Spring Cleaning

This is the big yard, which in good spring weather and after some actual sunshine, looks pretty and green. Now it looks drab and dreary. I will be eating these words when all I do is mow.
















I don't know too many people who love to rake leaves and we are certainly no exception. We have a very big yard in the middle of our circle drive. It has old willow trees around the perimeter and they drop a ton of leaves during fall and early winter. Occasionally we don't get them raked before winter and have found that we would still rake again in the spring even if we raked in the fall. We are leaning toward once only in the spring. When I say "we", I really mean "he". I don't rake much, thankfully. So Doyle started the raking project. The reasoning for this is stated in the next paragraph.

This week we decided to do a 7-day diet called the Sacred Hearts Diet. We both know this is a crash diet and don't usually follow along with things in this unhealthy manor but we decided we needed a major jump start to a healthier eating lifestyle. I must admit I would happily eat my own arm at this point. My husband is a lot less angry about it than I am. He just finds constructive things to do. I bitch about it to anyone that will listen. Sorry. He is down a lot more than me and he thinks his rosier outlook is doing that for him. Blah, blah, blah. I am hungry and can say with all honesty, when this is over, I think I will love eating healthier food. As long as it is considered a true food. Veggie soup sucks after 4 days of it. But we made it this far so we will finish it. Who knew I would so look forward to banana and skim milk day. Crazy.

Shopping Spree Continues

My husband goes fishing, I go shopping. Internet shopping that is. In my younger days I wondered just what kind of people actually used home shopping as a form of entertainment. Well, move to rural Idaho and it too can be your life. Our nearest big town is Boise, which is a little over two hours away. Not the closest thing when one just wants to see what's out there. Then lightning fast DSL enters our small town (pop. 816) and I am on fire. Shopping this way fits my OCD personality. I can comparison shop with multiple tabs open for different stores and I never even had to get dressed. Love it :)

I also ordered 6 of these cool babies. The Potato Bin from Gardener's Supply is a product made by Smart Pots. You can get these cloth bins/pots from either place and I suggest you check them both as sometimes the manufacturer is cheaper and sometimes Gardener's is cheaper. Never can tell. I actually got them for $9.50 each from Gardener's Supply which is down from the regular price of $12.50 and cheaper than from Smart pot at $9.95. These pots can be used for more than one year and are a strong cloth used by many nurseries to grow stock. The simple design allows for good drainage, root pruning performed by the air itself, and are lighter than regular pots. The idea is that you plant about 4 seed potatoes into each 15 gallon bin and add more dirt as the plants grow. I think this is similar to the tire growing method, just not as ugly. In a good season one can hope for a yield of roughly 10-13 pounds per bin. I am sure that varies by type of potato used.

This will be our first attempt at growing potatoes. One would think that living in the potato state, potatoes would be dirt cheap. Just try to find an Idaho grown potato in the great state of Idaho. Good luck. So here is my answer to that dilemma. Traditional growing in a hill just doesn't appeal to me, I want neat and orderly without using too much lateral space. We will see how this experiment goes too. I will keep you updated.

No More Walls of Water, Introducing the AquaDome

I am so excited to say I just ordered 24 of these cool alternative to the flimsy Wall Of Water. Now I am sure the Wall of Water is a great tool for many gardeners, but it did not work well for me. The reasons it failed are named Barrett and Marley. Two funny black labs that thought it was a handy drinking fountain. Not so funny. I have to purchase my tomatoes and peppers every year. I have run tests with tomato plants with a wall and without a wall around it. Where we live, I have to purchase earlier than I should plant for our area, but if I don't the plants won't be available in the closest shopping mecca. Their season starts at least a month to 6 weeks earlier than ours. I usually end up covering my tender young plants at least 3 or 4 times before the absolute last frost happens here. They don't grow even a 1/4 inch when not protected by a water wall insulator. But with one, they grow great. (Except for Barrett and Marley.)

These domes are hard sided, 16" tall and have a two wall system to add water to. I have read that they should be stored out of the sun when not in use as they may become brittle. That won't be a problem for me. They are from a company called Winged Weeder who also has fabulous tools called Winged Weeder or Winged Weeder Jr. sold by Do It Best. The Aqua Dome cannot be purchased from this company but when I called the company, they said you could purchase it through several farm supply places we don't seem to have in Idaho. I spoke to Kirk, who was very helpful.

