Adding Rain Barrels
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 08/18/2008 - 23:20.I've been wanting to put in a rain barrel. I found a barrel that had been used for compost at a garage sale. I paid $2 for it and a bunch of other stuff that they had in the free pile, like a bag a steer manure, another of lime and a couple other fertilizers. I made off pretty good. I didn't get it hooked up right away because I did not have a lot of time and never made it to the hardware store for a spigot.
I finally got the spigot. And now, guess what... It is raining. And I still can't install it. When I put the putty on around the spigot, it needs to cure for 24 hours, and I need to patch a small hole in the bottom. The silicone also needs to cure for 24 hours. By the time I get it all done, the rain will be gone and I'll be wishing I had it set up. Oh well. I have a couple of buckets out there, so I'll get a little rain water to hold. And then I'll get the whole thing properly set up and I'll tell you guys all about how to do it.
Rain barrels really are a great addition to your garden. Rain water is so much better for your friendly fauna than the chemical laden hose water that we normally put on them and it is also better for the environment. It can also save you some money, be a conversation piece, and if set up properly, add beauty to your home. I hope you get one too!
Making the Most of Your Mulch
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sun, 08/17/2008 - 09:17.Mulch on your garden beds helps to cut down on weeds, makes the weeds that do come up easier to pull up, and helps to keep moisture in the soil. It can also make the beds look a lot nicer. When you have a lot of beds to mulch, it can be very expensive to buy a big bunch of bark mulch. By the bag is really expensive. If you have a truck, you can get it by the yard for around $30 in my area. Or if you need more, you have to pay someone to deliver it. I need about 4 yards for my flower beds, plus I need something to mulch my veggies as well, probably 2 or 3 yards for that. I have a lot of garden beds, so I need a lot of mulch.
What is a guy with no discretionary income to do? I had an extra $30 a while ago, so I got some bark mulch in a borrowed truck and put it on my rose bushes. Now funds have gotten tighter as I look at the budget till I finish school and wonder how I'll make it, but I still need to mulch the beds or I'll be spending too much time and money watering and pulling weeds. What choices do I have. I came up with some and thought I'd share.
Steal It
I don't recommend this method. By the dog park we go to the city has piled up lots of mulch and I could just go and grab buckets full. I could not get a truck up close to it, as they have it gated, but I would not do that any way.
Grass Mulch
I've heard of a lot of people that would put their grass clipping on as mulch. This works well if you have a good grass lawn to do it with. My grass is mostly dead right now and when it is not, it is mostly weeds. I think I'd get too many weed seeds in it this way.
Newspaper
Newspaper works as a mulch, but you really should put something over it, because it will blow away otherwise. Besides, it is kind ugly. I use this method in the beds that don't have bulbs because it helps more with the weeds, just like the fabric you can buy.
Yard Chippings
If you have a chipper/mulcher, you can take any brush you have, run it through the chipper/mulcher and viola, you have a good mulch. I looked for one new, and saw that they cost $500-$600. I almost choked on my tounge. I had talked to my wife and said "if we can get one for around $100 it will be worth it, because it will cost more than that to haul off all this debris, and we will get mulch. I was disappointed, I wanted the mulch.
Then I went on CriagsList. I found one listed for $125. Went over, checked it out, and brought it home. It claims to do 3 inch peices, but it bogs down so much, if they are still green, that I would not do anything near that. When they are dry, if runs them much easier. It is not as pretty has the bark mulch, but it works well.
Coffee Grounds
You can go to coffee shops and they will give you their old grounds. While you probably would not want to use solely coffee grounds as that might make the soil a little too acidic and might make your worms a little too hyper. Adding it to the mulch will help with color and give it a little fertalizer for you roses and other coffee drinking flora.
Leaves
Not as easy this time of year, but come fall when the leaves are all over the yard, you can pick them up and put them on your beds. This works great for garden beds as in the spring you can then turn the rotten mess of leaves into the beds for extra organic matter.
Mint, a loved weed
Submitted by tired_gardener on Thu, 08/14/2008 - 21:40.Raise your hand if you have mint growing in unwanted areas of your yard. I can raise both my hands very high to that one. I've gotten rid of a lot of it and my roses are now mint free, so I thought I'd share some of the methods I've used to get rid of the very useful and good smelling weed. Before we talk about getting rid of it, lets talk about controlling it.
control
The surest way to make sure you don't have mint in unwanted areas of your yard is to make sure that it is always in a controlled area. Use a pot of some sort and keep it above ground is a good method. Some people will bury a put underground. This will help keep it from freezing in winter, but mint is so hardy, I'm not sure that it is needed.
