give us considerably more room to get to the chicken coop. Right now, there is a 3' wide walkway between the garden and the chicken coop, and moving that fence line will open it up to about 12'—big enough to mow around the coop and get equipment in there if needed.

The garden will have space for some chairs and a table or at least a birdbath.

It’s coming together. I will be happy to have some kitchen herbs closer to the house when I need them.

While they were working, I planted some rows of lettuce, arugula, collards, and Swiss chard out in the big garden. We are supposed to get rain for the next few days. This is Monday’s forecast:

I’m not sure how one has a winter storm watch during meteorological summer, but there it is. This is typical of the kind of June weather we had when we first moved to Montana.

I had enough strawberries yesterday to make shortcake for the husband for dessert.

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I’m making a muslin of New Look 6543:

This was in my pattern stash, so I decided to try it. I lowered the bust darts and lengthened the top by 2" before I cut the pattern out. All that is left to do is to set in the sleeves and hem it. I’m finding that I really like woven tops for summer. The only drawback is that they have to be ironed after washing. My ironing board is always set up, though, so that’s minor.