Solar Light

Look what I found...hand-blown glass solar lights for the yard. They are mostly ornament and not to be considered landscape lighting. They do light up, but like most solar lights, they give off the same amount of light as a glow worm! They should be considered art for the garden. I bought them in a garden store in Santa Cruz. It seems that the closest place to Sacramento to buy them is in LaFayette! I am working on getting them in locally.

A Room With a View

We often buy art to complement a room or even our furniture. A beautiful landscape can frame your windows and be an ever-changing portrait of natural beauty!

Get ready for spring - amend your planting beds!

At this time every year I get excited about my vegetable garden. Each year I mentally review what happened with the veggies that I planted the year before, and think of ways I can improve things. Sometimes it's the variety of vegetable, sometimes it's adjusting the irrigation; but what is an important MUST DO is amend the soil. This year I have amended my garden soil with an Organic Fertilizer combination that I read about in Natural Home Magazine (Nov./Dec. 2011). Here is the mix:

4 parts seed meal (I could only find soybean meal)

1/4 part ordinary agricultural lime (I used Oyster Shell)

1 part bone meal (or high-phosphate guano)

1/2 to 1 part Kelp meal

They recommend that before planting a crop, or once a year, you spread one quart of fertilizer mix and 1/2" of finished compost evenly atop each 20 sq.ft. Blend with a hoe or spade.

What I did was sprinkled about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of the mix on the small areas individually and planted my starts.

I'm excited to see the results! The photo in the magazine of the man who came up with this mix, Steve Soloman, showed him sitting next to HUGE vegetable plants. That's what I want!