Those terrible voles!

This first photo shows a little bit of the vole damage next to the Improved Canadian Choke Cherry on the West side of the house.  They eat the tender part of the grass leaving the tops as mulch.  There are trails all over the yard.  The best thing to do is uncover all those spots.  I use a tine rake and put all that grass in the garden or flowerbeds.  Then the tiny bits of grass trying to grow again can have air and water.  I'll show more photos of that in another post. 

When I was adding in the arrows I felt like the blue Genie in Aladdin saying, "Here, here, here, here, here, here, and here." Did you have Vole damage this year?

Here is a close up of the base of the tree.  It's not cleaned up yet, but will be as soon as I get the curtain rods put up downstairs.

And the other tree.

 And the last Choke Cherry tree.  It is part of a large flowerbed that I haven't done much with yet.  It looks much better since I tilled it.  I will till it again when it dries out a little more.  Then it will look much better.  I am going to fill in with river rock mulch here.  You can see the voles were busy here.  I'm almost terrified of the upper hill.  It's going to be a lot of work raking.  I'm already thinking having it power raked would be very beneficial.

In this photo you can see that most of west square foot garden is free of snow.  It's still frozen solid but doesn't take long to thaw it out.  I can hardly wait to plant.  It will be filled mostly with Little Finger carrots this year. I only grew a few last year but they are my absolute favorite carrot.

I will be designing a cover for part of my other square foot garden so I can grow broccoli and a few other items so they'll be safe from bugs.

You know, sometimes it's good to give things a trial run.  When I tilled this originally with my mini honda tiller I followed the slope and walked up and down this plot.  Then when I made my rows for corn I went east and west.  So the other day I decided to try and till between the rows just to see.  OY! Side hill tilling is no fun and kinda painful. So last night I decided to change my rows and moved them north and south.  Eventually there will be bushes and trees, a flat rock spot with a garden bench here but until I can afford all that greenery I am making this my corn patch.  

And because my Honda mini tiller is so incredible we have gotten more done this year than all of last summer and it's only May. Can you see that curvy line dug out of the grass?  Yes, everything to the left is supposed to be flower bed.  I found some disappointing news - the voles used my Rose of Sharon bush for a nest.  I think it will survive as long as they didn't eat all the roots but I will never let the grass grow up around it again.  And I might have to get a couple cats.  outside cats. 

 Here is a photo of the grass greening up in the back and filling in the vole runs.  I love it!

And I tilled the small area on the east side of the garage.  What to plant? I have no  idea.  I just don't want to look at the weeds. So I'll be tilling a lot this year I guess but at least I CAN. Oh and those ugly things are green bunching onions.  I tried to plant them about 4 years ago.  Nothing grew that year but every year new seeds sprout. I didn't know you needed to start them inside in like January. I collect the heads for new seeds and save about $1.50 on green bunching onions that way.

And if you want your garden photos to look better just take my Photo First Aid class.

Spring and getting outside

Can you see the difference in these two photos? I added more punch to the color and increased the contrast. That's something you'll learn in week 1 of my Photo First Aid class. Then I added a photo of clouds to the top so you could actually see them. Yep, that's something you'll learn in my Photo First Aid class in week 4.  

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning and my children were excited to get outside and enjoy the sunshine while Daddy mowed the lawn. The flox is just starting to bloom and I love the colors.  The medium pink starts first.  Then the purple goes next.  After that the brightest pink shows its colors. I've been transplanting some of the sedum around, especially the one with pink blooms.  It's great between the rocks and grows like crazy this time of the year.  Can you see the bottom step? That means that the grass has finally grown to its mature height. It's as tall as the step.  Of course, ignore the big patches the voles took out this year.  I think when it gets hot that they should fill right in again.