Sunday - Already having to water every day now. Lugging a hundred feet of hose around to water every day is a major drag. (ha ha). I enjoy watering, but dragging the water hose is no fun. The biggest tasks I did today (Sunday) were these: I pulled and dug grass and weeds and old plant debris out of one of the iris beds in the circular garden on the north side. Haven't been able to do that in several years, so it was in bad need of cleaning out. I let the water run and that made the weeds come out much easier and settled the dirt back down while watering them at the same time. There is still a third yet to do to finish that bed, but I had to stop for awhile. I got really hot and tired. When I am done, shredded wood chips mulch will go in there. It looks so much better already. BTW, my bearded irises have buds, so they will be blooming any time now. The minis irises are finished and the dwarfs have been blooming for a week. They a repeat bloomers. Later, I used my old-fashioned cultivator and prepared a twenty-foot bed in the vegetable garden. Then I set out ten of the broccoli plants there. There are probably 30 or more little plants yet to set out (somewhere). I only planted 20 seeds! How did 20 seeds grow 40+ plants? The rest went back into the greenhouse until I can till up a place for them. The soil is great in the vegetable garden this year because of all the manure-hay I put in there last year. I made one-inch collars by cutting paper towel tubes into 1-1/2 inch sections and placed them around each broccoli plant to deter cutworms from chewing through the tiny stems. I do that with tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers too. It works! I cultivated the potato beds - two 20 ft rows, to loosen the soil and then cultivated the path between one row of potatoes and the newly planted broccoli bed. The fern-leaf dill is up behind the broccoli where I sowed it earlier this month. Broccoli benefits from dill. I cleaned out the path along the asparagus bed where I planted the strawberries earlier this month too.(or did I do that in March??). Gotta keep the weeds down before they get away from me and drop seeds. Then I watered everything in there. I cut the lower limbs off the cedars on the east side next to the vegetable garden to allow more air and light into the yard and garden. I can't start the chainsaw (can't yank hard enough), so I had to use my bow saw. Ugh. The cedar branches like to et me up! I am allergic to them. Breaks out with an itchy rash and bumps like poison ivy, only the cedar's oil burns my skin too. Then DH came home and he came out and we hauled all the clippings up to the burn pile. He got out his chainsaw and cut down the big hackberry tree that was leaning over the garden. He cut all the smaller limbs off so I could throw them over the fence where he could drag them up to the burn pile too. Boy, do I hurt all over, but it looks great. Lots of sunshine now for growing tomatoes, okra, corn, beans, cukes and what-have-you. BTW, DH is going to buy me that little tiller so I can cultivate the rest of the garden. (he will probably use it too. He likes playing with gadgets and gizmos) :) Tomorrow, if I can walk, I am planting two rows of bush beans in between the two rows of potatoes. This is to confuse potato bugs when they fly over. It works. Marigolds will be transplanted on each end of the potato rows to help with repelling beetles. Garlic is growing along the other side of the potato rows. The radishes and beets are growing very well as are the onions. More onion sets will go into the garden in May to extend the green onions through summer. The strawberries are blooming and the asparagus are coming up. We will have to finish eating the rest of the strawberries I put up in the freezer last year to make room for this year's crop. Found more Morels today too. Yippee! Discovered that the Liatris bulbs I planted last week are up already. I never grew them before, so am thrilled. It was just such a beautiful day - I did not want to spend it in the house. I'd rather be in my garden. ~Annie

Excellent looking garden! Wow...I think you could add more of the items you mentioned-blood/bone meal, if you wanted to. But, you don't need it. That is the whole story behind the Mels mix(with blended compost). The original book had a whole chapter dedicated to soil and soil make-up, all of which led to a great garden. But, with Mels method you don't need to do any more of that. All you need is already there. And, the best part of it is that you don't need to be a chemical engineer to figure out what plant needs what kind of fertilizer at what time of the season, etc.....very nice job!....

I live just south of Elberta, Alabama. I'm not on the water but only a block from it so my growing medium has been sand and whatever I can find to add loam. (Rotted horse manure with wood shavings plus rotted live oak leaves. Surprisingly, I had a great garden last winter but this winter has been horrible. The weather has been warm enough to keep the army worms alive and well with great appetites for my greens. Anyone else struggling in my neck of the woods? This is just my second winter since I've moved here to attempt a winter garden. Thanks, Vicki

I absolutely loved the weather this weekend. My son and I visited Leu Gardens on Saturday, perfect day for walking around. Then I visited a fellow Gardenwebber and enjoyed sitting outside in his beautiful garden. The butterflies and hummers were active at both places. What a perfect weekend. Rhonda