Hence the reason I come here. I never thought of the mulch keeping the soil cooler for longer. I will have to take that into consideration. Kimmsr, When I clean the gardens, I don't remove any organic material. Since I don't cut back anything in the fall so the birds can enjoy the seeds in the winter and I can enjoy the winter artwork of the snow on the plants, I do the cutting back of dead stems in the spring and throw it all in the compost. You are right - it would definitely be counter-productive to remove any mulch left on the soil. I also don't mulch in the fall. I know there are advantages to it, but since I plant a lot of winter sown plants, I also want to make sure they will be hardy in my gardens so I don't coddle them late in the season. It's do or die. Tim, Good point on critters possibly seeing the alfalfa pellets as goodies. I might water them down a bit to turn them into mush. I'll dedinitely have to wait again since the ground has frozen once more with these below average temps we are getting. I hadn't thought of a couple of things obviously, but you folks did and I thank-you once again!

Hi everyone, It's remained cool and partly cloudy here in our neck of the woods (south-central Idaho). Spent the weekend digging the trenches for my drip irrigation main lines, installing the mains, and backfilling. The digging took longer than expected. I was keen to make sure that my main lines would all slope to a couple of low points - where I could install valves for seasonal draining of the lines. It was that "grading" that was so time consuming. Today I will get going on assembling and installing the drip lines themselves (I may be unemployed, but I have plenty of work to do :) If time allows I'd like to plant some carrots and a couple of other vegetables. We will see. Here are a few pics (enjoyed seeing your greens growing in your Earthbox jnfr - they look healthy. Skyb - lovely color - brightens my computater screen up nicely. bet your compost/potato factory pumps out some beauts. Gardenbutt - loved reading the article about your home - wow - what an incredible home you two have built! Hope everyone has great success with all your projects, and really looking forward to hearing and seeing more progress reports from everyone. Thanks for all the entertaining and informative posts everyone! Main lines and riser assemblies installed and ready for backfill. Where all the landscape plants "landed." The vegetable garden used to include a number of perennials and shrubs. Some may have survived to see another day. We will need to spend some time spreading these out to other parts of the property, or give some away to friends and neighbors. This robin has taken a liking to me and my shovel. He was the early bird this spring - getting here at a time that I thought he might be too early. He stuck it out and is really territorial with our yard now. He has a little feather irregularity that makes him easy to identify. Looks like he has been in a scrap.

i know i over watered, funny how you forget from one year to the next. as well, i was away on vacation for a week, so i put water in the bottom of the tray and had some one stop by mid week to add more water. they seemed pretty good when i got back, actually a bit better then when i left! so this is the 3rd week of less water, do you think they will recover? i transplanted all the plants to new plastic pots, buried to their necks in MG seed mix. Positive thing, the roots on all my plants are crazy big. the roots on my moms plant were almost non existent. as well another possible problem i noticed when transplanting, i never opened the new MG seed mix, i was being cheap and using up the last of my plain potting mix. ill keep you guys posted! thanks for the feedback.

Constance, I'm near Winter, about halfway between Hayward and Park Falls. I haven't found my scilla yet, but this morning I found crocus, and a few perennials sprouting. I can't wait now to get rid of the leaves, but I know it's too early. My husband cut down two dead birches yesterday, and I'm starting the think about what to put in their place. Virginia