Notes for April 13, 2009

I took Friday off from work and it was the right day to do so. It was supposed to start raining by noon but it didn't until after bedtime so I was able to get a good chunk of work done outside. I still haven't tilled the veggie garden yet but that's next.

I was able to clear out the wind blown piled up leaves from the flower beds along the fences and I did mulch up all the leaves that had fallen inside the veggie garden and I even raked up the fallen branches in the front and side yard.

Saturday the rain was supposed to stop by noon but didn't stop until after dinner. I emptied out 0.45" Sunday morning.

I turned the grow mat off and turned the grow light on over the pepper seedlings and the remaining seedlings have sprouted.

Notes for April 7, 2009

Well I did empty the rain gauge again on Friday with 0.6".

Saturday I did get some of the leaves taken care of but I was battling 30 mph winds, so the front yard will have to wait. (especially since there were more blowing into my yard from across the street). What I ended up getting taken care of was priority 4. I was able to clean the mortar off the cinder blocks I got this winter and now my two compost bins are complete.

Yesterday I emptied 1.05" from the rain gauge after I got home from work and noticed the onions starting to sprout.

On Sunday I noticed some of my celebrity tomato plants sprouting and yesterday there were more including the large tomatoes, the Juliet grape tomato and some of the green peppers. It looks like the grow mat definitely helped the peppers get started. It normally takes them two weeks to sprout.

Notes for March 23, 2009

All right! Things have started! I finally got out in the yard yesterday and did something. I planted onions (yellow and purple). To prepare the onion bed, I added leaf mulch, bone meal and wood ashes and then turned the soil. After leveling it off, I added a little more wood ash and bone meal and then scratched it in before planting the onions.

Then I started working on the wind blown leaf piles in my yard. The first one I took care of was the one against the house by the back door. Since our back door is two steps below grade, the door well gets leaves and then the leaves get tracked into the house. Then I cleaned out the leaves along the back fence where the daffodils are coming up .

Not bad for two hours of work.

Notes for November 24, 2008

This past weekend was fairly productive. I got all the leaves done. I worked 3 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday and finished what I needed to get done. During the winter there will be a couple of times where I will blow and mulch the leaves that get blown in and piled by the wind.

I finally installed the storm door windows and put the screens in storage.

On Saturday I also picked the last of the radishes. On Thanksgiving morning I plan on picking my carrots for baby carrots. Next year I will definitely plant them earlier and maybe they won't be babies.

I've started getting seed catalogs already.

Now that I have finished with the leaves, I can get back to my garden and remove the dead tomato and pepper plants and sunflower stumps.