Mightier Than Winter

I went outside to walk around my backyard this morning and there in my raised beds, my kale was still growing and producing! Now, we have had day after day of temperatures in the low 20's, we have had sleet and snow. Everything was frozen! I looked at it one day after a heavy snow and it was all crushed under the snow and I was sure that was the end. But not so! I picked a large handful of new leaves of kale and even swiss chard this morning.

Then I wandered over to the other bed and my broccoli is still producing broccoli. Isn't today December 16th?

This has stirred up some thoughts in my early morning brain. After I finish with all my changes to my back yard next spring, I should create a special raised bed up by my patio where I grow some hardy vegetables and even protect them in the early winter with a small hoop greenhouse.

I would imagine that I could plant all the early spring vegetables like sugar snap peas, onions, broccoli, swiss chard, kale, lettuce and other greens. Which also means that I should be able to plant these same vegetables very early in the spring. I saw where Gardengirl (on Youtube.com gardengirltv has lots of info) covers her beds with black plastic to warm the soil before planting. So I may add compost to one of my beds, put black plastic down for a couple of weeks and then build the hoop house and plant! Sounds like a plan to me!

Last year, I started my plants indoors late. They still did well when planted outside, but could have done better if I had used the hoop house more and planted inside earlier. So this year, I am vowing to correct those mistakes and do it all right!

Bugs! Ugh!

Today I sacrificed one of my plants. My green pepper had to go. It really wasn't doing anything. It was looking pretty sad, and the darn thing all of a sudden was covered with tiny bumps that quickly began to crawl. So, I gave up all hope of green peppers off of it this winter and put it out into the cold backyard. If it lives, then great, if not, well natural processes will win. Okay, I know it is going to die, it is winter here in Michigan. At least I think so. I believe I heard on the news tonight that our temp may go up to 50 tomorrow?

My radishes are doing pretty well, they are a little leggy. Now that the green peppers beast is gone, I moved the radish bucket into that spot so maybe the light will be better for them.

At this time I may need to give a disclaimer. Although I have gardened most of my adult life, I consider everything I am doing now and for the last 2 summers as a learning experiment. I have researched some things, but a lot I have just jumped in and what works, works, and what doesn't, doesn't. At least I am learning from my mistakes. And I have made mistakes!

Which brings me to the rest of my story today. I don't know what happened to my spinach. I planted it at the same time as my lettuce, same conditions, same watering, same light, but although my lettuce looks great, my spinach looks pretty sad.

But, as I said, my lettuce is doing fantastic, thick and getting taller. My swiss chard and kale are still hanging in there and I am considering transplanting them into more substantial containers as I know they will get pretty large.

I planted a container of bok choy and another of okra last week. Unfortunately, I didn't label which was which so I am not sure which one this is. But one of them is growing pretty well and so, I will be needing to get my hydroponics system on line within the next few days.

Which brings me to another issue I have. I want to grow all this stuff organically, and that to me means making my own fertilizer for both the hydroponics and the dirt systems. I will confess I have been a slacker and have been fertilizing my dirt plants with Miracle Grow. However, I would really like to use a CHEAP home made fertilizer for the hydroponics.

I thought about running water through my worm bucket since I have so much organic matter in there. I also have buckets of vegetable and fruit compost in my back yard that I thought about. I could run water through them and catch that and use it. But I worry about the smell, mostly. I am about ready to give up and just buy organic fertilizers for the unit. Or use the Miracle Grow for this year until I get a fertilizer figured out.

I have been filling buckets with my kitchen vegetable scraps so by the time spring comes around I should have a bunch of compost to use in my raised beds and buckets. I am also planning on adding more raised beds out there so I need lots of organic matter. If I am at the restaurant during their prep time, I usually grab their lettuce and other vegetable scraps and add them to my buckets. So maybe closer to spring, when my scraps are turning into compost, I could actually make some compost tea for my indoor plants.

moved into the basement

Ok. I gave up. I was hoping that my porch room with new insulated steel doors would make the room habitable during the cold Michigan winter. But when the temps went down into the low 30's I realized that I was heating an entire room just for plants that would actually be warmer in my basement, and closer to water. So I moved some things around in my basement, and created my growing room down there.

I actually have plenty of room to start my hydroponics soon, and lots of counter top for working and plant starts and for my regular plants. I have room also for some big pots. Here are some photos!
My green pepper is still going, although I am thinking about trimming it back a bit. My dog ate the two nice sized green peppers that were hanging on it. But I have 2 little tiny ones that aren't doing much right now. I did fertilize the bucket this week, so maybe it just needed a little kick.