I plant mine in tires. Yes, I know I have plenty of mint all over the yard. It was here when I moved in. I don't want it in most of the places it resides, but I do have two plants that I want to keep: one spearmint and one lemon balm. Those two plants I don't want to go crazy and take over my yard, like the ones I've been removing, so I planted them in an old tire.
- Take an old tire and cut out one of the side walls.
- Lay it down with the cutout side up.
- Place some plastic sheeting in what is now the bottom of the tire.
- Place the cutout sidewall on top of the sheeting.
- Fill with potting soil.
- Plant
With this method, the roots can't easily get out of the tire, they grow too shallow to go under the plastic, but just in case, the plastic is there and held in place between the sidewalls and the dirt is holding it down as well. If the roots threaten to go over the tire, just trim them back. Be sure to water your tire regularly as all potted plants drain more freely and have less soil to get the water from. You should also mulch it to keep down evaporation. I also use this method with my sunchoke, except I use semi-truck tires.
removal
Ok. You didn't know better and you planted some mint in you flower beds. Or you just moved into a place and the former owners/tenants planted mint and it went wild. You now have mint everywhere. Time to get out the napalm, right? Hold on, before you get out the big guns,we can try to get rid of it with just a little bit of work.
Mint has shallow fiberous roots, so you don't have to dig very deep to get it. The problem is, since it is so fiberous, you miss some. The mint will grow back from those little bits of root you missed. So here is the method of digging that I found worked best. This works for many other weeds too. It requires a bit of sweat and some time, but it does work well.
- Dig: Dig up what you can. You should get as much of the root as you can, but you don't have to go crazy. Just dig up the chunk, shake off the dirt, toss it in you curbside refuse bin (you don't want it in your compost). I just push the spade at a shallow angle under the clump and pull it up as I go.
- Mulch: Around my roses I used a fabric barriar and then bark mulch. I did not dig up the mint as well here as I did in areas where I did not use the fabric. If you don't use the fabric, put down a good 3 inches of mulch. The mulch will choke out a lot of the little bits before they can make it to the light. It will also make it so that those that make it up have such loose mulch around their roots that they pull up very easily.
- Weed regulary: Go out once every week or two and pull up anything you see that does not belong. With the mulch layer, you will get up a lot, very quickly. Not a whole lot will have made it to the surface, the rest will come up so easily you will wonder why you would garden without a think mulch layer.
- Take it in stages: If your yard is like mine, mint in every corner (and vetch and blackberry and...) then you should take it in stages. I have three rose beds, so I started with the smallest. I got that under control, saw that it worked really well, so I continued to the other two. I also have gotten just the mint and vetch in a couple of areas, letting the other weeds take over, as I just can't get to everything yet. Now, I'm working on my azaleas and bulbs. Next I'll work on where my fruit buses are. Most of the mint is gone from these two areas, and I am working on the vetch. I hope to have them both under control by the end of summer.
Bees in the yard. To kill or to let bee?
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 08/04/2008 - 22:09.This weekend, I was working on my new herb garden. I cleared out some brush in the area and was trying to level the area and pull up the stump that was left from one of the bushes that was removed. I dug up a bunch of bulbs, enough to half fill a kitty litter tub. Next, I dug around the stump. Got one side dug down a little and started on the other. About a minute later I felt this sharp pain in my ankle and ran for the door.
I got my shoe and sock off, had my wife go to the car for the first aid kit, with the sting relief pads. Once the pain subsided, I put on the sock and shoe and returned. I assumed that I got stung by a rough bee that I pissed off, so I started digging again, but I kept my eyes open, just in case.
About two shovel fulls when I saw about 10 bees coming out of a hole a right at the fence line. It had been well hidden by the bushes that had been there, now it is right out in the open. I'm unsure what to do.
I can go out there and spray, killing them all, and be free of any potential stings to myself or my family. At the same time, the bees might help to pollinate my garden. I've also read about the loss of bees recently and don't want to add to the low bee numbers by killing an entire hive. What to do, what to do.
I don't know much about bees. I think I need to do a little research and find out what kind of bees they are. If they are yellow jackets, then I guess I should just kill them. If they are a more friendly bee, that would not have attacked me, if I had not been attacking their nest, then maybe I could just figure out a way to protect that nest and let them bee. For now, there is a stick in the fence, marking their nest and the herb garden is places on a temporary hold. It is going in containers anyway, so the containers have been set up, just not in the permanent location.
