Yard Dreams

I really want and need to clean up my yard and to make it look a lot better than it does now.  "Grossly Overgrown" is not the look I had originally been going for in my yard, yet it is in fact what I have achieved. Many fruit trees have grown where I didn't plant them, as have wild roses, and many/most/all need to be removed, the grass mowed and flowers &/or vegetables planted.  I admit I do really like the wild roses when they are in bloom and they do provide privacy by blocking the view of my property from the highway and from near by neighbors, but there are too many so they at least have to be thinned out.  I would love to put up some fencing for the look as well as I would love to have some animal that would eat the grass and such so I would not have to try to keep it all mowed.  I have often thought it would be great to have aluminum garden gates into the one area of my yard where I have raised bed gardens and my patio table and chairs.  It would be so nice to have all that area fenced as well, especially if company came since one place has a 6' drop I would not like to see anyone fall over.  Yes, there are many things I would like to do to my yard.... and they will all have to wait for now.... we got a fairly heavy snow fall last night so yard work is now best left until spring.

Just Sayin'

Browsing on the internet a wee bit here this evening. I was just looking at a cute little table I think would make a great stand for some of my house plants.  It is actually a small bistro table from thegardengates, but I think I personally would get more use out of it as a plant stand. I am single and rarely have visitors, and I do have an abundance of house plants.  This reminds me... sigh... I should be getting off the computer and watering said house plants as well as the plants that are outside in my garden. Always something is wanting for me to take care of it; plants, animals or  business of some kind. Since this is Thursday I will soon be heading into town to visit with friends... another awesome evening I am sure.

My Garden Adventures

A friend of mine at the Food Bank where I work told me this winter that they have had great success growing vegetables with a Lasagna Garden. After looking on the internet, doing research on this form of gardening, I decided to give it a try.

Today I was in town so bought some plants while at the grocery store. I got Kale, Marigolds and Irish Moss. I came home and did a bunch of work in the yard, including:
- prepared a raised bed garden for planting... cleaned it up from last year. Planted the Kale plants in that raised bed garden.
- worked more on making my Lasagna Garden. I brought a fairly decayed bale of straw over from where it was in another part of the yard and dumped it out of the wheelbarrow. Took the wheelbarrow over to the compost pile on the other side of the yard, filled it with partially decayed compost, brought it over and spread it on what I already had made of the Lasagna Garden from another day (branches, old boards, old cardboard, etc.). Spread some of the straw over the compost layer.
- cleaned up the Iris plants, removing last year's, now dead, leaves & flower stalks and putting them onto the Lasagna Garden.
- cleaned up the last year's, now dead, growth from herbs, from Lavender, from Tomatoes, etc. and again put it all onto the Lasagna Garden.
- stood up the toilet that had fallen during the winter, made sure it won't fall again, planted some of the Marigold flowers into the tank and the bowl of the toilet. Put the rest of the Marigold plants into some dirt to protect them until I am ready to plant them elsewhere, not sure yet where that will be.
- decided to extend the Lasagna Garden a couple more feet, right to touching the stacked tires which are planters, so found a couple more bits of wood to use as frames for the bed, also packed some bricks over to fill in a gap. Still need to find a bit more to finish off the frame extension then will put down thick layers of newspapers and start putting layers of compost, straw, old wood bits, etc in that end too.

Now, after all that work, my body hurts rather badly... and yet I feel good about having done all of the above. I actually didn't want to come in, but knew I had to.

I am so grateful that I have a yard and that I can grow my own vegetables, herbs and fruit. I know that I am blessed.

A Good Day Planned

Dan and I have been friends for around 11 years now. For the last 5 months he has been working in a different province as there is no work for him in our home province.  We do talk often on MSN though that is just not the same as seeing a friend in person.  He is currently home for a funeral so I saw him on Sunday for awhile and expect him to be here any time now for another visit today.  It's good to see him in person and I look forward to when construction picks up in BC so he can come back  home to work as I know he really wants to do.

Though there is much cloud in the sky, the sun is brightly shining through.  My stove went out at some point during the night as I didn't put another bag of pellets into it.  It is warm enough in here that I won't relight the stove until later this evening.  I love it when I get to go without the stove on, it means warm weather. I am going to have something to eat then out I go to work in my yard for awhile.

Time to Garden

I was just looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow and the rest of this week.  Tomorrow I have time to stay home all day and was planning to do some outside work.  I want to plant some vegetable seeds that require cool weather to do their best.  I also want to move some bricks and make a couple raised bed gardens with them.  I got 4 bales of old hay given to me recently and I plan to use them to try my hand at making Lasagna Gardens, having been told about them by a friend where I do volunteer work, and I read several articles on How To here on the internet. If interested, just Google "Lasagna Gardens" and you will find a lot of info on it.  I was really hoping that tomorrow would be a warm and sunny Tuesday, and unfortunately, it is forecast to be raining while the rest of the week is looking much dryer and I am going to be busy with other things.  Figures!! Maybe my body needs an extra day or 4 after the Chiropractor treatment I just had before I go doing heavy work involving bending, so I guess the rain could be a good thing.  At least I will go out and plant the seeds I have waiting on the table.