Let me know if any of you have tried this cool wall before. I can't wait to get them. Now I won't worry nearly as much as I have in past years. I love garden gadgets.

How On Earth Do You.......

How on earth does one go about having a bed that looks like this? This photo is of the Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise. (I scalped it from their website:) But what I mean is this; how do they keep it weeded? Not at the botanical garden, they have staff and volunteers. But in real life if I am the staff and the volunteer. How do I do this? I have mentioned in earlier posts how I strongly dislike weeding. I rebuilt a few beds this last year that grass got into and I couldn't eradicate. Then all the new ones I built got weed cloth. Seems to be a moment of bad judgement from what I have read on many other blogs. Apparently it doesn't work that well and not for very long. Landscapers hate it. Home gardeners rue the day they installed it. I guess I boo-booed. I thought it sounded like a grand idea at the time as I have had major weed issues in every other bed I've had in the past. I want the pretty garden with the super fine edges, that looks realistic but fabulous. I know about mulch, I have tried newspaper under 4 inches of mulch. Then in 2 years, you have to remove mulch (sort of) and put down tons of new newspaper and reinstall mulch. I don't mind hard work, but when do I win the battle? Wait.... will I ever win the battle? Is it even possible without hired help? I am open for instruction and ideas. Maybe someone has written a real-life book on the subject of how a working mom and wife can actually have a gorgeous yard and garden while canning and doing laundry, without hiring it done. Let me know!

New Tomato Cage Experiment

Tonight I took the leap! I decided to try a new kind of tomato cage this coming season. I know, crazy right? Anyway, I have sought new and better cage ideas for years. I have tried wood framed jobbies made by the local Lyons Club. Traditional round wire cages, and fold up metal kind. We even custom made them out of hog panel to get them tall enough. None of these were as pretty as I would like them to be nor were they really that sturdy. OK, so really they just weren't pretty. I just said that about sturdy to make myself feel better about not wanting to use ugly. Some years our tomatoes have been so tall they folded over at the top and went back to the ground where they turned again and headed up. The following year is the one we made the tall custom ones. Thankfully that only happened once. Well, I found these at Park Seed and ordered six of them to try.

The description says to use any stake, up to 7 feet tall. Does anyone else use these? I plan to have a lot of tomato plants this year as my mom and I will have a joint canning venture with the harvest. I still have all the other ugly cages I can use for the rest of the tomatoes this year. I like the idea of using a little less space that traditional cages like to take up. I only ordered them in green but I could have ordered them in red too. I thought I would get crazy with color next year. Does anyone think red really makes tomatoes grow any better? I seriously have my doubts but I am not a botanist.

One Year Old Already!

Last night was our granddaughter, Baylee's, first birthday. I can't believe that it has been a year already. Crazy how fast the time goes. Seems just like yesterday this beautiful little person entered our world. She is very dainty and absolutely adorable! She was given her very own cake at the party and this was as dirty as she got. Baylee doesn't like to be dirty. Just thought I would share what we got to do yesterday, fun stuff!

Garden Room Plan... Still Planning

A while back I posted a early draft of my first garden room and asked for some suggestions as to what to do in that area. I originally had a strait stone path to the garage but David from Montana Wildlife Gardener suggested curving it which does look a ton better. He brought up the fact that anytime your eye has time to wander to the other end, rather than shoot strait to the other side, it adds interest. I agree, just hadn't thought of that. Thanks David! I also intend to add a stone landing where I will have a garden bench or some other place to rest while in this part of the yard. The borders are governed by the garage, the walkway to the house, the house and a fence. I plan to mound the beds a little to keep the plants elevated a touch which should serve two purposes; One will be to add some height and the other will be to keep the plants' feet out of the water. This is a low spot in my yard. On my never ending list of things to do, I have "Re-side Garage". The garage is ugly but not my highest priority, maybe this will hide it a little more. Please excuse my very basic drawing of the plan, my only drawing software comes from "paint" preloaded on my computer. Not a very good program but it does the trick. I am really looking forward to a plan as I rarely have one drawn out. It should fit in with my type A personality very well. More ideas are welcomed as only some of the hardscaping has changed. Our snow is leaving pretty quickly now. YEAH!!!!! We have had some pretty hard rain and that helps get rid of the white stuff faster than simply melting. Bring on the rain, everyday I see more brown where green will soon be. It won't be long now.