This week, two kids learned how to use the weed eater. Hopefully, that will help keep everything looking neat this year. Zach will be 13 in July, and I thought it would be good for him to learn. He did really good, and was really careful.

Abby, 14, volunteered to learn to weed eat. Volunteers are never turned down here. lol She, also, did really well and was very careful.

Now onto the garden tour.

This bed is in the back yard. The Wilds Roses on the right are trying to take over the Iris’s. After they bloom, I will trim them back. I just can’t bring myself to trim them before they bloom. I love Wild Roses too much to take the chance that I might not get any after trimming.

They Iris’s love it in the shade back by the creek.

Also in the back yard, and all over the area, the Tulip Poplars are blooming. It’s very pretty to see the full tree covered in these blooms.

The Spinach and Lettuce bed by the creek is doing well. The Romaine Lettuce is on the right, and the spinach is on the left. I’ve been very patient this year, and haven’t harvested any leaves. I’m usually out there picking leaves to eat as soon as they are big enough. lol

The Iris’s on the end of the house are blooming. There are yellow and purple ones.

Very beautiful.

The cat followed me around the yard while I was taking pictures. She settled on the rocks under the tree by the Iris in the above pic.

 

Now, to plant the vegetable garden!

 

 

 

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Using mulch in the garden has many benefits. It helps control weeds, meaning less work for you. It helps to keep the ground moister, meaning you have to water less, thereby conserving water. I’ve listed a few of the many choices below.  A Pinterest search will bring up a plethora of mulch pictures. I’ve included a few pictures of the mulch we’ve used our gardens over the years.

 

Mulch

Grass Clippings – puts lots of nitrogen back into the soil, use just cut grass and layer about 6 inches deep. As long as it’s deep enough, the grass won’t start growing. The picture below is the grass clippings between the fences we grow green beans on.

Bark – store bought, or gather your own

Rock – different kinds – my inlaws use lava rock in some of their flower gardens. It’s lasted for years

Hay, straw, or dried grass – You don’t have to layer dried as deep as fresh cut grass. 3 inches or so will stop the weeds. Gather your own dried grasses, or get hay bales from your neighbors for free when they take down the fall displays in their yards.

Newspaper and magazines

Brown paper bags, or packing paper

Rubber

Cardboard

Nut shell mulch – a great option if you have nut trees

Sawdust – A frugal option if you know a woodworker, or live near a saw mill. If your town or city shreds Christmas trees or when they trim back the trees in your neighborhood, you can often get the the shredded trees for free.

Branches or twigs – break the pieces as small as you want, or leave them longer. You can do this by hand, although a chipper-shredder will make the job faster. I don’t have one, so I do it by hand. That’s why the twigs are longer. lol

Shell mulch – a perfect option if you life near a beach

Pinecones

Pine needles

Leaves

As you can tell from my pictures, I prefer the more frugal, natural options for mulch. Whatever mulch you choose, you should put something under it, instead of the mulch directly on the ground. Using the store bought black weed barriers that are available, newspaper, or cardboard, will help to control the weeds better. I also use magazines under the mulch. If your using natural options for mulch, using a barrier underneath it will extend the life of the mulch longer than putting the mulch directly on the ground.

The natural mulches are cheaper, and will put nutrients back into the soil. The rocks, rubber mulch, or shells won’t to be replaced as often as the other mulches.

The mulch you choose will depend on your budget, the look your going for, and your goals for the mulch.

 

 

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Welcome to another Saturday on the Farm garden tour! I’m pleased to say that the Lilacs are in full bloom! And do they ever smell delightful!

My 17 year old daughter took the picture below. Beautiful!

Anyone know what this yellow flower is? It comes up by itself in the back yard beside the creek.

This is the second year that I’ve let part of the yard just grow back under the trees. And this is the second year this flower has come up. Last year, it died off before summer. I’m really curious about what it is. You just never know what kind of wild flowers will show up when you stop mowing them down.

