Rain barrel maintenance

I realized this winter that the rain barrel was noticeably tilting backward.

I say "noticeably", but it's not very obvious in this picture. What is obvious is that I had trouble taking pictures that didn't include dogs. The beautiful girl standing beside the rain barrel is Cleo, a fairly recent edition to the K's Garden family. Our first German Shepherd Lucy passed last summer at the age of 13, so when Cleo, who is a senior citizen, showed up at our local humane society, we knew we had to give her a good home. She's a wonderful, sweet girl.

Back to the rain barrel. I wanted to get it straightened out before it got filled with water again. I was kind of surprised at the amount of muddy sludge in the bottom of it.

This isn't even half of it. The cinder blocks had settled considerably since we put them in.

I dug out the area and leveled it off.

This time I got smart and put paver leveling sand down before replacing the blocks. I even used a level to get them fairly straight.

Inspector Cleo

Now the rain barrel is back, clean and level and ready for rain, if we ever get any.

The time had come

for my least favorite part of seed starting.

Before

After

I put it off again this year, because I hate doing it. Not only do I hate killing a plant that I purposely made grow, but also I worry about picking the wrong seedling to save and ending up with nothing. Everything worked out last year, so I'm sure it'll be fine this year, too.

This is going to be a busy weekend. With the warm weather, I can get some things done outside. And I'll be starting some more seeds.

Too much?

We're in the midst of unseasonably warm temperatures here. Upper 60's to mid 70's for the highs is much too warm for March, in my opinion. And it's dry. I sure hope this trend doesn't continue.

With the warm weather, things are growing, so I decided to go looking for my garlic.

It's been tucked under a nice thick layer of straw all winter. When I started raking the straw off, I realized just exactly how thick that layer was. Apparently I was really concerned with my garlic freezing.

I didn't rake it all off, but I moved enough to see some of the sprouts from last fall.

None of them looked very green, but maybe being uncovered and getting some sunshine will help. I just don't want another total loss because I finally used the last of the 2013 garlic I had in the freezer.

Let the garden begin

The 2015 garden is under way. I planted broccoli, cabbage and kale seeds on Saturday.

Instead of marking each cell like I did last year, I came up with a new idea that I think is pretty clever. I filled the cells in a pattern.

Then I made a sign for each vegetable that shows its pattern.

So if the sections get moved around, I'll still know which one has broccoli and which one has kale.

As of this afternoon, they have all sprouted, so it's time to get the lights on.

In a couple weeks I'll start some more seeds, mostly flowers and basil. I don't think I'm going to start any rosemary this year. I have enough dried and frozen from last year that I think I'll be fine just direct planting them in the herb planters.

It's so exciting to be growing things again.

Garden awesomeness

I had a birthday recently, and one of my dearest friends gave me the most awesome birthday gift.

It's a K's Garden stone! I can't wait to put it in the garden, but it's too cold and icy outside right now.

Even with our miserable temperatures, I am finally convinced that spring is on its way. I saw this guy and a couple of his friends hanging out by my feeders the other day.

Finally

It's the time of year when nothing much is happening garden-wise. The seeds I ordered are starting to arrive, but I haven't planted any of them yet. So when I looked out the window this morning and saw this guy eating his peanut on the garden gate, I was thankful to finally have something worth taking a picture of.

Luckily, I looked out the window again a little later and discovered that someone else was enjoying the backyard.

If there's any doubt as to why she's here, notice how close she is to my bird feeders.

She certainly isn't admiring my asparagus bed.

But I admired her while she hung out.

This is definitely not the same hawk that enjoyed lunch in the backyard a few weeks ago. That one was a male and this one is either a female or a juvenile. It's a little disconcerting that two hawks have realized what a bird buffet I have in my backyard.

Snow

After weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures (60 degrees in January!), we finally got a taste of winter this weekend. I'm glad it cooled off; my perennials were starting to grow.

Mum - January 30th

The garden - February 1st

I took pictures through the window. The wet snow stuck to everything.

If Sunday hadn't been such a gray day, it would've been beautiful.

I'm not sure this little lady would agree with me, though.

Downy woodpecker

The feeders were piled high with snow, and the suet was probably frozen.

I entertained myself by placing orders for seeds and tomato plants.