Bunnies, bugs and dry heat in the garden

Ick, what a week! First I realized that with the recent high temps and arid winds, I haven't been watering enough. Stuff was getting crispy. Daily hand watering just wasn't cutting it out here on the plains. So I've switched to twice daily and started using a sprinkler, being sure to rotate it for coverage.

Ya, you heard me. It's an incredible amount of water but the dry winds make it a necessity. Next up, discovered an infestation of squash bugs and while treating them to a dose of homemade insecticide and trimming off damaged leaves also found.... Earwigs! Ewww! I always thought earwigs loved moisture. No idea why they were running rampant in my arid garden but....

Good news, the vinegar spray annihilated the earwigs. Unfortunately, I still have squash bugs. So moving on from vinegar, soap and water to rubbing alcohol, soap and water. I hope it works! I love having bunnies in my yard. So, rather than battling them, I put all the bunny food plants in higher raised beds they can't reach. Or so I thought. LOL

Those cute little buggers somehow managed to scale 2 foot high beds. They didn't burrow under them. Just hopped up and burrowed down to harvest my baby carrots and new potatoes. Left a couple huge, rabbit size holes.

Pretty sure they're not going to quit. Fence is not an option, the way the beds are set up. So we'll probably have to harvest a little early to beat them to it. Oh well, we like baby carrots and new potatoes anyway. 

Oh, here's a funny thing, I thought my radish and beet sprouts were disappearing due to the sun drying them up. Nope. Turns out, the birds think I'm planting food for them as well. Just happened to look out and saw them chowing down on my third planting of both.

Meh, stuff happens. Its all part of gardening fun. Still living happy and healthy in the gradual garden. Just have to be more watchful. Hey, I have time. I'm grounded and isolating for the most part anyway. Happy gradual gardening always at our house, no matter the challenges!

Why you should stop buying landscape supplies by the bag

Need soil for your raised beds, mulch for your roses or rock for your pathways? Do yourself a favor. Stop buying large quantities of landscape supplies by the bag. It's much less expensive by the truckload. So much less, in fact, that even with delivery fees, you can save a bundle.

How many bags of soil at 4 bucks a bag does it take to fill an average sized raised bed? A lot more than 10. One bag doesn't even fill one of the buckets pictured above! And yet, you can get far superior soil from a garden center for about 40 bucks a yard. That's enough to fill a small truck bed or half a large truck bed. It will fill two raised beds with a bit leftover.

If you don't have a truck, many garden centers will deliver landscape materials to your door for 60-80 dollars. That may sound like a lot but if you need a large quantity, remember they can usually deliver up to 15 yards in one trip, thereby saving you gas, time and money.

I can't even fathom how much more 15 yards of bagged soil would cost, not to mention your aching back from loading and transporting all those individual bags. A delivery truck will dump supplies right where you need them or close enough to save you a lot of footwork. No more labor intensive loading and unloading!

Splitting the cost of landscape supplies and delivery with a neighbor or multiple neighbors will save you even more. The bigger the load, the better your transportation savings. So why not?

Hubby and I just paid 80. for 2 yards of eco-friendly compost. The same amount of compost in bags would have cost over 300. We just don't have that kind of money. Heck, we barely had the 80 bucks but we knew bags would cost even more and it's time to get this whole yard garden project started already. Luckily we do have a truck that holds 2 yards of just about any landscape material, so transportation was free, other than gas.

Next year, we'll have our own compost from a pile we just started. That's another great way to save. Homemade compost can usually be planted in, provided it's not overly nitrogen heavy. We don't use nitrogen heavy animal waste in ours so we won't need to buy garden soil or fertilizer ever again. It's an all in one solution.

If you're not a gardener, you can still save money buying bulk landscape materials. Mulch, rock and sand are all far cheaper by the yard than they are by the bag. We highly recommend mulch or breeze for pathways. It's much lighter than rock and still pleasing to the eye.

Speaking of mulch, ours was virtually free. I'll tell you about that in a later post. Until then, happy gardening! And don't let me catch you buying bagged landscape material ever again!

Garden imperfection is heaven to me

I don't garden to produce high yields or impress the neighbors. I don't believe gardening is about knowing all the rules or even following all the conventional ones I do know. And ya, I know a little. Been doing this a while. But I don't think that makes me any better than the average beginner. There's a free spirit to this hobby that I embrace fully.Without imperfection, gardening looses it's appeal for me.

