Mulching Day

At long last, Tuesday was mulching day for one of the beds.  I got out there after work, cut up a bunch of Amazon boxes, and laid them out around the little plants.  

I was going to come in and post about it, but realized I didn't really have that much to talk about, so I skipped blogging that day.   By the way, since we're expecting storms over the next few days, I went back out and put some of those landscape staples into the cardboard, so hopefully the pieces won't blow away.  

If I can find my box cutter, I want to cut some longer strips of cardboard and lay them down over the top of all of these little pieces.   I know it's not the most attractive, but long time gardeners swear by it.  

Speaking of YouTube, after thinking about it, I'm not doing so much wrong as I'd though.  For example, they say that raised beds need to be 24" or deeper.  Mine aren't that deep, but I've got good native soil underneath all of that red clay the land scammer dumped into my garden spot.  The main reason I wanted to go with raised beds in the first place was so I wouldn't have to bend over so far.  

I do wish I'd thought to dig the clay out of the first three beds before I planted them, but once the zinnias and bachelor's buttons die back after the first frost, I can remove the soil from that bed, then dig the clay out.  

As for the perennials, I don't know what I'm going to do about those.  I don't want to dig them up if I don't have to.  I'll just keep an eye on them and see how they do.   Nothing is going to happen until fall anyway, so I can make a plan before then. 

Also, yes, I bought wooden beds, but I sprang for fir -- which is rot resistant, and I used water sealant on it.  There are mixed feelings on doing that, but I think it will be OK.  I really want to switch to metal garden beds as I expand and replace the wooden ones, but I'd always thought they were kinda ugly.  I found some on Amazon that are brown and look like wood, so I might give them a try.  

I've also seen that there are mixed feelings on how to fill deep beds cheaply.  Some say to use logs and such.  Others say not to.  I can tell you right now that I'm definitely not going to use logs.  If they're big enough to burn, they're going to the firewood pile.  I will use smaller branches and twigs and such -- like these I have left over from cutting that oak limb that fell the other day. 

I got the bigger limb cut up and stacked, but haven't done much with these yet.  I'll cut the twiggy stuff off and put it into the compost.  The rest can be used for kindling. 

Now for a bit of good news- bad news.  I noticed that this planter was sinking into the dirt on one side.  It was causing one of the legs to start splitting.  I went to pick it up and move it to higher ground, but as I lifted it, the other leg split.   The good news is, once I got it settled on more solid ground, I found that I still had some wood glue and managed to fix the legs up pretty quickly.  

The hardest part was finding where I'd put the clamps after the last time I used them.  I've got to get my tools more organized.  

I've got to get my life more organized...

But the basil is doing well, at least the ones I had up potted that is.  The ones I'd left in the tray are much much smaller and aren't seeming to grow. 

Maybe they'll catch up.  We'll just have to wait and see.  

Not that it matters.  I'm still going to have basil running out of my ears before it's all said and done. 

I guess that's about it for today.  I don't know what it is.  While I'm at work, I can mentally compost long, eloquent, interesting posts.  But the minute I get home and sit down at the computer, they vanish from my mind just as if they'd never existed.  

So you get stuck with garden talk...and other boring stuff. 

In fact, I should change the name of my blog to Other Boring Stuff.  What do you think?