Woohoo! We just had about half an hour of a small rain.
The garden is covered in weeds - still. Can’t seem to get ahead of them this year. Did get most of the weeds out of the front door flower bed and see that there are finally some caladiums coming up. The glads are getting buds but the lillies are just sitting there not growing. Sunflowers are up by the side garden but don’t see any marigolds by the sole tomato over there.
Back to the garden, I’ve been lazy this week and still haven’t put out cantaloupe. Also, need to reseed some kohl rabi - never tried it before. Must get off my butt! Must also get the cuke out of the greens. It has flowers on it as do the green beans. Have been sharing the lettuces.
Put out some more bird feeders and so the birds are happy, too. There’s one dove who’s so chubby, he just walks around the yard.
Slight frustration here. [sigh]
March was wonderful, lots of sun, nice & warm. Even had a week+ in the 80's! Now it is highs in the 40's and 50's, and night time lows just above frost.
I have been preparing the garden raised beds by weeding, adding sulfur, adding mushroom compost, and adding "water crystals" to cut down on the water bill.
The seeds I started in the greenhouse box are mostly doing well. Most are 5" to 6" high. Except the sweet peppers. Those are 1" or less. Maybe they just take longer to sprout.
I have trees!!!!! My mail-carrier earned their pay today, there were 4 big packages on our doorstep. Woohoo!!!!!
The predicted April cool-down took out most of my “gamble” plantings. I knew they were a risk, but those warm days in February and March were just too much to resist. More cold weather expected, so I’m starting a few more seeds indoors for now.
Yesterday I had to have a talk with my chiropractor. (My neck is misaligned in such a way that if I don’t get regular adjustments I start having dizzy spells so bad I can’t even talk straight.) Well, my insurance suddenly decided they weren’t going to cover chiropractic care anymore, so we had to discuss payment options. He said that because my adjustments were so vital, he wasn’t going to charge me for that visit, and that if the insurance keeps refusing to pay, he’d be willing to let me pay with stuff from my garden!!! I’ll be taking him some homemade pickles and jams next week.
Need some advice on an idea I had.
The situation:
I own 5 acres, but the only part flat enough to be worth gardening right now is a narrow strip, right at the top of a very tall, steep hill, bordering a neighboring dairy farmer’s cornfield. Anything used in the garden must be hauled up backpacker-style, and it’s a long enough walk from the car that anything that gets forgotten, stays in the car. I’m not strong enough to make that trip twice in the same hour. Some days, I’m not strong enough to make that trip once. The land was abandoned for 15 years before I bought it, so the weeds are thick and well established. Hacking a garden space out of those weeds is an uphill battle in more ways than one. To make it even more interesting, I usually am only able to get out there once every couple of months, although I hope that this year will be different. (I’ve been saying that for the last 4 years.) Oh, and the soil has such a high clay content that you could stick your hand in after a rainstorm, and make pottery out of it.
My idea was, what if I dug a 4’x8’ area about as deep as a kiddie pool, only rectangular, and after making sure that erosion-control measures were in place, asked that nice farmer to fill it with fresh manure from his dairy operation, then after it was full covered it with landscape fabric and let sit until next spring? My theory is that that would provide a nice fertile garden bed, with the fabric keeping the weeds from sprouting. But I get the impression I’m missing the obvious. any suggestions?
Gorgeous pictures!
I DON’T DO FLOWERS, but planted bleeding hearts and tiger lilies earlier this week and my husband just headed back to the lumber yard for more timbers for the bed out front that we put in around the buoy when we first moved in. Forget the pick axe, we were digging the old “timbers” out by the handful. We decided to raise it instead of sinking it and we decided it needed a third row of timber. Then off to the supplier for a load of topsoil to fill it, so I can plant the rest of the bulbs I’ve got. I want to do it before the rains come in tomorrow night. Oh and somewhere in between I do need to pick up the small person from the after school dance.
Could you please add me to your ping list? Thanks in advance.
I harvested and chopped up my first harvest of the season, 3 gallon bags of chopped green onions in the freezer. This week, if things hold, I will be transplanting my tomatoes and zuchinni, and eggplant. Will plant beans. I never did get my greenhouse up. The money just wasn’t there for framing material but it will be done by fall. For next year.