Saturday, April 21, 2012

So today we got a LOT done in the veggie / flower bed .... Gary helped me a lot in getting all the leaves out and pulling up tons of roots!  We plan the lay the black plastic and cut holes to plant seedlings and plants.  This is black plastic made for landscaping.   If you don't remember what it looked like before take a look at previous posts ...




Friday, April 20, 2012

*** GARDENING and/or SOIL EXPERTS ***  I need your help!!!


I have tried to google this but not having luck finding an answer to my exact question ... Here is a picture of a bed that I plan to plant a veggie and flower garden in ... It is in our back yard behind our house ... For many many many years Gary has been putting leaves in here and each year maple tree saplings start growing and Gary just clips them off ... I started preparing this bed recently and my plan was to put black plastic over it all and help everything to die down and out and then put new soil on top of the plastic. As I started doing this Gary suggested I go ahead and clip any saplings that might be sticking up and so I did start this process. The earth that the saplings are coming up in is soooo black and rich and I just hate to cover it all up and not use it ... I've started now beginning to not only clip the saplings but also to start pulling out as many as I can and am finding more and more rich dark black soil (the result we think of all the leaves over like 30 years that Gary has been putting in there) ... so my question is ... once I get most of these roots pulled out (it is impossible to get every last one pulled out ... can I just plant my plants and seeds into this black soil and how can I keep any leftover saplings from coming up too? should I get other types of soil to mix in it and then plant? It just seems so wasteful to not use this amazingly black rich soil and to just cover it up .... but I don't really want maple saplings taking over my garden either ... anyway ... hoping some of you gardening experts that I know are on my page somewhere can help with advice? Thanks so much!!! oh and I may repost this some so I can hopefully ensure someone that knows will see it ... so forgive me if I repost ... thanks!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE (oh and in the pic you see black plastic being laid down but I've taken it all up and started over at that far end to clip and pull out as many roots systems as I can and then covering with black plastic to keep the process going until I decide what to do with the black soil underneath ... there are still a lot of leaves and all the roots so I'm thinking I really need to start a real compost pile somewhere but not sure where in the yard ... assuming it needs to be away from the house? although there is a perfect spot that is not seen from the front of the house but it is right under the kitchen window so would compost smell and thus not a good spot to have under a window of the house?)


okay this shows to the right what i've already one in clearing out the bed ... 
see the dark soil on the right and the leaves and sticks and saplings to the left?

this photo shows how much more i have to do!!!! yikes!!! and yes that is bowing out ...

and this photo shows the beginning of what will be compost ... 
this is what I've gotten up from the top of the bed and also dug out (roots and stuff) from the bed so far ....







Thursday, April 19, 2012

I am just blown away by the creativity and imagination people have when thinking of ways to repurpose items.  I came across this blog when a friend linked to their idea of making birdbaths for your garden out of old lamps!   I love the picket fence too .... My plan is to put a picket fence around our front yard one day ... probably one less substantial than this ... shorter probably ... I'll try to remember to take a picture of a house in Springfield that I love that has a shorter cute picket fence ... I always comment every time we pass by it ... anyway ... LOVE this idea ...
RESCUE ~ RECYCLE ~ REPURPOSE ~ REUSE
http://chiccottagejunk.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

It's a new day!!! Let's make the most of it, shall we? :-)

Because I have had so many wonderful changes to my life happen over this past year, I decided to start this blog anew.  I had too many negative woe is me type posts and well, I'm not that person anymore.  :-)   I am going to try very hard to blog more regularly because I do want to document my life with my new love Gary Parker and my life here in Vermont living near my son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids.  Part of documenting this is posting photos of my family as well as the various projects I am planning to do around our home which will include repurposing, recycling, reusing types of projects so that I can continue my bohemian simplicity theme.  Thank you to those of you who follow me and actually read my blog posts when they pop up.   I sincerely appreciate you and hope to not bore you much.  :-)   LOVE LOVE LOVE