I dug up some worms and put them into a bucket with some leaves and swiss chard. I am hoping that they multiply over the winter and create a bucket of good fertilizer. I am also filling buckets with my raw vegetable kitchen scraps hoping that in the spring, I will have some nice compost. The scrap buckets are outside.

When I lived in the country and had a large garden outside in my yard, I made my grandfather's manure tea. I simply filled a large bucket half full of manure then filled the rest of the way with water. I just let this mess set outside in the middle of the garden and when I needed to water my plants, I scooped some out and poured it on my plants. My neighbor and I both bought tomato plants the same day and from the same place. We planted them in our gardens on the same day. However, it didn't take long for my plants to go bonkers and outgrow hers all over the place. I didn't tell her about my tea until she began to complain about the differences in our gardens.'

I wanted to have some kind of organize fertilizer that I can make for my plants. The Internet has lots of directions for making compost tea so I am probably going to be getting into some of my earlier filled buckets outside and seeing what I can come up with. I don't want to stink up my house with anything, so I will need to work on this outside then bring it in and hope for the best. I would like to try it in my hydroponics system as well. We will see!

From outdoors to indoors

I am moving my garden indoors. Being one that is always up for experimentation, I have turned my porch room into a meditation, art studio, garden. Three things that seem to go well together. And I moved my electric fireplace into the area as well. So total relaxation!

I planted lettuce and spinach in two of the gutters and later will put Swiss chard and kale into the middle. I actually planted the Swiss chard and kale into little peat circles until the are up and then I will plant them in the last gutter.

I like starting my plants in my recycled roasted chicken containers. Black on the bottom and water proof. The top is a nice see through dome with a few little air holes. Makes an excellent mini green house! Plus I can slip in under a cupboard in my kitchen so that it sits next to a furnace vent. Once the plants have grown a bit, I will transplant them into the gutters.

I also have a green pepper plant that I salvaged before the frost in a 5 gallon bucket next to the table. I keep my recycling buckets under the table (I use old pickle buckets for everything I can!) I brought in my potted rosemary and around the room I have herbs (Parsley, Thyme, Oregano) in hanging planters. In a couple of weeks I will be starting my hydroponics system up again. Not sure where as my porch is rather small. Last winter I had it in my basement, but it is kind of cool down there. I would love it on my porch as I can listen to the gurgling water. I will have to think about it a bit.

I am still undecided about my big tree in the back yard. It really takes a bite out of my gardening sunshine. I have a lot of big trees in my yard and the other trees certainly shade my house in the summer. This honker just shades my yard (and my neighbors!). If I took it out, I think I would have a better back yard.. Here are some pictures of the tree. The top of the tree is actually about half full of leaves. The rest are on the ground in my yard!


My garden is located behind the tree. I have two 4x12 raised beds and one 3x6. I also had several buckets that are currently stored behind my house. Looking pretty sad now.

I am still harvesting greens like Kale and Swiss chard from my back smaller bed. I know that last years Swiss chard refused to die until the snow buried it and the temps went way down. And still as soon as spring opened one of its eyes, it was back. I never had to replant one of my beds up by my back door. The stuff just keeps on producing! I chopped up some kale yesterday and made a pita chicken pizza with it. Yummy. I usually put kale in my soups and stews, eggs and also just steam it with chicken or fish. I haven't tried to kale chips that I hear about yet. But maybe soon. I use my Swiss chard the same way only I also use it instead of lettuce in sandwiches. Very tasty!

Working at the Shelter

Our Third Thursday (charity) Group furnished food for our local homeless shelter yesterday.  We brought Sloppy Joe's, chips, fruit cocktail, and chocolate chip cookies.  I served the cookies!  It was a very interesting experience.  There were a lot of kids.  I had brought glittery bags with a coloring book, crayons, and a little year calendar.  I brought 3 more bags than requested and could have given away 5 or 6 more.
The range of people that came for supper was kind of surprising.  Of course, there were people there who looked completely defeated.  They looked down, wouldn't talk and just sat, ate and left.  There were also people there who came in great clothes with their phones, Ipods, and expensive shoes.  Many had cigarettes.

There were old people and young people.  Pregnant and single mothers.  So many attitudes, so many different kinds of people.  Many people thanked us.  Many ignored us, taking their food and getting to a table as quickly as possible.  Some wore many layers of clothing, some smelled, some looked so happy and some looked so sad.

