More pics and a video (hopefully)

 So until I am satisfied with the way the bed texture is (more about that later) I am only going out there to cultivate/hoe the small bed and maybe hoe some weeds and rearrange things a little. Without permission to do anything more just a holding pattern. Due to excessive heat after about 9 am no work in the middle of the day.

My lessons included in my posts are starting at the basics of soil prep and amendment, then plant choice, correct planting then care and feeding of said plants.

 

This is what I have to work with at the moment. The hoe on the left has a broken handle but still usable. The cultivator in the middle is usable but the wood is so old I absolutely must wear gloves or risk splinters. The piece of wood on the right is part of a tree stake. I used that to help level the soil in my bed area.

This is pretty much twenty four hours after I had thoroughly soaked it. The compost material is holding the water really well as well as the more clay/sandy soil allowing it to drain. After working and watering it for three days, it's pretty well well moistened down about eight to ten inches. If I were growing small annuals or such, that would be fine. Not if I am going to be planting tomatoes or peppers. They need good deep soil, and I'm not too thrilled with what may have been in there. Much like a cook knowing just from an aroma what something will taste, I can tell from the texture and look of the soil, it may not be ideal.

I used the cultivator to did the corner to see how wet it was further down and a good four to six inches it is still good clumpy moist soil. I've never worked with soil like this before, haven't done anything in 'raw' ground in decades so who knows whether this is okay or not?

Another texture/color difference. I had to add those small branch pieces to give me a visual boundary and a small dam for the soil and water. Will have to see if the landscape guys have any scrap wood available.

Better look at the 'wild' corner. To give you an idea that back wall (and the width of the entire garden area) is only about eight feet.

Hmmm, maybe someone thought the mint would grow up the cages? (Spoiler: They won't!)

This is a whole other situation that I am not going to tackle but will talk about how it got that way in general.

So, not much else to do there so I will be giving mini lessons on different situations. I will be coloring key words and provide definitions at the end until I can figure out how to hyperlink definitions in the text. My watering video is too big so I may have to upload it to youtube and give a link here after I voice over a description.

I'm going to break off here and do another post of just text lesson on soils. Much too much to add in here and is way more involved.

I will leave you with a lovely picture though of an epiphyllum in the community area gazebo.