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The first spring after I moved here I discovered the house was surrounded with a curb of 5" X 32" ?? concrete stones that over the years had been buried a few inches below ground level. I've already repurposed most of them but had enough left to make a staggered line of them along the property line, but dang, moving my planters and then arranging them it is heavy work.
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Implementing a version of my container garden only this time the containers are raised 2'x2'x8' boxes. One has cucumbers and one has tomatoes and peppers. I'm thinking about a 3rd for carrots and okra, although I would need to start them from seeds. Got the plants for the rest from the high school greenhouse sale. The grands built the container boxes.

The family has a "real" garden in the back yard but I think I will get more yield from my limited space containers...
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Ours was just a little front tine tiller GA, we had field sized equipment for anything that needed the kind of power you get from a rear tine model. The major drawback with the front tine ones is they can be hard to steer with precision, it drove my mom crazy when dad would inadvertently bury or root out her plants 😆.
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HelenforSure, in my yard, the squirrels have been responsible for relocating bulbs, especially tulips.   And I've seen enough of them digging up the garden as well as rearranging the lawn to know that they're the culprits.   The black squirrels have more or less taken over during the last several years, and they're quite active...digging.

CWillie, I'm guessing your father may have had a Fraser tiller?   Like this model?http://www.zucksrototillers.com/FrazerHistory.html

Dad had one, tilled his own garden, a supplementary garden on a neighbor's property, as well as mine.    He was largely responsible for expanding my garden; I did some double digging of my own, but that tiller could really tear up the ground and make it workable for planting.

I'd buy one but I'm not sure I could handle it; it's not like the smaller tillers of today.

Shari49, compost is mandatory!   Couldn't garden without it, but the lawn Nazis in the area where I currently live don't understand that.  They cited me just for having a small grass pile, heating up to be dug under with other compost.

Years ago the magazine Victoria hosted the best forum I've ever experienced.   Gardening was obviously a category.   One of the women shared her own method, which I thought was unique.  

To avoid the aroma attracting critters, she ground up the compost and immersed it in water, in pails, and sometimes froze it to save over the winter.   By the time it was poured out, according to her, there was little scent to attract critters.   I started doing it and it worked well for me.
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That's so disheartening Helen4sure. Some people like to scold that we should be more tolerant of mother nature and I really wouldn't mind sharing what I grow with the bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and even the bugs but they never really SHARE do they, they take or just plain ruin it all.
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I live in a condo with many gardens around the area. I have adopted one just outside my window. I planted probably 80+ tulip bulbs last year, and at least than many daffodils. Iris everywhere. It should be beautiful IF it gets a chance to bloom. First thing this spring, I was admiring how nicely the daffodils and iris were doing, but wait! NO TULIPS! Not one! Looking closer, I'd say that there were little holes all throughout the garden. Maybe 10 tulips were starting to grow, but they were chewed off just above the ground. I'm not going to buy lunch next year for whatever is eating my bulbs!
So, my question is: Chipmunks, squirrels, or deer? Who am I feeding? And is there anything I can do to keep them away?
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I grew up on a farm so all I knew of compost was the big manure pile in the barnyard, and since we had acres of space for gardens everything was planted in rows wide enough for my father to pass through with the rototiller and liberally fertilized with handfuls of the same stuff used on the crops.
When I moved in with my sister (a temporary arrangement that lasted 20 years, but that's another story) it was a new house with most of the topsoil scraped away and gardening there was a whole different kettle of fish. I relied heavily on Rodale's Organic Gardening magazine - anyone else remember when it was pocket sized and was actually full of helpful articles? I'll never forget the thrill the first time my compost actually got hot - it was working!!
My home today is on a lot that I'm told was once a heavy equipment yard and I don't doubt it, the subsoil layer is hard clay interspersed with gravel and rock. Compost to the rescue - but even though I chip my branches and shred most of my leaves and garden waste there is never enough, every year I find myself wishing for a pickup truck so I could load up with a few tonnes of manure !
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Composting anyone? I think I garden to keep my mind off my mother in the home, a 97 yr old MIL becoming an issue, and a husband with awful anger issues. I have a passion for perennials, and this year also started a small veggie garden. Just peas, lettuce, radishes, beans, tomatoes, But I’m really into improving my soil through composting. This year I bought a grow light and started several flower seedlings. Just now came in from planting some of this seedlings!! I am anxious to have sunflowers this year as well, and had no luck starting them in the ground ( squirrels!!) so started them in pots instead. They are all up. Transferring them to the ground, and putting wire fencing around them to keep the squirrels at bay. Trying to attract earthworms to my garden beds, a sure sign of fertility. We have just finished building a deck, so pots on the deck?? Yay!!
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GA💟💟