Funny story:

The other day, I saw a Craigslist ad for free dirt that contained a multi-paragraph dissertation about the difference between dirt and soil, It listed the credentials and affiliations of the person offering it and how you should use the free dirt in precise detail. So, the free dirt wasn't exactly free. It came with a lecture that assumed the recipient was an absolute idiot. No thank-you. You can keep your free dirt and your unsolicited advice as well. PS - You're not that special and kind of snotty as well. LOL

I like my garden full of mistakes.

I like nature to show me the way. Screw ups are not just learning experiences or a chance to “do better” next time. They reveal something far superior in my opinion. They show us how nature does things. They show us the natural flow that we should be following.

I don't manipulate my garden.

I get lost in the beautiful imperfection of doing things the natural way. There are no nasty chemicals allowed in my yard and garden. I don't believe in artificially created landscapes. Nature is so much more beautiful and sustainable. I feed the birds, bees and bunnies as well as all the little microorganisms that are vital to our survival.

My garden is not about stress.

It's about peace and tranquility. Sweating the details takes away from the reason I garden. My garden is my happy place. Forcing things, conforming to or dwelling on the rules makes gardening feel like work. And of course, there are things that have to be done in the garden. Still, there's no need for obsessing over whether everything is by the book.

I love gardening

I want to keep loving it. That's why I love the imperfection of it all. Rigidity in gardening compromises nature. And isn't getting closer to nature what gardening is about?

Busy work for gardeners in isolation

As gardeners, we're somewhat lucky during the Coronavirus crisis or any epidemic. We won't be bored. Our hobby doesn't require a whole lot of socialization. We're in a unique position to create our own groceries, should this outbreak last longer than expected. Get up off the couch, gardeners. Isolation doesn't mean you have to abandon your favorite hobby!

Make a list. Include everything you wish to plant this year. Some of you may have done this already. Good for you! If not, here's a few tips:

Focus on what you know your family will actually eat.

Include one or two experimental or new to you items just to keep things exciting.

Address possible food shortages. Include long life veggies such as squashes, potatoes and onions.

Don't forget fruit and legumes.

Plant only what you have time, space and energy to care for.

Tailor your list to gardening zone conditions.

Check your seed stock. Do you have everything on the list? If not, order seeds, roots, bulbs and plants online to avoid crowds.

Map out garden areas on paper. Don't forget to plan space for herbs, greenery and florals.

If the weather is warm, prepare your soil for planting. Isn't it great to get out of the house and stay active and worry free?

Note: If you need compost, soil or other amendments, consider delivery as a minimal human contact solution.

Go chemical free. Take it easy on your lungs and general health for adequate resistance.

It's true that some of these gardening activities can be tackled while you're ill. However, If you do become sick, don't take on more than you should. Take care of yourself as the first priority. Gardening can wait. Above all, look on the bright side. Being isolated gives you plenty of extra time for spring clean-up, organization and planning. By planting time, you'll be ready to rock it!

Our ten dollar raised beds. Wait, what?

Yes, you heard me right. Our raised beds cost us just ten dollars each. Complete! Well, ok, we had to paint them, but that cost was minimal. So, where did we get these awesome garden beds for ten bucks? The salvage yard, of course.

It all started when I was browsing Craigslist for materials. You know, sometimes you can find salvageable wood, etc. Anyway, on a whim, I type garden beds into the search bar. Hey, you never know until you try,

So, up pops this ad for hinged pallet holders. The ad suggests using them as raised garden beds. Pallet holders keep pallets steady when they're shipped. Basically, the pallet holder consists of four 8 inch wide boards, hinged together into a rectangle.

These pallet holders are perfect as garden beds. They measure around 2x3. They don't involve any nailing or screwing. You just unfold them, fill them with soil and you're good to go. Amazing find! And since they're slightly smaller than conventional garden beds, I can reach all sides. 

They even stack!

As you can see from the drawing, we chose to paint ours white to match our house, since they were being placed in the front yard. But other than that and filling them, they were virtually no work at all.

Note: In the picture, they're not filled yet.

I have to stop here to give props to my daughter and grand-kids for helping me paint and also, to Gary for shoveling all that dirt from truck to beds. 4 truck loads worth!

Don't you love the cool pattern I laid them out in? We wanted some low and some high beds. And there's plenty of access space in between them. We haven't decided whether we'll use wood chips or gravel around them or just leave the grass and keep it trimmed.

Now all we need is for spring to arrive. Gary will be sowing seed in the back yard no-dig area while I work on Herb's garden and the raised beds. It's going to be a great gardening year!

Our no-dig adventure

Is digging a thing of the past?