Spring Arrives

This is a post I put on my Facebook earlier today, I think just after noon:

Last night, just after 10pm, Spring officially arrived. This makes today the first full day of Spring 2012. I got up and looked out the window to see.... fresh snow on the ground!!! This is crazy!!! Now, it is melted away and the sun is shining, so it is a beautiful afternoon!! I think I'll go out and do some work in my garden!!

I did finally get out to my garden, just before 7pm.  I got 2 raised bed gardens (bathtubs) ready to plant in, so soon will have my spinach seeds in the ground.  I saw a kale plant in one of the other tubs, I planted kale last year and see it must have seeded itself or that plant has survived the winter out there. Hmmmm. Time to plant more kale as well as lettuce and chard.  I haven't had much luck with peas in the past, but might try them again, get all these 'cool weather' plants in the ground early.

Gardening

My garden didn't do well this year. I think it's because of all the rain we got earlier in the summer and nothing at all was growing right. Out of all the plants I bought or grew from seed, not one vegetable was showing up on the vines or stalks, so I ended up just giving up and not bothering to water it any more. Oh, I wish now I had still gone to that part of the yard to water as there were other things like 3 kinds of mints growing in tires and a few other herbs in pots, but I didn't have anything much in my raised bed gardens. I had wanted for so long to have raised bed gardens so I could grow my own veggies and had no way of building my own, no one to help me, so I brought home some old bathtubs, rocks, soils I purchased and planted my gardens in them. The first year I got a bit to eat, but not much. I think a pedestal bathtub would look really good out there with food in it too, but I've decided that next year it will save me a lot of money to just go to the Farmer's Markets to buy my food rather than wasting all that money on seeds & bedding plants and water just to get nothing but disappointment.

Gardening Pleasures

I am interested in different aspects of personal health care and tend to do a lot of reading and research along these lines. I also need to loose weight. Blood sugars and cholesterol levels are important for me to be aware of and to keep in good control, so I usually eat with these things in mind. Oh, I have the odd slip, like a hamburger for lunch yesterday, but I don't allow myself to do that very often.  I haven't taken the time to research diet pills for women, but I read about better ways to garden and grow my own organic vegetables.  I have been eating my own freshly grown spinach for about 2-3 weeks now,  and lettuce and kale for the last week or so. I really enjoy growing, picking and eating my own food as it is so much fresher and healthier as well as flavorful than what we can buy in the stores. I am even thinking that it would be good to start growing my veggies in the house during the fall & winter months when I can't grow it outside.

Gardening - Seeds

I am pretty new at gardening.  Last year I did grow a small garden that was fairly successful, more so than ever before, so I am encouraged to grow more this year.  I planted lots of seeds in the house this winter and had far more success with then too than what I have had in past years.  Usually after spending all that money on seeds & starting them in the house I still have to buy bedding plants as nothing I grew from seed was usable.  This year I have lots of plant to move outside and will be doing so this coming week, though with this unusually cold weather I think I will cover them at night for awhile, just to be sure.  I was just reading about saving my own seeds as I plan to cut down on the expense of buying them.  At $2-4 per package for just a few seeds, I think it will be a good idea to harvest seeds.  I just read about doing so for spinach seeds and see the plants have to be picked then hung in to dry.  I have a small metal building in my back yard, near the garden, that will likely be a good place to hang the spinach plants when the time comes to do so.  For now I am greatly enjoying the fresh spinach I pick for my salads or smoothies.  I might freeze some later if I don't eat it all first.  Today I picked a bunch of it to take to Mom when I go visit  her shortly.  She will use it in smoothies as well, and will cook some too as that is the way she enjoys it while I want mine raw.  My kale & peas are coming nicely and the mixed lettuce that I planted is ready for me to dig into now.  I love having my own fresh veggies and could/would only grow them in raised beds.

Surfing for Info

As with everyone else, there are areas I know about and areas I know nothing about, so I like to do research on lots of different topics. I find that the internet is a really great resource for researching so many things.  For example, I just researched the Parrot Plant, a most beautiful plant that I once had but don't now and would like to get another one. Some of the other things I have researched include: bird care, bird breeding, plants of various kinds, herbs to grow and herbs to plant in my garden. A few things I haven't looked into include: side effects of hydroxycut, how to make beer, building boats, to name just a few. I could go on and on about what I have researched, what I have not, and what I might look into in the future.