Reflecting the Sun

This spring I'm excited to try giving my garden a boost with extra reflection.  I've read about the tomato mulch and other ideas for sun absorbing tips so the spots without the full hours of sun can still produce.  A few scraps of tin roof, recycled aluminum foil and some white paint for a wall.  After getting my plants established I am going to lay those reflective materials down!  Can't wait to see what happens.

Sounds like April could have some interesting weather patterns so will keep a close watch on that!  Checking my farmers' almanac!  Looking for a bulb that is full spectrum that I can put in my heat lamp.

Finally, have been planning how to use those beds that are flowers more efficiently.  So for example the bed where my Karl grass and Russian sage grow along with some annuals I've decided to grow squash on the back side.  This area is usually the dumping grounds for grass clippings and trimmings with several feet of wasted space. I think that with a little bit of tin foil- that Zucchini will do just fine!

Looking at growing some herbs in a window box and some strawberries with the flowers in another bed.  I've never grown strawberries and want to expand some herbs.

Footstep Garden: Simply Staying Out of It's Way-- Raised Beds

Footstep Garden: Simply Staying Out of It's Way-- Raised Beds: "I LOVE my raised beds! It began as a Mother's Day gift from my sons and husband two years ago and it is the best gift I've ever gotten..."

Simply Staying Out of It's Way-- Raised Beds

I LOVE my raised beds!  It began as a Mother's Day gift from my sons and husband two years ago and it is the best gift I've ever gotten!  

I love watching the soil do what the soil does and the organisms and worms do what they do.  Seems so simple and yet so profound~ just let the soil do what it does.  Don't mess with it.  Don't get in it's way.  

Kind of freaky as I hear what I heard growing up with Dad coming out of my mouth! "If we would just leave nature alone it would be fine."

Simply staying out of it's way!  Just let it be.  So I'm letting it be.  I'll add some topsoil this year but will not turn in it.  My large raised bed was tucked in last fall with a blanket of pine needles, grass clippings, leaves and sawdust from our floors!  I've added a few scoops of soil from my a spot where all of the left over leaves have been piled over the years. 

And much to my husbands surprise I'm sure-I'm bringing our last two chickens home to put on the bed for a week to scratch it all in!  Today I am putting in the the Tpost at the corners and looking for chicken wire!

Footstep Garden: Window Dressing to The Outside

Footstep Garden: Window Dressing to The Outside: "I've been writing this morning from my dining room table. The boys left the back door open when they left for school and the curtains ..."

Window Dressing to The Outside

I've been writing this morning from my dining room table.  The boys left the back door open when they left for school and the curtains are back from the window.  Watching the birds sneak up the sidewalk to the trash can and find the corn that I put out for the squirrels has made me smile.  What a gift on this Wednesday morning!

My dream is a giant patio door with glass from ceiling to floor where the outside comes in and has coffee with me!!  Even the peeling paint on the garage and the fence that needs replaced cannot take away from the joy of the birds singing, talking and living.

Monday's Mercies

Sunshine!!  60 plus weather today.  My spring bulbs are beginning to come alive with Lillies pushing their way up through the dirt and the leaves.

Turned the soil in two of my beds and added some compost to the top of one.  This year I am going to add some topsoil and some chicken manure.

Is also the time to do some hardscaping which includes stain/sealing my old wooden chair and getting ready for a top coat.  It is all ready to put a pot of flowers on it for spring.  I'm shoveling dirt to ready the restraining wall bricks that will replace by rocks around the flower bed in the back.  Painting pots.

I have collected items for our "Buster Bed" which we are making to memorialize our wonderful and faithful friend Buster.  Buster died in May after helping his boys grow up.

Other items to my To Do List includes:

1. Placing my remaining bulbs.

2. Building my Buster Bed.

3. Placing the salvaged windows.

4.  Spray painting my pots.

5.  Replacing my rocks with a retaining type wall for my flower bed.

6.  Raking the leaves off the perennials and wild flower bed.

Footstep Garden: Salvaged! Put the Word Out.

Footstep Garden: Salvaged! Put the Word Out.: "Thanks to friends, I came home with treasures in the truck. Two large windows ready to go in my shed. My goal is to put them on ..."

Salvaged! Put the Word Out.

Thanks to friends, I came home with treasures in the truck.  Two large windows ready to go in my shed.  My goal is to put them on the East side of my shed for some additional sunshine for young plants and maybe for me.    Also scored aluminum #10 cans for my seedlings. 

Amazing what can be found when we simply put the word out that we are looking for something.  I think that's a good strategy for all areas of life.  What keeps us from asking for help?  Why is that such a difficult step for us to take?  We all want to share-our resources, our experiences and our gifts.  What is that verse in the Bible about asking and keep asking until we get what we are looking for? 

What are we waiting for?  Put the word out of those gardening and other needs in your life!

Footstep Garden: Making the Cut and Taking it All Off

Footstep Garden: Making the Cut and Taking it All Off: "March! My energy is rising as the sap in the tree. Birds are coming back. The earth is thawing. Time to make the cut..."

Making the Cut and Taking it All Off

March!  My energy is rising as the sap in the tree.  Birds are coming back.  The earth is thawing.  Time to make the cut.

March is the time for pruning those vines.  Two days ago when I was home for lunch I grabbed my pruners by the back door and spent 30 minutes cutting voraciously on the vines on my back fence.  The pile of dead vines at my feet was a great feeling of accomplishment.

My grasses are getting their hair cut today.  Taking it all off.  Getting them ready to take off with the summer sun.  The sage and the butterfly bushes are going down!  Bushes and perennials you are next!  

Raking back the winter blanket from my beds will come next.  You can't stop spring now.  It is coming.  It is almost here.

Look out garden shed... you are next!!!

Footstep Garden: Humus

Footstep Garden: Humus: "Humus: The stuff left over in my garden such as decayed leaves and vegetable matter that feeds my plans. Humus is a root ..."

Humus

Humus: The stuff left over in my garden such as decayed leaves and vegetable matter that feeds my plans.   

Humus is a root word and is related to humility.  Interesting correlation between the rotting plants and compost in my garden to those humiliating events and times in my life.

Those leftovers, rotten fruit, veggies and coffee grounds, worm "poop" and decaying leaves mixes in with the soil to create the nutrients that will strengthen my new plants this spring.

The humiliating experiments of my planting and failing attempts at new strategies actually leads to the healthy build up of my soil and the beautiful flowers of spring.  Lord take those humiliating events of my life and mix them into my daily life to create the soil for growth and productivity.

That's Crap!

Second is step is all about putting manure and compost in my garden.  Testing my soil.  Making sure my worms all are all happy little workers.  I'm not stirring it up yet.  Just adding a layer on my beds.

Check out this book I'm buying.

"Holy Shit" by Gene Logsdon.
http://www.shelfari.com/o1517814070/shelf


Oh and make sure it is old poop!!!