Raised Beds . . . The Ultimate Guide

I wasn't meaning to write a post today,

 but I found an awesome article on raised beds.

Click here for "Raised Beds . . . The Ultimate Guide"

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Toss the bare lawn?

Our once gorgeous and lush green grass in the front yard has turned to bare spots and mass plantings of a variety of weeds.

When I saw the photo of an interesting and beautiful non-lawn yard scene, I thought "why not?"

One of the why nots is that succulents don't do well in our climate and that is one of the things that I really like about the scene.

With a little imagination, I guess one could set out those pavers, do some research and find a ground cover that would thrive in these conditions.  The flashiness could come from the colorful tropicals that can be planted and do so well in our climate.

The area in the photo is small and our front yard is huge.  One paver section at a time I guess!  Another idea would be larger structures here and there, like bird baths and benches to take up some space.  Large containers strategically placed would also take up space and add to the texture.

Anyway, when I found the photo, I thought it was a good starting point for inspiration.  I'm sure we are not the only ones who are wanting to get rid of the lawn!

Click here to go to an article, "How to Use Ground Cover to Cover Bare Spots in the Lawn" . . . which is where I also found the photo.

Click here for another article, "Lawn Replacements: Kick Your Yard in the Grass" which includes a slideshow of many non-lawn inspirations.

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Peppers ~ Southern Summer Favorites to Plant This Week

The following tips are courtesy of Home Depot's Garden Club.  Click on the source link at the end of the post to join.

Peppers are easy to grow in the garden and containers and thrive in long, hot summers with a weekly watering of 1-2”.

Huge, sweet red bells, mildly hot Anaheims, petite purple sweets, and wildly hot yellow habaneros – take your choice or plant them all in the garden or containers.

Peppers love hot weather, so pepper transplants, seeds and seedlings should be set out only after soil temperatures are above 65 degrees. Once the plants have flowered, give them a dose of Epsom salts (magnesium) to produce bigger peppers and more of them.

A note about hot peppers. Be mean to them, especially as they approach maturity. Quit watering as much, and don’t worry if leaves go limp in the afternoon sun. Lack of moisture concentrates the capsicum in the pepper, raising the heat level.

1. To speed germination, place the seeds between a few damp paper towels and put in a zippered plastic bag in a warm place. The top of the refrigerator works fine.
2. Add a 1” layer of compost over the planting bed, or scratch an organic vegetable fertilizer into containers before planting. 
3. As soon as the pepper seeds sprout, carefully plant them in individual containers or directly into the ground spaced 12-18” apart.
4. Water deeply, 1-2” every 5-7 days, unless plants are in containers, which require more frequent watering.
5. When flowers appear, scratch a tablespoon of Epsom salts around the base of each pepper plant. Or spray the tops and bottoms of leaves with 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts mixed with 1 quart of warm water.
6. Mulch flowering plants with 2” of organic mulch.
7. Cage or stake plants as they grow taller and begin producing peppers.

Another excellent post about growing peppers

 from Mother Earth Living . . . click here.

Source of featured article

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DIY Concrete Containers

Making concrete planters has to be one of the most satisfying and useful crafts ever.  
I love the selection of molds in this video!
Once you make a couple, your imagination will go wild with all kinds of stuff to use to for molds to make not only containers, but pavers and decorative border pavers for your plant beds and excellent for raised beds!  After a couple of years, they become awesome memories of previous seasons.
With so much to do and so little time to devote to the garden, I sincerely hope that I can get my hand in the concrete to make some memories for my garden.
This video is an excellent guide from HGTV . . . check it out!

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It's finally here!

Up until last week, the arrival of Spring was questionable with night time temps dipping into the 40's.  I don't remember a winter lasting so long in my part of the world!

The Captain has been busy taking down the huge tree that fell on our storage shed.  What a mess it is!  Vines have grown all through the branches and over the roof.  I can't bear to go out there, it breaks my heart.  We already had a huge task at hand before the tree catastrophe.

I've finally accepted the fact that I am disabled and can't garden the way I used to.  There was a time not too long ago when I could get as much done out there as any man and sometimes more.  

The path that I set out all those years ago is still there and in great shape, although it is now covered with ground cover and weeds.  The guys told me I could probably pull off doing the path, but it would not last more than a year or so.  Haha . . . I made each paver out of concrete, using meat and fruit trays from the grocery story as a form.  Each was painted with enamel acrylic.  I wanted it to look wild.  Even the paint endured years of wear and weather.

The way it was . . . a photo from 1999.

The plan is for The Captain to clear the paths and we will begin to build raised beds here and there to make it easy for me.  I can still walk, but can't be on my legs very long, so I need to sit a lot.  

It is not fun starting over again with the hindrance of a disability and the wrath of nature.  We still don't have running water . . . another hindrance!  Long story told in some of my other blogs . . . difficult to garden without water.  So, this will mainly be the year of building what we will call the infrastructure of raised beds built around the paths and start on a pond or two.

Having a disability should not stop me completely . . . and I hope to show others with disabilities that they too, can have a garden.

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