You Can Mulch With Shavings

Bob Bauer

December 30, 2016 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

thumbnail

December 28, 2016

I saw some sparrow like birds sitting on top of the Swiss chard leaves and pecking pieces off of them. I've seen little yellow birds in the spring doing that and named them Chard Birds, but I've never caught sparrows at it before. I cut off all the large outer leaves and covered the plants with the pop up mini greenhouses I got for Christmas. I'm going to cut the rest of the row down too and put bird netting on it..

It will be interesting to see the difference in production. I also put one of my cloches on the pansie that came up. It's funny that I wouldn't spend 99ÃÂ¢ on a pansie plant for the garden but when one volunteers to come up I'll give it an inordinate amount of attention..

December 31, 2016

I put half a bag of shavings down the aisle in my greenhouse and wow did it make a difference. Brightond up the whole place. I had gotten so used to a soggy dark floor that I didn't realize it was depressing. I've started using stall shavings in my garden pathways now and the contrast with the leaves is pleasant. It's one more texture added and complements the composted mounds..

I realized a while back that "making a pretty picture" is part of what I enjoy about gardening. It's why I can spend half an hour cleaning up a messy area and step back and say "that looks better". It's also why I can sometimes leave stuff that's ready to come out. It makes a pretty picture..

More from Efundies

The Double Row of Beets

The answer is yes, but I couldn't find it. It may have gotten too brittle from all the sun exposure and I didn't save it.

There Was Dirt Scattered Across the Shavings

The birds had been scratching in the Perpetual Spinach bed. At first I was annoyed but quickly realized that they were eating the leaf miner larvae that were overwintering in the soil.

Planting Onions and Garlic

The planting diagram on the package showed you should make the holes 5"deep and 4" wide. The planting instructions said to plant them "only deep enough so that the tops of sets are covered with soil".

Garden Chair

I move it from sun to shade and do most of my prioritizing from it. From this throne I can see when the corn leaves are starting to turn dull, or the zucchini leaves wilt and know it's time to water.

It's Time To Get Your Winter Squash

Acorn, spaghetti, and butternut squash will start to mold if they sit on the damp ground for too long. Cut them from the vines leaving an inch of stem, wipe them down with a 1% bleach solution, and put them in a cool place that doesn't freeze.

Photo of Pathway Surrounded By Fir Trees

I Got a Bag of Fir Shavings

It smells nice too.

Now Is A Good Time To Get Rid of Bermuda Grass

When the soil is soaked down to eight inches or so you have better luck with not breaking off the runners as you pull them up. Each runner has a tuft of roots every inch along it, and a nub for stem development, and can grow underground for two feet.

The Most Colorful Thing In the Garden

They seem to be taking over the fence line from the grapes. They don't lose their leaves in the winter so I'm getting more and more seclusion.

Woke Up to the Sound of Wind Turbines this Morning

The package says 7-15 days for them to sprout, so the seed starting mat I had them on cut the germination time in half. I got cucumbers started today and some " Black tomato " seeds that were given to me.

Extend Your Artichoke Season

New shoots should come up now and produce a fall harvest. Around them are 4" thick flakes of moldy hay that I put down last winter under which is a teeming mass of earthworms and sow bugs.

Hydroponic Pea Shoots

Pea shoots are one of the best crops to grow in hydroponics.

Leggy Veggie Starts

Sometimes I intentionally "test" one theory against another, and sometimes nature forces that test on me.

I Never Did Get My Horseradish Harvested

The freezing nights came and killed the leaves, they fell to the ground, the earthworms came up at night and ate them, and now there's just stalks radiating from the base. I guess I could go ahead and dig some of the roots up, wash them and peel them with a potato peeler.

I Caught A Third Rat In The Same Spot

Same size too, so either he was a visiting uncle, or I'm working on a family of siblings. I've got to rethink my piling garden waste mixed with blackberry vines and grape trimmings along the fence lines because it's way too enabling for them.

It's Time To Make Up Your Christmas List

The stems that came out from your main plants, touched down on the ground and rooted, are called daughters. You can cut the stems and dig up the plants, replant the daughters, and double your strawberry patch.

Whelp I Did It Again - Rigged Up My Shade Cloth

Rigged up my shade cloth and got a huge chunk of ground cleared. I was glad I had watered it the day before because it took only about 15 min.

