How Does Your Garden Grow? - Growing season underway

How Does Your

Garden Grow?

Since my mom always told me that you’re not supposed to plant your garden until after Memorial Day, I can officially say happy planting season! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and even though I know we need the rain I’m not disappointed to see the sunshine after an eternity of waiting. Hopefully everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend spent with loved ones while taking the time to reflect on the sacrifices made by our servicemen and women.

My hubby and I spent the weekend outside either working or spending time with our family and both were just lovely. We were finally able to finish the Poultry Pantry on Tuesday which was a huge relief. The birds seem content and safe, even if they can’t figure out that they’re supposed to go inside their house at night just yet. I did keep the guineas in with the leghorns for now, only because they still seem so little and I’m not quite ready to let them wander the yard loose just yet.

We poured a nice little concrete pad under the coop and stuck some eye hooks in each corner to contribute to stability. We used wire to connect those to eye hooks we put into place about 2/3 of the way up each corner of the coop. Mike and I also secured some roosts inside the cabinet and put the paint trays in place with command strips. I put a little bit of hay inside the trays for now but might look for something else in the future.

We did have to buy a new fencer and string wire along the goats’ side of the yard. It was sad to see them learn to stay off the fence the hard way, but with their track record of close brushes with death it just felt like the safest thing to do. They were pretty miffed, but that’s showbiz baby. Oh, and Ernie the goat is now fully healed from his previous fence incident and is back to being a bully. Yay Ernie.

I did buy a really cool automatic door for the coop which is timed to open at sunrise and shut at sunset. We love it because it won’t close if it feels the weight of an animal in the doorway. It ran about $50 on Amazon and seems secure enough to keep the prying paws of a raccoon or any other little beastie out and away from my birds, but time will tell for sure.

We scrapped the net that literally ensnared each one of us last week and the hubby bought one that was much easier to work with. We got that put up and feel much better; we were worried that we were going to accidentally trap and kill a songbird with the previous net which honestly probably would have made both of us cry.

My father-in-law, Mike “Goody” Goodman, who is both talented and dashing, built me the most beautiful compost bin and now I have my own spinning compost station at home. Goody used an aluminum rod through a plastic drum to make the bin. The legs came from all the

MANDEE ELLIS/THE STAR NEWS

My father-in-law, Goody, and my husband teamed up to build me this beautiful spinning compost tub for my garden at home.

pallets my husband collected from Gilman Cheese.

I moved locations at the office and no longer sit up front. When I moved to the back of the office I took my strawberries with me and they thanked me by promptly dying. I’m trying to be optimistic but they seem pretty deceased. But our cucumbers, tomatoes and bell peppers are looking beautiful and I was excited to prep those containers earlier this week. I went to Fourmen’s and grabbed some more Hsu soil and layered it in my containers exactly the same way I did it last time; a layer of recyclables, a layer of straw, and a layer of soil.

Now that the sprouts are all of out the office I feel safe confessing to you that we have a gnat infestation once again. Since I moved further back in the office I can hear exactly how bad they’ve been plaguing everyone as Matt Frey sits behind me and can be heard muttering and killing them with perhaps a bit more force than necessary. I am also acutely away of Tresa Blackburn who sits a little ways ahead of me and has been fighting for her life as well. I kill mine in silence so as not to draw unwanted attention.

I’m sorry guys, it was me.

This time it’s not because of the compost bin since I moved it outside. The gnats were stemming directly from the sprouts growing in the breezeway. This week I’ll treat our houseplants with a peroxide dilution and clean the drains yet again. Hopefully that will do the job and we’ll all be safe. Until next year… We also got all our containers set up at home and purchased seedlings but haven’t put the two together just yet. Our big push was to finish the Poultry Pantry and get the birds outside. Now that we have that done, we’re looking forward to setting up our little garden.

Mike’s clever coworker, Adela Schmitt, showed him how to turn pallets into container stands and after snagging some very nice pallets from their employer Mike has big plans to make me some. He is really running with the “happy wife, happy life” mantra and I don’t hate it one bit. And before you start thinking I don’t reciprocate, you should know that he sleeps indoors, has all his shots and gets plenty of belly rubs.

Thankfully the Star News garden is at a bit of a lull. While I’m having a blast with this project, I’m exhausted and I’m definitely looking forward to kicking back and letting the garden feed me.

I wonder if Kris O’Leary would let me hang a hammock out back?

Mandee Ellis is a reporter at The Star News. Contact her at Mandee@centralwinews.com.