Mulch

While I was out running errands, I realized I was near the landscaping supplies place where I have bought mulch and bark in the past so I swung in. I figured I could get the mulch I needed delivered next Friday and then have the weekend to spread it out. No one was in the front office so I wandered out back and had some minor path fantasies as I wandered past gorgeous slate and other stepping stone like materials, then I thought how cool it would be to have some HUGE boulders in a couple of strategic spots in my yard. There were also some very unique fountains and garden statues.

Alas, with a limited budget, I need function over form. Besides, mulch actually does make the garden prettier even while it's working away to improve your soil and plants! I found a nice guy cleaning up back by the mulches and barks and told him what I was doing. He showed me a few different mulches and discussed the advantages of each. One broke down faster (good for vegetables or other gardens that are replanted each year) and another had a bit more redwood shreds in it so broke down more slowly, better for flower gardens and places where you wanted the mulch to stay on top of the soil longer. I chose the first, even though I'm actually mulching a mixture of vegetable and flower beds. My flower beds have been ignored for a few years and my thought is that they can probably use the stuff that breaks down a bit quicker to improve the soil there.

We went back in the office and I calculated, with his help, about how much I needed. 1 cubic yard will cover 81 square feet at a depth of 4 inches. I needed a good yard and a half just for my vegetables. I also have a new area to plant. It used to house a playhouse, which was removed last year. And I've slowly been using the paver stones that sat underneath the playhouse elsewhere, so I've now got a bare spot that could really use some amendments. I ended up ordering 6 1/2 cubic yards.

The fantastic part was when he said "My driver's already out on a couple of deliveries. I can't get it there before 3pm." I said "Today?" He said "Yes, unless you wanted to wait until another day..."

My driveway is now filled with mulch. Not as much as it used to be as my eldest and I made good inroads yesterday afternoon. But there's still a lot left! Who needs to pay to go use a gym when you have a garden?

We finally had two nice sunny days in a row here--but I was off on vacation to Santa Cruz, hitting the beach and the Boardwalk. Came back to more threat of rain but so far it's held off. It actually made for great garden work weather, as it was not too hot.

First I turned my two compost piles. Then I weeded the vegetable beds, which are raised. The steady rain had caused quite a bit of weeds to grow in between my rows of garlic, which are doing great. Luckily, with the raised beds the soil is very loose and the weeds come up easily enough.

I went to Home Depot and bought way too many tomato plants and a few bags of compost mulch to supplement my home-grown mulch. I also saw a new type of tomato cage which looked promising, so I bought one to try out. It's three green plastic stakes and then three sets of three cross pieces that clamp on, forming a fairly stable triangular base. The tomato plant can grow the main stem up through the middle and the cross pieces provide support for branches. Normally those stakes aren't strong enough to hold up a plant by themselves (I've tried!) but I think having three of them tied together horizontally will be plenty stable. The only drawback is that they're only 5' tall and by the time you bury a foot in the ground you're down to 4'. My tomatoes easily grow 6-7 feet tall if I can stake them that high.

I bought a variety of tomatoes, including Better Boy, Celebrity, Beefsteak, and Early Girl. Oh, and two Brandywines, which I haven't tried before. Plus a cherry tomato plant of course, although I usually get plenty of volunteers from the Sweet 100's I've planted in the past.

Spring time = planting time around here

If it were not for all the dang rain, I'd have my tomatoes and such in the ground at this point normally. But today is the first non-rainy day in way too long! And I'm stuck working and won't be able to get outside. I hope we manage another nice day this weekend!

If you haven't ordered your perennial plants and supplies yet, get a move on! Wayside Gardens just sent me a discount offer: Order Wayside Gardens Catalog get discount off next order.

My garden is ready for me to spread a ton of compost on it and get those tomatoes in the ground! I did get out one day and planted a bunch of new perennials. They had a day of light rain, a day of sunshine, and then a ton of rain. Looks like they're thriving and doing well. The border had been quite bare so I'm looking forward to all this new color!