The Osprey Have Returned!

Wow, what a gorgeous weekend! As usual, I heard the osprey pair before I saw them. I'm so happy they're back. I've resolved the issue of how to garden this year. Quackgrass Acres has moved from the community garden to our back yard. In the long run I'll have 4x4'raised beds but the spot needs to be cleared first. We have a row of hemlocks on the side of the house that have been killed by insects. Our son's old tree fort is up there too. We need to take down the fort to recycle the wood and get rid of the hemlocks. This isn't going to happen overnight. So for this season I'm container gardening in 18 gal. storage bins. I got the first one going today with peas and lettuce. A dead hemlock branch made a nice trellis for the peas. The soil is so nice, a combination of soil from a decomposed wood chip pile and some manure leftover from last year. And it's darn near rock free. Community gardens are great but not for me. First, it was just too big for me to manage on my own. Second, it was across town. I'd rather be able to wander out and garden for 15 min. a couple of times a day. This is going to be a lot more manageable. Now if I could just remember where I put the leftover seeds from last year.