I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our garden lately. I guess the spring bug has bit me! LOL While I’m still deciding what to grow and what variety’s I will try this year, my main thoughts are on how to make the work load easier. The last normal garden season I remember was about 6 years ago. Each summer since then has been “extreme” in some way. We have had very hot summers with no rain, cold and dry summers, summers that were hot and heavy rains leading to the gardens flooding. It’s hard to know what variety’s to plant some times! I’ve lived all my life in the same growing zone and until these past few years I have not had so much trouble in the gardens.
This coming year we are going to start using a living mulch system. I posted some videos in our forum last fall about these. Basically to start we will be using black plastic mulch in the planting rows. In between them we are planing a mix of red and white clover and alfalfa. As this grows through the season it will be cut and let to compost in place. This should provide cover for many beneficial insects and feed the soil steadily through the season.
I filmed this video yesterday with my new camera, it was a Christmas gift. I love it! The video is coming out very well! Sorry for it showing so small, I had a setting wrong in the video editor. I think I have it ok now. 
The weather has been so nice, truly a very mild winter for our area! Maybe that’s why the gardening bug is biting eh? The winter storm I mentioned in the video so far has not been much. Last night we had a little rain, a few snow flurries this afternoon and now more rain. It’s funny what the weathermen are calling storms this year!
Great video Kim…I thought for sure I was going to see more snow. Seems lots of areas don’t have the kind of snow they usually get…my parents included.
Here we are to get snow this weekend and a bad snow storm on Tuesday…but “really” what does the weatherman know? Of course, watch now we get our Tuesday snowstorm…then I will have to “eat crow”. LOL.
Also, so glad the strip on the left side is moved…take me the “so not computer savy” person..couldn’t figure out how to get it out of the way to read…if I had just clicked on the “share” button…But now, I don’t have to worry about it…cause you moved it more to the side and this…not so computer person can go on with reading the entire blog without difficulty.
Okay…just making fun of myself. My poor hubby just shakes his head. Even Anika was laughing at me cause I know nothing about facebook. Apparently I had a message and some views and had no idea. Who knows how long they were sitting there.
Sounds like you all were sick with the same thing our family has. I just cannot lick this cough and cold…and now my dear grandson has it. He was just starting to come down with something while I was babysitting him this week…and then when I was talking with dd on the phone I could hear him coughing in the background…so sad. And now he has a horrible rash all over his body.
I pray your children are all well. It’s so sad when our little ones are under the weather…and we have to give them Tylenol…I really don’t like doing that…but sometimes you have to just to make them feel better…even for a while.
Anyway, not sure while I’m rambling on….just glad to see your video. My garden this year I’m afraid is going to be lousy and very small…if I can even get something in. With our adoption and wedding, it might not be a priority. We still have so many reno’s to do before all our family arrives from Ontario for the wedding….this spring and summer is going to be crazy!!!! I’m already weary and bearly begun.
Okay…I’ll sign off before you yawn and doze off.
Blessings,
Connie
Connie recently posted..Thinking About The Gardening Season To Come & Testing My New Camera
We are all feeling much better thanks! I’m sorry your grandson isn’t well, will be praying that he gets over it quickly!
About the share bar, I didn’t move it! I think what might have been happening is your pc window wasn’t maximized. If the window isn’t full screen it doesn’t have room to fit everything properly and the bar will “float” over the text area.
Hopefully that bad snow storm will miss you! We only had abt 2 inches from ours.
I really enjoy your blog! Very informative! Trying to start a little blog myself to share ideas! Keep up the good work!
Clint Baker recently posted..The most important seeds I plant!
Thanks Clint! I’ve been enjoying reading your blog as well. Love the post about the garden benches you made. You can never have enough around the garden!
We are only getting our second snow of the year here and its just a dusting. Wish we had more!
Clint Baker recently posted..Finding that perfect plant!
Well, in the UK despite 2 years of bad snow (well, bad by our standards!) we seem to be getting off lightly this year. Not a flake in sight here and it’s fairly mild, though getting a bit colder now.
Looking ahead to the new year, I have SO many plans it’s unbelievable which is typical since for the past few months I’ve been struck down by some sort of viral arthritis so unless I get that sorted this year might be a dead loss (I’m 29 and for 3 months now, I struggle to walk to the front door…) But, are we downhearted? Well, perhaps a little lol, but if things sort themselves out then this year will be a bumper year, we’ve almost got everything we want to get in place (last big purchase… a pressure canner. they don’t make them here in the UK so it almost costs as much to ship as to buy from the US!)
First up, I have my new allotment, which I should finally be able to get going. We live in a fairly small house with a modest garden so the extra 200sq yards is really handy. I need to move some slabs down there, get some wooden pegs made up and run some string lines to mark out the beds… then comes the digging!
This year, our front garden, which has been our potato patch (lawn… no I sir!) is being turned into a driveway (we really need some off-road parking) so potatos are being relegated to the barter system (I always hated digging them up anyway) with a friend who grows them locally. Lose 10sq yards, gain the allotment and parking space, I’m happy with that.
Back garden, well, we have our chickens there. Of 6 we lost 5 this winter as the colder weather set in and they were getting on in age. The one remaining chicken seems strong and willing but will have to work really hard to keep us in eggs so we’ll be getting some new ones when things warm up a little. Point of Lay this time, instead of ex-battery. Much as I love the idea of caring for mis-treated animals (we just adopted a kitten that was abandoned on xmas eve) we need a reliable egg income to make our lifestyle work.
Most of my growing in the past years has been in the large borders of the back garden. With the allotment I guess I could look at changing that a little, though not sure how. More is always good so I’ll probably shove in anything I can still! We don’t have a pressure canner yet but we do have a large chest freezer and have been blanching/freezing our excess for a few years now. Hopefully this year we can really stock up instead of just saving a little bit.
I think this year I’m going to totally give in on sweetcorn, tried it for 3 years and got nothing out of it.
Well, if this hasn’t been an interesting read for you, I’m sorry, but it’s certainly helped me organise what I’m planning to do (fingers crossed I can manage to do it!)
Stewart
Stewart Leonard recently posted..Thinking About The Gardening Season To Come & Testing My New Camera
Stewart I’m really sorry to hear you’ve been sick! I hope and pray that you’ll be feeling much better soon.
Sounds like we are both having a similar winter. We lost the last of our old hens last summer to. I’m looking forward to getting more this spring. I really miss having the fresh eggs!
I had to order my pressure canner from the USA as well. At the time the only one I could find in Canada were the small sized. I love it, but wanted one that would hold quart jars. If I remember right it was the Pressure Canner Outlet website that I ordered from. Their shipping was reasonable and quick.