What have you done today in the Garden?

Eileen, I see I did a rather poor job of describing it. You can see the steel pole on the right. The baffle is further down. I am promised a more detailed photo when it's warmer outside.

 

Sjoerd, my biggest complaint is the waste, the fraud, the utter lack of concern from those in power for those way down the scale who are honest, hardworking and frustrated.
(This post seems quite out of place here.)

 

Your mate made a handy-looking feeder there. Chapeau to him.
What sorts of seeds you you use in the feeder?

I am not against paying taxes, but the waste and attitude that some of our leaders have do rub me the same way. The good thing about bird feeders is that not much gets wasted--some birds eat high and others are ground feeders.
There are no bird feeders in politics, but there are cat feeders--for the fat cats.

 

Sjoerd, Black oiler sunflower seeds.

Eileen, a far more explanatory photo.

 

Toni, I put cardboard down last Fall, covered a section of it with grass clippings and the rest with dead leaves. I dug through to bury veggie peels, etc, and it is decomposing rapidly. I may be able to plant using only rich compost mixed with bone meal, worm castings and pulverized rock. Also dried, pulverized egg shells.

 

That sounds like really healthy ground, Growing.

 

Sjoerd, my hopes are high.

 

Working in the greenhouse today.. planting up hanging baskets. pictures to come.

 

Growingpains, if you are planting tomatoes, you might want to put a tablespoon or so of your ground up egg shells in the bottom of the hole before you plant. I had trouble with Romas and blossom end rot, and after I started using the ladies' egg shells, no more BER! It may have no effect, but I do think the added calcium helps.

 

It's dark outside but these are the rows of finished baskets so far.



seed geraniums that I started in early January.



Fuchsia baskets


Chubby followed me to the greenhouse for pictures... what a nice kitty.


tomatoes that will have fruit on them for sales in May. Usually they are all gone by Mothers day so this year I planted up and extra 25.

well that is it for today.

 

Super.....I'm in the mood.

 

Marlingardner, I always put egg shells in the hole, add a wee bit of soil, then put tomato plant in.
Thank you.

 

Well, it was rainy and cold...but there was a short period of dryness. There was not much that could be done when the ground was so wet, but in spite of that--still yet a couple of things.
First of all the wood chip paths. The composted chips were removed from the last stretch and then re-filled with fresh chips.

It was so wet that when the composted chips were removed there was water standing on top of the "anti root cloth" where there were deep places.

I have to tell you--the digging out of the paths was heavy work, but carrying away the trugs full of old chips was also heavy graft. Oh well, the path-refreshment-task is now complete. Olé!

Turning my attention to the second chore...the stands of grass. There are two stands of decorative grass in the gardens. At this time of year, the new grass has begun to show itself, thus it needs to be cut back. Later (around mid-march) I will chop this stand in at least two portions; but now, it just gets a haircut.


Normally, I would use this long, dry grass to fill the paths; however, now they all have new woodchips. What to do? Well, I bundled them into shocks; as it were, and placed them in the greenhouse to keep them dry until it is time to place them around the strawb plants.


That is lovely stuff to use and there are several different ways to use it. If you cannot think of a use, you can always chop it a bit and use it on your compost. Dried plant like this is referred to as "carbon" in composting circles, and every compost pile or bin needs some "carbon" as a constituent as we know.

To round the lottie visit off, I fed the birds. It had been a few days since I had been there and I imagined that I detected a "tone" in their anxious chirping as I was filling the feeding stations.