More pictures than progress

The sunflowers are finally peeking over the fence into the garden.  I have had 2 neighbors comment on them,
I'm like a proud mama, just beaming with delight over the long waited flowering. The tomatoes are looking a bit ragged, but they are still ripening plenty.

The tomatoes are going crazy. At this moment I have 30 tomatoes sitting all around my house ripening... 30! Below is the 2 Siamese tomatoes turned into salsa.

This is an unknown ground cover given to me by Ophelia. She said it spreads quite fast. Anyone know what it is called? I randomly stuck it in the dirt because I don't know where I want it... now it has started reproducing! In the center top of the pic is a new shoot.

This is what we did this weekend.....
Dug a giant hole, spread the dirt around this section of yard to even out our slope(still need more dirt)

 Bought a truckload of compost...

 Filled in the hole! This is the future Asparagus bed. The 3 year wait will be worth it.
Plant Spring 2011> Eat Spring 2014 and every spring thereafter!

Doesn't look like much from back here--but I'm stupidly excited about the levelling of the yard. All around the edge of the retaining wall the ground slopes and makes it hard to mow. Who would ever thought I'd be this excited about dirt? (Notice the Sunflower in the back? It just wants to be in every shot.)

This is what I used the last 1/2 wheel barrow of dirt for. We raised the level of dirt between stones. It settles  slowly and we don't want Margarita to break a heel between the stones. Plus the fresh dirt makes the little star creeper look greener.

That's it. Move along. I have hundreds of pics and this is all you get today.

Saving money on ground cover

I spent $24 on 5 -4inch pots of Little Star Creeper at Molbaks early August. This seems to be a hard one to find via seed. Its a Steppable product and the easy to find option is Blue Star and White Star creeper which are taller than this Little Star. Being a fast growing ground cover, I still couldn't find it sold in a flat at any of the local nurseries. Would have saved me alot of time.
So a new plan formed! I will propagate my OWN!

I divided 4 of the 5 plants in to 4th or 8th and planted in corners and some on a few edges to get a more covered area. Over all I only lost 2 of the 1/8pcs in 5 weeks

8/11 Just planted
I took the 5th plant and separated it in to fourths and planted in soil.
Meanwhile kept the patio watered regularly on hot days.
Still growing...and perky too. 8/22

8/26 the plants are growing!

9/18 I finally have 4-4inch plants. Cost $4: Outcome $16 worth = Time 5 weeks.


9/18 I separated 3 of the 4 in to there own flats. ($18 worth of soil/flat containers to be used alot) and bought 2 more plants to spread more cover faster($8). In the 2nd tray from the top I planted the 2 new plants whole, and in half, where as my original grown ones I separated out as 4ths again. Always testing. The 4th plant I grew I cut up and planted as a test strip in between the stones.

Here it is mid September on the most planted stone, growing in nicely in 6 weeks.
9/18
Ultimately this section cost $8 using 1/4th in the corners and 1/8th around the edges. But by spreading it myself that would have only cost $2.
Now I'm about $50 in to this, but being we will end up with more than 80 stones with 4 corners and 4 edges each, the time it would take to grow (years) or buy that many plants($160 + time) would be alot of no fun. This way by next summer we should be most the way grown. Plus now I have several flats I can learn to start seeds in!

Any questions?