The Lily of the Valley in the Bible garden are blooming. Please ignore the grass planted there by my male lawn mowers. That drives me insane, by the way. lol

The Lily of the Valley has such sweet little flowers. I just wish they lasted longer!

 

Next week, I’m going to talk about mulch. Now, I’m not an expert,  but I have used several different types of mulches. So if you have any questions, ask them below, and I’ll try to answer them. See ya next week!

 

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The Lilacs are blooming! The Lilacs are blooming! I tried hard and just kept myself to sharing one picture. I love Lilacs!

The bushes that are blooming are right by our back porch stairs. In this picture below, you can see the top of the railing, the Lilacs, then in the back, a Red Bud Tree, a Dogwood tree, with the raised bed in between. Then another bed on the other side of the Dogwood Tree. It’s kind of hard to see, but between where the green grass ends, and the half dirt banking in the back is the creek. It’s several feet down in this part of the yard, but it’s there.

I have been standing on the stairs just so I can smell the Lilacs. lol

Here’s a picture of the bed in the right of the above picture. I just added this last year. It contains Hostas, Iris’s, Wild Roses, and an assortment of weeds. haha It also holds my latest project. I took an old wagon that was hanging around the yard, it doesn’t even have any wheels on it, and added several cans that I spray painted white. I planted flower seeds in the cans.

I love the Dogwood flowers, too, so pretty.

In the herb bed that extends from where the Lilacs are, I planted two Lavender plants. yes, I bought them. I have not had any success growing Lavender from seed, I’ve been trying for years. So I finally gave in and bought some. I’d love to have a whole garden full of Lavender.

In the raised bed, in the above picture, I have Spinach and Lettuce planted. They are growing good.! Here’s the Spinach.

And the Lettuce. Won’t be too much longer, and I’ll be eating it. yum!

When I bought the Lilacs, my husband was looking around and found this plant that he liked. It’s a Catmint. Butterflies love Catmint, so it should be a great addition to the front yard.

I have found out that cats love Catmint. should be interesting to see what my cats do with it. Hopefully, they leave it for the butterflies. I also found out that you can brew Catmint tea. I’ll have to dig deeper to see if it has any medicinal properties. You can divide Catmint in the spring, and the plant will put up suckers. From what I’ve read, it spreads easily and quickly like other mints. So be careful where you plant it! I have it in the front yard in a flower bed between two Butterfly Bushes. It’s the only flower in the bed that’s somewhere around 20 feet long. I’ll be planting annuals in it this year, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing if the Catmint took over the whole bed. Just think of all the butterflies we’d have!

What’s blooming in your yard?

 

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Time for another Saturday on the Farm Garden Update! It’s such a beautiful time now, everything is growing and the flowering trees are gorgeous. We have several Dogwood and Red Bud Trees on the property. These two are in the backyard.

The Dogwoods were already here when we bought the property. We add the Red Bud trees. We got the seedlings for free at the conservation office. They give away several types of seedlings every year. If your looking for trees, check with your local conservation office to see if/when they giveaway trees.  We’ve also gotten pine trees and white oaks, in addition to the Red Bud trees. Of course, the seedlings are small. Ours have been in the 2 – 3 foot range. If your willing to be patient, you will end up with some beautiful trees for free.

The Red Bud flowers aren’t only beautiful, they are edible! I like to surprise guests by pulling down a branch and nibbling on the tree. roflol The flowers taste like lettuce, I think, not bitter, but a sweet sort of lettuce flavor. They make great garnishes, and are delicious in salads. I have also made Red Bud Jelly.

The Lilac bushes below are by the back porch stairs. The window on the right is the dining room, so I can see these when I’m sitting at the table. 🙂

That’s my little garden seat next to them. And just pretend you don’t see the grass growing under them… ahem….time for more mulch! The blossoms are getting ready to open. I can hardly wait. I check them every day !

