Spring Tasks 2015

A honeybee on my crocus.

Now that we are well into April, the REAL gardening begins!

I have so many plans for this season and a looooooong list of things that need doing.

As every gardener knows, the "to do"  list never ends.  And the only way to make progress is to do a little at a time, working with the rhythm of nature.

My gardening plans for this season include:

1. Complete Master Gardener class.  (Only 2 classes left!)
If you are interested in the class for yourself, check out: http://mg.msue.msu.edu/

2. Complete the 40 hours of volunteer work to become a certified Master Gardener this year.
        -- I am on my way to finding places at which to volunteer:

Garlic Mustard - invasive plant in MI State Parks

                       I will be working with the Brighton Garden Club to help with the flower garden at the Brighton District Library.  http://www.brightongardenclub.com/ 
http://brightonlibrary.ifo/about/hours.html/  
                      I am also planning on helping to weed garlic mustard from a couple of the State recreation areas in Livingston County, MI.  http://michigan.gov/dnr/
                     I am meeting with Ms. Kay Simmons who organizes for the Livingston County Hunger Council in order to find out if I can volunteer at the Brighton Victory Garden.  This garden helps to supply Gleaners Food bank.  (We may even discuss creating a food forest in the garden - here's hoping!) http://www.livingstonhunger.com/our-work/community-gardens/

By the way.. If you happen to live in Livingston County, want to garden, but don't have any land of your own, the Brighton Victory Garden will allow you to garden for yourself in an allotment space in exchange for 5 hours of volunteer work each month in the community garden.   Contact Kay Simmons at the link above for details.
                 
 3. Plant an herb and perennial vegetable garden in the one strip of garden space nearest to the shore of the lake in my yard.

4. Maintain the gardens that I have already and keep the yard clean. (I won't bore you with the long list of what this involves.)

I have also accomplished some basic tasks already.

Uncovered & Pruned the Roses.

1. Basic yard clean up:  cut down the dead perennials, removed most of the leaves from the yard, pruned the bushes, and pruned the roses.

2. Re-potted some of the seedlings into potting soil (instead of the seed starter mix that they were in before.)

4. Re-potted the chard & cilantro. Starting to harden off these seedlings outside. 

Re-Potted the Seedlings

  3. Built a mason bee house.
  If you want to build your own check out:
   http://www.nwf.org 

  6. Cleaned and filled the bird feeders.



That is enough for now. I just can't wait to start really planting things!

Chard & cilantro seedlings.

My mason bee house.

Clean bird feeder.