Be careful, heal well before you get too industrious in that yard!
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Glad, that fence is still in my notes!   Hopefully I can get to it and other plans this year.   Thanks for the reminder.
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CWillie, whenever I do a garden search and find dozens of ideas I like, I enter it into my gardening database.   Your post reminded me of one I found last year, albeit most if not all of the fence/dividers are based on the English wattle fence style.

Give me some time and I'll find the link.  Right now I'm celebrating that I could walk out to the street and put the garbage out, w/o falling.  (I fell down some stairs about 3 weeks ago and have been hobbling around since.)

Also, the site you referenced has some great ideas; I've seen similar if not identical ones in the Country Gardens magazine.
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This!

https://gina-michele.com/2018/09/01/privacy-screen-planter-diy/

This is what I want! (only made a little sturdier, and maybe not quite as deep?)
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Replant the hedge on your side of the property. You can start small.

Camellia, laurel and hawthorn are all good privacy hedges. These fast-growing hedges are all evergreen and reach a good height. Evergreen shrubs and evergreen trees for gardens make for the best hedges for privacy as you don't want your privacy to be compromised when the leaves fall off in fall.
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Can you place a double row of pavers across the imagined property line? Sort of like a pathway...
Then cut out the perennials on your property.

I never plant up to my property line so there can be no disputes. I have allowed an extra two feet for a walkway or a fence, placed wholly on my side.

Spend the extra money you will save by not attending the destination wedding, spend it on yourself to make your own home a destination you will love.

No need for hand-holding, you've got this Cwillie! As if married couples fare any better looking for someone to help us decide! The only thing you will be missing being single is someone who would criticize your choices. lol.

To help yourself, look for the most expensive plan you will love, then cut corners to find something in your budget. Do this (an attitude adjustment),
instead of searching for the least expensive to start. You are worth it!
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Email Gardeners' Question Time, CW.

This is the bit from their website:

Contact us
Gardening Questions and Advice
We are unable to answer individual questions but all questions are considered for possible inclusion in a 'postbag' edition of the programme. If your letter or email has been selected for inclusion in the programme we will contact you in advance and let you know when it will be broadcast.
Send us an email now to gqt@bbc.co.uk

They like things which are a bit off the beaten track so you should be in with a fair chance.
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Crochet fence? GA thought about it, wonder f she did it. Google crochet fence.
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I'm looking for some ideas to separate my yard from the neighbour's without spending a lot of money. Since they removed the hedge they've planted a mixed border of flowers and trees (blue spruce 🙄) and my previously existing container garden is being over taken, not to mention it is a bit of an eyesore because the planters are all pretty much at the end of their life. I was going to just start an in ground garden since I no longer have the cedars as competition but how to separate their ever expanding perennials from my veggies?
My fantasy is a couple of long raised beds with a trellis along the back side (east), and because they are technically not permanent like a fence the exact property line wouldn't be as much of an issue. But $$, not just for the lumber but for soil to fill them. I wish I had somebody who would hold my hand and help me to make a decision - sometimes being single sucks.
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I have promised to do 2 weeks of babysitting in late August and as I've been planning my garden I realized I'll be away during the hottest, driest and potentially most prolific time for my garden - what am I going to to?
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Norway maples - they seed prolifically, the shade below them is so dense nothing much wants to grow there including grass, they tend to have surface roots as they get bigger which is also annoying in lawns, the leaves are very large so they are difficult for leaf vacuums to handle and their size means they 100% need to be raked up in the fall, plus they are an invasive species that are crowding out natives in natural areas.
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It has been so dry here! Wind storms daily for nearly four weeks, the last thing on my mind was hard work! Seems we are finally breaking out of that pattern, it rained a bit yesterday. It is raining again now and has been for a couple of hours. Welcome rain! Here come the weeds!