It would be easy to judge them, to say, oh, they can afford cigarettes but not food?  But, I wasn't there for that, and it wouldn't have been fair to only see what they presented.

I read an article yesterday on the Internet.  I am currently following a blog about a man who has decided to simplify his life by living in a  small motor home and traveling around the country.  In a side piece was an article about how to live in your car.  It was all about how to survive.  If you are going to loose your home, this gave you tips on what you needed, should keep, get rid of and be safe as you live in your car.  I was surprised at how many of the diners yesterday could have fit that article.

It made me more aware of the importance of community/personal gardens.  Not that I am the greatest gardener, or know everything.  But I have had gardens of all sorts all my life.  Food and gardens brings so many people together.  And it helps.  Why not turn a weedy or grass covered place into a garden?  Gardens help the soul as well as the body.    According to the Bible, we started in a garden.  So they can't be bad, right?

End of Summer!

Well, I went the entire summer without writing a single post.  I should be ashamed!  My  gardens are almost empty, the remaining peppers plants and broccoli plants have survived minor frosts and the threat of frosts and are still bearing fruit!  My greens and cold plants are doing well also.  The onions that did not do well this summer are suddenly sprouting even though I thought I pulled them all.  So in a bit I should have some new onions.

Over all, I consider this a learning summer.  Just like last winter my hydroponics was a learning experience as well.  I still plan on increasing my beds next summer because I am going to make some big changes in how I plant.

For this fall, I plant on filling the beds with leaves and then spreading some horse manure on top and maybe in the very early spring, covering them with black plastic.  I also have bins of garden and kitchen waste sitting out behind my shed in the hopes that when I open them in the spring, they will be compost.

I planted my first bed with peas, lettuce, Swiss chard, kale, cabbage and onions.  My peas were great.  My lettuce, excellent.  I am still picking Swiss chard and kale (and freezing it).  My cabbage did sort of alright.  Some more than others.  I think that there was a lack of sun and maybe some overcrowding.  The onions would have done better and probably the cabbage as well.

I almost forgot, I also planted carrots and beets.  Beets did not do well and the carrots, well a few were very nice but most, not so much.

My two 4 x 12 beds were also kind of interesting.  My green beans did outstanding.  I was picking a lot and eating them every day.  My peppers were quickly overshadowed by the tomatoes and beans.  Egg plant, boo hiss!  My basil did very well.  Tomatoes, who knows?  I completely messed up with them.  Like I said it was a learning experience.

I never did get the tomatoes staked.  I went everywhere and no one had any garden netting in my town.  So by the time I decided I would stake them with cages, it was way too late.  As a result, I lost tons of tomatoes because it was a mess getting in there and they were all being eaten as they sat on the ground.    What I did learn is that next year the tomatoes will be in their own beds and will be staked the day they are planted!

Because I started so many plants the spring in my basement, I was thinking of adding beds.  But I wasn't sure how the beds would do because of the nearby tree.  I had it trimmed last fall and was hoping that it was enough to allow my garden to grow, but until I was sure, I didn't want to over do it in the yard.  So one day I was visiting my sister's restaurant and there on her stage were about 10 5 gallon buckets with lids.  So I brought them home and with the help of my grandson, we drilled holes in the bottoms and filled them with dirt.  I planted some squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans, cherry tomatoes, and basil.

My daughter liked the idea so much she got a bunch of buckets and planted them with lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers and a green pepper.

Now, I had mixed results with my buckets, too.  The green pole beans went crazy!  My cherry tomatoes went crazy!  My basil loved the buckets.  The 5 cucumbers I got were round!  So were my daughter's.  My squash kept falling off the vines and my tomatoes just turned brown and died.  My daughter's lettuce was great and she got brocoli and beans.  Not much on her pepper and her tomatoes did do better than mine.

In the process of driving one day, I found another city yard full of buckets and beds.  I returned to his yard several times and have decided next spring I will actually park my car and go talk to him.  His tomatoes were all in buckets in cages (self made out of fencing).

I also put a couple of thorn-less blackberries in some buckets.  I am not sure how I feel about them, though.  Garden Girl on You Tube said she had hers in containers, but I am worried about them over the winter.  I will probably move them into the shed for a little bit more protection from our Michigan Winter.  In the spring, not sure if I will keep them in buckets or plant them somewhere in my yard.

