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| I'm Blinky...1... |
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| 2... |
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| 3rd times a charm! |
22 lbs down!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Things I Screwed Up Last Year
Okay, I'll admit...I am far from a perfect gardener. I do a lot...but I don't have a lot of real life help...I sometimes screw things up. So now this spring, I'm having to fix my mistakes. Here's some of the things I'm trying to get right.
1. My strawberry bed:
This is partially my fault and partially the fault of the person who gardened here before me. I had a bed full of strawberries when I moved in...it was WAY full. But grass grew up in the bed and choked out half of the strawberries. Yes, I should have weeded it more. But there was no way I could have mulched it, because the strawberries were too thick. Maybe they needed to be divided anyway...that is what I"m telling myself. And I am wondering if these people put ANYTHING at all down under this bed to keep the grass out. So, I cultivated the soil and pulled out as many roots as I could. Short of emptying the whole bed, I don't know what else to do. I replanted some new strawberries into the bed, and I"m going to buy straw this week and mulch around the plants to keep the grass at bay. This is the first raised bed I've ever worked with...and I am finding the grass problem frustrating. How do other people deal with this?
You can see the bricked off area over on the right...with grass in it, and some tools laying half on top of it...that is my asparagus patch. This one is ALL my fault. Last year I dug trenches, planted my asparagus crowns, covered it with compost, and promptly forgot about it. I had SO MUCH grass grow up in that bed too. I am totally fighting grass at every turn in this yard. That is part of the problem with a new till garden. Until about this time last year, most of this yard was solid, lush green grass. Evidently it objected to me attempting to remove it. So, I had to try to get rid of the grass here too.
This is what I did for now. I know, it's not pretty. But I think it will choke out the grass. Underneath, I laid down a thick layer of wet newspaper, only leaving holes for the asparagus crowns. Then I put the landscaping fabric down over it and used those big staples to pin it into place. I didn't have any straw at the time, but now I do, so I will be putting some cheerful bright-colored straw down to cover up the ugly black fabric. I'm hoping with a little spot weeding around the openings, this will take care of it.
3. Blueberry bushes
My poor, poor blueberry bushes. I planted them last year, and thought I was helping them by adding stuff to the soil because they love acid. However, chemistry was my weakest science. I added LIME to the soil. Somehow, I must have misread something online, I thought lime would help the soil. DUH DUH DUH...I have basically been torturing them almost to death for the whole last year. I read just lately that lime is a base. Oops. Well, that would explain why they didn't do ANYTHING at all. So, this year, I mixed up some stuff specifically for blueberry bushes and poured it on. I also incorporated the blueberries into my sun bed, and mulched them with everything else. I'll show pictures of that in a future post. They already seem to be perking up.
So those were my 3 major screw ups in last year's garden. Like I said, I am a self taught/internet taught gardener for the most part, so sometimes I learn things the hard way. I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and since then, spring has really been getting going here in Iowa. It is easy to be positive and clean up old messes when everything is growing and blooming. I just hope I can learn from this, and do things better in the future.
Please, please, please tell me you've screwed things in your garden too. I want to hear about it...LOL.
1. My strawberry bed:
This is partially my fault and partially the fault of the person who gardened here before me. I had a bed full of strawberries when I moved in...it was WAY full. But grass grew up in the bed and choked out half of the strawberries. Yes, I should have weeded it more. But there was no way I could have mulched it, because the strawberries were too thick. Maybe they needed to be divided anyway...that is what I"m telling myself. And I am wondering if these people put ANYTHING at all down under this bed to keep the grass out. So, I cultivated the soil and pulled out as many roots as I could. Short of emptying the whole bed, I don't know what else to do. I replanted some new strawberries into the bed, and I"m going to buy straw this week and mulch around the plants to keep the grass at bay. This is the first raised bed I've ever worked with...and I am finding the grass problem frustrating. How do other people deal with this?