If you haven't heard about no-dig gardening or you have and you have your doubts, read on. Gary and I have been watching a lot of Charles Dowding videos on that very subject. A lot. So last year, we didn't just plant in containers. We also planted an experimental no-dig plot to see if it would work well for us. Well, mainly, for me with all my mobility issues.

It all started when we moved the tarp we had under our above ground pool. Since the weeds under there had taken a hike, we decided this would be a great opportunity to do a no-dig garden experiment. So, off we went into town for a load of planter's mix.

My sister and I hoed up the residual weed sprouts from the area. Gary shoveled and barrelled the planters mix onto the weedless spot. Not an easy task, by the way. Thanks, hon. There we planted some seeds, interspersed with greenhouse seedling for zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkins, watermelon and eggplant.

There was a late cold snap, so we had to replace a couple plants, but holy cow did no-dig ever work. There were very few weeds, so bending wasn't an issue. And the no-dig did so much better than the stuff we planted in containers!

We're calling the eggplant and watermelon a loss. They didn't coming along quickly enough due to the cold spring, but.... Oh my gosh, the squash! It just keeps coming and coming and coming. And the plants are extraordinarily full, healthy and green as well. No bugs. No disease. No deficiencies to deal with. I could go on, but you get the drift.

By contrast, our container plantings last year were a huge disappointment. The peas totally shriveled up. Replaced the tomatoes twice, even though we waited for warm weather to plant them. And now, tomato batch 3, while producing a lot of large, green orbs, look severely undernourished, despite our best attempts. In short, nothing but the herbs did well in containers, which is how I grow them every year.

Even the radishes were a big fail in container-land. That never happens!

I don't think the prairie is a good environment for container veggies, you guys. Too hot and windy is my guess. That dry wind just sucks the life out of container soil. Watering is an endless battle. The herbs don't mind. They're very resilient. But the veggie roots have nowhere to go once the pot dries up, so to speak.

On the other hand, the no-dig veggies can root deep for water, thus guaranteeing their survival two ways. First, they get the water. Second, their deep roots help them withstand the crazy winds out here on the Colorado plains.

So now we have a huge tarp laid out to banish weeds in next year's no-dig garden spot. We built some raised beds out front too. We'll be keeping our container herbs for “Herb's garden” which should be in full swing by next year, but all the veggies that spread or need a large area will be planted no-dig-a-rama style. Our dream is to have our whole yard planted some day.

One patch at a time in the gradual garden, as always. Just on a bigger scale and with delivered dirt to save Gary's back. I mean, he's a nice guy, but even nice guys have their limits.

Herb's garden

How cool is it that my Dad was named Herb and loved to garden? Kismet! I've always wanted to plant an herb garden with every herb I could get my grubby gardener hands on and name it after my Dad, Herb. Herb's garden! Awesome, right? Ya, I'm a little corny.

I've been planning this a long, long time. I knew our first house in the city was not our forever home so I couldn't do it there. Herb's garden, after all, is the kind of thing that cries out for permanence, home base for life, that kind of thing. And Herb, not unlike his daughter (me) would never live in the city permanently.

So... when we bought our forever, small town country home, well, I can't say it was the first thing I did, because the first thing I did was get married to the love of my life under our very own tree in our very own forever backyard. Hey, I warned you that I'm corny. Anyway... the next thing I did was start planning Herb's garden. For next year.

And now it's next year and guess what? Still no Herb's garden. It's time for the gradual garden to make some progress. Because, in hundred degree weather, last summer, I tore apart my old fenced garden, taking the first steps toward my dream.

You guys, I spent a whole day hauling heavy tub containers out of there on a dolly, setting up an official potting shed, etc. But don't worry about me. It felt good. Really, really good. Exhausting for sure. But good. No. Great!

The vision is spectacularly quaint, you guys. Baskets, pots and such, overflowing with herbs and flowers everywhere. Some of them hanging among mason jars from the fence or suspended from the pergola-type roof we plan to add. And maybe a little bistro like table and chairs or even something more comfy for iced tea, lemonade or margarita breaks.

And now I'm sitting out here on our humble little warped deck (a project for another time) staring at the spot where Herb's garden might possibly come to life in full bloom this year and feeling like the million bucks I have never had. I'm absolutely giddy, you guys.

And here's the thing, I know that when your fantasies come to life, the result may not reflect your vision exactly. But hey, whatever Herb's garden morphs into, it will still be awesome. Watching your dreams transition into reality is not about perfection. It's about the beautiful, imperfect reality your vision becomes. 

Dad would be proud.