Dressing Beds in the Sun

Today we continue working on those cleaned out beds. We decided to dress them with pine needles. This time of year they are at their absolute best - so vibrant! It is a perfect day - cool enough that the sun on our shoulders feels great.

Half the shop cats agree (the others are off napping somewhere)...

Spring Cleanup at the Shop

The grass is just turning green again. Of course, the weeds are already shin-deep. We have been raking out beds, excavating clumps of chickweed and wild garlic. Now it's time to think about what else we want planted and whether to dress the beds up with wood mulch or pine needles. Decisions, decisions!

Organizing the Chaos

What tricks do you employ to find what you need?

Here at the shop, we keep a drawer full of boxes of paper clips, bags of rubber bands, trays of pens and baskets in the shelving to hold labels, tape and garden tags.

We  have buckets for each type of irrigation part, pallets for different bagged goods and a special place to store pipes. There is even a system here for keeping track of boulders!

 

At home we hang tools, keep an old wheel barrow overwintering the garden hoses and buckets to organize gloves and smaller tools/accessories.

Signs of Life

Spring is in the air and emerging from the ground all around us here in Greensboro. Hooray!

The Winter Blues Challenge

The holidays are well in the past and we have some short, grey days to get thru before spring erupts. Looking out at bare beds and soggy lawn furniture can bring even the most chipper of us down a peg or two. As we all know, the best way to combat these doldrums is to get out there and get active.

It may seem strange to think of working outdoors when it's so dismal, but you can really get a lot accomplished and even head off a good amount of extra work later on with a bit of attention now.

How many of us slung dirty, dull tools into the shed last year out of shear (ha!) exhaustion? Now is the time to get out some rags, linseed oil, a nice file and perhaps a whetstone and get those tools ready to work!

It's also time to think about raking out beds, de-thatching the turf, and putting down some pre-emergent. Why not give your grass and plants a head start? The more you can do preemptively, the less weeding later.

Also, the more you work to clean up and prepare, the better you'll feel. Looking out the window on a grey day is a lot more satisfying when you can survey all that you have accomplished! So, get out there.

I'll join you right after this snack, another chapter and a little nap :-)