why i'm glad i forget my reusable bags sometimes

after putting it off for months, i decided i was ready to tackle weeding my overgrown, neglected garden and backyard.

you like those weeds don't you? this is after having cleared the entire area out twice. once to lay newspaper down and when that didn't work, again to lay down 2 layers of weed cloth. a lot of good it did me! so, after months of watching them all grow back, i started round 3.

i began with a small rake and was careful not to pull up the weed cloth underneath as i went. i picked up what weeds i could and then sprayed the whole area with vinegar, being extra careful not to get any on any of the plants i wanted to keep.

making progress!

and check out the root on this guy. that one felt good to muscle out of the ground!

next, i thought since i can actually get to the garden, i'll harvest what has continued to grow with no help from me. i got quite a haul.

including a beet almost as big as my head!

a couple of days after the vinegar soaked in (and my muscles had a chance to calm down and stop screaming at me every time i moved) i went back to it.

now that all the weeds were dead and picked up...

 

(this is why i'm glad i sometimes forget my reusable bags!)

...it was time for the fun part! i decided i didn't want everything to go back where it was before because i had learned a little about placement from last time. last time i went more for how it looked than actually being able to reach things in my above-ground garden. this time, i was going to leave plenty of room around it so that i could get back there to do things like weed and spread coffee grounds (fertilizer) and egg shells (slug repellent) without having to contort myself around another potted plant i had in the way. i also wanted to put my pepper plants into cages to get them up off the ground. i didn't realize just how big those suckers would get and they are trailing all over the ground inviting every ground crawling bug to munch away at them.

so, now i have potted plants and extra pots, what shall i do with them? stack them! i put the extra pots in the corners with the plants on top. now i don't have to look at empty pots laying around and it raises my plants up off the ground.

one of the things i'm happiest about is i'm finally getting my mandevilla to grow up the pallet i nabbed out of the dumpster. i realized it was twisting around the tomato plant i had next to it, so i carefully unwound it from there and wound it around some string i attached to the pallet. i'm hoping to get lots of beautiful, red flowers on it this summer. the humming birds will love it!

so, after a few days and a lot of hard work, i have a nice clean garden again. my pepper plants are in cages and thriving, my succulents look healthy and my mandevilla is climbing. oh happy day!

(the surfboard is there to deter our garden loving cat from squeezing under the fence)

as i was working, i had a funny realization. i talk to my garden and the spiders and other insects that live there. out loud. i told my tomato plant not to take it personally that i was ripping him out of his planter. i told him, it's me, it's not you, i didn't take care of you properly. i think i broke up with my tomato plant! later i put my head through a spider web and apologized to the spider for destroying his home. maybe i'm a little too close to nature, lol.

things i'd like you to take away from this post:

1. vinegar is a great weed killer and it won't hurt the environment, pets or wildlife

2. coffee grounds make a great fertilizer. i think with my peppers, it may have been too good!

3. egg shells sprinkled around the base of your plants will keep slugs away

4. don't be afraid to get dirty and try things. you'll never learn which plants work well in your garden if you're not willing to make a few mistakes along the way.

happy gardening!

for the love of wildlife

every monday morning i drag myself out of bed to head down to the local wildlife care center to volunteer 4 hours of cleaning cages and doing mountains of dishes and laundry. i have to admit, some days i would rather just keep sleeping. i do love going, but if you know me, you know i love sleep at least as much. funny thing though, the days when it's hardest to get my butt down there almost always seem to be the most rewarding. yesterday was one of those days. i hit an extra snooze and had a twinge of a headache that i secretly wished had been just a bit harsher so i'd have a reason to call off. but, i got up and out the door and i'm glad i did!

the wildlife care center i currently volunteer with does not deal with many raptors: hawks,  falcons, owls, etc. we're mostly seabirds: pelicans, seagulls, herons, murres and other more common creatures like ducks, opossums and raccoons. when i lived in oregon, however, the wildlife care center i volunteered with dealt mostly with raptors, so i have handled and fed quite of few of them. therefore, i am dubbed the raptor expert at my current center on my shift, yay me!

yesterday, i was told we had a juvenile coopers hawk that had not eaten all night and i was going to have to coax him into eating something. that woke me up! my heart began to dance and i admit, i kinda teared up a little. i went over to peek in the cage of the not so little guy and he was precious. his head looked like a dandy lion with those baby bird feathers sticking up all over. i immediately fell in love. my job for the morning was to cut up some mice and hand feed this little guy with forceps (long tweezers.) i grabbed a hind portion of a mouse with the tail attached and kinda pulled it across the bottom of the cage to simulate the mouse running and watched him track it. i then dangled the mouse part over his head, he began to kind of click his beak and he ate it! i was a proud momma. i got him to eat another half of a piece and then he was done. i am always so honored when an animal in captivity will take food from me. believe or not, they can be very particular about it. it wasn't too vital that he eat a lot at our facility because, since we don't deal with raptors, he was going to be transfered over to the local raptor center shortly. before i left i thought i'd peek in on him and see if he wanted any more. he was sound asleep with his head buried deep in his back. it didn't even phase him when i opened the door to his cage. i could relate to being that sleepy, guess we're not all that different after all.