When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown

HAHA! So true!

OK, back to work….

I’ve been slowly chipping away at your How To suggestions! Here are a few more I’ve added over the weekend. Since I have been busy working on the garden, they are all garden related right now. More to come!

My garden, a few years ago.

Renee and Carole asked for help with vegetable gardening, specifically how to start a garden, how to make a garden thrive, how to improve the soil. Ladies, check out these posts.

How to Remove Sod
Sod is turf grass, and it’s in the way! If you want to guarantee a weed-free section of land for your garden plot, I recommend removing the sod. Some folks simply roto-till a section of their lawn and pull out the clumps of sod, but I found that I a lot of weed seeds get buried by the rotating blades, and I can never pull out all the clumps. I have done both tilling and sod-removal, and I recommend sod removal as the best way to start a garden. It’s neater-looking, too. (And cheaper than renting a tiller!)

How to Start a Compost, Part 1
This is the solution for making a garden thrive and improving the soil. It’s a more “long-term” solution (your new compost pile will not be ready for use until a year later), so if you are in a real hurry to amend the soil, you can add manure and peat moss. I have thick, pasty clay soil, too, Renee. Roto-till a few bags of peat moss, compost, and/or manure every year for the first three years, and that should solve the problem.

Regarding Carole’s question about how to find seeds that aren’t genetically modified: I order from High Mowing Seeds, in Vermont. The prices are expensive, but I think it’s worth it. Sorry my advice is so late, Carole; you’ve probably already ordered your seeds by now. :-p I *finally* ordered mine yesterday! But I’ve heard good things about High Mowing Seeds. I’ll give a full review on how the seeds performed, come late July.

I’m working on more!

I have more garden photos at my home/garden blog, if you’re interested.

Can you guess what this is?!

I am flipping with excitement!

It’s apple tree blossoms!!! I FINALLY have a full tree of apple blossoms! We are actually going to have apples this year! I am thrilled. Now if I can only keep the deer and billions of chewing larva away… you see, I also found this:

Yes, those cursed little devils– tent caterpillars. Upstate New York has been plagued with them for the past few years, and they seem to heartily enjoy my yard most of all. I killed these buggers, of course, but not before a photo op. It’s really unbelievable– we only JUST got past frost during the nights, and already we have tent caterpillers and sawfly larva chewing away at everything green. Man, I hate bugs, It is SO unfair. I work so very, very hard at my gardens on this huge property. It’s a constant battle to keep up with it, fighting back the weeds, the thickets, the critters, the pests… maybe I really need a Westgate vacation or something. sighhh

Well, I am so happy to see blossoms on my apple tree– what I have been waiting for, for so long! Freshly-picked apples, mmmm! I am so glad it’s spring.

Well anyway, to every cloud there’s a silver lining, right? This morning, the air was warm (40 degrees) and the birds were cawing (lol– we’ve got a lot of crows here). Well, I did hear a robin or two, so I ventured outside with my camera. I thought it would be nice to give you a glimpse of what Upstate New York is looking like right now. So let’s go together, and see! (UGH, I sound like Mr. Rogers! :-p )

This is one of my favorite places to walk through. I call it my Secret Garden. It’s a narrow area on one side of the property, about 40 feet by 20 feet. I’ve shoehorned a garden in it. It’s a work in progress. Eventually the lilac trees and the Rose of Sharon will form a hallway on each side of the arbor. The arbor-vitaes in the back will give me some privacy from the parking lot next door.

Isn’t that green vibrant? I didn’t do anything to heighten the color with my software. I’m really liking my new Kodak z1012 camera. I’m still learning how to use it, and once I do, I’ll post a review of it.

Here’s the view from the other side of my Secret Garden.

My precious tulips are coming up! They are Darwin Tulips– great big pink heads on thick green stems. I love these.

Here’s my Mugo pine, sloooooly making it’s way vertical. These things grow so slowly, like a half inch a year?!

I walked along the property, surveying all the back-breaking labor gardening that my kids that I have to do this season. My outdoor kitty, Milo, followed alongside. He’s a little camera shy– but he’s a fluffy orange cat with one eye. He looks like a pirate. My indoor cat, Livvy, spotted him and me as we strolled by. She’s obviously jealous. Not of me– of Milo, who gets to roam free in the open frontier, while she is stuck bemoaning her captivity from the inside of windows.

She has no idea how easy she has it, being inside. Otherwise, she might wind up a pirate with one eye, like poor Milo. It’s a cruel, cruel world out here.

Milo and I coldly left Livvy wailing in the window and walked to the back.

Uh oh. Someone left the vegetable garden gate open again.

The kids weeded the veggie beds for me last fall, and they did a terrific job. Usually in the spring, the snow melts to reveal a thick, lustrous carpet of dandelion plants, burdocks, and quack grass, which we have to pull out before tilling the soil. This year, everything looks so neat and tidy.

But much to my utter surprise and dismay, I found….

GAH! Already?!?!

I need to fill the bird feeders again. It’s mostly crows around here and I absolutely despise the nasty birds. They’ve chased off the songbirds. Only the robins dare tread the property.

About this time, the paces of the cars picked up on the road, subtly informing me that the busy world has begun its day. Enough photo-snapping for today; time to get on to more important things. Like fetching Livvy’s breakfast…. lol!

Thanks for joining me on this morning walk.

*hums Won’t You Be My Neighbor?*

My son helped me snip off a few tender blossoms from my shrub. I have the jar of them beside me and I am swooning. They are just amazing flowers. I’ll have to get a photo up of my pride and joy– my little lilac tree that I have been nursing. It is rewarding me this year with a knockout quantity of blooms. The little buds are just about ready to burst with their deliciousness. For now, here’s a borrowed photo. Can’t you just smell them from here? Ahhhhhhhh. So although I might get Kentucky Derby Party Invitations and watch them “Run for the Roses,” what would really knock my socks off is if they ran for the lilacs!