Where Did the Summer Go?

Wow! I cannot believe that I haven't posted a thing on my blog since spring! Well, actually I can. I have lots of excuses and reasons, but let me just say that my 87 year old father lived with me from May until September. All I can say is being a caretaker is a lot of work (that I would never even think of NOT doing!).   Here is his picture with my granddaughter after a hard morning work out in the garden!

 

 Okay, I talked about the tree in my garden last spring and yes, I did get it cut down.  Here is all that is left of it.  My nephew, who is a metal artist, decided that he wanted to try his hand at wood art.  So he worked all summer and created a beautiful bench for me.  It is not quite finished, but you can sit on it. 



I did a lot of prep work to my beds this year.  I also added several more beds.  First, I put in all my grass clippings from my yard as well as the leaves left over from the fall.  I also added compost, horse manure, some more peat moss, and shredded paper.  I dug it all in and then covered it with black plastic to get it working faster.  While digging, I did notice there were tons and I mean tons of worms this year.  Very good sign!




You can see in this picture that I added two more beds.  Lucky me, I found one for $5.00 at a garage sale (the dark brown one from Sam's, $39 regular) and then purchased one from Home Depot.  I filled them both with compost, dirt, manure, grass clippings, etc.  You can also see that I put rocks around the new boundaries of my garden area and killed the grass.  I am mulching all of it for ease of keeping it clean.  I had some old carpet that I pulled out of my porch room that I cut up and laid under the mulch for more protection from the weeds. 

One of the things I miss most about my tiny yard (compared to the 5.3 acres I used to have) are the flowering crab apple trees that I planted all over my property.  In the left upper corner, you can see that my neighbor has one and that helps!

 

Spring is early this year. Actually, winter never really arrived. Just snow for a day or two, then rain, then 40 degrees. I have been planning and planning what I am going to do in my backyard this year. First, I had someone come in and cut down the huge maple tree in my backyard. I felt bad for cutting down a tree, but I have so many and I really, really want to expand my garden! So they left about 6 foot of the trunk for my nephew to carve a nice tree bench out of. Can't wait to see it!

I started some broccoli, cauliflower and swiss chard plants this week. I am thinking I will be putting them out in a couple of weeks. I am going to try something new this year, garden sticks. I saw this on Growingyourowngreens channel on you tube. They are pvc pipe with holes drilled in it. Then filled with dirt and plants like cauliflower, strawberries and other put into the holes. The strawberry one was on www.pinterest.com so that gives me a couple of sources that have tried them. There is a company on the web that sells them, runs $100 for a 6 footer. I think I may be able to make my own for about half that. Interesting to try anyway!

I am thinking I may try to start my flowers from seed this year. I know I will be using lots in my new gardening areas front and back this summer, so why not? If I can successfully start tomatoes and green pepper plants, then I should be able to grow marigolds.