I am also considering have the tree cut down.  I do have more trees in my yard, my front yard has 2 large maples and I have a maple next to my house.  My neighbors all have large trees (this is an old neighborhood) so my actual house will still get shade, but removing this monster will open up my back yard enough so that I can actually get enough sun for my gardens.

So, now I will spend the winter thinking about my yard.  Planning what I will put in the beds and where I will put my new beds.

I have plants

My onions have sprouted, my lettuce has sprouted, my cabbages are beginning to sprout, and my little tomato plants are just beginning to peek out of the soil. The sun has been out (okay, lots of sun but FREEZING temperatures). I started shopping for the ingredients for Mel's mix. I found the peat moss, the vermiculite in bulk, but no one had compost. Not Lowes, not any of our local nurseries. So I put it on Facebook and right down the street from me was a tree service and they had compost and they delivered and it was cheap! I ordered two yards and he delivered it and dumped it this morning. I waited until it warmed up (41 degrees) then went out and began to fill my first bed. It took many wheelbarrow loads through my front yard, through my walk through garage, through my bad yard and then into the bed. Before I put the compost in, I laid down a layer of newspapers, then garden fabric. Then I emptied the bags of leaves into the bottom of the bed. I dumped compost on top of this, then the peat moss, then the vermiculite, Then a couple of bags of manure (sheep and cow). I mixed it all up. I need to put a little bit of compost on top of it and mix again. Then I need to do the other box. So far, I have 2 12x4 beds, a 3 x 6 bed left over from last year. It was my experiment. There is also a 3 x 4 bed up by my patio. I want to put a fifth box by my shed. I need to put something there because it looks such a mess. It gets some shade during the day and has always been like a cooler spot then the rest of the yard. Maybe because the eaves of the shed hang out over the area. If I leave a space between the bed and the side of the shed, then it might get enough sun to work as a cool veg garden. Like a place for greens. I have almost all of my seeds now. I am missing kidney beans. I started broccoli and hot peppers today oh, and Lime Basil. I need to start rosemary this week and I would really like to get more basil and start that. Maybe some lemon basil and regular basil. I am really wondering if I should plant my peas before I leave for Florida on Friday. It is so cold still and next week it is only going to be in the 40s. But everything I read says to plant. So probably I will plant. The bed up by my patio is crazy. Last year I threw lettuce, spinach and swiss chard seed randomly into it. It was full of vegies all summer. Well, when I raked the old stuff off of it yesterday, I found that the swiss chard was growing back! Several plants. I should be happy, but I don't want them there. That is going to be my kitchen herb garden. If I move them out, will I kill them, or should I just kill them and plant new ones. I hate to kill plants. Not weeds, I really don't' care about them. But this is swiss chard that survived a Michigan winter filled with ice and snow and horrible temperatures. Maybe I will just plant them in a bucket and see what happens. Since I stopped my hydroponics in the basement, I am going to move my garden plants downstairs under the grow lights until I get home. That should keep them happy. I need to get those watering bulbs though so they don't dry out. So much to do! I really hope the by the time I return from Florida that it will be warmer! My tulips and daffodils are growing and my lillies are starting to appear. Iris, also is sending up shoots. I have so much yard work to do, painting my pergola, mulching around my beds, painting the shed, getting my trees trimmed. I will be thinking about all of it as I lay on the beach all next week!

What a day! I am exhausted. Yesterday I went to Lowes and bought 4 16' 2X12s. Then I asked them to cut 4' off of each one. That way I could make 2 4 X 12 raised beds for my gardens this year. This morning, I met Carrie and her clan at the Bone and we had breakfast. Jamie asked to borrow my drill, so I made him a deal. He would screw all my beds together and he could take my drill. So he came over and he, Edward and I built my two raised bed garden boxes. They look great!

Then I had to run errands and finally ended up at Carrie's house. She had been raking leaves and dead grass and had several piles. I bagged up 5 garbage bags of leaves and brought them home. I figure that I can put them into my beds and not have to buy so much fill for my boxes. Plus I have leaves here that I need to rake up. Hopefully tomorrow.

For a split second I debated on whether or not I should put my beginning kitchen veg scraps compost into it as well, but with the critters around here, I don't want anything digging up my garden and I really don't want to upset my neighbors. I can just imagine what they would say if they found all my old banana peels laying in a path through their yard.

So I am looking out at my two new raised garden beds and I just bet my neighbors are looking out at them as well, wondering what I am going to do this time!

Planting

Oh, it got so warm a week ago. Up near 70 degrees. The frogs were croaking like crazy! According to my mother-in-law, they have to croak once, then the cold comes back, then once they croak again, spring is here and warm temperatures are here to stay.

