I'm back in the lawn mowing business. The repair shop fixed my mower, after I made a phone call to them earlier today reminding them they had promised "priority service". After my call, I think it took them all of 45 minutes to fix it and call me back. How do they get that backed up that they are telling their customers it will be 4 weeks to get a mower fixed? Anyway, that is no longer my concern or problem!I love mowing the lawn. It's good exercise in the fresh air, and when you are done, … [Read more...] about Back in Business

I’ll admit I’ve been kind of lazy the last few evenings. I went out last night just to water the plants in containers and take a quick tour through the vegetable garden. The new plantings of beans and corn have both germinated. I was a bit amazed to see how much faster the seeds germinated in warmer weather. Soil temperature does make a difference! I knew it made a difference, but this just reminded me. I wonder if I cover the raised beds early in the spring to maybe warm them up faster, if it … [Read more...] about Weeds

Spring is officially over, summer is officially here. So it’s time to check progress on spring plans made long ago, and figure out ‘where to go from here’ in the garden. (Zone 5 focused)Didn’t get that vegetable garden planted? Well, if you haven’t done that yet, you probably ought to wait until next year, unless you are willing to ‘settle’ for late season ‘cool crops’ which you would plant later in the summer. And, you might still get some green beans if you plant now. But you can be more ready … [Read more...] about Summer Time

My night blooming cereus has SEVEN flower buds on it! I am very excited. I have had this plant forever, and it has bloomed twice, with just one flower each time. Now, suddenly, it has seven flower buds on it. SEVEN! I don't know if all seven buds will mature to the point of flowering, nor do I know when the big night will be. I will just have to watch these buds and see what happens. Then one night, it will just bloom, or maybe the blooms will occur over several nights. But the blooms will … [Read more...] about Major Announcement!

What a difference a few (two) weeks makes in a vegetable garden. I took this picture above on Saturday after I finished re-mulching the paths around the raised beds. Yes, I waited until the warmest day of the year so far to go and get a few truckloads of mulch.Below is a picture of the same garden just two weeks ago, and approximately two weeks after I planted it.I think new gardeners should try a vegetable garden first to get a real taste for how successful and inspiring planting and tending a … [Read more...] about Garden Update

The picture above is a scanned photo of my Dad’s garden and if you will indulge me a bit, I’d like to tell you about his garden.Every year, Dad planted a vegetable garden. He worked the soil in his garden through the years until it was like chocolate cake mix, rich and dark and full of organic matter. There were a couple of ways he got all of that organic matter, most of which involved me and my siblings doing some “hard labor” with a rake in hand. Every fall, we raked nearly every leaf in the … [Read more...] about Dad’s Garden