A quiz

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

I made dirt!

My "stepkids" told me I sounded like I'm in kindergarten because I was so proud of my dirt. Perhaps one day when they get older, they too will understand how exciting it can be to have garbage turn into something so precious.
This is just the tip of the iceburg too. There are two compost bins on my property. They were each half full of almost ready compost which was combined into one. That stuff should only be a couple of weeks away from another harvest!



Oh yea - the screen was made out of an old window frame that I found lying around on the property and stapled on some chicken wire. I used 1/4" chicken wire but would suggest to others that they use 1/2". It may seem pretty large for sifting, but it really isn't.

Finally - some pictures!

I've finally made myself spend some time with the computer again. See the lovely avatar? It's an oriental poppy about to burst open. I also thought I'd post a couple of pictures in memory of my crabapple blossoms.

This year, it officially peaked 2 weekends ago - around May 20.

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Then the petals fell.

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I love this tree and can't wait until next Spring for this to happen all over again.

Veggies in the ground

I put some veggies in the ground last night. Steve was a big help because he dug up a huge patch of Lily of The Valley in order to make room for my new plants. So far, I have 5 tomato plants (4 varieties) and one yellow zuchinni plant. I have also put out the seeds for a green zuchinni which will hopefully grow. I still plan on putting in a cucumber (mostly for the kids) and maybe either a butternut squash or an eggplant.
I have no shame in buying transplants from the garden center because to start seedlings in the house would just add to the clutter that is already taking over our lives.
I've not had much success with my veggies in past years, but that is because my sister told me to put them in a part of the yard that doesn't get much sunshine. This year, I've put them in the large garden instead so they will get almost 100% sunshine. It may seem funny to have tomato plants mingling with poppies, irises and hostas, but it will be a good experiment to see how well they produce. Besides, once the poppies and irises are done blooming, that garden will be pretty boring for the remainder of the summer. I can also hope that the ground veggies with large leaves will help block the sunlight out from all of the other weeds that are taking over the world. That would be nice.

I can't believe that I'm hooked!

My garden used to have fish but they all died one winter and I've never replaced them. The problem is that the water feature is a lot of work and I've never gotten it to work the way that I want it to. "Maybe next year" is my motto.
Now I've found a new way to keep fish: Fish Tycoon on Yahoo games! I keep a tank at home and one at work. I can breed my fish, feed them, sell them, etc. It's almost a reasonable replacement for the other fish that I killed.
In some ways, keeping fish (even if they are virtual fish) and keeping a garden have much in common.

Astilbe #5!

I had reported on May 2 that I was worried about one of my astilbe that Steve's mom had given me last year. Well, today I'm happy to report that it has finally decided to join it's friends. In fact, with all of the rain over the weekend, this one has surpassed its neighbour! Mind you, its neighbour is also quite spindly. The other three are thriving.
Oh rain. I know that it's great for my plants but it's not great for my mood. I haven't seen sun since Thursday evening and probably won't be seeing much until next weekend. How I hope we have a nice sunny long weekend. Unfortunatly, I won't be working in the garden but, fortunatly, we hope to get to the cottage and try out our new canoe!
And oh yea - the camera is home from Germany now so maybe I'll finally get around to posting some pictures in here!

Ouch!

I think the Magic Bag will be coming to work with me tomorrow.
I spent just over an hour this evening weeding and spreading mulch. It's looking better and better every day. I also went to buy some more mulch. Unfortunatly, the stuff was wet and the thought of picking up all of those bags made my back scream even more. Instead I just browsed the shrubs at the nursery and picked up a treat for myself at the grocery store. I may enjoy gardening, but I enjoy eating more!

The wonders of wireless

I love my wireless Internet. I get to sit out on the front step while updating my gardening blog. Unfortunatly, the sun just went behind a large cloud so it's a little chillier than it was when I first sat out here.
After much rain on Saturday that kept me inside all day except for a trip to get a pedicure and a trip to get some groceries, I was able to spread my mulch today. I am happy with what I got done, but I'm far from finished. Before I can spread any more, I will have to do another large weeding session. That will wait until tomorrow evening because I don't feel like digging in wet dirt.
Some people prefer to weed when the dirt is wet. Personally, I hate it. And with the sandy conditions that I have in my front yard, weeding is fairly easy to do anyways.
I love to just sit and stare at the garden. It's so much less intimidating to think about doing things than it is to actually do them. The side of the yard that is under the crabapple needs some attention and I'm pretty sure I know exactally what I want to do. For now, however, that will have to wait until I've finished some more of my work in the main part of the yard.
Now, I have a chicken breast to grill. I don't think I'll eat it tonight, but I'll cut it up to make some fine lunches for this week. Yum!

Mulch found!

Found mulch today at the CTC garden center on Hunt Club after dropping Steve off at the airport for Denmark. I got 8 bags - 6 in the trunk and two on the front seat. Unfortunatly, I'm nusing a headache so I only managed to get two bags spread out. The rest will be done tomorrow.
Being a healthy young male student on summer break, working at a garden center such as CTC must be a dream job. The one poor guy there had no less than 4 women to help out at any time. He must've been in heaven!

Not much mulch

Darn. Went to three garden centers at lunchtime and didn't find any mulch. None of them were quite ready for the season, I would say. I can understand them not having a great selection of plants yet, but it makes sense for them to be well stocked in non-living gardening items. Hopefully things will be running more smoothly this weekend.
Now that I've started the clean-up job last night, I don't want to lose momentum. If it could get a good helping of mulch, it can then be forgotten about while other areas of the yard are tended to.