My Artichoke Plants Look Terrible

Yellow wilted leaves and green droopy ones. The soil is moist around them but they have not the will to live.

I'm Delighted To Have A Coyote Patrolling The Garden

Every garden invader is at risk now. Mice, gophers, rats, possums, raccoons, rabbits and squirrels are all prey, so I should be having fewer invasions.

Three Of My 10 Tadpoles Came Out Of Hiding Today

Three Of My 10 Tadpoles Came Out Of Hiding Today

Grow More Greenhouse Review 2018

I recently purchased an 8x12 EasyGrow Greenhouse from LittleGreenhouse.com. I chose the EasyGrow kit mostly because of cost.

Getting The Weeding Done In The Garden

I had broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts in rootbound six packs, and didn't have time to weed outside the areas they were going. They got planted in assorted rows in two patches because they have the same water requirements.

December is Time to Think About Next Years Seeds

One of the first things you learn about gardening is the importance of crop rotation, and you will try to follow it, and be destined to failure. I never have enough room to rotate effectively nor do I think it's required in small backyard gardens.

I Still Haven't Gotten My Onion Sets Planted

All of our local suppliers don't have any. They think there was a crop failure, and I immediately think global warming.

Remember What Peace There May Be In Silence

The fog has replaced the shadows, and gray is in the air. Dormancy abounds and the gardens life is muted.

I Picked the Last of the Artichokes

Some of the chokes were wilted. I'll add artichokes to my list of wilted veggies.

Corn's Up - I Was Surprised

I was surprised. I only looked under the board to see if there were pill bugs or slugs hiding.

Grandpa in his native habitat - the garden.

Grandpas Garden

Grandpas Garden is a collection of knowledge from an avid grandpa who happens to have an amazing garden.

I Got a Fourth Planting of Lettuce

Why so much lettuce you might ask. Well, truth be known, my third planting didn't come up.

I got to Fish Emulsion my Crucifers Today

Plant asparagus once, and harvest it for 20 years. If everything in the garden was as easy, we'd have nothing left to do except weeding.

I Cannot Believe That My Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach

What it does have are jagged leaves from birds eating it. Either the birds are keeping the fly's that lay the eggs away, or they are eating the maggots that emerge.

I Made a Funny Discovery Today

With a week of rainy weather forecasted I would be wise to postpone my traditional April 15th planting of corn. I planted it on March 20th last year in my over abundant optimism at being re zoned at 8b, and had 10 frost nights all the way up to May 20th in which they required covering.

My First Attempt At Gardening

I had caught two toads and wanted to keep them as pets. I got some small potted plants, rocks, sticks and sand and created a mini jungle.

We Can Go Ahead And Plant Beets, Carrots, Green Onions, And Lettuce

I'll probably plant it April 15th like I used to do before our zone change. I'm going to slide everything back because climate change is causing unpredictable weather.

Spring is Right Around the Corner

Broken stems, missing tips, chewed spots, bent, twisted and pathetic. This was not a good year to try and get an early start.

Perpetual Spinach

It was 10' tall so I trimmed it way back to 5' because I don't want more shade. It couldn't be in a better spot though because it's close to the eastern fence in an area of ornamental plantings.

There Are Two Foot Tall Snapdragons Growing

They are too big to transplant so I will either have to make a new trellis or plant my peas on the fence line. If I had a north side of my garden fence, that wasn't covered in grape vines, this would be fine because the majority of the peas would develop on the south side of the vines, and the deer couldn't eat them.

2 Liter Bottle Hydroponics

2 liter bottles make excellent hydroponics containers and they're cheap. I've had excellent results growing lettuce in them, and you don't have to water very often at all.

The Only Problem With the Incredible Amount of Kale

I'm going to try putting Apple Cider Vinegar on it to kill the taste. It's the jagged leafed purple and green kind that used to taste more like spjnach.

Winter Tree Pruning

The sap has retreated to the roots so there is less bleeding from the cut. It's also a good excuse to build a burn pile.

Lettuce and Zucchini

The lettuce are getting dappled sunlight, not complete shade , so they can continue to photosynthesize. They also enjoy the extra humidity when I sprinkle water on the stalks.