Whatcha doing today?

[JamieB]

I’m making bread today. My husband requested I do so, which is odd, cause he complains about the mess I make when I bake!

 

[addy1]

I’m making bread today. My husband requested I do so, which is odd, cause he complains about the mess I make when I bake!

Does he clean the mess up? if not tell him to make no complaints!

 

[JamieB]

He does most of the time. He does most of the kitchen cleaning.

 

[JamieB]

I got spring fever today! I’m so ready to start gardening, I checked the pond, fished some leaves out that were floating on top, checked the temps, and started two flats of viola seeds inside. The pond temps were in the high 40s, I saw 5 or 6 fish swimming near the top. When should I start feeding them again? I’m not sure if we will have another freeze, I expect we will, but them being near the top two days in a row tells me they may be hungry. If water in the 40s is ok, can I feed them some pellets or fresh vegetables tomorrow?

 

[sissy]

Water has to be above 50 degrees or they may not be able to digest it and if you get a cold spell and water temps. drop fast they may not have time to digest it .

 

[JamieB]

5? Or 50? I’m thinking you lost a zero! 5 would have ice on top. We are supposed to be warm this week, so I may add a bit of cucumber and see if they eat it. I prefer to feed them every couple of days so they eat more bugs and algae, plants, etc, mostly the misquito larvae. But since it got a big clean out not long before cold weather, I worry there won’t be much in there for them to eat yet. I’ll add a little, see how they do.

 

[sissy]

yeh I did and corrected it sorry .Working on hanging the laundry room cabinets and have to keep moving washer and dryer and freezer to get access to the areas .There is plenty to eat in the pond and the more they eat the less you have to clean .

 

[addy1]

I don't feed mine until the pond water climbs above 60 and stays there.

 

[sissy]

I got this far before company stopped by .Laser levels are great .Sorry pic is fuzzy

 

[addy1]

I have a laser level, it does work great, used it to help me level the pond.

Looks great sissy!

 

[sissy]

Thing is it is hard to get things done when people keep stopping by and then you have to stop to feed hubby .Thank you the habitat cabinets were well made so that made it easier .I love my laser level it has been well used for about 15 years now .

 

[Lisak1]

You just gotta put 'em to work @sissy ! Either they'll be useful or they'll stay home... haha! Looks great! Nice to see things get reused instead of added to the dump.

 

[JamieB]

Today’s project: the circle in the drive. I went out, trimmed the rose bush back so I can get at the tree saplings growing in it, tried to burn off the grass, found that the bulbs are starting to sprout, so I gathered up all the planters I can find, plus other things I can use as a planter, and put them around the gazebo. Then hauled buckets of compost till I could haul the compost bin, filling planters as I don’t have enough soil to fill all of them. 3 hollow tree stumps, 2 cat litter buckets, an old cooler that’s cracked and lost the lid, and all the planters I had around that Ive found so far. 20 in total at this time. The compost os full of worms! The top layer was all the hunk from the pond, bottom layer is super rich, lots of plant matter, egg shells, what ever went into it, it’s rich! So tomorrow, I’ll go out and gather more planters, fill them, divide what dirt I have amongst the ones that need it, and start digging up bulbs. That will be the hard part, I’ll start with the ones around the gazebo, get them replanted into containers. Then I’ll have to go down to the river/ edge of the woods, gather dirt to fill in the holes, then I can start on the other bulbs. There are iris clumps in two or three spots, not doing too well due to shade and one area is choked by tiger lillies, and got stomped over by dogs. Then who knows how many clumps of daffodils scattered all over, and random other flower bulbs. The gazebo this year will be full of and surrounded by flowers. So this week I’ll be busy!

 

[JamieB]

Once I have all the bulbs dig up, and replanted, I’ll be burning off the grass again. After a good rain, I’ll cover the ground with plastic and use the planters to hold it in place to suffocate the grasses, let that sit for a year, and next spring, I’ll see about replanting the bulbs in the ground, with much more organization and less weeds. I’ll plant lillies along the edge of the circle, with iris inside that, and then do shorter flowers inside that. We need a new inner tube for the tiller tire, but should have one this year, so I’ll be able to till the whole thing. Adding a Jane magnolia out there, will end up taking two of the trees out. I think if I scatter a crap ton of mint and assorted flower seeds across the tilled earth, and let it grow, I might maybe crowd out the grass seeds. I want the circle to be a riot of color and flowers, so when I fix up the gazebo I’ll have a nice place to just go relax, garden, and just enjoy.

 

[JamieB]

Ok I lied, I went back out in hunt of more planters, found a few, used up the last of the compost to fill them so they don’t blow away. 33! Took away the two cat litter buckets, so I can use them to haul fill dirt. But 33 planters, from small for one plant, up to big enough for a small tree. I need to dump a few containers of compost back into the bin and mix up up better, some are full of mostly pond gunk, others have no pond gunk. The pond stuff is pretty dense, the decayed leaf litter is much lighter, so between the two, I should get good consistency. If I get that done tomorrow, I’ll get started on digging up the bulbs that are sprouting, since they are smaller plants, I’ll put them in the smaller pots. Then once those are done, I can start on the irises.