So it could use a few tweaks and finishing touches, but this wildlife pond project is essentially complete.

After a lot of careful consideration on the precise placement of it to ensure the proper effect for the view from the house, as well as other more practical considerations - like accommodating the width of the riding mower, amount of sunlight and location of the solar panel of the pump given the length of the cord, I marked the location with stakes and then refined the outline with spraypaint.  Then the digging began, which took about a week, primarily in 1.5 to 2 hour spurts after work in the evenings:



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Some months back I was mentioning my fig tree here and was subsequently informed by someone (who shall remain nameless, but she knows who she is!), that I would not get any figs because of the absence of the wasp that customarily pollinates the flowers.  Rather than argue with someone on the internet (a fruitless endeavor if ever there was one, no pun intended), I decided to bide my time and post proof that indisputably demonstrated that I was right when it became available.  And now here we are!

The variety: "Desert King", a San Pedro type, that gets a "breba" [early] crop of figs that do not require pollination.  My older brother created this from a cutting of his own tree about four years ago, and this is the first time that fruits have appeared.  Location: Northern Ohio, zone 5b/6a.

Today I finally harvested my first fig.  It's not easy to know the optimal time to pick one - the type I have really doesn't change color; it only starts to sag and then soften.   Figs gain a lot of sweetness during the last couple days of ripening but do not continue to ripen after being picked, so if you pick them too soon, you miss out on flavor and sweetness.  I had been monitoring this one for the last couple of days, checking it, poking it, squeezing it, and decided it was time.   It came off readily enough, with no sap bleeding out, which was a good sign.

It ended up being a decent size; certainly, it is the largest one on the tree currently:

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All you need are some fresh growing willow twigs.
Take your hand pruners and chop your willow twigs up into 1-2" long pieces and then put them into a plastic bucket full of water to soak.
[Fill your bucket with the willow pieces and then pour on enough water to cover them.]
Let the twigs sit in the water for 2-3 days and then the water is ready to be used.
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WHY DOES THIS WORK?
This works because willow twigs contain a high level of natural rooting compounds which will leach into the soaking water.
Once those natural rooting compounds are in the water, they will work on any plant cutting you water them with.

I decided last year that I wanted to construct a Huegelkultur bed, but waited until I had a large tree cut down earlier this spring so I could use some of its wood in it.  Huegelkultur (translated as "mound culture") is an old, traditional German/Central European way of making raised beds using large amounts of wood covered by a soil cap.  The raised bed provides the usual advantage of being well-drained, but the wood inside maintains a level of moisture that plants enjoy: the wood sucks up and holds water, slowly releasing it over time so that the bed rarely (if ever) needs to be irrigated.  And over a period of several years, the wood decomposes, resulting in a fertile soil mix that is much improved over the soil around it. This encourages growth and ensures the vitality of the plants.

There are several different variations of how to make a Huegelkultur bed, and there are dozens of videos on Youtube about it if anyone wants to learn more; it seems like it has seen quite a bit of popularity over the last five years or so.  The best way to do it results in a pile that is a whopping seven feet tall - and requires earthmoving equipment, or at least a team of laborers accustomed to farm work, so the vast majority of people, including myself, opt for a more modest scale...

I started off by digging a trench about 9 - 10 inches deep, 18 feet long (arranged along the east/west axis to maximize sun exposure), and 4 feet wide.  This was by far the most labor-intensive and least enjoyable part because in late March the clay soil was thoroughly saturated, sticky, and heavy.  The depth got me down past the topsoil to the subsoil. I put the sod/soil on tarps to either side of the trench, both to the spare the lawn some of the worst abuse and also so I could cover up the soil during the days I wasn't working on it so it wouldn't be exposed to spring rains and might have the opportunity to dry out a little.  Some people don't dig at all and merely start piling logs on top of the ground, which saves a lot of work but results in two complications: first, you have no soil to cover the logs with so you must get it from somewhere else on the property or order a topsoil delivery, and second, since the logs will be above grade they won't soak up nearly as much water, which means that they won't decompose as quickly and the bed may still have to be watered, which partially negates the reasons for building it in the first place.( Collapse )

i finally got out into my garden to take a look at how much work i have to do. i sprained my ankle last year and didnt do my usual fall cleanup. so its quite the mess of dead plants and leaf mulch.

