jenny.shadegarden

  I filled a 5 gallon bucket with worm castings from my eight worm bins. I started last summer with a handful of worms and bedding. These castings still have cocoons in them, so I still need another layer of hatching to collect those worms. I set them into two more bins. I just have to figure out how to arrange them. I think it is the same as the worm bins - castings on one side, food on the other.

  A pear tree and an apple tree blew down in the last ice storm. I made a deal with my neighbours to pile up the branches for removal if I could collect pieces of the trunk to use for mushroom cultivation. Ever since I heard about mushroom cultivation last year I have been enthralled with the idea. Now I have my mushroom logs ready for the next step.  It will be no problem finding sections of the garden that are in shade all day.  My next step is to find a source for mushroom inoculation and find out how to apply it to my pear and apple logs.

  Buyers Guide.org Finding the best rain barrel product to create a water conservation infrastructure on your property. Our property has 5 existing downspouts draining rain from the main roofs of the house. If we have a 50 gallon water barrel under each downspout, we could have at least 250 gallons of water in reserve for the summer drought. If we put 2 water barrels under each downspout, we could have 500 gallons of water on hand. The average cost for a plastic 50 gallon barrel is between $150 and $250, budget $50 for extra fittings, say $300 per barrel for materials. Installation will depend on each setting, but there will likely be work to establish a footing for the barrel and then downspout and house connections. There is also the option of having a drip hose installed in the garden to connect to the rain barrel. The drip hose would be installed during garden bed installation.  The rain barrel could serve as a water distribution centre, so the garden hose could also be pl...