2. Asparagus Patch
You can see the bricked off area over on the right...with grass in it, and some tools laying half on top of it...that is my asparagus patch. This one is ALL my fault. Last year I dug trenches, planted my asparagus crowns, covered it with compost, and promptly forgot about it. I had SO MUCH grass grow up in that bed too. I am totally fighting grass at every turn in this yard. That is part of the problem with a new till garden. Until about this time last year, most of this yard was solid, lush green grass. Evidently it objected to me attempting to remove it. So, I had to try to get rid of the grass here too.
This is what I did for now. I know, it's not pretty. But I think it will choke out the grass. Underneath, I laid down a thick layer of wet newspaper, only leaving holes for the asparagus crowns. Then I put the landscaping fabric down over it and used those big staples to pin it into place. I didn't have any straw at the time, but now I do, so I will be putting some cheerful bright-colored straw down to cover up the ugly black fabric. I'm hoping with a little spot weeding around the openings, this will take care of it.
3. Blueberry bushes
My poor, poor blueberry bushes. I planted them last year, and thought I was helping them by adding stuff to the soil because they love acid. However, chemistry was my weakest science. I added LIME to the soil. Somehow, I must have misread something online, I thought lime would help the soil. DUH DUH DUH...I have basically been torturing them almost to death for the whole last year. I read just lately that lime is a base. Oops. Well, that would explain why they didn't do ANYTHING at all. So, this year, I mixed up some stuff specifically for blueberry bushes and poured it on. I also incorporated the blueberries into my sun bed, and mulched them with everything else. I'll show pictures of that in a future post. They already seem to be perking up.
So those were my 3 major screw ups in last year's garden. Like I said, I am a self taught/internet taught gardener for the most part, so sometimes I learn things the hard way. I took these pictures a few weeks ago, and since then, spring has really been getting going here in Iowa. It is easy to be positive and clean up old messes when everything is growing and blooming. I just hope I can learn from this, and do things better in the future.
Please, please, please tell me you've screwed things in your garden too. I want to hear about it...LOL.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
My Little Piece of Nostalgia
The deputy and I went to the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant recently to celebrate his birthday. He totally LOVES this restaurant. They are truly a farmstyle restaurant. But don't think fresh and local...think overalls and gravy and ham. Think butter, rolls, fried, and gingham. If that's your thing, then great for you. But if you're trying to lose weight...then it is kind of scary place. I used to love going there when I was younger and I didn't care about calories. They have a fantastic baked potato soup.
So anyways, my favorite part of going there is spending some time in their shop. They sell all kinds of cool cooking and decorating stuff, as well as LOTS of pretty smelling stuff. This time, they had these cool seed baskets up on a top shelf.
They were all slightly different. I made my, "ooooo", sound and went over to look. The deputy came over and said, "You know what these are? These are the things they used to have on the table. " I realized he was right. They used to keep these on the table to keep the water pitcher and various sugars and such in. I also realized I HAD to have one. We spent quite a while looking for one that had all the elements I wanted. First, it is red, white, and blue...which I have a lot of things in this color scheme.
Also, it had a chicken on it. I don't have chickens, but I really WANT chickens. I also have really wanted to change up my table decoration for a while. I had a tray there holding napkins and all that, but it's been there a while.
The basket also had the word 'seed' on it. It was a done deal. A piece of local history for only 10 dollars. You can see I have already made it at home on my dining room table.
They also had the corresponding 'silo' salt and pepper shakers. My son had never seen this type before. I had to explain to him about the 's' being for salt and the 'p' for pepper. In all, I was very pleased with my purchases. It's not too often I can decorate with something that fits into the seed/gardening/chickens decor category that the deputy also likes. A win/win situation.
My son just wanted me to take his picture since I had the camera out. I very rarely get a true smile out of him, so I had to include this picture. Isn't he turning into a good-looking young man? I think so, but I'm a little biased.
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