Sunday, 22 May 2011

Garden In, Garden Out.

Yesterday was the first really hot day, so of course it was time to put in the peppers. Twelve pepper plants - four red, four orange and four little hot pepper plants. A dozen of my ground cherry sprouts found their garden spots, too. New rows of beets, chard, and spinach went in, and I sowed a few plots of pennyroyal since I love the smell, and I use it to make my closet sachets. I like to grow the pennyroyal away from the edibles, but where I can still enjoy it, so I use it like ground cover in my large planters. I love how it spills over the sides as it grows.

As I planted, my husband was on the roof, cleaning out the clogged eaves troughs. We have the largest pine tree in the neighbourhood, and it is a copious producer of needles. I use them as mulch on my raspberries and garden paths, and even so, there's lots left over to fill many garden waste bags Oh - and to clog our eaves troughs. So he's up there, tied off with a rope, filling many garbage bags with guck. Thank goodness, because that's something I couldn't do.

I dropped into Starbucks on my way home from work on Friday, and carried home about 20 lbs of used coffee grounds. (They were still warm!) It was a little like carrying a heavy, squirmy baby. I read on a gardening website that coffee grounds were good for repelling slugs, and heaven knows I have a slug problem. Last year the slugs ate my bean sprouts the second they broke the surface of the ground. So I thought - OK, what if I sprout them inside, and plant them when they're a bit older and stronger? Hmm. Same thing, only this time I was witness to the sad, chewed of stems. So...this year - I sprouted a dozen "hills" inside, and as soon as they surfaced - which I'm always amazed to see only take a few days - I put them in the ground outside, and surrounded them with a moat of coffee grounds. It's been two nights, and so far all have survived. I am hopeful! I also replanted peas, and covered the planted ground with a blanket of coffee grounds. That will be a true test, as the slugs have been diligent at finding the pea sprouts.

It's become important to get my new Sea Buckthorn trees in the ground, and the Holly and the Euonymous had to go, to make room for them. This morning I was out there with shovel, clippers, rake, saw, and trowel, and after about 2 hours I had wrestled the Holly out of the ground. I did save a dozen clippings, and they're in a jar with water and willow sprouts as I write. I apologize to the worm god. Many gave their lives this morning in the carnage. I tried to be careful, but it is hard to know what's going on underground when you put in the shovel.

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