So now we are in an ice storm. My car was totally covered with ice when I got out of work tonight. It is cold.

So today I planted. I planted some tomato seeds and some pepper seeds. I bought those little cube things and planted 12 Roma and 18 Big Boy. Then 6 hot peppers and 12 green peppers. And just to make life a little interesting, I planted some garlic and onions in a window style planter.

I have been watching a new person on Youtube. He is praxxus55712 and has fantastic gardening information. He plants everything in his house and in raised beds. So I have been watching all his videos and getting lots of info. He inspired me to plant my garlic and I thought I would put in those onion sets, too. So we will see what happens.

I am picking my greens from my hydroponics system and when they are done, I think I will store it until next fall. Really, Praxxus seems to grow everything just as easily and cheaper than using hydroponics. So I may or may not use it next year.

Worm Stress!

I was so stressed over those darn worms! First they are crawling around like crazy then they disappear into the dirt and I never see them. Did I kill them? Why aren't they crawling on the sides of my tub attempting to escape? Have they all decided to resign them selves to the tub prison? Did they realize that resistance is futile?

I finally decided I didn't care. I put the tub on my porch and just kept tossing in vegetable and fruit scraps. If nothing else, I got a big start on my compost. This morning, there they were. Not crawling on the sides, but crawling through the food. Okay. I am happy they are not dead.

My sister owns a restaurant and I am starting to get lettuce and other fresh vegetable scraps from her. I figure by the time it is time to fill my raised beds I should have some good compost going. Once my buckets are almost full I am going to put manure in them and when I plant the buckets it should be good to go.

We have had a small taste of spring this week. I walked around my yard for a bit and checked out where I will be putting the raised beds. Because I don't really know what amount of sun will be hitting the different parts of my (small) yard, it is hard to gauge until the leaves show up. meanwhile, now I hear we are under a winter storm watch for Sunday and next Friday, we are supposed to get really hit. Booo. Hopefully, after this spring will start for real!

My hydroponic lettuce/spinach/kale in the basement is just about ready to start harvesting. I also have some microgreens growing in my living room. My friends are starting to call me a hippy. Ah well.

Saga of the Worms

Those darn worms. They continued to escape again and again. So I put them in a bucket that didn't have holes in the bottom. But the bucket wasn't big enough to hold all of them so I finally put them into a big tub. They seemed to like that. They crawled all over the sides of the tub leaving lots and lots of casings. Perfect!

But let me tell you about my house. I keep it cold. I keep the thermometer at 60'. I do have one of those new radient heaters in my living room. But I like the rest of my house cold. So my kitchen is cold. And that is where my worm bin is. And the worms seemed to like the temperature.

However, I had the bin near, very near the heat vent. I happened to get a cold last week and because I needed it, I turned up the temp. And forgot the bin was so close to the vent.

When I tossed in the celery ends, I noticed that there were only 3 worms crawling on the side of the tub. The rest were laying on the bottom, pretty sad looking. At first, I wasn't sure why they looked dead. I was telling my friend about them and suddenly realized that they were by the vent and I was cooking them.

I moved them to my porch for a couple of hours and then back into my kitchen after I turned the furnace back down. Finally, today there were more worms crawling around. Hurrah! I would have felt terrible if I had cooked them all!

Uncooperative Worms

The worms arrived the other day. Left in the snow in their protective box, outside my porch. I opened the box and there they were in their little bag. One whole pound of worms. It didn't look like much until I opened the bag. Then I realized the bag was SOLID worms. I split them in half and put each half into a bucket. I was so proud!

The next day I lifted up one of the buckets and a whole bunch of worms were cuddled on the lid I kept under the bucket. The other bucket had no escaped worms. So I put the run aways back into their own bucket.

This continued. One bucket fine, the other full of restless, adventurous worms. I began to dump the escapees into the second bucket. But that's not good because now I am going to get crowded worms. So I went back to the restaurant and obtained 2 more buckets. Today I am going to transfer the contents of the bad bucket into a new one.

It is never easy, is it?

I bought the Square Foot Gardener book yesterday and have been reading it. Very interesting reading. Gives me more info on how to set up my yard this spring.

