Out…Out…Damn Ant!

 yesterday afternoon was spent trying to get my raised beds

 ready for planting. i always leave the dead plants

over winter for the critters. i found two caterpillars and a

praying mantis egg sac that i relocated near the garden

while weeding and turning the soil (the grubs were fed to 

the chickens).   and…..of course…..there

were fire ants. today... for an hour... i boiled huge pots

of water and poured them through the bed…over and 

over ...for an hour. after waiting thirty minutes i took a 

shovel and turned the soil and those darn things just came

 pouring out. soooo…i boiled and poured for thirty more

 minutes turning the soil after each pour. i'll check again
tomorrow to see if i got them to move. (the wire and
bricks are to keep the neighbors cats from using the
beds as their personal potty until i get them planted and
mulched.)

as you can see the grass has grown up in the gravel over

the winter. here in the country we have bermuda grass that

runs up through everything. when i made this garden spot i

got a neighbor to use a bobcat to scrape and remove all the

grass…put down landscape paper…and a good four inches

of gravel but that doesn't stop MY grass. the good thing is

that it's easy to pull out….just time consuming (and back

breaking). i garden organically so i don't use any type of

chemicals for grass or pests. it's hard work but

definitely worth the battle.

now i'm sitting here with a sore back thinking of that first

asparagus quiche and fresh tomato sandwich…yum.

ant and grass skirmish to be continued….

Oh Yeah…..!

Lettuce from my garden…

oh yeah…

that's what I'm talking about!

Slid down pretty easy…

now if this crazy weather will decide

what it's gonna do maybe I can get started

on getting my veggies planted. 

I have four rosemary plants about

waist high that really took a hit this winter.

It looks like 90% of the plant is dead but I

do see some green on all the plants. Keeping

my fingers crossed they decide to stay with me.

Fresh tomatoes….can't wait!

Sol Food Mobile Farm

A greenhouse on wheels....awesomeness!

 

Check it out in this episode of Growing a Greener World that

showcases four young adults traveling from city to city

teaching others how to plant and harvest their own vegetables. 

 

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode325/

Read more about the Sol Food Mobile Farm here.

Beet it.....

Just beet it.... Beet it.....
 No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right
Just beet it... Beet it...

Soaking beet seeds overnight in tea for
tomorrows planting....

I've been at war with fire ants in my raised beds.
Normally boiling water works but not this year!
After reading some forums on organic gardening
I tried sugar...plain white sugar....and it worked!
It took a couple of days but it worked. I don't really
understand this...did they 'OD' and die or all rush
out to buy spandex?

chicken tractors.....

Chickens...Chickens...Chickens...

I'm forever trying to find a reliable source of fresh...organic eggs.

So...I've finally decided to just get my own chickens.

I have plenty of room for chickens to run free range

but with all the coyotes and fox I don't feel they will

be very safe. I've got a friend building me a Chicken

Tractor so they can safely be free range. I printed these

pictures from an ebay seller so he could get an idea

of what I want. Sooooo looking forward to homegrown

vegetable quiche!

the end of the day.....

"in the spring... at the end of the day.... you should smell like dirt."

~margaret atwood

Great Gardening Book

May I suggest a really great addition to your gardening books? Great Garden Companions..A Companion-Planting System for a Beautiful, Chemical-Free Vegetable Garden... is written by Sally Jean Cunningham....a master gardener who teaches us about companion planting...intensive planting...organic soil building...and natural pest-control techniques. Here's a sample of how she explains the plants 'Family Unit'...'Friends"...'Growing Basics'...'Spacing'...'Feeding'...'Mulching'...'Problems and Solutions'...'Harvesting'...and her 'Tips and Tricks'......

She explains "good bugs".... what to plant to attract them....and "bad bugs" with what to plant to repel them. There's a section on Seasonal Care and pictures of her own garden showing how this all works.

My copy is already "dog-eared" and smudged with dirty fingerprints....check it out for yourself!

singing in the rain........

well.......it was supposed to be cold and rainy all weekend but it hadn't started raining when it got light enough to go out this morning. i layered on a few sweat shirts and got the rest of my troughs filled......finally! this is the dirt with the mushroom compost mixed in.....sure makes a difference.

i just top dressed the bone meal instead of mixing the whole trough to the bottom. i wanted to keep most of the compost near the top half.

here's the finished dirt.........looks really nice. i finished up in the cold rain....a mixed blessing...it washed the pollen down some....everything here has been covered in pollen this week....and i did get the base dirt shoveled in before it got too wet.

i'm itching to start planting...i've got my seeds but want to pick up some plants at my local (thirty miles away!) farmers supply. it's one of those great "old timey" type farmers supply that you can find anything from tools to canning supplies....definitely not your big box store.

now......if i could just find my almanac........

birth of a potager........

my potager.....it sure doesn't look like much right now. i got the holes drilled in all my troughs yesterday... fitted the bottoms with screen and enough dirt to hold the screens in place. i've placed them on pieces of four by four.... i garden organically....and NO amount of diligence keeps the bermuda grass at bay for long....even with four inches of pea gravel .... i was afraid the grass would grow thru the drilled holes! todays chore is mixing the dirt, mushroom compost, green sand, and blood meal to fill the troughs......YEAH.....my back already thinks i've gone wonky!

i think i'll purchase some earthworms for each container to keep things friable.

the plastic pots in the middle are going to have obelisk with running flowers and plants. i had originally planned to have a small water feature in the middle one with papyrus plants and horsetail but have decided it's really too much sun to make the water condition optimal...i'll just add a few saucer type water features around to lure the frogs.

my plans are to add a white picket fence around the potager with an arbor entrance covered in roses on each end. i'll have to have something or the deer will take my share along with theirs....
i don't mind sharing but they can be greedy....and besides....i don't see them out here shoveling dirt!