the little wild kingdom

[Trying2keepitReal]

so far it isn't increasing, so the few people who've showed up haven't normally been coming back. there are two of us who've made every meeting and one very solid third person who's a great person and i hope will continue to be there.

suggestions being thought about how to reach more people and different age groups but i'm not really a cheerleader type of person so we'll see what shakes out with that. also the suggestion was to have a topic for each month to give people something to grab onto instead of the general ideas i have on the flyer which is posted on the bulletin board. worms are a pretty good topic and i'll try that for the next month's meeting - need to redo my worm page anyways so this will give me a good reason to do that.

I think touching on a wide variety of topics will reach the most individuals-composting, feeding your soil, cold frames, watering and fertilizer, successions planting, companion planting, what to do you with your harvest, etc.

Exciting that you have a couple people consistently coming. I wonder if there is another group that you can piggy back onto for a meeting or two and see if there is any interest. Also, I would try posting a flyer at local churches and community education center if you can/have them

 

[flowerbug]

Mom has been having a hard time coming up with fabric that she can use for batting in her lap quilts that she makes for vets and hospice. we used to have a good supply from a hotel up north that would donate their used sheets that they would switch out every so often. this saved her a lot of $. last fall that hotel was sold to someone else and they didn't want to keep the sheets for her any longer so that source was out.

after struggling to find anything at all at the thrift shops and places she's managed to get by the past year. over the weekend someone brought us a whole backend of a pickup truck full of gowns that can be cut up and used . the guy had been hanging on to them because he couldn't bring himself to throw them away so he was very glad to find someone who'd use them for a worthy cause.

we don't have a lot of storage space but a few years ago i redid the garden shed and tiled the walls and ceiling to get it in better shape and to keep the mice from being able to get into the walls and since then we've mostly been using it for her fabric storage space and also some things for winter storage, but now the end of this little room is stacked full of bags of fabric from floor to ceiling.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Love the shed - and free fabric is a nice bonus!!

 

[flowerbug]

Love the shed - and free fabric is a nice bonus!!

that was all scrap tile from my brother's warehouse he was cleaning out. i completely winged it on the design for the cactus and figured out what to do for the other walls. i was happy with how it all turned out.

it was the garden shed with all the tools and stuff in there but when i got done it looked too nice to want to drill holes in the walls and put up shelves again and Mom was using the garage to store her fabric so we just switched places and it all worked out for the better.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

it looked too nice to want to drill holes in the walls and put up shelves again

Absolutely agree!

 

[flowerbug]

a few days ago i planted my last four Fort Portal Jade seeds into gallon pots. of the four seeds two looked good and the other two i wasn't so sure about, but as of this morning three of the four have germinated. i don't know how they'll do indoors but i figured they've had such poor luck out in the gardens that i could give them a try inside. getting them enough light might be a challenge since they're going to have to compete with the Amaryllis plants but they're going to be in climate controlled conditions inside and perhaps that will get them to flowering stage.

i'm hoping to hand pollenate them with crosses of Purple Dove as those are my intended parental beans for whatever other beans i can encourage to cross with them. i'll need to study up on the technique and hope my eyes, hands and coordination can accomplish it. up to this point i've let the bees do my crosses for me. i'm not sure of the bean family of both of these beans so perhaps the crosses won't be great, but i'll still give it a try if i can.

 

[flowerbug]

a tree froggy came to visit the last time we had a decent rain overnight when I was staying up late reading - they like to get the bugs off the windows.

it is past season for the crocuses but i did get a few pictures of them that i liked.

in this one you can see the rabbits or deer chewed on the plant and just nipped the top of the flower.

the past few years i've not been able to get a decent lilac picture and this year it almost happened again, but i'd gone out a week before all the blooms were open and tried to get one that worked. i went back out a week later and all the blooms were spotted or damaged.

 

[tortoise]

Lilac is POW-worthy! gorgeous!

 

[flowerbug]

Lilac is POW-worthy! gorgeous!

i put that one up on TEG for POW so i picked a different picture for SS.

 

[flowerbug]

i finally finished my first round of weeding for the North Garden. it's not perfect, there's a lot of daffodils that will have to die back yet and there are some weeds hiding in there i'm sure that i didn't get. as usual there is more weeding that will need to get done, but now it is all the 2nd round of weeding which i do when i'm planting and reshaping whatever gardens i have yet to do.

all the greenhouse starts are planted and watered in for a few days and looking good. i watered again this morning just to make sure there is regular water getting down through the clay, it doesn't percolate fast here in a lot of gardens.

squash is planted and watered in too. melons i have to decide where to put them tomorrow and poke those seeds in.

i'll be really interested to see how the tomatoes do this year planted in the old tulip garden. the past several years we've mostly moved the tulips out of the way and i've been amending the whole garden with worms/worm compost and other things too including some fireplace ashes. the soil is improving for sure as the beans i've been growing in there have also been doing better. it was time to rotate to another crop in that space so we'll see how things go. plenty of room in there for sixteen tomato plants. two different kinds of beefsteak tomatoes.

strawberries are starting to turn i had a few of the early ones that weren't really ripe yet. chipmunks are already running around like crazy. going to have to do some trapping and hunting.

tomorrow i can start getting the empty spots inside the fenced gardens planted with beans. it will probably take me a few days to get that done and then i have the two big gardens outside the fences that will be planted with various bulk beans and a few project beans that i hope won't all get eaten by critters. depending up weather, heat, family events and who knows what else i'm hoping i can be fully planted by the 10th. we'll see how this plan goes.