Sunday, March 6, 2011

March Madness

I’m not talking about basketball! I’m talking about the mad dash outdoors to garden, the long list of gardening projects, the careful scheduling required to attend all of the plant sales and local gardening talks, the craze that hits us when the temperatures warm up and it is time to garden.

IMG_2063The past two weekends have been about getting the beds ready for the growing season. I’ve been cutting back all the dead branches and raking the leaves out of the beds.

I finally finished that process today and then sprinkled cottonseed meal on everything. Cottonseed meal is an organic fertilizer that can be used on pretty much anything.

Next weekend I’ll top dress everything with compost and mulch.

In between cleaning up the beds, with the help of my husband and a friend of his, we finished the newly constructed beds. They moved 10 yards of soil for me!

Just in time for the plant sales! she says, followed by an evil laugh
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arbor
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Ignore the hole on the left, just a
little sprinkler repair needed....

The rain barrels that I ordered a few weeks ago came in. I spent part of Saturday getting their cinder block pads created. Now, I just need to call the gutter guys to have the downspouts rerouted into the barrels.
rain barrel
I can’t wait to have 600 gallons worth of fresh rain water!

No time to chat. I’ve got to start planning how I’m going to fill up those huge new beds. Next Saturday is the first day of the Houston Arboretum’s Native Plant Sale, maybe I’ll see you there.
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6 comments:

  1. Congrats on the new beds and rain cisterns! Are you planning to attend Houston's Garden Conservancy Open Days garden tour on the 26th? If I didn't have plans that day, I'd make a day trip for it: http://www.visithoustontexas.com/event-details?id=13418

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  2. Yes, I am planning on going. I was envious of other cities' tours last year, now we have one here! I don't know if it's ever been in Houston or not.

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  3. Everything looks great! I dont' know how you're going to get around without stepping in the beds (I'm sure you'll figure out a way).

    I'm definitely 'green' with envy.

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  4. Love the new beds! You're going to have lots of fun planting them.

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  5. 600 gallons! Wow! That should help if we have a dry spell.
    Thanks for the tip on that gardenblog website.
    David/ Tropical Texana

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  6. Girl, you have been really busy. I can't wait to see some pictures of the flower beds as you will have planted them and in a few months when everything is full growing. I'm not even done cleaning everything up yet since I had to fight a bad cold for more than a week. It's gonna be a busy week for me next week making up for the lost time.
    Btw, thanks for the tip with the Cottonseed Meal. I have never tried it before but will give it a try and see how it works for my plants.

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