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........

Will Allen...Urban Farmer

I'm not a sports enthusiast so I can't speak much of Will Allen the basketball player.....but Will Allen the urban farmer........amazing....amazing....man! If you are interested in sustainable gardening check out his web site Growing Power, Inc. I LOVE that he uses found materials...and his aquaculture and vermiculture ideas are wonderful! What a way to give back to the community. He's giving a workshop near my home next month.....saving my pennies and counting down the days.....

a talking garden......

EarthWords

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!

pour paintings.....

WOW!

raindrops and quiche.......

I've been a terrible blogger lately......sorry to the few of you who follow. I've been busy gathering materials and having earth moved to make a potager. I'm not having a lot of luck with the weather....it's been too rainy to mix dirt and compost to fill my new "raised" beds. After getting a good soaking on the way home from work today I decided a broccoli quiche would slide down pretty easy. I used farm fresh...organic....free range eggs from a friend...with yolks so rich they're orange.... I'll have to say....it was pretty tasty....I like a little dab of homemade ranch dressing on top...sounds strange...I know...but.....YUM....

Now....for a good cup of Joe while I read my a new gardening magazine and listen to the rain....

the nearness of spring

oh......the nearness of spring....have you been able to dig in the dirt yet? i have! we've actually had some days lately in the upper 70's ....awesome.

my poor...pitiful...raised beds have seen better days so this year i've bought four 2x2x6 galvanized livestock tanks for my new "raised" beds and i'm hoping to get a small space plowed this weekend.

the last couple of years i've planted my potatoes and carrots in large plastic bins...but they've gotten too brittle for use. i think i'll try making some of these for my root crops:

i found these on ewa's blog....a wonderful...wonderful...place to get great ideas for your own garden. head on over there and make your wish list....