California - What are you doing this month?

yeah... seeds.  I'm a charter member of "seed-a-holic's anon!"

I sent my sweetie to the doctor yesterday for his knee surgery follow up.  Then to Home Depot to get 6-8 pony packs of annuals for our window boxes.  He went shopping with a $25 gift certificate from our son.  mmmmmm..... methinks this is more than $25 worth  

This is what he brought home "because they were all so pretty"




I guess I have some work to do today, lol!

The hydranangea is actually 4 plants so my yard is going to be spectacular.  I am claiming one of my veggie patches next to the front patio and filling it with flowers so it's going to be so gorgeous.  If only they would plant themselves... can't ask the guy with the knee replacement to do it 

Pretty, pretty!!

Might as well show our State flower - California Poppies.  I called them puppies when I was pre-school age.
Taken somewhere enroute to SLO.

"Puppies" how cute?!!!  They are magnificent this year with all the rains.  

I.  Hurt.  A lot!

1/2 of the flowers planted plus clean up and weeding of our wooded patio area, compost hauled and distributed, wood chip mulch hauled and put down on 3/4 of the garden.  Headed to the shower now, I may never come out    By sheer luck, all of the plants are gopher resistant varieties so into the ground they go.

You should sleep soundly tonight.

AWWWW... What a sweet hubby!

Yeah, I BET you slept good. That was a lot of work...!

Wow, the poppies are great this year!

Audrey, Way to go! That was a lot of work!

Here is what I worked on today. We finally got the vermiculite. We had to special order it and they messed up my order twice. So finally on the third time, they got it right!

But first, I wanted to put down weed cloth, so today I worked on raking back the wood chips, laying the cloth and shoveling them back. Phew! It was a lot harder than I thought. I got two rows done - enough to put my pots back. Next task is to mix up a batch of mel's mix. See my huge pile of stuff for my mix!! 

Also, see my cute baby in the stroller? And my red-roofed chicken coop!

How exciting! With 2 adorable little ones , you may want a shaded play area, admire-my-garden area in the garden. Couple benches, chairs. PS: The vermiculite and peat moss are one time expenses/projects.

Thanks for the reminder about the peat and vermiculite purchases. I need it! I almost died when I saw how much the vermiculite was going to be. Luckily, my husband is all for my gardening, so when I told him I wanted to spend hundreds on soil, he went along with it!

There is a play area above this terrace. I should take pictures! Its not entirely shaded, but it has a huge oak tree where we hang their swings, so there is some shade.

Looks like you've got a great set-up, Joy.cheri!

Joy, somebody here had a great analogy I'm going to borrow (can't recall who it was).  They said Mel's mix is like when you get a puppy and buy the dog bowl, the bed and the dog food.  You only buy the bowl and dog bed once since it isn't a consumable, however the food (the compost) gets eaten up and replaced. 

We haven't bought much this past year other than a roll of 6 mil plastic since our greenhouse cover failed.  The rest we just gather from free materials in our rural location that we compost.  It gets easier every year

I love that analogy! Its a hard jump to make though because theoretically you can garden a lot cheaper! However, I'm banking that all this work (and money) up front is going to make it easier, more successful and therefore more enjoyable later on, right?

Right!  You are absolutely right, I can almost guarantee it.  Plus the lack of back breaking labor....

And your kids are gorgeous!

If you make your own multi-source compost (which I think you mentioned a compost area), then all you will be doing is adding more compost. Some of us belong to CA (Compost Anonymous).

Thank you, Scorpio!

Yes, I have access to as much mushroom compost as I want! Seriously, people bring dump trucks and they fill them up! Also, we have our own compost, but first I need to set up a new compost area, so I can start using the old. Hopefully this weekend I will mix up my mel's mix!

Joy, I have an idea for you. Rent a clean cement mixer. You can tumble peat moss to fluff it up and dump on a tarp. Use it to mix your 5 composts and dump on another section of tarp. Finally, to mix the fluffed peat moss, vermiculite and 5-way compost, spraying it as it tumbles. Dump on a tarp that you can drag over to where most of the pots are. Or dump in a wheel barrow. You have a lot of containers to fill. I would definitely use one if I was filling all 103 sq ft and pots, buckets and totes that I have. Fortunately, I have added beds over 3 years so I didn't need one.

