First of all, I want to build a Cucumber trellis like is shown here. I think this would be a really good idea for our cucumbers because now there are squash back in the same bed and we don't want a fight for real estate going on.
Then, I want to build a bird bath. I found really neat and easy instructions here. We have three feeders all around the house and no water for our little critters. Plus, I think this will be a really fun project with the kids. They have fun watching the birds and love to show their knowledge of what bird is what.
Lastly (for now) we are going to build a big compost in the back yard. Nancy is going to be quite the rebel and we are going to build it. This is awesome because we'll have our little envirocylce and a big compost to go with it. Plus, don't forget we have our little worm family down in the basement making lots of worm poo. I think the compost we are going to build is going to be a little different than the one we had at our other house. First of all, we are going to make the sides lower than we had them. It was really hard to turn with high sides. We are also going to make it a double sided compost. That way we can have one cooking and doing it's thing while we add our kitchen scraps and yard scraps to the other side...then it swaps out when the compost is ready. Oh yeah. I love me some compost.
It's interesting how we got into composting. Basically it was because we were cheap. I didn't garden, so didn't really have a need for it, but we moved to a city that charged per bag of garbage. I was never used to paying for garbage like this. In the past, the garbage was included in our utility bills (so we never really felt the cost) or we lived in apartments that had dumpsters. We were bad. We threw everything away. When you have to start paying 2 to 3 dollars per bag to have it picked up each week, your view changes. I'm glad we have to. It forces us to recycle and compost. We religiously do both now because we are cheap. Plus it's teaching the kids that what we put out for garbage is not nice to Mother Earth. They know what to recylce...the love dragging scraps down to feed the worms and putting stuff out in the compost.
I will post more when I get out and work in the garden later. I have another loaf of bread that I'm working on and I'm going to make chocolate covered strawberries. Oh, and I got this amazing book last night and I'm going to spend some time thumbing through it today. I watched a Garden-Fork episode where Eric was talking about it and how it showed him how to make yogurt in a cardboard box. Hmmm, maybe another weekend project?
Well, the strawberries were a success. I ended up with 27 of them so some of our neighbors will be getting some. They are so good though. The berries were so sweet and juicy.
I ventured outside for a few minutes. It's hotter today. I didn't rain yesterday so I sprinkled the plants a little bit this morning. Later I will dump our rain barrels out and do a good soaking. I've been watching these two tomatoes get bigger and bigger. I am trying very hard not to pick them and make fried green tomatoes.
I will NOT pick the tomatoes yet.
Back in the back garden beds I noticed this plant taking over the brick path that we worked oh so hard to clear out and clean up. Nancy said it was Comfrey. I find it interesting that it's a good herb for organic gardening and the leaves are a good compost activator. Good to know.
Off-shoot of a large comfrey plant.
Tim's peppers seem to be happy as well. He's so cute. He checks on them every day and waters them and weeds them. They are his babies. We started these from seeds. I can't wait until we have some hot peppers!
Cayenne, Santiago, and something else..I can' remember.
I'm also happy to see that my Stevia hasn't died yet. This herb is intimidating to me. When we were with the CSA a couple of years ago, they were trying to grow some and they didn't seem to be too happy with them. It has survived a couple of days so far, so I'm happy.
basil, stevia, lavender and a Christmas cactus (that is from a cutting from a plant that was Tim's great grandmothers)
Aidan is pulling out Ants in the Pants right now. I guess I'm going to be playing that for a bit.
Have a great day!
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