Upside Down Planters: Lessons Learned
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 22:12.I've had my upside-down planters going for a while now and they are doing very well. Only a couple of the plants I started from seed made it. I collected several from someones compost, which has me thinking more about winter sowing for next year. I've got a couple of lessons learned that I'd like to share with you.
1. Avoid plastic handled buckets. Several of my buckets are plastic handled. One broke and I lost my only pepper plant. That was a very sad day. I then emptied about half the soil out of the remaining buckets and only use metal handled buckets for the remainder. I've been meaning to add a wire reinforcement to the remaining plastic handled buckets, just in case. One is hanging in such a way that I keep expecting it to break.
If you have to use a plastic handled bucket, I suggest drilling small holed in the sides of the buckets, then sending a thick gauge wire through those holes and over the top of your mount. That way, if the plastic handles do break, the metal ones will hold the buckets up.
2. Use smaller plants types, or tie them up as needed. One of my plants has grown down a few feet and then back up a few feet. In looking at it, when it starts getting big fruit, I see two things happening. First, the stem is going to bend back and get damaged. Then, it is going to be so long that some of the fruit will be dragging on the ground. Part of the reason for upside down planters is to keep the fruit away from slugs. I have some string that I will be tying this plant up with. I'll tie any others that look the same, and this should keep them from getting damaged, or dragging on the ground.
3. Follow fertilization guidelines. I did not screw this one up too badly, but I didn't read about how to fertilize them until they were well grown. Basically, you fertilize them when they are started, and then when the first flowers set. I used an organic tomato food that I got at the nursery locally. Don't use too much as this can harm them as well.
4. Watch the water. I had one that was draining too well and the leaves are always curling. It is still very big, but I use it as a guide for when to water. Make sure they get plenty of water, but let them dry a little between soakings. In the heat, you might need to water them every day or even twice. In not so hot weather, you can let them go a couple days. But they are in pots, so they need watering more often that they would in the ground.
Needs for a Butterfly Garden
Submitted by tired_gardener on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 11:32.Butterflies are beautiful. I want to have more of them in my yard, so I'm creating a butterfly garden. The space is not a mess of weeds with a couple of azaleas. It will soon be a much prettier and with any luck will be full of butterflies and birds sweeping through to get food. To make this garden, I first had to ask, what do butterflies need? After all, they are the visitors I most want to attract, so their needs are what I should think about.
I know that all animals need some things to live. They need food, water, air, space, heat and shelter. The question though, is what types and amounts of each of these things do the butterflies need? I've collected information from several sources and will discuss each one.
Food
Butterflies eat nectar. Young butterflies, also known as caterpillars, eat leaves. Providing the right plants for them to eat is a big decision. Different species eat different plants. For a complete butterfly garden, we need to supply foods that are good for the caterpillars as well as the adult butterflies. If there is food for the caterpillars, the adults will stick around long enough to lay eggs, then your garden will be doing really well. Be sure to pick some plants that are right for the butterflies that are common in your neck of the woods. I'll stick to common butterflies in Oregon. It would be silly for me to try to attract butterflies that are common in Maryland.
Butterfly feeders, such as the one pictured here from Shop.com can also provide good food, if they are regularly filled with nectar.
Water
Like every other creature, water is important for butterflies. A simple dish with some water in it will suffice. Place it in among the plants, in the shade, so that it does not evaporate too quickly. If you are creative, you can create a fancy dish. The dish does not need to be in a location where it is seen, so you can just use a lid from your old butter tub, placed in an out of the way location.
Air
This may seem obvious. Of course they need air. But you should consider the quality of the air as well. Butterflies do not like strong winds. If your garden gets a lot of wind, be sure to build a wind block. You can use some higher bushes for this, or a bamboo fence, or some other simple wind block.
You also might want to consider air pollution. Does your cars exhaust pipe blow on the garden as you start up? If your car is our of tune, this could be rather annoying, or even deadly to your visitors.
Space
Think about the space you will be using. The larger space you use, the more plants your can plant, attracting more species. You need to make sure that the space is big enough that your frieds can enjoy themselves. Do you want to be able to put a chair in among the flowers, to enjoy the sight?
Heat
Butterflies like to sunbathe. As they are cold blooded creatures, they need the sun to warm them up. Make sure your garden has some rocks or other places to sun themselves.
