BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Gardening Hello from the new editor

Hi Jackie Lee and everybody! Being one of those "NY" gardeners, I'd have to admit it's been an odd year so far. Although technically I live in "ski country" (near Ellicottville, NY), we didn't have any snow until February, but now we're being dumped on (although not nearly so much as those poor critters in Central NY who have 11 feet!). I was worried too about whether my daffs would die off after they started pushing through in January (I guess we'll find out in another couple of months). For those of us who produce maple syrup, this may be an awful year, although I understand some of my neighbors were tapping in December because the sap was already running. Whether this may affect the flavor or not, I don't know, but it will certainly affect the harvest next month!

Judith

Okay. I'm back and proud to report that I have just finished three (count them -- 3) 4'x12' lasagna garden beds, all done under six hours! My final lasagna gardening was for the grapevines and strawberries and I was also able to show a woman down the street how to do her own.

Her husband does the landscaping for me and had never seen the kind of gardening that I do and, apparently, kept talking about it. So, she gave me a call and asked if she couldn't come down and take a look. I told her I was just getting ready to start the grapevine garden and she could not only watch, she could take part.

I have a convert; she will never do the old time gardening, again. I also showed her how I prepared all of my seeds that would go directly into the garden, using paper towels and a very thin flour glue, so I would just have to lay them out at planting time and cover them with soil. I do them, at night, while watching my favorite shows. I was able to completely plant my large container garden in under 15 minutes.

Have a new digital camera, now, and as soon as I have the pictures rescaled and put in chronological order on my website, I will place the URL here so that you all can see it.

This year, I also made paper towel herb gardens to give to my friends go their containers. It's a very exciting year.