i found bunny poop all over. so much freaking bunny poop. my garden is fenced in with a tight weave metal fencing. its buried in the ground, and the outside of the fence is lined with pavers to prevent critters from digging under the fence. i inspected the fence and there are no holes in the fence, and no holes under the fence. the 'door' to my garden, the bottom foot of it is fenced that way as well, with an upper flap i open and close. that flap came off last fall and i still havent fixed it. so if the bunnies were able to climb up over that one foot section, i guess that must be how they got in. i also have a dog with a high prey drive, so i'm not sure how the bunny/bunnies avoided the dog. i havent had bunnies in my garden since the first year i had a garden here, like 18 years ago. so it was quite a surprise!

i've heard bunny poop is good fertilizer, but right now its everywhere and there's so much of it, its literally in piles all over the garden.

what should i do? clean it up and dispose of it? its hard for me to get down to the ground and get back up. cleaning it up would take a lot of effort. turn the soil over and mix it in? is it safe? will it burn the plants? will it make me sick? have you ever had bunnies pooping in your garden? what did you do?

Has anyone here ever used cement backer boards to build a raised bed?
I'm told that they last nearly forever and don't attract termites the way lumber does nor do they rot.

I saw this mentioned in this youtube video:
Lumber Dealers Hate This Raised Garden Bed Hack!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6…

If you have a better idea of what to use, please feel free to suggest it to me!

I just read about this plant today and I'd like to know more about it. Apparently this plant is native to Great Britian and Ireland.

So you've made the decision to plant a vegetable garden this year.
Have you figured out yet what you want to plant? No?
Since we still have a little time left until most of us can start prepping our soil for our gardens, let's talk about a few things.
First of all, what vegetables do you and your family actually eat and how do you eat them?
It doesn't do you a lot of good to grow eggplants or squash if no one in your family can be blackmailed into eating them nor will raising gobs of tiny cherry tomatoes when your family dearly loves its spaghetti and pizza.
Wait a minute--isn't a tomato a tomato and a green bean a green bean? Well, yes and no.
Different tomato varieties were developed for different purposes. Tiny tomato varieties are probably best reserved for fresh eating and salad making while paste type tomatoes are best for sauce making.
Even when you know ahead of time that you and your family love eating certain vegetables-- green beans for example--it's a good idea to consider which variety of green beans to plant.
I was stuck putting in a late spring vegetable garden last year thanks to having to wait until my waterlogged soil dried out enough to be tilled. And then I discovered that Murphy had decided to hide my green bean seeds from me! I was stuck having to scout around for green bean seeds and finally had to try two varieties that were unknown to me: The first was a purple-podded variety and the other was called French Filet.
The row of purple-pod green beans produced exactly one mess of beans and then refused to do much else the rest of the summer but the French Filet beans were wonderful producers and they ate even better than they looked! I was struck by the amount of difference there was between varieties! You can rest assured that I'll be planting French Filet beans again this year.
So what if you have enough land to try your hand at growing beans for drying?
There are probably several hundred different varieties of dried beans to choose from--many of those dried bean varieties will grow well in lots of different climates and on lots of different soil types and many of dried beans are known for having come from a very specific region of the world.
Should you have your heart set on growing a rare variety of dried bean, please keep in mind that unless your soil and climate are a lot like the soil and climate of the region that bean came from, you might not have much luck with it.
And this also goes for corn, melons, squash, and nearly every other vegetable you can name.

BTW--Preserving your produce from your garden is a whole 'nother journal entry!

If you have only a limited amount of space to garden in, perhaps you might like to try a hugel bed.
[BTW--This picture comes from Pinterest.]

Last year my Hubby bought us a big poinsettia for Christmas.
It stayed pretty well into February and Hubby refused to part with it, so we kept it.
The poinsettia didn't die nor did it ever lose all its leaves. Best of all, it actually made it through the summer months out on our patio.
Now we're back to Christmas once more and--guess what!--that old poinsettia has actually developed a few red leaves!

Here's my question:
I thought poinsettia's had to have a strict light regimen in order to "bloom"?
Our old poinsettia hasn't had any such light regimen done to it, but it's developed a few bright red leaves anyway.

NOTE:
It's February now, and my poinsettia's are still going strong. Best of all, they've begun to put on fresh growth. I reckon I better give them some fertilizer!