Shelter
The plants your put in the garden can provide shelter. This shelter is particularly important for the young caterpillars who are easy pray for birds and other insectivores. You can also get one of these lovely butterfly houses from Yardiac, pictured to the right.
Beautiful Bugs...
Submitted by tired_gardener on Mon, 06/16/2008 - 09:07.
We went out to Tad's Chicken And Dumplings. It is a resteraunt that has been along the Sandy River, on the way out to Columbia Gorge for decades. Nice little place with good food. If you go there though, make sure that you are careful with your leftovers. They put the fried chicken into paper bags which seem to have a tendance to fall apart with the grease and weight.
Anyhow, while waiting for our table, we hung out in the front. Emma say these beetles that I thought were pretty, so I started taking pictures. I've seen these bugs around many times before, so I thought I should not have too much trouble finding them on the net. It took nearly 15 minutes to get a match on them (near the bottom). Then for confirmation, I searched on Western Box-elder Bugs and found a better picture and some good information about them.
I still think they are pretty, they don't really cause much damage, unless they poop on your fabrics. They also stink when you crush them, apparently. I had no reason to crush any, so I don't know what the smell is like. They will feed on certain woods, includgin box elder, ash or maple, but don't seem to damage them much. They can be a neusance, but I don't see much reason to get rid of them, unless you are bug-a-phobic.
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Dirty Fingers - Issue 4
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sun, 06/08/2008 - 20:51.What a great bunch of articles this month! I'm excited about the turn out and look forward to reading them all. Have a good time reading them, and be sure to make useful comments on the sites that allow it. That always makes us bloggers feel good!
Lawns
We had a lot of lawn posts this month. It must be the right time of year for working on them! I for one am very grateful as I am working on my lawn this year and hope to get it in order. Although I prefer edible plantings, I need space for my daughter and dog to play.
Amy L. talks about some of the advantages of organic pesticides in her Organic Pesticides For A Safe Lawn post at Housekeeping Tips.
How to Care for Your Lawn posted at Home Life Weekly has some great tips. Although the article mentions some non organic supplies, there are many useful tips and we can just replace the herbicides and pesticides with organic methods.
Raimondo Solari talks about how our lawns suck up so much water. There has to be ways that we can still get a good looking lawn without wasting the precious resource water is becoming. Check out the tips at Inexpensive, Eco-Friendly Green Lawn Care posted at Garden Gab.
Sarah at Lawn Care Tips had a lot to tell us about helping our lawns along. Sarah will tell us what we need to know:
Organic Weed Control Methods And Herbicides | Spring Lawn Care - Lawn Care Tips - Organic methods to keep those pesky weeds from ruining your lawn.
Managing Lawn Care During A Drought | Spring Lawn Care - Lawn Care Tips - What to do about your lawn during a drought!
Why Is Proper Lawn Clipping Height So Important? | Spring Lawn Care - Lawn Care Tips - The importance of the clipping height of your lawn
Using Organic Fertilizers For A Healthy Lawn | Spring Lawn Care - Lawn Care Tips posted at Lawn Care Tips - Many people want to have a beautiful lawn without all of the harmful effects of synthetic fertilizers.
Sustainability
Melanie Rimmer uses a great parable to explain the meaning of sustainability. A must read story that makes it crystal clear what we are talking about. Check out Bean Sprouts: I Believe... posted at Bean-Sprouts.
valereee always gives us great posts. This month she tells us How to shop at a farmers' market on Cincinnati Locavore, saying, "Shopping at the farmers' market is a great way to eat sustainably!"
She also talks about eating locally. I've blogged some about the 100 mile diet, but she does a great job of talking to some of the pros and cons of it. Time, Money, Recipes: Experience is the answer posted at Cincinnati Locavore.
Ever wonder what happens to your trash once it is sent off with the garbage hauler? Well Samir Bharadwaj tells us in The Yellow Rubber Ducks Now Live Down On the Farm at Samir Bharadwaj dot Com.
Hilary Green gives us some information about hybrids on her post, Hybrid Cars Q&A at The Green Motorist.
Gardening
If you have any pets, Vera Lang wants to talk with you about Deadly And Dangerous Plants Your Pet May Find Appetizing posted at Fine Pet Care .com. Before you add a new plant to your house, be sure you know how it might effect your pet if it gets ahold of the plant.
