Well depending on which USDA Zone you live in it may be time to start thinking about putting out your first plants. I live in zone 5 here on my urban homestead and it looks like next week we will start putting out our cold tolerant plants that were started from seed. This includes kale, onions, collards, chard, cabbage. And I will direct seed some miners lettuce, mache, and sorrel into a bed to become a perennial bed this year. So it is an exciting time to think about getting plants out, making room to start more plants from seed in our seed trays. We have tomatoes and peppers started that are spouting and will be inside for a while yet and we have a lot more seeds to start as soon as my cold weather tolerant seeds are outside. So lots and lots of things happening here...
Also an update on finding free stuff for our gardens. I mentioned that you should look for resources like coffee, spent brewery grains, and for juice pulp. My arrangement for the juice pulp really didn't pan out. The location for this business is downtown, they mix "biodegradable" plastics and other "earth friendly" garbage in with the pulp. I attempted to make a collection run last week and and was not much fun. Hard to get into the place, hard to find a place to park, and then to have to sift through the "garbage" to get some pulp just wasn't worth it. So for now I am collecting my coffee grounds. I get probably at least 100 pounds a week and have already filled one Geobin large compost pile heap and about to start a second one. I am just layering wood chips, coffee, straw, coffee, hay, coffee in layers and then adding just a little water to get the process cooking. It was a little slow at first to build up some heat, but it appears to be hot now and getting hotter as I watch over it. So for now the coffee collection is working out great for me. If your still looking for resources locally for your garden I highly recommend you check out local coffee shops and other places that serve the beverage and ask if you can collect their grounds. All I do is provide some 5 gallon buckets and lids and rotate them out ever few days. It amounts to about a 5 gallon bucket a day at one coffee shop and I pickup the Starbucks coffee next door while I am there which usually is at least one garbage bag that is about 20lbs of used coffee. So it has been working out very well.
One more note... I am anxiously awaiting the shipment of my trees and berries from Stark Brothers. I saw there were trees and bushes over at Lowes the other day and I was like... Oh man! So I am anxious for the plants to get here. I pruned one of my grape vines the other day and I have one more to get puned very soon to start training it to the space I have for them. I am hoping to get those trees and bushes in the ground as fast as possible. I have been so busy that getting garden time is very tough, but we juggle as many balls as we can right?
Anyway, exciting time of the year and LOTS of things to be doing. I have a load of manure in my truck and a load of wood chips on my drive to get moved. I also got a hugleculture bed moved in my back yard last weekennd and started 2 more Back to Eden on ground beds in that prime location where I had the hugleculture bed. I am rebuilding a much bigger bed further away from the house and trying to make sure my regular visit beds are close by the back door, and the less visited spots are further away to prioritize where thing go by the amount of attention they need. So the manure and chips will be going onto the new BTE bed by the back door and I have another small bed area up in the front yard I want to create to fill some unused space. So lots of things happening... Just wish I had more time to work on it! LOL
I will keep you posted! Remember we are growing with Yahuah(God) and he is our master gardener who teaches us... Keep your ears open, and keep looking for the miracles of creation everywhere!
God Bless,
Longsnowsm
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