Garden 2013: Birds May Love Strawberries,

but I do not want them enjoying mine!  So far this year, two strawberries have grown and turned red, but before they could fully ripen and be enjoyed by us, birds have feasted on them first.  I went to Lowes hoping to find a net covering or something, with not much luck, so I headed over to the Dollar Tree and found what I hope to be the perfect solution....a Food Tent!  Water & sun can still get thru the netting, but birds cant.  Because it is so light weight, I anchored it down with some rock.  Hopefully the birds won't find a way to get under the tent and the rocks will keep it down even during the wind.  Crossing my fingers!

Garden 2013 - Back To Eden

I have recently learned about Back To Eden style of gardening. If you want to learn more yourself, go here and watch the film.  Basically you do 3 simple things:  1. Lay down wet newspaper or cardboard, 2. Layer it with compost, 3. Layer that with tree mulch.  Now technically, I should have started this way back in September or October, so we shall see how well it goes for me starting so late.

I called a local tree service company and they were more than happy to drop off a load for free and will bring me more anytime I want.

I have already put some mulch around my strawberries, grapes and tomato plant.  Can't wait to see the end results.  This weekend we are planning tripling our garden bed using this system and planting all our seedlings.