Sonja Stewart presents A Child's Vegetable Garden: Cultivating Fun, Learning, and Responsibility posted at Parenting Squad. I love gardening with Emma, and I highly recommend every parent put together a garden with their child. This article gives some great tips.
Woman Tribune gives us a guide to Planning Your Own Vegetable Garden posted at Woman Tribune. Yes guys, I know it is a woman's site, but the article can still be used by us testosterone driven set. Read the comments too, some people have added to the conversation very nicely.
Brenda Emmett presents Planning Your Flower Garden posted at Her Gardening Blog. She said it well, so I'll let her "Planting a flower garden should be more than just throwing a few flowers into the ground and hoping they will grow. A beautiful flower garden takes a little preparation and planning in advance. There are several things to take into consideration when you are planning your flower garden."
Sam talks to us about our friendly pollinators in The Secret Lives of Bees. Honey, Health and Harvests ! Surfer Sam posted at Surfer Sam and Friends, saying, "The Secret Lives of Bees. About one-third of the human food supply depends on bee pollination. We also use honey and bee pollen as natural food products to promote wellness. Bees are beneficial for everyone. Bees, we can't do without them."
Jamie McIntosh mentions Cutworm Control at Suite101: Organic Gardens blog. Cutworms can devastate your garden, learn some good tips on controlling them.
Tip Diva always has good information for us. Today she is talking to our inner cheap scate. Mine is always taking control, so I'm always glad to find new ways to keep cheap. Top Ten Tips - Cheap Gardening is posted at Tip Diva.
Teri gives us the basics of Saving Small Lots of Dry Seed using calendula as an example on her site, Teri's Organic Garden.
Stefanie Hutson gives us some strange and beautiful pictures in Strange Plants: Plants Too Strange for Grandma's Garden posted at Vat19.com slash Blog.
If you need some compost, but don't have any on hand, talk to Condo Blues and learn How to Make Quickie Compost posted at Condo Blues.
Fun
Garden sheds can be used for so much more than holding your tools. You can write a novel, read one, or write a blog while sitting in one. Andy Boyd presents 20 Creatively Hacked Urban Garden Shed Offices posted at The News In Print, saying, "The garden shed can serve as a way for the telecommuting employee to maintain better boundaries between work and home because it's a separate space away from the rest of the house. It can also be a way to set up an office space that is functional and yet peaceful."
Submit your blog article to the next edition of dirty fingers using our carnival submission form. All of our carnival posts can be found here.
Is a garden complete without a weather vane?
Submitted by tired_gardener on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 06:42.Weathervanes sit up on your roof and tell you what direction the wind is blowing. A mostly useless tool, as you really can just look at the tree leaves, or feel the wind on your face. Why do you even need to know which way the wind is blowing anyway? Will that tell you which way to go as you take off? Do you know enough about meteorology for that to give you some useful information about the looming weather? Are you a sailor, using it to gauge how to sail your ship?
Somehow, despite being useless to most of us, they still really add a nice quality to our homes. Some are very beautiful, artful
, whimsical
, nautical, sporty
, stately
, expensive, inexpensive
.
They can tell about where you want to be, what your hobbies
are, what your favorite animal is, or what you like to drive
. You can even show your patriotism
.
Weathervanes add a lot to a garden. They are not necessary, they may even be a little frivolous. But even the most frugal need a little frivolity in their lives. They have come a long way from just pointing out the weather, with home weather stations being popular and showing that weather vanes still do have their uses.
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Digging out the stress
Submitted by tired_gardener on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 11:34.I was in the middle of teaching a lesson on nutrition yesterday when my school went into lockdown. If you have ever been in a lockdown, you know they are a little stressful. The students are upset and rightfully scared. Taking care of 30 stressed third graders while you know that there is a gunman running around outside is not an easy time.
After we are given the all clear, the students leave the school and head home. I gathered my stuff, talked with my cooperating teacher, and headed out. At home, I wrote an entry on my other blog about the lockdown, debriefed with my wife, then headed out to the garden.
Digging holes is a great way to sweat off some frustration. I got a good patch dug, some roots removed from my garden, the dirt returned and smoothed and I felt much better. It makes me feel better in multiple ways. I get some done and I get my stress energy burned off. If I did not have other things to do last night, I may well have kept working on the garden until dark. As it is, I got a 3 foot by 3 foot patch triple dug and a section of what is going to be a path evened.
So, the next time your in a stressful situation, take the time to beat up your garden afterwards. You will both feel better for it afterwards.
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comments: 1
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