I have had some requests for gardening help, tips, tricks of the trade etc. I am not an expert, but am lucky enough to have a mother and father in-law who are. I have learned so much from them and then learned some on my own and I am happy to share with anyone and everyone what I do to have a successful flower and vegetable garden. I'll try to do it a couple months at a time, I know March is past so I will backtrack and then go through April. I'll hit May & June later on this month. So, here ya go:
1) March- clean out flower beds and till under garden. Map out the vegetable garden and review the map from the year before. This prevents me from planting certain veggies in the same place as last year. Study up on what you plan to plant and review your notes from last year about how the sun hits your garden to you know what you can plant where. Make sure you read about how far your plants should be from each other to prevent overcrowding and study up on the best way to care for the plants, ie. plant food, pest control. When we till under, my husband puts manure down to really help the plants grow. Pay attention to the weather and start planting your lettuce, broccoli and any other veggies that do well in cooler temperatures. Mulch those flower beds! It is so worth it to get this done before it gets hot outside plus you can get those early bird savings. You can plant some bulbs if you wish, but I usually wait until the fall for that.
2) April- Draw a flower bed & veggie bed plan for your property of what already exists and review the one from last year plus the year before that if you have bi annual plants. This you will need to update every few weeks as plants grow and bloom. I include every plant & tree plus I have a separate column for their bloom times. This year is about 1 -2 weeks off from last year and this is good info to have. Mine is about 4 pages long and gets longer the more beds we add. Also this is a good time to separate some of your plants (do this about every 3 years) to plant more, give away or toss. If you are just starting out, seek out some friends who are gardeners and see if they have any extra separates. Make sure you note this on your map and mark where you replant. Another good tip if you are just starting out is to pay attention to what plants grow around your area. This will let you know what will be fairly easy to grow in both sun and shade. Don't go crazy on perennials they grow rather quickly and you can fill in with annuals for a couple years until they are bigger. Also, weed those beds every chance you get to help control it. When it gets really hot, weeding is not fun!
The seeds you planted in your veggie garden in march should have popped up by now. Thin them out according to the recommendations on your seed packs. With my regular watering I like to feed my plants with miracle grow about 1 time per week until they are really established. This goes for any annuals and replanted perennials as well. I usually go to this awesome Amish farm in mid April to get some annuals for my pots and really pay attention to the weather so I bring them in if it gets cold at night. Money is pretty tight this year so I will be buying salvia, impatiens and petunias mainly with a couple vine-like plants.
That's pretty much my March/April, but I think it is plenty to get anyone started. I am so very excited for the warm weather and to see my bulbs from the fall pop up!
Happy Gardening!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
The week of the rollercoaster
I am excited to remember to blog yet again! How long must you do something before it becomes a habit?
Well, what a week I had. It certainly was an emotional rollercoaster, some good stuff, but also stress, sadness and disappointment. Of course some of it was self inflicted (I certainly love to torture myself), but some was just life circumstances and time going by. My youngest son, Colin, turned 4 on Saturday. That was rough, I will miss 3 with him. I know I will enjoy 4 and we are starting into a new phase of our family, but I am grieving. This was certainly not an emotion I was expecting. My cat also turned 18 this week. Another rough one. He has officially been in my life more than he has been out of it. His health has certainly declined this past year and he will most likely not reach 19. I have somewhat began preparing for this, but I'm not sure how you can totally prepare to lose a constant companion you've had with you longer then the current members of your household. I have lost pets before and I know what that feels like, but this will be different.
The rest of the week consisted of: a husband being away for 2 days, auditions (for one show I really wanted to be in and one that I didn't care so much), 8 yards of mulch to be spread in the snow, rain and hail, preparing and having a birthday party for Colin with about 25 people, callbacks for both shows but wasn't cast in either, a very emotional 11 year old boy with a bad math test grade, a really fun gala where I performed with friends and we won the auction for a B& B and a dinner at a restaurant we enjoy. Some really good stuff and some not so good. Most of my weeks are not like this and I felt like I was on overload. My body certainly had enough as I woke up at 3 am this morning drenched in sweat, yuck!
Thank goodness God was in the middle of it. He gave me patience, perseverance and endurance to get through it all. And now I feel his comfort for the tough stuff that is left in my brain that I am having a hard time getting over. He has given me a warm day so I won't mind running errands and then enjoy some gardening where I feel closest to him anyway. I am not feeling so overwhelmed and look forward to catching up on things that were put on hold last week (taxes, accounting, monthly menu planning, grocery list). I am starting to be ok with not performing this summer. I certainly am disappointed, but I won't have to cut short any vacation, can really focus on registration for VBS, helping with our church's community fair, playing lots of volleyball, and really enjoying my husband and kids. There are other places I can audition for, but I think God is telling me to continue my break from my last show this past December and to focus on other stuff. There is plenty of time for it in the future.
That's enough for now and I am excited to see what this week will hold for me.
Peace
Well, what a week I had. It certainly was an emotional rollercoaster, some good stuff, but also stress, sadness and disappointment. Of course some of it was self inflicted (I certainly love to torture myself), but some was just life circumstances and time going by. My youngest son, Colin, turned 4 on Saturday. That was rough, I will miss 3 with him. I know I will enjoy 4 and we are starting into a new phase of our family, but I am grieving. This was certainly not an emotion I was expecting. My cat also turned 18 this week. Another rough one. He has officially been in my life more than he has been out of it. His health has certainly declined this past year and he will most likely not reach 19. I have somewhat began preparing for this, but I'm not sure how you can totally prepare to lose a constant companion you've had with you longer then the current members of your household. I have lost pets before and I know what that feels like, but this will be different.
The rest of the week consisted of: a husband being away for 2 days, auditions (for one show I really wanted to be in and one that I didn't care so much), 8 yards of mulch to be spread in the snow, rain and hail, preparing and having a birthday party for Colin with about 25 people, callbacks for both shows but wasn't cast in either, a very emotional 11 year old boy with a bad math test grade, a really fun gala where I performed with friends and we won the auction for a B& B and a dinner at a restaurant we enjoy. Some really good stuff and some not so good. Most of my weeks are not like this and I felt like I was on overload. My body certainly had enough as I woke up at 3 am this morning drenched in sweat, yuck!
Thank goodness God was in the middle of it. He gave me patience, perseverance and endurance to get through it all. And now I feel his comfort for the tough stuff that is left in my brain that I am having a hard time getting over. He has given me a warm day so I won't mind running errands and then enjoy some gardening where I feel closest to him anyway. I am not feeling so overwhelmed and look forward to catching up on things that were put on hold last week (taxes, accounting, monthly menu planning, grocery list). I am starting to be ok with not performing this summer. I certainly am disappointed, but I won't have to cut short any vacation, can really focus on registration for VBS, helping with our church's community fair, playing lots of volleyball, and really enjoying my husband and kids. There are other places I can audition for, but I think God is telling me to continue my break from my last show this past December and to focus on other stuff. There is plenty of time for it in the future.
That's enough for now and I am excited to see what this week will hold for me.
Peace
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