Taking Back the Pathways

Yesterday I spent an hour or so taking back the pathways in the potager. They don’t have any covering, no mulch, no gravel, nothing. I really need to add something to them, but that will have to wait until I get them widened and changed slightly. They are difficult to weed since they get packed down with all the trips I make on them. This past year I let my arugula and dill go to seed, so most of the weeds were volunteers.

I’m in the process of trying to decide what surface I’d like to use on these pathways, this fall I’m hoping to have them changed and widening. I’ve been debating a few different surfaces: brick, crushed limestone, and mulch. Mulch or wood chips would be free since I can produce them myself. Brick would make for a nice hard surface and a clean one in mud season. Crushed limestone or small gravel is a surface that I really love, the sound it makes underfoot is one of my favorite things. Decisions, decisions, it’s a good thing I have a few months to decide!

What’s your favorite surface for garden pathways?

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Quote of the Day: Gary Cadwallader

“Flowers should be placed, in their most natural form, into vessels that enhance their beauty”

-Gary Cadwallader from Wabi Sabi House

This week I’ve been enjoying poppies in my little vase on the kitchen window. I try to cut one flower to put in there a few different times each week.

Are you cutting any flowers from you garden this week? What’s your favorite container and place to display them?

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Friday Favorite: Soil Blocks

This is the first year I’ve used lots of soil blocks in my seed starting and I LOVE them. The seedlings definitely grow better and have much less transplants shock. There is a bit of a learning curve to making and managing them, but one you get it they’re perfect. Yesterday, I got four more flats of summer lettuce and other fall crops going in soil blocks.

I’ll definitely do a long article or a series about them here when I have time to sit down and write it. They are well worth the investment in time and money.

Have you ever used soil blocks?

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A Beautiful Solution

I was having trouble with ants getting into my hummingbird feeder. Not only were they drinking all the syrup, they were chasing off the birds. Research on-line recommending an ant moat, others highly recommended using packing tape around the hook, still others used poison, which of course wasn’t an option here.

Since I had packing tape in the office, I decided that was the easiest and cheapest solution! It didn’t work – at all. The ants walked right across the tape without any problems.

I decided to buy and ant moat. After looking at so many plastic and metal ones that received mediocre reviews, I came across this beauty.


Now the hummingbirds can enjoy their drink without the ants and I don’t have to make nectar as often. I love watching these little guys from my kitchen window as I do dishes.

Do you have issues with pests at your hummingbird feeders? Any tips to keep them away?

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Parade of Lettuces

I was out looking at the potager yesterday and noticing how beautiful all the lettuces are getting. There’s something so pretty about Batavian and Butterhead lettuces, they almost look like roses. Edible gardens really can be just as beautiful as ornamental gardens, in fact I think they’re more beautiful in some cases. Here’s a parade of some of the lettuces growing in the back potager. I planted 16 different varieties this year and I love each and every one.











I really love butterheads and the varieties with red tinged leaves. They’re all just as tasty as they are pretty too!

What’s your favorite kind of lettuce to grow?

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