Q: What did the male strawberry say to the female strawberry?
A: We wouldn’t be in this jam if we weren’t caught in the same bed together.
Who bends a knee when violets grow, a hundred secret things shall know. – Rachael Field
We’re now half way through summer, which is really amazing. I thought I’d be hanging out at the beach with our daughter and just resting, but instead, she’s busy working her first summer job and I’m getting as much done as possible while she’s at work.
I had the Enderby Garden Club visit (my first tour!), so it was two solid weeks of prep and cleanup for the 45 minutes they were here. The yard and gardens have never looked better, so I took a whole bunch of photos (see my blog at Gaiagardening.ca for a peek – under ‘HOME’) because it won’t look this good again for a while.
I’m also keeping busy trying to keep everything alive during this dry spell, which requires a lot of hose dragging.
So it’s odds ‘n sods this column, because there’s a few things I want to yak about, rather than something in particular.
First, it’s the old “snooze ya loose,” so you don’t miss these things!
• Grab all the grass clippings you can from your yard people, or the pile from your neighbour, and start filling up your compost bins. Layer it in, about one inch at a time, with wood chips (that you can probably get for free from the tree chipper guys), leaves, small weeds, clean sawdust, food waste, needles, etc., and make sure there’s enough moisture between the layers. Then cover it and wait for the magic to happen.
• There are piles of dirty sand left from the winter cleanup trucks (the highway pull-outs are good spots), and it’s great stuff for all kinds of projects, as long as it’s not in sensitive areas because it has salt in it.
I use it for building up pathways, fill behind rock walls, making level spots and filling in puddly areas so I don’t have mosquito nurseries everywhere.
• Check out our new CSRD Kickin’ Compost, available at certain landfill sites. “U-load” is $10 per pickup load. “They load” is $30 (Friday and Saturday at the Salmon Arm landfill only, between 9 a.m. and noon).
It’s a great and inexpensive source of humus that can be added to your soils or used to create new gardens.
• Dinoflex is having their annual yard sale for all kinds of rubber products for your yard and patio and it lasts until Aug. 29 (open from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in Salmon Arm’s industrial park, across from the SPCA).
I usually grab and stockpile a bunch of the $1.25, easy-to-cut, thin rubber mats, which I use for all kinds of things such as compost and machine covers, barriers behind walls and drastic weed control under my pathway mulch.
For more gardening information and tips, visit gaiagardening.ca.
