Inground Container Gardening

That's what I'm calling it...Inground Container Gardening. If the soil in your yard is like mine - clay and rock - then you understand. When you manage to dig a hole big enough to plant something, you find the hole itself could double for a clay pot or plastic bucket. Ugh!
Soooo...I abandoned the trench idea for the blueberry plants. (I'd still be digging) And went for the container gardening method. For the blueberries we dug holes larger than required, filled the holes with acidified potting soil, put in the plant, watered well, and mulched with sawdust left behind by the chainsaw. Photos to follow.

Boy, do I need a bath.

Putting in my First Blueberry Plants

On Tuesday the temperature reached 93 degrees, a new record in our area for April 28th. By Wednesday evening a frost warning circulated! Ah, New England. This morning it is 40 degrees, no frost, but I had brought my little tomato plants back in the house just in case.
A few days ago four blueberry (not wild blues) plants arrived. Yesterday, after digging the first hole, I poured water into it just to check the drainage. That hole held water like a pail! Nice. So today I'll be digging a trench rather than four separate holes for the blueberry plants. That way I can fill the trench with organic material and better soil. Good luck to me.

The nursery that sent the blueberry plants included a booklet of how-to instructions. Listed below are their -

RULES FOR CONTAINER GROWING

1. Containers may be plastic, wood, metal, or clay. Your container must provide drainage. You cannot have water sitting in the bottom so the root system lies in a pool of water all the time. To provide drainage, drill or punch holes in the container, then put a couple of inches of broken crockery, gravel, marble chips or comparable material in the bottom.

2. Use a container big enough not to crowd roots. Trees require containers about 24 inches across, whether round, square, or rectangular, and as deep as your knee. For grapes and berries, use a container to one-half the tree size. A good mixture of soil for container growing is 1/3 sand, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 loose planting soil.

3. Feed your plant(s) with a liquid fertilizer once a month. Water them during growing seasons frequently enough to keep the soil slightly damp, not moist, to the touch.

Begin Easy

Here's a short, easy, information video about container gardening. Spring is the time to begin. Go ahead, jump in.

Ah, gardening...

Yesterday my husband found an article about me on the internet. I just had to post it here. Click on the pictures to see the whole message.

The Innocent for the Guilty

Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation describe in symbol the throne room of The Creator. Today we commemorate this portion of the scene.

Then I looked and I heard, around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, "To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!"

Peace and Love.

Spring 2009

Finally Virus #OMG, the dreaded virus from hell, has drained all the mucous out of New England - again. Last year it stormed the area in January, oozed cross country to the Northwest, bumped into the moist Pacific air, sneezed itself around, engaged in nose to nose combat back through the Midwest, and coughed up a surprise attack here in March this year. Who knew those little bits of RNA could or would organize into mighty armies attacking young, old, and all ages in between?

Yesterday I took a two-tissue, no-cough drive to NH. Weeks have passed since I've seen my little girls. While Mom and Dad went out on a dinner date, they twirled in dresses I'd brought from a local consignment shop, went swinging in the back yard, played with Summer their black lab, ate supper, and colored eggs. We talked about planting while they tried on their new Dora gardening gloves. Already single pumpkin and watermelon seedlings are waiting to be transplanted.

Meanwhile when possible we've been cutting, splitting, hauling, and stacking wood. Check this out...nice, huh?