Now that most of us in Northern States are ruminating about our gardens, without being able to get outside, it is a great time to plan things we will do to enhance them.  One of the things more of us need to consider is water collection with rain barrels.  Theses are good especially in areas where there has been drought for some time, such as in the South East States, but should be used everywhere we have gardens.   This map http://drought.unl.edu/dm/DM_midwest.htm shows Georgia, South Carolina and parts of Texas and California in extreme drought conditions.  As we all know, the more we water, the better our gardens flourish, especially if they are vegetable gardens.  As I was researching this post, I found lots of places on the internet that talk about rain barrels,  including some areas where there is ongoing drought and rain barrels are given away:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08/the_long_hot_su.php

http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/idea-library/projects/Rain_Barrels_0408.aspx

http://www.theconservationfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=124&Itemid=2

http://www.harvesth2o.com/statues_regulations.shtml

http://www.uri.edu/ce/healthylandscapes/rainbsources.html

Rain barrels are an important way to collect water for use in the garden, and a wonderful way to reuse what was given naturally.  These can be any size, but are usually the classic 55 gallon which can be bought  locally or on the internet, or found, but make sure the previous contents were not some toxic substance.  The rain barrel is located at a corner of the home or building used for collecting.  The water is collected from the roof by using  the guttering, which is then run into the barrel, which has a drain plug attached to a hose for dispensing where needed.  Screens are needed to filter out all leaves and other foreign matter.  Also there are directions about making sure the water is not contaminated with mold, or any other bacteria or viruses.  I had not thought about that before, but there are birds and animals on our roofs, and we do not need to contaminate our vegetable gardens.

Hopefully this will inspire you with your happy planning for spring.

photo Creative commons by Rain Barrel by _ES

and one of my promises to Mother Earth is to look toward those native plants that help us reduce, reuse, and recycle with less water and fertilizer, leaves and clippings as mulch, and vegetable leftovers for worms to convert to rich nutrients for growth. This is where we all need to go, yes we can bring our Mother Earth back to wholeness.

Thank you, folks at this garden club, you made me feel very welcome, and put on a great presentation. Maria Wilson from the Department of Forestry spoke about Arbor Day (in Florida it is the 3rd Friday in January, the best time to plant) and trees: which are native and which are invasive. It was very informative and interesting.

Of course, since I fled the horrible cold, it has followed me down here, hard freeze warnings issued for tonight. At least there is no snow coming!

Stay warm out there, guess this will be the coldest day of the year just about everywhere in our continental states.

I decided Thurs. 1/8 that it was time to get out of town: the sidewalks and parking lot at my apartment were sheets of ice, and about 6″ of snow was due to hit Saturday night.

This post is dedicated to the lady I spoke to in the Georgia Cracker Barrel restaurant; yes I have taken my picture books and computer on the road for a trip around the country to visit family!

She was looking at some garden things in the gift shop area, and I gave her my card. She said her garden did not do well last couple of years, and ***FLASH*** my brain actually worked and I responded with, yea, you’ve had a couple years of drought! So I told her to mulch.

OK, mulch, mulch, mulch around all your plants, beds, vegetables and flowers:  spread mulch: grass clippings, leaves, compost, kitchen leftovers and scraps (preferably no meat), and newspapers (no colored or shiny sheets). The primary purpose is to build up  layers to cover and protect the soil from the sun and evaporation…to hold whatever moisture that is in the soil IN THE SOIL. If possible, use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to water, and hopefully water that was collected from the rain in buckets or barrels. Droughts in the Southeast have been severe last year, and however you can catch any precipitation, it is priceless!

As I sit here and type, it is pouring outside here in the northeast corner of Georgia. At least it is not snow! Maybe this year the much needed rains will come and replenish the dry Southeast.

With a brief moderation of temperatures, actually got outside for awhile yesterday. Felt really good. I hate being cooped up indoors when its too cold.  And looked at all the landscaping needs of the place, needs lots of loving care, which will begin come spring!

So we were looking at my daughter’s lilac, which still had all the dead flowering heads, or seed pods from last spring. I feel that all flowering plants do better when the old, dying, flowers are removed, to keep plant from continuing on to seed production.  Of course the proper way to prune is with pruners, which we did not use

Looking at this lilac, it is a good size, best not to let them get too large and overbearing. A lilac should really not be more than ten feet tall.  They need good air flow through the plant, as lilacs are especially prone to get powdery mildew, diminishing the beauty of the plant.  So when pruning, look to cut out dead stems, and those in the center of the plant that do not have the double buds,  since they’re not going to bloom in the spring.  If the plant is too big, one way to “fix” it is called rejuvenation, or cutting the plant down to about 18 inches tall late fall, of course this is drastic; but the end result will be a healthy and new plant, and it will show beautiful new growth the first spring, then the next year will begin to flower.

I also love the buds on the lilacs, they are nice, rounded double buds, one for the flower, other for the leaf.   Very distinctive, and beautiful!

Happy New Year! to one and all.

I hope you all had a safe holiday season.  I am so glad it is over now, I find that all the commercialism really tends to bum me out!  Then there are those nasty little “expectation” problems!  But we have survived!

It is really cold out today, and I tend to think that it will never be outside weather again, but at least the days are really starting to get longer, so spring will come, and we will be able to get out and enjoy again.

So stay warm, how ever you manage, and let me hear from you, comments power my life!