Smerdu Community Garden

Gail and I have been volunteering at the local Carlsbad community garden.  Every 3 or 4 weeks is our week to work in the Rot Spot making compost.  I took some phone pics of people's plots this last Saturday, which I think are pretty amazing for being in the middle of winter.  Of course this is Sun Diego County.

 Beautiful cabbage and chard.

 Every plot is fenced and has its own water faucet.

 Ripening tomatoes in February!

 There is a long waiting list to get a plot.  You can tell how much some people cherish them.

 Does anyone know what kind of plant this is with fruit growing off the trunk?

Our work station.

Hot Tub!

We ordered a hot tub from Amazon last October which arrived just before Thanksgiving.  It was advertised as "plug and play", however, it wasn't that simple.  It was sent from Texas with free shipping.  Turns out it was manufactured about 4 miles from here!

 The delivery man was kind enough to help me get the 280 pounds of tub and pallet to the back of the house.

 Next, I had to make a pad to support all the weight of tub, water, and humans.  This meant digging out  the squishy soil about 10 inches deep down to the hard pan.  Penelope and Yummy delight in anything new!

 Next, I made a frame of ground contact lumber to contain the gravel that would fill the void.  Weed/root barrier was added on the bottom.

 It took about 2 cubic yards of gravel to fill the hole.  I packed the gravel with a tamper I made from a 4x4 and scraps, ramming the gravel in place after every 3 inch layer.

 My neighbor, Bob (yes, we are everywhere), helped me roll the tub over to its new home on the pad. I then had an electrician run a dedicated line out to the fence.

Ahhh!  January 2nd, and we finally get to enjoy soaking in 104 degree water, and looking up at the stars, moon, and clouds.  My back really needed this, too, after all the work!

We had some leftover flagstones from the front yard, so I spent a couple days cutting them and making a path out to the tub and back gate.  I also covered the gravel around the edges of the tub.  We are now in the process of getting this area of the yard ready for some landscape plantings.  Rather than using toxic vegetation killer like Roundup, we are covering the area in plastic to smother the grass in this area, which will take a couple months.  The grass will be replaced with mulch and maybe tall ornamental grasses and other clean water-wise plantings.