Gardening in March?

Over the years, I have slowly been improving my vegetable gardening skills and knowledge.  Mostly I have learned from trial and error.  So far its worked out well for me.

Last year we built two raised gardens.  I like the concept of raised beds for a few reasons:

1.  Ascetically I think they are neater.  You don't have to worry about weeding around the edges, grass creeping in etc.
2.  It prevents you from walking on the soil which means that its not all packed down - this means that things can grow easier.  It makes pulling weeds easy too.
3.  Since you aren't walking in between rows of plants, you are leaning over and you can plant things closer together.  I have loosely followed the 'square foot gardening' ideas.

After some planning about what to plant this year, I learned that you can plant a few things as soon as the soil is workable.  They will survive with minimal frost.  This week I planted onions, spinach and peas.

Some of my perennials from last year include: chives, garlic, strawberries, sage, oregano and thyme.  It looks like parsley made it through the winter which is rare.  I don't think my rosemary made it.  I also planted some asparagus last year, so we will have to see if it came back - although it will be a few more years before we get anything to eat.  Other food in the yard includes: rhubarb, mint, raspberries and cherries.

Anyone else started playing in some dirt yet?

- Lauren

Forcing Spring

We have had a very mild winter, and it has felt like spring many times the past 6 weeks or so, I think we are almost there but I couldn't wait any longer. I cut some forsythia branches from my yard, put them in water and in a sunny window and waited for spring to bloom inside.

After some googling alittle, some people say to cut the branches under water, some say cut up the stem, or bash the stem (which is very woody). I just cut them outside and came in put water in a vase and placed them inside. Maybe you would get faster results with some tricks but I didn't use or need them.

I think it was my parents who mentioned doing this, it seems to be pretty common with forsythia which is one of the first bushes to bud in the spring. Its the one that flowers first with bright yellow leaves and then turns green for the remainder of the year.

Here are some pics after 4 days: finally starting to see some buds doing their thing.

After 6 days: green & yellow everywhere almost ready to open up.

Today, day 7. I woke up to open yellow blooms! 

I think tomorrow (and the next week or so) will be more and more yellow!

-Lauren

Bathroom Ceiling Transformation

Unfortunately I don't have a 'before' picture, but our bathroom ceiling was pretty gross.  There is no exhaust fan in there.  It had probably been painted with the wrong paint and was peeling, discoloured, uneven and all around gross.

Since its not our primary bathroom, we decided not to install an exhaust fan.  Plus, there is a window if necessary.  I told my Dad that I was thinking about tin tiles.  I thought it would be a good room to do it in since its small and wouldn't cost too much or be too much work installing.

One day he came over with a roll of wall paper - from the discount bin. It had only cost him $5! and he even installed it for me. I put up the trim, caulked it and painted the whole thing - and I love it! I didn't think it would be as obvious as it is - but a lot of people notice it when they come over.

I am glad that my dad was doing the wall papering and not me.  It definitely takes some skill (he has done alot of wall papering over the years) and the ceiling was extra fun since gravity was working against us.

-Lauren