We happened to get a bunch of free pallet boards last week, right after we fenced the new garden area with stucco wire.   So we decided to build a little fence to protect the plants from the South wind that blows all summer.

You can see that we painted only the bottom part with linseed oil because we didn’t have enough oil.  We had a few  4x4s to use for gate posts and to stabilize the fence. Now we’re almost out of boards.  If we got another load, we could finish the “inside” part of the fencing.

We got these two office chairs at the Safeway recycling area a few weeks ago and it was great to be able to sit down for a few minutes and take a break as the sun was setting.

In the back is our three sisters growing area.  We got horse manure and lots of “black bush” dirt, twigs and roots from our hill and we screened the native soil.   Today Jose set the blocks and then I filled them with mud so they’re stable and keep the soil and plants warm (and cool in summer).  It was a lot of work and hopefully the sisters appreciate it!

You can barely see the apple tree we planted in front of the sisters, it’s just starting to grow.

We still don’t know where to put the juniper, so I transplanted it into a bigger pot last Sunday.

As soon as the first fence panel was up, I realized that we could plant vines, beans, squash, grapes and all kinds of plants inside the fence.  They’ll be protected from the fierce South wind and we’ll put some hardware cloth cages over them until they are established.  The fence should be rabbit-proof, but of course won’t keep out squirrels, lizards, mice and kangaroo rats.

We have to get some more black bush dirt and screen more of the local soil for the fence plantings.

Inside we painted the pallet boards with linseed oil to the top of the stucco wire before we put up the fence panels as it would be really hard to paint later and we had just enough linseed oil.

The fence braces are a bit funky, but it’s a TEMPORARY fence as our camper is inside the garden area. We also didn’t set the posts in concrete, just rock and dirt.

And I’m very glad we finally got a gate.  It’s a miracle we didn’t fall over the stucco wire fence when we planted the fruit trees and it sucked not being able to bring the wheelbarrow in and out.

According to the moon calendar, Friday and Saturday are good to plant above ground annuals and the corn is definitely ready to go out.  I’m so excited about our new garden!