Making the most of apricity, the warmth of the winter sun (yes that's a real English word even though my phone's autocratic correct insists it should be "apricot") I spent a few good hours outdoors yesterday transferring mulch from truck to garden. Bucket by single bucket, I have moved about two thirds of the load now.
The front south western sector is the main beneficiary with the garlic, three pomegranates, Santa Rosa plum and another bedding area destined in a few months for useful spring-sun loving plants like calendula (for tea and balm) and cilantro (for leaves and coriander spice seeds). Both these don't like summer's intensity so beans might follow them.
This south western area is my new, restricted, designated food garden area which will enjoy supplemental watering through summer. The plan is that garlic will be followed by late spring/early summer plantings of warm season food plants and that I reduce the total area of garden needing supplementary watering by restricting food gardening to certain areas.
Some of the shrubs in the front kerb appeal project also benefitted from mulching, but not the five Hesperaloe parviflora who are still sporting magnificent seedheads after flowering with sprays of red brilliance this summer. I assumed they don't want too much fertilizing soil amendment (correct me if I'm wrong). Maybe I will mulch them with something else like pretty pebbles found on my wanderings.
You will just have to believe me when I tell you I spent a good few hours apricating, enjoying the warmth of the winter sun, pulling grass from this area earlier in the week. I didn't take before pictures.
The rocks here serve an earth retaining berm function as the area slopes toward the street. When we get torrential rain, (any rain) the soil tends to wash away. They are also maybe an attempt to tell city workers that I want the chamisa, Larrea tridentata and cactus here. I had to restrain them from taking weedwackers to this section a few months ago.
I do have pictures of what the area looked like five years ago, in December 2018, when I was given custodianship of this little piece of Chihuahuan desert and it's very needy stone and adobe shala.
When viewed this way, it seems we've come a bit of a way together, the Garden of Earthly Delights, 6th Avenue Shala and I.
But there's more, so much more yet to be done in the plan. Sometimes I'm panicked. The sand seems to be running at such speed through the alotted hourglass.
Winter, I'm learning, is the best time to do outdoor infrastructure work and maintenance here. Apricity is the key.
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