<![CDATA[gardens & greenery - Blog]]>Wed, 05 May 2010 13:27:23 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Mmm, fresh berries!]]>Wed, 05 May 2010 13:24:53 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/05/mmm-fresh-berries.html
firststrawberriesB
There's nothing more tasty than a berry pulled right off the plant. I love them still hot from the sun. These guys are a bit smaller than your average grocery store strawberry, but the taste is incomparable. i mean...these actually taste like strawberries and don't have that weird granular texture and watery flavor. Mmm!
]]><![CDATA[Let it rain!]]>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:08:38 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/04/let-it-rain.htmlThe surest way to get it to rain is to set out the sprinkler.

It will inevitably rain. And rain. And rain and rain and...]]><![CDATA[Strawberries!]]>Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:32:57 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/04/strawberries.htmlNom, nom.!  My strawberries have been doing really well recently, and they're covered with flowers.  I'm starting to see little green berries, and am eagerly awaiting their ripening.  Nothing better than a sun warmed straberry.
strawberryflowers
]]><![CDATA[And the dirt is installed!]]>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:21:23 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/04/and-the-dirt-is-installed.htmlGarden plot complete! The deepest areas to fill were about 5', but the average depth was 3'. It's almost completely level with the rest of the yard, and it looks fabulous.  

I've been watering it for a few days to make sure that it had settled in, and it's doing really well, retaining moisture, not running off, etc. I'm very pleased, and have already started planting on it!
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]]><![CDATA[Dirt's here!]]>Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:57:17 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/04/dirts-here.htmlThe dirt and mulch arrived today! Very exciting. We got about 2 pallets into the hole today, tamped it down, and ran over it with the mover, and it looks fantastic (pictures tomorrow of that).  

I've got my plan ready and will probably start planting on it by the end of the week. Late but better than last year!
]]><![CDATA[Dirt, Take II]]>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:05:36 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/04/dirt-take-ii.htmlWhen the dump truck arrived last week, we found out that the contractor had the dump truck going through the neighbor's yard. That involved tearing down and reinstalling a fence, which shocked and horrified all of us. The neighbor was fine with it, but we decided that it wasn't really an optimal solution to the problem.

After careful calculation, we've decided to order the dirt and mulch from Lowe's. It's only about a $30 difference and we'll have the convenience of being able to store the excess in bags. We'll have to move all of the dirt and mulch back bag by bag, but the impact on our home and the neighbor's will be minimal.  

The bags do pose a bit of an ethical problem, for me, however. I would have preferred a dumptruck load so that we didn't have to deal with the excessive packaging from over 300 bags of product. I plan on saving the packaging, as I usually do, and will probably re-open fluffnfixings to share the recycled joy. I'll probably also be giving some away to a few of the websites that I'm on that deal with trades.

So, another week put off. I'm going crazy and itchy waiting for this stuff to get here so that I can make a late start on my gardens. It seems like I always start out with the best intentions and I never make it on time. We'll call it fashionably late, shall we? ;)
]]><![CDATA[Dirt!]]>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:26:49 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/04/dirt.htmlWhen our home was built, the scrap building materials were buried in a part of the yard, eventually resulting in a sinkhole. We noticed that it had started growing about two years ago, and I began depositing my compost and sod scraps from yard projects in a half-hearted attempt to fill in the area.  

It'd been a dry couple of years, and all of the rain revealed the true extent of the problem late last summer. The sinkhole expanded to about 20' long, about 6' across, and close to 6' deep in some places. It's huge! I know the contractor was probably trying to save money on disposal costs, but it's really resulted in quite the mess.

So next week sometime, we'll have a dump truck depositing an estimated 16 cu yd of screened fill dirt in our front yard. From there, it'll be moved painstakingly into the backyard. We have some very old, very lovely trees that prevent the truck from dumping it directly in the affected area. The Bobcats that several contractors suggested would cause a lot of damage to the tree roots and potentially lead to their demise, so it's going to be moved by three guys over the course of several days. Oy.

I'm pretty excited for it to be done, though. Once it's filled in, I'm going to dress it and put my vegetable garden there, since it's a completely prime location. It'll be great to have the space usable again, and I suspect it'll help a lot with a drainage issue we've been having in a portion of the yard.

After the fill is in and compacted, then the mulch comes!
]]><![CDATA[Snow's gone.]]>Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:41:01 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2010/01/snows-gone.html
For once, we got snow!  Real snow that lasted for several days.  The ground was even hard.  Here are some pics!
]]><![CDATA[Happy holidays!]]>Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:57:02 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2009/12/happy-holidays.htmlWe've been running around, visiting, for the past few weeks, and winter has officially set in. We've had our first flurries of the season, several hard freezes, and all of the leaves are off of the trees.  

Next week, the glads will be 'dead' enough to dig and divide, and I'm really looking forward to it (and have been for several months!) My beds have gotten very crowded and I'm not sure where to put the extras. Some will probably end up in my shop, but we'll see what the haul is when I've finally gotten my hands in the dirt.

I hope everyone is having a great month and have had success in tamping in their gardens for the winter.]]><![CDATA[Free compost!]]>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:41:28 -0800http://www.fluffnflowers.com/1/post/2009/11/free-compost.htmlStores are rotating out their holiday displays, and it's a great opportunity for anyone who uses wheat straw. We grabbed eight wrapped bails after a midnight run to Kroger. They were clearing out the straw for their Thanksgiving displays, and we got all of the Halloween hay. They told us to call after Thanksgiving to see when they were dumping the rest.

The hay is obviously not feed quality, since most of it has been sitting outside in the elements for a few weeks, but that's not a problem when you're using it as composting, seed cover, whatever. I used a few bales to cover the sink-compost hole in our backyard, and I suspect we'll have a decent crop of wheat there next summer. A bunch of little wheatlings were sprouting inside the plastic.

So, if you need hay, check out the stores and ask when they chuck their hay! :)
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