Hi Josie 2,

I'm sawing and splitting wood from 4 trees I had taken down in the fall. My garden will have more sun this year because of it-I'm really looking forward to that. I also ordered a small chipper/shredder to make mulch from the twigs. Also composting as always.
Paula

The weather wasn't too bad today. the strong, cold wind didn't materialize here so I was able to spend the afternoon outside. A major portion of a 50 foot plus pine tree fell across my driveway a few weeks ago during that violent Friday wind. I have a lot of work left to do dealing with the branches. My neghbors helped me clear the drive when it happened but now I must plug away at the debris. I have a large stack of logs and no great plans for them except to maybe use a few for garden seats and maybe make a bench. Today I was stripping branches leaving just the ends, needles etc. to use as mulch. The rest will be hauled away eventually. I am trying to be patient, awaiting spring and the weather to do more enjoyable garden prep work. It has been a mild, unusual winter...wondering if we will have a better spring that last year and a chance for a good early strt to the vegetable garden. Seeds are started inside. Still eating potatoes, onions, garlic and winter squash and many canned garden bounty. Next weekend I will go to the Portland Flower show and then it will probably be even harder to be patient!

Absolutely nothing. Just waiting for the ground to thaw.

I bought a 4' x 50' roll of hardware cloth from Agway, cut it into three 16' 8" lengths yesterday, and today I will level a place for another compost pile. It will be my fifth ongoing pile.

I have a large stack of brush and limbs waiting at my MacKissic "Mighty Mac" shredder-chipper to be shredded and chipped. I purchased several different-sized hammermill screens for the MacKissic in order to have good control over the texture of the ground product, ranging from very fine to very coarse.

I will put the brush through my ¼" screen, for a very fine product with a lot of surface area, to help it compost faster when the weather finally does warm up. The hardware cloth has wires spaced ¼-inch apart, so very little of the finely ground deadwood will "leak" through. Last year I switched from fencing to hardware cloth so I could use a finer grind. Three of my existing compost piles are retained by hardware cloth.

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This evening I hope to plant some onion seeds in the indoor plant stand that shares this room with my computer setup. In previous years I always started my onions before now, and set out very large onion plants in late April and early May, but late freezes "fooled" most of my large onion plants into entering the second-year phase of their biennial life cycle, so many of them put up their flower stalks as their bulbs enlarged.

I cut off the stalks promptly, but even so the quality of the onion bulbs was reduced. This year I hope to avoid flower stalks on my onions.

MM

I should have started my leeks by now. Thanks for the reminder, Maineman. Yesterday I got an idea for a seedling setup. I'll be using the frame of an outdoor swing seat, suspending the lights from the crossbar on top. The lights will be adjustable and I'll be able to put maybe 3 sets of shop lights. The whole thing can be covered with plastic. The flats will be on the ground, on boxes, and whatever shelves I can scrounge from spare furniture or make from scrap wood. And of course the warming mat will be in there for the seeds' germinating pleasure.
I think I'll go get some seaweed today. The neighbor's golden was in the compost bin today, all four paws, and I haven't put anything in there for a couple weeks. It needs more cover material. The "fresher" compostables are going into the tumbler.

Just doing a little cleanup when I get home from work. Lots of broken branches and twigs from the old pines. I'm designing a new storage shed for this spring for the "Toys"

I started puttering in the greenhouse today. In the morning I'll plant spinach, tatsoi and beets in a cold frame. I walked in the gardens today - still frozen solid. Without snow to insulate the ground the frost has gone down deep. We had to dig a 4' deep hole two weeks ago. The frost was 12" deep so I don't expect to have the garden thaw much earlier than usual.

This afternoon I noticed the compost bin smells of rotting shrimp. I'll turn it and add some shavings from the guinea pig pens tomorrow. I think most of the bin is thawed.

Late next week I'll tap the maple trees. Sap's running now but the weather gets bad starting Thursday so I'll wait.

I have been starting seeds, cleaning fallen limbs, and planning, planning, planning (lol). Spring is such a hectic time that I really try to enjoy this last couple of weeks between winter and the time to uncover my plants!

BTW, Robin, I love your website! I really want to set one up for the perennial farm but don't know where to start. Do you have any pointers?

Thanks! I do my personal site but the publisher does the F&G site. I do some coding on articles before they're published but that's about it.

I use Netscape Composer for my site. It's WYSIWYG. I can see what the finished product is going to look like while I'm working. It's easy to do. I don't sell anything from my personal site though, so I don't have to worry about.

To get started you can buy your domain, find a place to host it, and try out some software. Until you upload pages nobody can see what you've written. You can make a huge mess without anyone ever seeing it. When you get your site finished I have a couple of ideas for promoting.

If you want to have the site made for you I can suggest someone who does excellent work, understands key words and meta tags and everything that goes with making a website profitable. You can email me for that info too. There's an email link in my profile.

LOL!! I love that I can make a mess and no one would see it until I upload the pages! I will email you for the info on your contact, thanks.

Dreaming of what we will be doing in the garden when we get home for now the link shows what we'd like for a back yard!

Leasa
Usually Eastport, ME
FL right now.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard for the day