Back in 2009, a neighbor built me an elevated garden (http://possumlane.blogspot.com/2009/07/stand-uppity-garden.html) It was a wonderful creation, a real back saver, but, alas, like so many other wonderful things, it was not built to last. One must NOT use treated lumber in a garden – the poisons leach out of the wood and into your food. So, the untreated wood next to wet earth for several months of the year tends to rot – quickly. I truly meant to rebuild it, possibly using synthetic wood for the sides, but, well if you keep up with what has been going on here, you can see how my time has been spent. Running a Kitty-Hospice was just so much more important. Then after losing Punkin, it has been extremely hard to work outside as Punk was never more than a few feet away – unless I was on the mower or had the weed-eater out. It is hard working with a little kitty ghost seeming to be peeking out from everywhere… But this week-end I bit the bullet and demolished the old one that by now was propped up on concrete blocks. Much of the wood was so rotted thru I had had to prop it up so it would not fall on Punkin who loved to camp out on the pallet I kept under it. In fact he spent most of his last week that he was outside on that little shelf which is why I did not knock it apart sooner.
Once down, I managed to move some concrete blocks in place, and given the lateness of the season and my time restraints and other obligations, I simply put a pallet on the blocks, nailed a half sheet of plywood to it, and opened up a BIG garden bag. That is a dustpan in there… I use that to scoop the old soil from last year, stored in the garbage can, to fill the new bag and smooth it off.
You might recall, I have used these garden bags to grow potatoes in for a couple of years, and last year grew carrots and onions in them. But this BIG bag has a diameter of 4 feet and holds as much potting soil as the old 4x4 garden it is replacing. So, last night, when it was not raining as they said it would, I planted a couple rows of yellow wax beans on one half saving the other side for Italian flats to go in as soon as the wax beans have 3 good leaves. Today I will fill 2 new potato bags with soil and start the carrots. Then this Saturday I hope to visit an organic grower and pick up some baby plants for the rest of the garden areas. I guess Spring has sprung even tho they are saying we might have temps in the bottom of the 40s by this week-end. SIGH.
This years potatoes and a bag of onions…
got a few left, but ran out of space. So I will figure out another place next week. I wanted to buy some new potting soil, but it was raining so hard yesterday, I gave up on that idea. We got an inch and a half. Like most garden centers, even WalMart, the potting soil is kept outside. If it rains, that entire area is getting wet. Seems rather stupid to me. It's during a good rain that folks want to go shopping, but all the tools, bags of soil, fertilizers, etc are out in the rain. dumb. Good thing the cat food is under the roof! LOL!
The daffodils are beautiful, the forsythia has started to open. Today was not only a T-shirt day, it was a sleeveless T-shirt day! Temps in the 70s again. The house smells so nice with fresh air from open windows and vases of daffodils.
The feeders are filled as the little guys are arriving here in droves on their way north. And I can barely walk. sigh. The carport is clean... as my little neighbor would say, I "blow dried" it. Potting bench is cleaned off and ready for use. Garden tools are cleaned and ready to go. John (Deere) is gassed up. Covers are off the Adirondacks. Watch and see it snow!
