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Leap Day is a good time to talk about gardening. It's an added day that one can spend in the jardin, basking in its joyful pleasure. I began to engage myself by noticing all the weeds that I had growing alongside my house on the gravel path, thinking that they would eventually take over. So on Thursday of last week, I began to take charge over my little exterior dominion and started pulling weeds. The thing about yanking weeds from the ground is that you gotta get the root, or they will just grow back in a week's time. In my side yard are tufts of ragweed, a prolific growth of henbit along with spiny amaranth, a few dandelions, and some others that I can't recognize. Weeds are indiscriminate and will grow in all the nooks and crannies where they are able to find nourishment. Weeding is addictive because once you get started there is no stopping until you tire. While I was at it, my step grandson Dillon also had his tools and was hard at work straightening up my piles, then he went to the garage to get me a leaf bag and helped stuff the piles of weeds into the bag.
Our garden is about 3 feet wide by 40 feet long, and for the most part shady the majority of summer and fall, but once the leaves have fallen it kind of opens up to the winter and early spring sun. We raise mostly herbs like parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, Rosemary, and mint. We also have some arugula, two Brussel sprouts and one Anaheim chile bush that has survived almost a year and is still producing. There are a handful of flowering perennials such as Salvia, Greg's mist flower, purple coneflower, milkweed and woodland phlox.
Chris uses the kale, parsley or arugula, even mint, in the morning's green smoothie. I say green smoothie as opposed to a fruit smoothie, although she adds fruit as well, usually banana, apple, blueberries, cherries, pineapple, or papaya. She blends them in the nutri-bullet until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
I watered my garden by hand, back in the day, but now I have a drip system where I simply have to screw the water source hose into the soaker. Before I planted our garden, I got a soaker hose and snaked it all around the garden where future plants would be. But since the soaker is only lying on top of the garden, I can move it around later to make adjustments. Since then, I have covered it with mulch. A timer regulates the flow of water, and right now I have it set for every 2 days, an hour each time. The water goes deep. You'd be surprised at how much water--drip, drip, drip--your plants can get in an hour. Works well! I got set up with hose and timer over at Home Depot. The store is barely crowded, and they provide good electric shopping carts. The employees can be helpful. I also get my mulch there: brown Cedar. If you are disabled and you've been there, please help me rank it. Positives and drawbacks, for the HD in Sunset Valley. I would give it out 4 out of 5 stars.
My favorite places for gardening supplies are The Natural Gardener and the afore mentioned. It does about well for ADA as can be expected of a garden center that is not HD. At TNG you will find any type of plant, seed, fertilizer, nutrient, and a bag of the right kind of soil. I use Lady Bug 824 all-purpose fertilizer to feed my garden, and by all measures, the plants seem to love it . I make sure that my garden is well mulched, with at least 3 inches of shredded Cedar, so it retains as much moisture as possible.
You can see for yourself what our horticulture experience has wrought. That's me plucking weeds. And Dillon is also featured along with his trusty spade. I like talking about my garden, so expect more. Until my next entry, when I will talk about the therapeutic benefits of gardening, this is Victor saying, "Good Gardening!"
Our garden is about 3 feet wide by 40 feet long, and for the most part shady the majority of summer and fall, but once the leaves have fallen it kind of opens up to the winter and early spring sun. We raise mostly herbs like parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, Rosemary, and mint. We also have some arugula, two Brussel sprouts and one Anaheim chile bush that has survived almost a year and is still producing. There are a handful of flowering perennials such as Salvia, Greg's mist flower, purple coneflower, milkweed and woodland phlox.
Chris uses the kale, parsley or arugula, even mint, in the morning's green smoothie. I say green smoothie as opposed to a fruit smoothie, although she adds fruit as well, usually banana, apple, blueberries, cherries, pineapple, or papaya. She blends them in the nutri-bullet until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
I watered my garden by hand, back in the day, but now I have a drip system where I simply have to screw the water source hose into the soaker. Before I planted our garden, I got a soaker hose and snaked it all around the garden where future plants would be. But since the soaker is only lying on top of the garden, I can move it around later to make adjustments. Since then, I have covered it with mulch. A timer regulates the flow of water, and right now I have it set for every 2 days, an hour each time. The water goes deep. You'd be surprised at how much water--drip, drip, drip--your plants can get in an hour. Works well! I got set up with hose and timer over at Home Depot. The store is barely crowded, and they provide good electric shopping carts. The employees can be helpful. I also get my mulch there: brown Cedar. If you are disabled and you've been there, please help me rank it. Positives and drawbacks, for the HD in Sunset Valley. I would give it out 4 out of 5 stars.
My favorite places for gardening supplies are The Natural Gardener and the afore mentioned. It does about well for ADA as can be expected of a garden center that is not HD. At TNG you will find any type of plant, seed, fertilizer, nutrient, and a bag of the right kind of soil. I use Lady Bug 824 all-purpose fertilizer to feed my garden, and by all measures, the plants seem to love it . I make sure that my garden is well mulched, with at least 3 inches of shredded Cedar, so it retains as much moisture as possible.
You can see for yourself what our horticulture experience has wrought. That's me plucking weeds. And Dillon is also featured along with his trusty spade. I like talking about my garden, so expect more. Until my next entry, when I will talk about the therapeutic benefits of gardening, this is Victor saying, "Good Gardening!"
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