We worked all weekend on raising the fence. Tom did all the cutting and measuring of wood, I helped with the wire, and chopped down several old, woody bushes that were in the way. What we have now is, hopefully, a subtle but effective deer deterrent.

You can barely see the three-tiered wire going across these posts, which is just how I like it. Neighbors can see in, we can see out, and yet no one wants to jump it. The fence goes around our entire property, except for the driveway and garage, so this was a major undertaking. Tom bought six foot lengths of 4x4 posts and cut them into two foot sections. Then he bolted them on (using deck screws) to the existing posts using metal plates on two sides. The wire is heavy gauge and is threaded through staples pounded into the wood.

We have three gates, one of them double-sized. So Tom's next project is to make, essentially, four gates, each six feet tall. He'll make them similar to the chicken coop door, since we have some supplies leftover from that. They'll each be latched by some sort of string system that can be accessed by either side.

I cleared out a truck-sized load of old westringia, ceonothus, sunrose and buckeye. It was difficult, scratchy, and painful, and I would have liked a nice huge bonfire afterward to celebrate, but that's not allowed here. So we borrowed Dad's truck and took it to the compost facility at our local waste center.

This project took up most of the weekend, but I managed to make some new bars for the beehive; paint a brick for the new blackberry vine I scored for free on Nextdoor; open the hive (all looked well); reseed some corn, beans, watermelon; add dirt to the potatoes; clean the coop and the house; do laundry; and weed and mulch and get everything looking nice - plus a half day of training for Girl Scout camp. We did cross everything off the list except I didn't get to the herb purees. That will be a job for the week to come!

I've ordered three new bare-root fruit trees to take the place of some of the bushes I took out. I chose two different sweet cherries and a Santa Rosa plum variety hybridized by Luther Burbank. Once I plant those, I'll spread a ton of flower seed around them, and hopefully have a pollinator garden in the North Garden as well as the South.

Everything in the veg garden has sprouted and looks great. I have yet to harvest kale and plant basil in its place, and I have yet to harvest the shallots and plant cantaloupe in its place, but everything else is in. It's all wonderful, but it's the flowers that are really knocking me out these days, so I'll leave you with pictures of those, plus a funky mushroom (I think it's a stinkhorn).

Clarkia, Mountain Garland

Blue Flax

Forget-me-not

Pollinator section of the South Garden

Redbud seedpods

Tidy-tip and Phacelia

Stinkhorn?

Bonus picture -

Gopher snake Tom saw on a hike with Joe