Weekend update

We discovered a nursery in shoreline called Sky Nursery, and it had really pretty plants at better prices than the one closer to my house. They ever had composting worms, so if my current batch goes tits up I can get more there. Not that it's likely; they're doing great. I've got lots of big fat ones and a swarm of tiny littles ones. I put some watermelon rinds in there a few days ago, and worms have integrated themselves into the rinds. I think I'll stop fussing with them for now and give them some time to breed and eat undisturbed. Don't want my rummaging to inadvertently kill the next generation of worms.

We did get out of the nursery without spending crazy amounts of money, only 24$ for two lupines that Josh fell in love with, 4 marigolds, and a bag of compost. I think I like this compost better than the cedar grove compost I've been buying, so if I need more I'll get that stuff.

The marigolds will hopefully do a good job as companion plants for the south wall veggies. I saw a honey bee getting dinner there a half hour after placing them. I'm optimistic he'll frequent the nearby tomatillos with the same gusto. Speaking of bees, I found this local woodworker who makes mason bee nests out of reclaimed wood, and I think I'll get a box from him next spring. The internet says mason bees in our area are already done for the year, so it's too late to get one now. But since I want to get a plum tree next year, mason bees are high on my list of desireables. Good thing I did a stitch of research; our native mason looks almost exactly like a house fly.

The lupines are along the front of the house along with a geranium I got for free and some chicks and hens that I had in a pot. It looked like some roly polies had been eating the rotting leaves off the bottom of the chicks and hens, so I put lots of leaves near it when I planted it to give them something useful to much on. Apparently roly polies (woodlice) are good at returning nutrients to the soil but will munch on living plants if dead ones aren't available. It's a good argument to mulch the beds with dead leaves this winter.

One of my coworkers was nice enough to give me dahilas, so I've planted the bulbs between the honeysuckle and azaela. We'll see what comes up.