I watered the garden this morning, and looked for a small, quick task since we’re forecasted to reach 80° today.
So I started weeding the Accidental Not-Bed right off the bottom of the drive. Years ago, it started as a last-minute convenient spot to sow unexpected carrot seeds. I tossed down a bag of peat and cut it in, and dragged a pile of random bits from the yard to define a border. No barrier cloth, no proper mulch for the first two years.
After the carrots proved they needed looser soil in a raised bed, I transferred a pile of walking onions from elsewhere, having seen that some washed across the drive from our Pending Plant Corral and down into the not-bed and rooted.
Additionally wet, bolted cilantro branches drying out in the corral were forgotten about over a past winter and the not-bed has had a cilantro patch ever since…
I am repeatedly surprised how early the first round of cilantro is, self-seeded for over-wintered seeds. I sowed a batch of saved seeds today before mulching, and will continue to do so every week through early June to stagger the availability.
Ever since the carrots and I discovered swallowtail butterfly caterpillars in the carrot greens, I’ve sown parsley in the not-bed as well.
I weeded as best as it’ll get for an area saturated with invasive creeper vines and grasses. I mulched as well, more so than ever to date. It looks pretty good for a not-bed…
Oh! And here’s another skink, noticeably older than the last one, sunning on the busted brick pile.
The skink surprised me! I don’t associate lizards with Missouri. After living in Tampa where they are rampant, I forget that even though we have freezing winters, reptiles burrow and survive them.
there’s enough topsoil washout in the sideyard, that I think they live under the concrete stairs and walkway…
Wow! You are very lucky! I have never seen a skink around my house! (My spellcheck kept trying to change skink to skunk! I have seen plenty of those! 😂)
the brick pile amd sloped sideyard certainly help. there’s enough soil erosion to give them avcess under our concrete steps and walk.