garden news

I feel like a real gardener today. I was at my friend Petra's house. We put another coat of paint on the 10 large containers. We will put a final coat of paint on the pots sometime this week, or next weekend (a total of 3 coats of paint). Juergen was there to put together the trampoline. Unfortunately only one of the 4 boxes has been delivered. I'll call the company and hopefully get the other 3 boxes delivered before next weekend. We also cleared an area in her yard for the containers. We evened out the soil, added compost and covered the spot with cardboard. My hope is to add horse manure and wood ash to the area. The soil is in really bad shape. I think if we have manure, compost and wood ash it will attract worms. Worms also like to eat cardboard. The cardboard blocks weeds. I will place my containers on the top of the cardboard. Then Petra has allot of cut branches piled up in her yard. We can get a wood chipper from Petra’s dad. I'll cover the cardboard with woodchips. Next year we will repeat the process, adding manure, compost and wood ash, covered with cardboard and woodchips. We will grow our plants in containers for the next few years, then maybe in 3 years the soil will be nice enough to plant directly in. Does this make any since? Anyway, we made good progress. Hopefully I’ll have her garden planted by the end of next weekend. It’s going to look great, and if we get sunshine it will grow! We have had nothing but cold rain. Nicole told me that the rain is suppose to get warmer! now that’s encouraging! My basil plants have died, and so have my cucumbers. They couldn’t handle the cold. My tomatoes are ok, but not growing all that fast. We will not get much fruit or vegetables with this weather! The lettuce, cabbage and potatoes seem happy. We could sure do with some global warming! They say we are having the coldest, wettest May on record.