Cost of a few things:.

Weed barrier / Landscape fabric. The mid-quality fabric sold for 3 x 100 ft was $21 at Loews.

Mulch - $3 per 3 cu ft at Loew's. Coverage: A cubic yard covers 162 sq. ft. at 2 inches thick. It takes 14 two cubic foot bags to equal a cubic yard. It takes 9 three cubic foot bags to equal a cubic yard (from ohio mulch website: unfortunately to get them to deliver minimum order is 4 cubic yards and I doubt we need that much, or have $100 to spend on mulch).

Im looking forward to building the path this weekend. We might want to use spray paint if we still have it to mark the edges of the S- curve before we start digging it an inch or two down.

Some quick news regarding the gardens:

With now less than week until the beginning of Andy Miller's garden class, there are only 6 students signed up for the course. This is almost certainly too small a figure for the class to go, which means it will most likely be cancelled. Still, they haven't done so yet, not officially, so there's a small chance it will go through, but with such a small enrollment it may not be cost effective for the university. That said, we should plan for what to do with the plots earmarked for Andy's use, i.e., the original herb patch and the other half of the veg garden, should they be left to us to tend.

I also got a phone message from Paul Frazier in Horticulture, who has been very busy this year with his team working on installing the irrigation system near lot J. He said that he had no straw for us this year, and that our best bet would be to go to Lowe's and buy what we need, possibly with the Honors card, though I figure it wouldn't be so much that we couldn't go out-of-pocket. We could also go through the Garden Center on Alexandria Pike, but they will probably cost a little more. So that's on us.

We should stake the tomatoes this weekend, and finish up work in the butterfly garden. I think we should edge it and get the path in this weekend, which means buying weed guard along with the straw.

i went to the garden to replace the now inflated tire on the wheelbarrow. i noticed people cleaned up. Despite the rain forecast, i watered with the lawn sprinkler for about 60 minutes because we have lots of seeds that need to germinate in the butterfly garden and thebed tops were dry. also watered where i planted the cilatnro and dill.

this year, i want us to be diligent about irrigation. one inch of water - rain or no rain - every week (which based on our calculations a number of years ago, is equal to an hour with the lawn sprinkler). i remembered to wind up the hose.

also i finished edging the other herb bed and the bed next to it. it looks pretty good, i think. should make it easier for horticulture to trim near the beds. it might look like the beds are bigger, but infact i shrunk them back by an inch or so.

now for the big edge all along the butterfly garden and the class garden -- which will be next weekends' project, unless we have the straw delivered this week. in that case, it will be straw and newspaper this weekend.

probably should think about getting the tomatoes staked soon too.

today, i didn't do much- got up late and had a mild headache, which i assume was due to the rapid atmospheric pressure changes in the last 36 hours.
All of the water melons, squash, cucumber, and zuchini are well up now.

I edged the culinary herb bed. i think it looks good, using the rock. i like using local rock in landscaping.

i used the soil taken from the edging to put into the boxes for the leftover tomato plants. our soil is very dense and heavy, so it makes the boxes heavier, but at the same time, cheaper. Filling all those boxes with compost and canadian peat would have cost a bundle -- and only for using it for a couple weeks.

the wheelbarrows tire had it. I removed it and took it up to the BP to put some air in it. The tire is still in my possession, i'll try dropping it off tomorrow.

also i finished weeding the butterfly garden.