A flurry of activity last weekend

To start the weekend off, we had a party on Friday night. It was small but lively. Mauricio made ribs and chicken - he's a master of cooking meat over fire. There was a nice ecclectic group of people present and fun was had by all. Saturday the boys both had baseball games. I also continued planting the tiers with the various specimens I ordered or bought at the local nursery. The pomegranates, which came from Raintree Nursery, are the spindly little plants on the bottom tier and the blueberries are interspersed with lavender on the second. I've also included a close up picture of a Sunshine Blueberry plant. As you can see, it has dainty pink blossoms as opposed to the white or blue blossoms that most blueberry plants have. These are especially suited to our mild climate and need less acidic soil and a modest 150 hours of chill time each winter to produce at full capacity. I spent some time laying out a small curved retaining wall planter which is an addendum to the larger bed behind it. This is where I will plant potatoes. I'm not keen on using the larger planter for potatoes as they can muck up the soil should they acquire one of many dreaded potato diseases. Also, potatoes need very good drainage and super deep, loose soil. I have Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac and Purple Pride seed potatoes ready to go in as soon as I dig out the foundation and get my compost in there. One really good potato seed can produce up to 10 pounds of potatoes. I have two pounds worth of each type of potato seed. I can't use them all so if y'all want to try your hand at potatoes, it's not too late to get them in the ground. I get my seed potatoes from Potato Garden. Just as Tomato Festival knows tomatoes, these guys know their potatoes. Mauricio and I spent a good three hours constructing the geodesic dome in the next picture. The kids absolutely love it. It's great exercise and so far has really kept them occupied in the back. I made corned beef and cabbage and warm yeast raised, glazed donuts last night for dessert... mmmmm... Krispy Creme can't hold my jock.