Sanderson, that's a really good idea.  I can remember how much of a strain it put on my back to mix the most recent 64 sq ft of beds!  

I just realized after reading that that I could have used my compost tumbler in a similar fashion.  I will tuck that tidbit away in my pea-brain for future use, lol! 

A compost tumbler!  Good idea. I will have to get one some year in the near future.

I have been sidelined from the SFG.  On Sunday I worked on the front lawn while husband was in LV.  I high-trimmed the lawn, letting the trimmings stay on the grass.  He is not in favor of leaving them on the lawn.  But, I read that if the clippings are less than 1" they will break down and not build up thatch.  Then, sowed Fescue seeds in the bald spots and for the heck of it, spread some all over the rest on the lawn.  Then screened City compost for 2 hours (that really did my back in) into the wheel barrow, made 3 trips to the front yard and spread heavy over the bald spots and lightly over the rest.  Then strained the 24-hour old compost tea and sprayed over the lawn, making sure I washed everything down where there was grass.  Too much work for my back, but I wanted to start the the great dollar spot fungus experiment.

Monday was just some necessary house work before Ken got home.  Then dental appt. and grocery shopping.  But by evening, my back hurt to much to stand up to make dinner so we had Panda Express.  

Tuesday I made chicken bone broth as the wind was murder on my allergies, even though I take Allegra in the spring.  Spent some time (like every day) catching up on all the posts here on the Forum.  When I poured the strained chicken broth in the decanter, I realized that I had not put in the spigot!  Lost a cup or so of mostly chicken fat with some running into the area under the sink!  What the heck?  That decanter will be the death of me!  So I had to drag everything out, clean and dry out.  I had no idea I had that many plastic bags under there!    

My seedlings are getting true leaves (what has germinated).  I wanted to bottom water the seedling cups with the compost tea but now I'm afraid it may have turned anaerobic.  I failed to stir it yesterday.  I wonder if it is too late to use?

Okay, you can see that I have nothing to contribute to the Forum right now.  

sanderson ... that's a lot of work you did. I've got the back problem as well but mine was from simply putting a box of books into the trunk of the car. Now I can hardly wait to get the bad back again when I turn my compost (if it ever thaws out).

I've dealt with back issues this last year - I keep hearing my personal trainer's voice in my ear "long stomach, relaxed shoulders!)  In my case it wasn't so much a "back" issue as my stomach muscles had tightened up and were spasming.  So now I spend a few minutes every day on my teeter hang up actually focusing on stretching those stomach muscles. If I do that, the back will be in the right place.  

I turned my huge compost pile today.  The key is slowly, small shovels full, not over extending my reach (gets to my lower back).  Keeping the shovel fairly tight in to my body and switching lead hands 50/50.  

Then I make 3 trips to the pasture where the cattle family has a bunch of spoiled hay I'm going to use for heavy mulching as well as store for my composting browns.  The hay is really nutritious for composting and the seeds haven't been nearly the issue we thought they would be.  But hey, FREE is great, I'll deal with a few weeds, lol!

Take care of your body - it's the only one you get

Sheesh, you all are making my back hurt! Mine hurts from carrying around my five month old, and my abs still aren't back to where they should be from my c-section. What I need to do is start running again, and then I'll get strong and be able to carry her more and work more! 

I'm going to talk to my husband about the cement mixer. That is a great idea! But how could I get it home? Could it fit in the back of my minivan? I wonder...

Also, Sanderson, that is a ridiculous amount of work you did. Nuts. Bravo!

Let your fingers do the walking. Some places have small trailers for the mixer but you would need a hitch. I think the dimensions of a mixer will exceed a minivan. Some places will drop off and pick up a mixer. In that case, you want to be absolutely prepared to max the work for the rental hours. Everything laid out. I found that mixing on a tarp hurt my back, even when my husband tried to help. Even check on Craig's List for a used one.

My last batch got mixed up right in the table tops.  I just poured equal 5 gallon buckets of each component into each section (4x8 divided in 4 sections with wood) and mixed gently with a hoe.  Moisten, mix, moisten, mix until it was fully charged and fluffy.  It worked well for me.  I just did 2 sections or so at a session, then did the next when I felt up to it.