The walls of the keyhole garden are complete. All told, I spent just about $100 on the 2 top levels of brick because I already had the 2 bottom levels around the yard. I lined the side walls with cardboard, but not the bottom. Some of the other keyhole gardens I’ve seen online line the … Read more
Happy New Year! Today I made winter sowing flats for bok choy cabbage, golden acres cabbage, bright lights Swiss chard, curly leaf parsley, sweet marjoram and ruby queen beets. I sent in a self addressed stamped envelope to get my heirloom tomato seeds from WinterSown.org yesterday. I’m looking forward to see which kinds they send … Read more
I waded through snow to add some scraps to my compost bin today and was happy to find a lot of snow had melted away all around it. Hot pile! I’m sure some folks have compost that’s steaming in the snow with a nice melted path around the edge, but I was happy to find … Read more
I’ve been researching online and it seems there are pros and cons to each side. Whatever we do, we would rather not spread more weeds all over with the garden by spreading around our home made finished compost. Make sure weeds don’t sprout from your compost by drowning them first! Yes, plants need air… even … Read more
I put together a few flats of winter sown seeds today. Huckleberry, currants, gooseberry, Jack in the Pulpit and elderberry. I know the berries may take longer to germinate – maybe not even until next year – but I really hope it works. I’ll be patient and I won’t toss the containers if they don’t … Read more
This year I get to use a wood chipper to shred my leaves! I’m almost done with the whole back yard – it’s unbelievable how many garbage bags we had to use in the past to bag all of it and put all the leaves out to the curb. Now I’ll be able to put … Read more
The first week of November we took a family vacation away from the dropping temperatures here in NJ to visit the Mouse House down in Orlando. We had TONS of fun at Disney and, along with thousands of other tourists, enjoyed seeing Hogsmead at Universal for the first time. I did take the “Behind the … Read more
Cold As Hell Outside It’s cold. Too cold – with a low of 36* tonight. So I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll take a look and see the damage in the morning. If any of the tomatoes are still alive tomorrow, I’ll put some hot caps on them. I doubt they will make it. Oh well, … Read more
In the fall I tried to clean up my compost operation that was taking over a corner of my back yard. The original pile was semi-enclosed with a short wall of border bricks. It was messy and I got sick of looking at it after a while. I spread all my finished compost as mulch … Read more