2/22, too cold to work in the garden!!!

isn't it hard to believe that it is suddenly winter again?  because the expected high temperature for sunday is about 38, we have decided to stay in!  darry sounds as if he is coming down with a cold and i must admit, if it is under 55, it is not a comfortable experience for me.  i find it difficult to weed with winter gloves on and my hands are not warm enough with gardening gloves.  we will be back out as soon as the forecast indicates that the temperature will be at least 50.  for your convenience, check out the weather link, it is located in the right hand column of this page.  happy gardening, see you next week-we hope!

sunday, 2/15

after a week of warm, sunny weather, it is hard to go back to the cold and grey days of  winter.  today, with very little sunshine, we worked on a few necessary projects.  first up was storm cleanup.  last wednesday's wind sent empty pots everywhere and i really mean everywhere. they were scattered from one end of the garden by the compost corral all the way to the rose garden and even out into the parking lot on the other side of the building.  next, darry gathered many sticks and branches that were littering the garden.  once that task was completed, darry spent his time raking up the straw in the vegetable garden.  my time was spent on my hands and knees, literally, as i spent two hours just weeding the walkways.  it is amazing how quickly weeds can sprout and multiply!

in this photo, the green tint in the areas beyond the sign are areas that still need weeding.  the lack of green in the foreground and the beds is due to all of the crawling around i did today.  as unpleasant as that sounds, the time passed quickly.  it was easy to fall into a rhythm and only occasionally did i snap out of my concentration.  the repeated calls of songbirds and the chimes from the nearby church clock tower were the only sounds we heard.  the demo garden is one of the most peaceful places to visit.

the vegetable garden is ready to be weeded and tilled.  the compost bin was relocated to this spot.  it was situated next to the big compost corral but visitors to the garden were using it for a trash can!

beautiful day in the garden 2/8/2008

what a wonderful day to work in the garden!  warm, just enough sun and a slight breeze to make it the perfect weather for gardening.  this warm weather has been just enough to wake up all of the weeds and to encourage trees and bulbs to sprout as well.  today we decided to work on a few things that have needed attention.

first on the list for me today was to clean up the lasagna bed and add a few new layers to it.  there were many weeds sprouting, mainly henbit and chickweed with a few wild onions for variety.  after removing all of them, i raked up some leaves and spread them over the bed.

next, darry used the wheel barrow and made 4 trips down the hill for some compost.  we discovered that we actually have a huge pile of compost aging in the meadow down hill from the garden.  since darry was willing, i took advantage of his muscles and had him bring up 4 loads to top off the lasagna bed.  then i went over by the grass garden and raked up some pine needles to top off the walkways in the lasagna bed.  after crawling around on my hands and knees and removing many buckets of weeds around the lasagna bed, darry made at least 6 trips back down the hill to bring up mulch for the walkways.   

 

today, i wasn't the only one with an agenda.  darry decided to clean out the compost corral and the small composters located in the garden.  he climbed in and removed trash, a hose and some metal reinforcement wiring-looks like it would make a great trellis so we saved it.  then he began the monstrous task of turning the compost to aerate it.

looks like some people do not understand what a compost pile is.  most of this stuff is plastic and as you know, it will not breakdown in our lifetime!  we gathered it up and put it in the trash  bin where it belongs.

this small digester, located near the lasagna bed, was jammed full of stuff from last fall.  it had never even broken down due to a lack of moisture.  darry removed it all and placed it in the compost corral.  we will have to make an effort to get moisture into it to help it break down.

here is darry down in the meadow in the compost pile.  right next to this massive pile of compost is a huge pile of wood chips that came from some trees that were removed last summer.

a close up of the weeds in the walkways.  mostly henbit and chickweed, they need to be removed so we can cover the walkways with mulch.

february 1, 2009

welcome master gardeners of davidson county.  last year, we spent all of our volunteer hours tending this small garden.  we think it is a great place to come and work for a few hours, very peaceful and quite pretty too.  as the season progresses, i will make posts on this site so you can see the progress and if you are looking to earn some volunteer hours, you will know what needs to be done in the garden.  this year, i volunteered to be the co-chair of the demo garden, specifically for sundays since we usually come out for several hours.  if you want to work and we are not present, you will have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done just by checking this site and reading the latest post.  you can also send me an email and i will give you a list of tasks.  thanks to all who come out and help us preserve this little oasis!

finally, a nice warm day to work in the garden!!!  with all of the cold and wet days that we have had lately, the garden has been left on it's own and it has been busy.  it may be winter but that does not stop henbit and chickweed from sprouting everywhere.  today, we spent a few hours clearing out the beds.  many of the plants in them were annuals that died from the freezing weather.  then it was on to weeding-no matter what time of year it is, this garden excels in weed production.  there really is a lot of truth to the saying "one year's seeds are 20 years of weeds." 

thankfully, we are not the only two people spending time in the demo garden.  a big thanks goes to turner for dividing the irises around the sign and for doing a wonderful job on the edging.  it is amazing how a small detail like edging can really improve the visual impact of a border.

some of the color wheel beds before we removed the dead plants and trimmed back the dead wood on some of the perennials.
the "green" spoke (bed) of the color wheel was mostly sedum plants.  they had a large amount of dead growth on top and had climbed out of the bed into the walkways.  if you look closely in the photo, you can see the sprouts in the walkway.  after trimming back the dead branches, it was obvious that the plants are ready for spring, they are sprouting despite the cold weather.

a close up of the sedum sprouts

another close up of the sedum sprouts one of the best things that was done in the garden last year, placing the information cards from each of the plants into the beds.  we were able to quickly identify which of the plants were annual and which were perennials and that enabled

us to only remove annuals!

the beds after the clean up.  now that they are free of dead plants, we can prep the soil for the next season.  the next task will be to remove as many weeds from the walkways as possible and to bring up the mulch that will cover the walkways.  we will be having a wheel barrow party so keep tuned for the details, we will need all the help we can get.

sugar bear, in full winter coat, enjoying the shade

this years project, make this compost pile an actual working pile of compost.  what's a demo garden with out an active compost pile.  it will be a great addition to show off at the field day event this spring.