5/10/15 General Stuff and a Few Failures

In my garden bed are purple irises. Out by the walnut tree are blue irises. On the edge of the road are white irises. Now I find these yellow irises near the drive way. What's going on. Whose painting or should I say planting with colors? What will I find next? Red and orange?

Can you spot the bumble bee? He moved so much that it was a hard photo shoot.

My lettuce boat was a trial. I placed it in my kiddies pool and I think it sunk. I know if I lifted it up, it would fall apart. I think I'll do something different next time than a boat that sinks.

I bought a better flue pipe for my biochar can. It got a little humid and my first can rusted away. I wonder if I could grow something in it?

The humidity does the same thing on cars. If you don't have thick paint, you're going to be driving a car that looks like this biochar can.

There should be a lettuce contest. I wonder how big some leaves will grow? If you are a baby like me, cut around the thick stem. I do away with the stems on big simpson leaves.

I want to specialize in growing strawberries. This picture shows how to get some extra plants. Strawberry plants send out runners. Stake down the runner with a hair clip or horseshoe bent wire into the ground or pot. Cover around the tip with soil. It will grow roots. When it is rooted, you simply snip the runner. You will have so many starts that you will never have to buy strawberry plants again.

I planted trees today in buckets. I used a 6" PVC pipe and filled cut dried grass around the pipe. Hay really helps to modulate the moisture in the bucket and you use less soil. I planted redbud and dogwood trees that I got free from a store on Arbor day. I place them in a bucket of water until I was ready to put them in buckets. If they survive, I'll find a nice home for them at a later time.

  

These onions were left from last year. The old onions are quicker to blossom. Once they blossom you might as well eat them as green onions. You can cut off the blossom or stomp on them and they will still be useless for growing large bulbs. The early cold spells makes onions blossom. I am going to leave a few alone and collect the seeds. Did you know you can sprout onion seeds? They are very tasty.

Did you know you can juice radish greens? They are supposedly highly nutritious. I think anything you grow is highly nutritious. 

Let some of your radishes go to seed. In my book, "Honey Bee Baler," I tell you how to remove the seeds from their pods. Radish seeds makes the best tasting sprouts.

 Hay Bales and Mushrooms (Excerpt from "Hay Bale Garden Habitat")

After a period of heavy rains you might find mushrooms growing in your garden. Do not fear, unless you eat them. Mushrooms can be dangerous to your health but not to your garden plants. Mushrooms will not hurt your garden. Mushrooms display the healthiness of your garden. The presence of mushrooms denotes that your soil is healthy and thriving with life within the habitat. Mushrooms and fungi are beneficial to the environment and play an important role in the lifecycle of your plants. Fungi break down dead plant matter into basic nutrients that your garden plants can use. 

Belle is waiting for a belly rub. So long for now.