I also did a Sunday style walk through of Menard's and checked out the wood for my raised beds. Using 2x10x8, they will cost me around $40. each. But if I use 2x4x8's the cost goes down to around $25. Much better. Plus, maybe I can scrounge some wood from here or there. The book talks about getting wood from construction sites. But here in Michigan, those are few and far between. I do know a couple of fixer upper guys, so maybe they have some scraps hanging around. I also heard that we now have a Habitat For humanity store just down the road from me, so I am going there as well.

I worry about my neighbors a little. We are in a neighborhood, here, all fenced in. But privacy? We ain't got any. There is a neighbor behind me and on both sides. And they all are major yard neatnics. Next to me is the wonderful flower gardener. People from all over this area talk about her yard. On the other side of me is another wonderful woman who has grass. But it is always trimmed and fertilized and just looks neat. Then behind me is a family who never have child toys laying around. They are like a cross between both of my side neighbors. Their yard is perfect with a nice touch of flowers. So I am in between them.

I have put in lots of flowers, a small fountain and my pergola. I love my pergola. In fact, back when I was married, I used to cater parties for my husband in his rather large party barn. I told him that if I did this, I would like a pergola. After about 5 years of doing his parties (3-4 a year) I told him no pergola, no parties. So he built me a pergola. Part of my divorce demands, were that he take down the pergola and build it at my new place. Well, he dismantled it, but then stacked the wood in my front yard. So my nephew put it together for me. It measured 10' by 16 foot long. I put a stone patio under it and in front of it I built a huge 5x16 sandbox. When my grand kids get older, maybe I will plant potatoes there! or just add onto my patio.

My hydroponic lettuce is really taking off. Some of my spinach is sprouting, so I transferred them to the hydro unit. I try not to go down there and stare at them every day. If I go every couple of days, then I see how much they are growing. I want to start some more vegetables soon so that I keep a crop coming. I just may have to start another hydro unit!

Winter - The beginning

I love gardening. I love it. But over the years I have gardened and not gardened. In the 70's I eeked a garden out of rotten sandy soil in spotty shade. In the 80's we moved to 30 acres and I had the garden of my dreams. Huge. With every vegetable that I could ever want. We raised pigs, chickens, kids, fruit trees and bushes. I loved it. I gave away vegetables for the first time in my life.

Then my husband asked me to change my location. So I did. We planted more fruit trees where my garden had been. I still had a large space, although not quite as large as before. Then in the 90's I moved it again and my garden shrank. Then finally, I came home one early spring day to discover my husband burning rubbish from a house he was remodeling. The painted wood was old and I worried about lead. The roofing materials he added later had who knows what in them. So I gave it up. At this time we also gave up our animals, and our kids took off to run their own lives.

I always missed gardening. I loved not having to weed. But I loved the gardening, canning, the sustainability of a good healthy garden.

Since then I divorced my husband and moved to a small home near the city with a small fenced in backyard. I have a neighbor with a magic flower touch who loves flower gardening. I was disappointed the first spring to discover that my yard was almost totally shaded. The second spring, I put in a 4 X 8 raised bed for tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers. I also put in a lettuce garden up by my patio that received some sun during the day.

The squirrels and chipmunks ate every single tomato. Because of the sun, my green peppers were very tall, but prolific! And I was able to harvest many cucumbers! My lettuce garden was always there for me and the swiss chard I sprinkled in there grew until the snow and freezing finally did it in. However, I potted several plants and have used them over the winter.

I want to garden again. I want to go out and touch my plants and pick vegetables and can vegetables. So I walked around and around my yard and called a tree person and had them trim my huge swamp maple tree way way up so that the sun can now hit my hard in several good places. And I found gardengirltv on Youtube. My hero.

So now I have hope for a garden this summer. A real garden. I am planning to build several raised beds so that I have at least 3. I am looking for a humane animal trap so that I can catch the critters that think I am raising things for them (We have a park a short distance away and they will be relocated). I started a hydroponics unit in my basement where I am (really I am) growing lettuce and spinach. And today my worms are coming!


I am getting ready for spring by starting my compost worm bins. I got a couple of pickle buckets from my sister"s restaurant and following the directions of the garden girl, I drilled holes and filled the buckets with shredded paper and soil and some water. I also have some veg scraps that I had from my cooking yesterday. So, as soon as my worms arrive, I am putting them in the buckets so they can start composting and creating some nice soil for me. Because this is winter and it is cold outside, I have them in my kitchen.

My daughters think this is totally gross, but the buckets are clean and they are in the corner. I will move them to my basement once the worms are in. Then when spring really gets here I will take them outside. I have them inside so that they will start working. And will chew up my veg scraps. So I am excitedly waiting!