jenny.shadegarden

  In early February I made an arrangement to collect rabbit droppings and used bedding from my friend. She has two bunnies who live indoors. They are housetrained and leave their droppings in a litter box. The bedding is a cellulose material and there is also straw in the mix. We have organized a bucket brigade - I leave an empty clean bucket and pick up the full bucket of droppings. It's working out to be a weekly or bi-weekly swap.  The material from the litter box is very dry. I soak it in the bucket for a few days before adding it to the worm bins so the material is moist and the microorganisms can begin their work for the worms to feed. Today I checked on the worm bins and found a very lively worm community in the damp rabbit droppings mix. I layer the droppings between damp cardboard to provide brown compost. When I put my hands down into the droppings mixture, it was nice and warm, not hot. At this point I have gone from one handful of worms and bedding last summer to n...

  It was a great day for gardening. First, we loaded the truck with 6 empty trash barrels and headed over to the Burnaby Lake equestrian barn. It didn't take long for the two of us to fill all 6 trash barrels with manure. I was digging from the back of the manure shed. The manure, sawdust and straw were already composted to the point that there were worms in the pile. Matt was out at the front of the other shed. He collected the fresh droppings and straw. It was easy enough to maneuver the full trash barrels back up onto the truck bed. Our second stop was the Coast Salish Plant Nursery at the Wild Bird Trust of BC just off the Dollarton Highway. It is hard to describe the feeling of returning to the salmonberries, huckleberries and thimbleberries of my childhood. Also the sword ferns and liquorice ferns.  I have been dreaming of turning our east boulevard into an indigenous understory planting in the shadow of the giant Lombardi Poplar tree. I pulled up the sad turf grass year...

  I finally got up the gumption to plant some seeds. I haven't had very good luck planting, germinating, and cultivating seeds. I realized that there wasn't going to be anything lost if I planted the seeds instead of keeping them in their packets in the kitchen drawer. My planting bins this year are scrounged from our big yard clean up last year. I drilled holes in the bottom to allow water to escape and then loaded in layers of leaves from last year, soil from the city composting system, compost from my pile, and worm castings from my worm barn. I scattered the seeds and then added a layer of composted soil from my pile. Everything was thoroughly soaked with rain water from the rain barrel. I am not a patient seed planter. I am not a knowledgeable cultivator. I was wondering if I should give them a cover of wet cardboard for a couple of days to give them a warm blanket. They are probably planted too deep in the compost and old leaves.  We'll see if the miracle of life can ...

  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...