New Mulch

Our mulch paths had quickly decomposed and were sprouting a collection of weeds!

So I spent all day Saturday removing the old mulch down to the landscape cloth. It was hard work.
The garden broom was very useful getting the last bits off the landscape cloth.

Hubby was ready for dinner and so helped me put the new mulch in. It went much faster!

Ahh, nice new paths. Little things make such a difference!

Sunday Funday - Garden Treasures

I love having things in my garden that are not growing. You've seen my chickens. 

(from two years ago, joined by chicks last year)

This year I was a Home Depot and found a Rooster Wind Chime! Just what the Potager needed!

Then my husband made this cute little garden gate opener!

So imaginative!!!

Then for Easter he gave me a basket! I had seen this basket, called a Veggie Hod on Runner Duck Resources and sent it to my husband with a note "We need to make this!" He then made his version of it and I love it.

It is made mostly of cedar, has a wire basket so I can hose the dirt off veggies before bringing them indoors, has feet to keep fresh picked veggies off the ground and a maple handle using a piece of maple hubby got from my Dad's shop before he sold it. How sweet! I cannot wait to use it!

Tulips

Tulips are a deer delicacy. I have never been able to grow them. Last fall I planted them in the Potager around the mums. Right now I am so glad I did.

Onions

When it is winter and you have been pouring over seed catalogs, it is fun to sow onion seeds and watch them grow.
The instructions are, "plant when the thickness of a pencil".

Mine never get any wider than this before it's time to plant them. They do grow into onions, although I worry about their little skinny selves for the first month or so after planting.

This is what my onions looked like last year. They weren't huge onions, but they were good to eat.

A week ago I was in Wal-Mart and found onions that were pencil sized for $3.33, all ready to plop in the ground. So I purchased them and put them in.

That was easy.

These are red onions and my seedlings are white, but I am going to compare how they grow. They cost twice as much as the seedlings - well maybe not since I did buy seed starting soil to use for the seeds.
I'm torn.  It just seems too easy. Like cheating. Then again, I have no qualms about buying little tomato plants.
This may be a learning moment that onions take forever so why waste my time with the seeds and worrying about putting those skinny seedlings in the ground when I can buy little onion plants, or even those onion sets that look like little miniature onions and get a head start. The money saved is negligible.

But then again, what else is there to do in the winter but plant onions.