Archive for January, 2012

« Newer Entries
h1

Garden Tips Hints and Cool Things

January 6, 2012

Tips and Hints:

  • Transplant living Christmas trees outside only if the soil is NOT soggy—a good garden tip when planting anything.
  • Bare-root roses, vines, ornamentals, and trees are available in local nurseries now through March.

Cool Thing:

Ancient Bedding Discovered. A team of archaeologists discovered 77,000-year-old evidence of plant bedding and insect-repelling plants in South Africa. The discovery was uncovered at Sibudu rock shelter. The bedding contains thick layers of compacted stems and leaves of sedges and rushes extending over at least one square meter and up to three-square meters used in the construction of the bedding. A layer of fossilized sedge stems and leaves, overlain by a tissue-paper-thin layer of leaves contain chemicals that are insecticidal, and would be suitable for repelling mosquitoes.

Posted in Dianne's Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

h1

First Gardening Tasks of 2012

January 4, 2012

It’s time to take off the party hats and toss the noise blowers and streamers, and focus on the garden. If I heed my own suggestions, and follow through with the plans below, come springtime it will be party time again–outdoors in sunshine. Here’s what I hope to accomplish this month.

Outdoors:  Now that the ancient oak tree in the perennial garden is naked, I will rake the leafy garments from beneath its giant canopy. The leaves will go in the chicken pasture for mulch and weed control. I experimented with this last year and there were fewer weeds, by half.

Edging my back lawn is a row of thirty-year-old eucalyptus trees, infected with redgum lerp psyllid (Glycaspis brimblecombei). With the exception of white bead-like dots (Hemispherical caps or ‘lerps’ housing nymphs) on the foliage and scattered about the lawn like hail during spring and summer, the trees remain healthy. However, eucalyptus trees are messy, especially during a storm when leaves and branches fly across the yard for ‘you-know-who’ to gather. My husband and I are tired of the clean up and the white chickenpox foliage and grasses so we will be removing most of eucalypti.

Once removed, instead of hauling off debris throughout the year and viewing a wall of westerly trees, we will have less work, more time, and a stunning vista of rolling hills and raging sunsets.

Indoors:  I plan to review last spring’s notes of tasty, prolific, and trouble-free vegetable varieties over unsuccessful ones, mapping out a crop design, as it’s time to rotate them. I’ll sort through seed packets for planting and expiration dates, earmark seed catalogs, and read my January tasks for jobs that I may have forgotten. I’m always forgetting something. If it’s rainy or all my work is complete, I’ll read The Backyard Beekeepers or attend a local event or workshop. If I heed my own suggestions and don’t hibernate like a bear, January will be a busy but productive month.

What do you plan to do first this year in the garden, anything new?

Posted in Dianne's Blog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

h1

2012

January 1, 2012

Here it is, 2012. The past is gone. The future is now. What will I (and you) do in the months ahead?

Ideas and dreams are sure germinating in my mind. Some are old imaginings still waiting to sprout, others are new, and some haven’t introduced themselves to me yet.

Oftentimes it’s scary to try something new, to step outside the borders surrounding our lifestyle and interests. All sorts of questions start running through the mind:  Will I fail? Will I fit in? What if I spend a truckload of time, energy, and money then find out that I don’t like doing it or I don’t have the skills or funds to progress?

Other times it’s frustrating to stand at the edge with your foot lifted, hands outstretched, and heart full of hope, ready to step forward only to have a GIANT hedge (sometimes several hedges) block the path.

Most of us have experienced these emotions and blocks before and during the journey of our endeavors. When this happens, concentrating on gratitude and calm and doing something for someone else (these actions can be our greatest tools) is usually all that’s needed to boost one’s spirit.

I’m not a believer of New Year’s Resolutions. I prefer to skip the self-inflicted, unkempt promises and instead take action, even if I have to wait or walk a little further toward the prize. It just makes more sense, to me, to know what it is that I want to do. Then do it.

My wish for each of you, in the New Year, is to find courage and joy in trying something new. To take what you already love doing a step further. To find a way through GIANT hedges and snags. To push past the fears and what-if’s. To just do it.

May it be a happy, healthy, and productive New Year in and around your garden in 2012.–Dianne

Offer a helping hand to others struggling to meet their dreams

and

watch your visions grow.

Posted in Dianne's Blog | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

« Newer Entries