CW, why don't you.like Norway maples?
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GardenArtist,
The veterans garden has been put on hold, but I did track down the possibility of having some red poppies in a planter. I could have bought some, but the potential bloom colors were not guaranteed.
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Where is everyone? It's spring and no one has mentioned their garden plans?

In L.A. County, we can only water once a week because of a drought, so if anything survives that we already have, that will be good enough. So getting more plants would not work.

Praying for rain.
Catching shower water in a bucket to water outside later.

Prepared a little gazebo for shade outside my window. It has shelves ready to receive plants when that becomes possible. The shade outside helps keep it cooler inside.
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You are right, that is the usual behavior of robins, especially spring.
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I have a robin that is sitting on my window ledge pecking at the glass but I wouldn't say that is unusual, robins are always doing weird things this time of year.
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Cwillie,
It is the plainest kind of Skink in the photos.
The Skink is grey like a lizard, the plain looking kind, no blue stripes, with some not so obvious markings. It's tail is not as long as previous years, so if it's not the same one, it is also less slim. About 10 inches long. Moves it's head in the direction of my voice. If it bites, the bite is not toxic, and won't hurt very much.
So I should not be afraid, but sad to say, I am a bit eeked out. Now it's on my mind. I admit, prefer my nature at the zoo, I visit, they stay there. Lol.

Skink looks strong, has tiny legs, but jumped up onto the porch from the stair- did not crawl or slither. Dh says it can run faster than any lizard he's ever seen.
He was not home at the time of the visit. He had to enter by the back door at my request.

Does anyone observe that the animals, reptiles, and birds may be acting different this March? My budgerigar (common parakeet) has been flying and landing on me (shoulder, hand, bed near me) for about 2-3 days, not his usual behaviors.
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I've been looking up California skinks Send, there are some neat looking variations. How big is yours, and do you know what kind it is?
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The Skink has been spotted this year, in the garden by the mailbox. I went out to look yesterday, talking to it, but did not see it.
Today, I was at the sliding screen door and had just closed it when the Skink jumped up on the porch via the steps. Then it wandered over towards my voice. I gave it some lettuce, it licked it but did not eat. If you knew me, you would know that I just opened the screen a tiny crack and threw the lettuce out there. It's on the porch now, if we open the slider and it could be in the tract, it would get hurt. Nature is wonderful-at a distance I'm thinking. I should not have talked to it as it has apparently misunderstood my being kind for some sort of an invitation. n e r v o u s n o w .
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It's so crazy mild today that I've been out doing yard work, some raking and pruning, even getting dirt under my nails pulling up creeping charlie in my garden beds.
While I was out raking a small raccoon strolled by and I asked him "where the heck did you come from?". It obviously thought that was an invitation because it wandered right in through the open door of my little garden shed. How to get it out??? I tried shooing but of course it hid behind my summer tires. Then I tried banging on the walls behind it. Finally I sidled in the shed with it and prodding with a snow shovel encouraged it to move out the door. Whew!
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The trees aren't big enough to shade the house so not that big, and I've never had any problem with mine🤞. IMHO the foundation trees are much more likely to cause trouble.
We are supposed to be having street upgrades sometime in the near future and got new gas lines last year so I know that the trees are all on private property just skirting where the sidewalk will run (if we get sidewalks🙄).
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CWillie, by any chance are the Norway maple's roots in the sewer lines? Are these older homes, such as having been built in the 1950s or so? This is the situation in my area.

Apparently during subdivision development, the city had trees planted in the berms between the street and the sidewalk. (And they're still doing that.) Over the years, some of these trees grew to mammoth proportions, and their roots grew into and cracked the sewer lines to the homes. Back-ups occurred in the basement.

Whenever I saw a huge pile of earth and a busy backhoe, I knew that someone was having sewer trouble.
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