Monday, April 8, 2013 is Opening Day for the St. Louis Cardinals (Spy Garden’s favorite team)!
The pitching machine (purchased separately) may be set up to pitch whatever distance you want as the actual cage is just 12′ x 12′. We set this up a little preemptively but we’ll be ready for the first warm spring day!
This fort was made out of an old pile of cinder blocks in the back corner of yard/woods. Pretty ugly now, but will be obscured with green when spring comes! The perfect spot for spying!
The Spy’s tree fort in the background. The sticks in the foreground leaning up against the tree will soon be used to make the garden teepee. The teepee will make the third fort in the yard for the kids: You can never have too many forts!
All of the cool, blue-green, man-o-war-jellyfish-like artichoke leaves are all withered and dead. This doesn’t necessarily mean the plants won’t come back. I did a little research and in addition to mulching around them (which I did with soil and leaves) you are also supposed to cut back the growth and tie the leaves around the root base, THEN mulch them. So if they do survive, we’ll remember that extra step next fall!
I can’t agree with you enough about never having too many forts. This year Gene and I want to try a willow fort for our grandkids. It’s based on the living fences English gardeners build with willow boughs. http://www.westwaleswillows.co.uk/fedgeplanting.html What child wouldn’t love a living fort?
I checked out the willow “fedges”: very cool! I look forward to having a “living fort” (the garden teepee) though I’m not sure exactly which beans I will be growing on it yet!