I found blossoms on several Strawberry plants in the herb garden. The chickens usually get any strawberries that have ever grown. We don’t have any chickens this year, so hopefully, we’ll get some berries! (We’ll be getting chickens in the next month or so. yippee!)

In the Bible Garden, the Lily of the Valley have really spread this year. That’s a Hardy Cyclamen in front of them.

I love the little flowers on the Lily of the Valley’s. They’ll be open soon.

Our Apple trees are full of blossoms. They are pretty, too!

I hope we get lots of apples. Last year we didn’t get very many because a frost got the blossoms. This year they seem to be doing very well.

My father in law’s apple trees have even more blossoms than ours. He always shares with us, so I see lots of applesauce, homemade cider, and apple pies in our future.

 

What’s blooming in your yard?

 

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This week, I’m pleased to share with your my one and only Tulip. Isn’t it pretty?

I didn’t get any flowers from this plant last year, so I’m very pleased with it. In the back, you can see the poor Daffodils. They got knocked over by the wind we had this week. I guess I should go ahead and cut them and bring them in the house.

Here’s a full picture of this garden, known as “the front bulb garden”. It contains bulbs, and it’s in the front yard. I’m creative like that. lol

I was so excited the other day to find buds on the Lilac bush! I haven’t had Lilacs in my yard since I left Massachusetts in 1991. so My guess is you’ll be seeing lots of Lilac pictures. lol

The Red Bud trees are getting ready to bloom. That would be why we’re having a cold snap.

In case your wondering, my Grandmother always said we had  “three winters”. Red Bud, while they were blooming, Dog Wood Winter  and Blackberry Winter. After Blackberry Winter, when the blackberries bloom, the weather stays warm. It’s usually accurate. Those old timers really knew how to live with the signs and seasons.

My next project, as if there isn’t already enough to be done around here, is to turn this old grill into a potting bench. As soon as I get a non-windy day, I’m going to start painting it. Oh wait, I should probably finish  fixing it first. lol

What’s blooming in your yard?

 

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We managed to get a few garden chores done this week. I planted lettuce and spinach in the raised bed behind the house that I shared pictures of last week. Or maybe it was the week before…. We didn’t get anything planted in the main vegetable garden, but my husband worked on getting the potato patch ready. He also laid more cardboard down. Next we have to move the green bean fences.

This was a bad winter for our trees. We have a ton of branches and twigs all over our yard. It’s going to need a serious raking or two before the yard can be mowed for the first time. I put some of the branches to work in a garden in front of the house. Zach, my youngest who is 12, helped me. I spread the newspapers out, and he put the branches on top. Breaking some of the bigger ones before putting them down. And, you know, because boys have to use branches as swords and break them before actually putting them down. lol

Here’s what most of the ground looked like before I put the newspaper down. The newspaper from last year is mostly gone, but you can see some of the branches left.

That is a small Butterfly Bush on the left, with small being about seven feet tall. This garden goes all the way down to a bigger Butterfly Bush. You can also see the Daffodil garden with the Butterfly house in this picture.

I finally got all the paper down. Not easy when the wind is blowing. lol This summer when it’s really hot, we won’t have a breeze of any kind. sigh. Anyway, Zach finished putting branches down to keep the paper from blowing away. Since this picture was taken, he put down even more. This picture is taken by the big Butterfly Bush looking down to the smaller one.

Here is the garden in relation to the front porch. When we actually finish the front porch, lol, this garden will come all the way down to the porch. We have a ramp on one side, we just have to put a longer ramp going off the porch towards the driveway. It will be almost out to the end of this garden, so the garden will go all along the front of the porch and the ramp. That’s the plan anyway. lol The big “trees” coming up out of the porch will be the corner supports for the porch roof, and a log railing will go around the porch. We have one on the back porch and love it. It’s a lot of work, but it looks great.

I can’t wait for the Butterfly Bushes to bloom and for this garden to actually have some flowers in it!

Have you started working in your garden yet?

 

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