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New Stuff On the Way I manage to find a few new gardening tools to try and the most helpful will get mentioned under the Tool Shed. Sitting under it's protective cover I have what I call "The Beast" waiting to get used when the compost dries out and pruning gets completed. The 10 hp chipper/shredder isn't for everyone's garden, but for the avid green thumb, with a sizable piece of property and plenty of trees, it can be quite useful. I managed to fill the engine with oil and gas and ran an old bale of straw through the hammers. I was quite pleased with the results. I also learned not to toss in moist steer manure. Let's just say something hit the wall and I had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning up the machine. "The Beast" is also noisy and a bear to move, but I've already grown fond of the thing and hope to use it often. Give me a couple of warm, dry days and I'll try to run it through its paces and report back. My winter vegetable garden suffered a bit from all the rain we had this winter. I'm not complaining about the rain but I had trouble getting the lettuce to dry out when covered with protective row covers. It seemed all that moisture encouraged an early bumper crop of aphids. Because of the wet soil I didn't visit the garden as often to harvest soil and a lot of fast growing radishes and lettuce ended up in the compost bin. Rabbits and rodents were quick to find any wildflowers that sprung up in the garden although a few poppies and blue bells managed to bloom. The neighborhood javelina continue to visit and always destroy a pot or two of bedding plants as they pass through the front or back yard garden.
What I once thought was pretty rare in my garden are the bobcats. I see them fairly often but they have yet to cooperate when it comes to taking a photograph. They just don't stick around long enough for me to get a good picture and have yet to respond to my, "nice kitty, kitty." With spring almost here it's hard not to want to start making a few changes in the garden. Lots of tomato plants, squash, and peppers have been seeded in the greenhouse and it won't be long before they get transplanted into the vegetable garden. I need to work on the compost bins and move the compost to the raised beds once the winter crops are removed. I've also started several different kinds of bedding plants which will get moved to my collection of hanging baskets and clay pots as the weather warms. I also managed to stock up on caladium bulbs which seemed to be a bit scarce this year because of the two hurricanes in Florida last year. I'll get them started in the greenhouse by the end of March as the plants I over wintered get moved back to the garden. My gardening budget is set and, I'm eager to prune, plant, fertilize and propagate over the next three months. And I certainly plan to share some of those experiences on the pages of The Tucson Gardener in 2005. If you're a regular visitor you'll have to check back now and then to see if there is anything new. If you're here for the first time you can browse the Archive for past articles or use Search for specific information.
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