garden he;per

I'm happy to announce that I have at least one toad living under my deck. That's the sign I have a healthy garden. 

Their diet is insects.  In your garden the toad is quiet during the day.  In the evening it starts croaking.

I had toads at the farm and frogs as well in the pond.  I had lots of small garden snakes that eat insects as well.

When the forest I planted reached a certain height, I noticed ants building a hill. Eventually it was about 3 feet tall and full of activity.  I asked my friendly forester if I should do anything about it. He told me the anthills are the sign of a healthy forest.  Eventually there were about three or four big hills.  The ants would be active for a while, and then all of a sudden the ants would abandon the hill and move someplace else.  They help decompose the debris on the forest floor which enriches the forest soil.  I miss my florist. 

Food rip

 

[unedited]  On  a television cooking show they served seared tuna with a creamy mustard sauce. I thought this would be fun to try as I have never done this sauce before.

 

 It turns out it's very easy. You just add one tablespoon of whole grain mustard to 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Let it set up a few minutes until it thickens and it is ready to use.

 

 I was not all that impressed with this sauce served with the tuna but the next day I used the same  creamy mustard sauce on  roasted cauliflower and it was absolutely yummy. I'm delighted to have found something new and differerent

Idea for fiinding seedlings

 

I planted my peas and beans in my weed -free raised beds. When they emerge I'll be able to identify them and not accidentally pull them out.  I'm planting my squash in a crowded flower bed by the deck, and recognizing them when they emerge is going to be difficult.

I was looking for some way to protect them and make it easy for me to identify them until they get big enough to grow up on the deck.

I'm so proud of my solution. I took the removable bottom from my smallest tart pan and turned it upside down in the soil. Then I planted the squash seeds in the middle.

Tis is going to work so great.  Instantly I began  searching my brain for something similar to use around other plants that I'm may mistake for a weed.   Suddenly I thought of large canning-jar rims. They are the same shape as the tart pan and should stay in one spot if pressed into the soil.

A friend is coming Monday to help me find my perennial sweet peas and my short alliums.  I'm going to try this trick on them.

a win-win situation.

 

Recently when visiting a nursery, my friend mentioned to the clerk that I had once owned a nursery.  Not only had he visited it, he thought  it was amazing.  I was really touched, since it's been over 25 years since it closed.

Then a few days ago my husband dropped me at a nursery to pick up a few plants for baskets and he went to Starbucks.  A lady approached me and asked if she could take a picture of my cart [she wanted to find the same plants for her baskets].  The ironic thing was that I wasn't sure what I had.  I knew I was in the annuals section and I was pulling plants by feel and color.  I told her how I buy fewer plants and propagate them myself.

Then, while I was waiting for my husband, another lady approached me and asked if the plants I had would be safe from deer.  I told her no, but I shared with her a list of plants that are safe from deer.  Again we had a nice chat about gardening and I had another great day.

So I'm thinking I'm going to get out some old business cards and put my new number on them and stand around in nurseries.  And when people talk to me, I will offer to share plans with them for free.  A new way to make new friends.

Perennials multiply quite rapidly, and in the spring in the fall I need to trim them back.  The gardens in our community range from small to tiny, and most anyone that likes to garden plants only vegetables.  I have given plants to all my neighbors until they throw up their hands when they see me coming.  I hate to put perfectly good plants in the compost bin.  If I could find new gardening friends that would take my extra plants, it would be a win-win situation.

You can choose what you look at.

 

Our little senior neighborhood is adjacent to an  industrial area.     We have a six-foot fence between us.

Beh nd us is a U. S. postal facility where  they service the little postal vans that you see everywhere.   It's a very large building with no windows on the side that faces us.  The workers show up at work at eight o'clock, and they leave at five.  There are several bays with big doors.  Every so often they open and a little  postal van pops in and the door closes.  Some time later it pops out.  There are security cameras and lights on the building.  All in all, I feel very safe and think that they are a very good neighbor.

I had a friend for lunch and she said with great sympathy that it was too bad I had to look at that big building.  I pointed out that there were no windows and we had absolute privacy.  When the trees are in bloom I don't even see the building. In the winter I have a choice of looking at the windowless building or at the mountains.  I choose to look at the mountains.