Upcoming plant exchange!!

Mark your calendars now and start potting up those plant divisions as you work in your yard. Bring them to the Plant Exchange on May 22 at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, 9800 SE Otty Rd.97086 at 10:00am. Go home with some new plants. We'll also have free food, garden info and door prizes, including a raised garden bed frame. We'll be featuring a speaker focusing on gardening in small spaces. (suburban yards) We'll also have info on our new community garden plots. No money exchanged. It's ALL FREE!!! See you there.

Gardening tools

Not every tool is kept in the garden shed/garage. One of the best I've found is  http://myfolia.com.
This is a free gardening journal. And you can see what others are doing in their gardening around the world.

Windy morning!

The raspberries are now in a planter box. We inherited two of these when our neighbor moved. Both filled with really lovely compost. Through freecycle we have dark blue paint for trim but I'm hoping someone has some white, gray, or light blue exterior paint to get rid of. Send me a note if you do!!!

It's supposed to get to 63 degrees today! Wind is gusting though. It's tempting to set out tomatoes but I'm afraid they would a) blow away, b) break under the force of the wind. Oh well. We're still not quite out of frost danger.

Cinnamon basil  and cilantro have sprouted. Nothing showing in the culinary sage or white swan echinecea. Started sunflowers, dill, green beans, two kinds of sweet alyssium, and marigolds. More in the laundry room/pantry. I will have to rethink that setup next year.

Parsley and chives look happy.

The neighbors thing I'm a bit odd. I've been out pouring boiling water on weeds around the rock borders. It's a slow but very efficient way to kill the nasty buggers.

We are in an area that has been a river bed for millenia so I have access to all sizes of river rock. I don't think this will be an easy place to grown root crops with out lots of work so they may go in pots. Anyway, rock borders are one way to go.

Our last trip to the Goodwill bin store was productive. We got 2 HUGE planters for around $.85 cents each. If you plan to go, take a friend or two as the price per pound goes down from $1.69 to $.89 when you reach 20 pounds of goods. Go with a plan but be open minded. It's amazing what other people throw away.

Happy gardening and happy thrifty hunter gathering! Enjoy the sunshine!

Brrrr!

It's 45 degrees, rain and wind. Hail possible today. Where is spring?

Raspberries and calendula are growing though I haven't decided where to put them!

Chives are blooming in the wind.

Parsley has been green and growing all winter but looks very happy now. 

Strawberries have adapted to their little bed. Yes, those are noritaki saucers. Planning to plant sweet allysum in front of the saucers. The Goodwill bin store is the source for the saucers, pillar, pot and angel. The wind has been a bit hard on the nasturtiums.

Poured several tea kettles of boiling water on places where weeds and grass are growing in what will someday be tidy borders. It's a chemical free way to clear up those pesky areas.