It’s time to get ready for the coming spring. Early in the month, turn under clover and other green manure crops in the vegetable garden so that the soil will be ready for planting next month. Even if you haven’t planted a green manure crop, till the garden to expose overwintering insects. If there hasn’t been any rainfall, make sure to water outside plants, especially if there’s freezing weather. They need to be well hydrated.
Water holiday gift plants with care. Check the soil before watering to make sure it is dry and to avoid drowning plants. Allowing these and other houseplants to dry out between watering will help prevent or control fungus gnats.
A man waters the harvest in an urban garden in Havana August 11, 2009. Cuba’s urban agriculture movement, developed in the 1990s as a response to the food crisis after the collapse of its former benefactor the Soviet Union, provides over 50 percent of the vegetables Cubans eat.
It’s time to get ready for the coming spring. Early in the month, turn under clover and other green manure crops in the vegetable garden so that the soil will be ready for planting next month. Even if you haven’t planted a green manure crop, till the garden to expose overwintering insects. If there hasn’t been any rainfall, make sure to water outside plants, especially if there’s freezing weather. They need to be well hydrated.
Water holiday gift plants with care. Check the soil before watering to make sure it is dry and to avoid drowning plants. Allowing these and other houseplants to dry out between waterings will help prevent or control fungus gnats.
To conserve moisture and protect your plants from the heat, use a good mulch or ground cover to help with treated area.
Whether it be ground-up corncobs, nutshells, spent beer hops or coffee grounds, go for the popular aged wood or bark mulches or consider shredded leaves, grass clippings with shredded newspaper, straw, pine needles, or thin plastic. Be ware of some wood mulches, that can produce “shotgun” fungus. Instead use bark mulch, gravel, stone or black plastic.
Buy from a reputable garden center, look out for someone selling cheap mulch , you may be sorry.
I love roses…….I was told many years ago, that if you want roses, you’d better grow them yourself. Because if you wait on a man to give you roses, you’ll be waiting a long time…..unless your one of the lucky few women in this world. 
So, you can see I grew my own………
They have weathered the storms we have been having lately.
I keep pinching the dead hips off, so they will make new blooms….. ………………..
I’m glad I fertilized the other day, it rained the next and watered it right in.
So, you think earthworms are outdoors creatures? Well, you can actually raise them indoors, and use their castings to improve your soil, indoors and out.
Container
Make it large and manageable, space 8 to 12 inches deep. They feed on the top layers of the bedding. Bins can be plastic or wood.
Drill 8 to 12, ¼-inch-diameter holes in the bottom and sides for aeration and drainage. Drill more holes if using plastic or bedding stays wet. Place a tray under bin to collect “tea” that drips from bin. Tea makes good fertilizer for houseplants.
Bedding
Options; shredded cardboard, newspaper, or coir (coconut husks); and peat moss. Mist bedding with water if it looks dry.
Cover bins to keep worms in dark. Keep temperatures between 40°F and 80°F for survival, place bins in cellar, warm garage.
Red wigglers thrive in temperatures between 55°F and 77°F (Worms from garden, night crawlers, prefer cooler and deeper soils.) Buy red wigglers through the mail or at a bait shop.
One pound of red wiggler worms (about 1,000 worms) can eat a 1/2 pound of scraps a day.
Food
Feed worms vegetable scraps, fruit peels, coffee grounds, tea bags, crushed egg shells, and even leftover pasta. No spicy foods. Avoid meats, fish, fatty and oily foods, and bones. Lay a thin layer on top of bedding. Worms feed in the dark.
A small amount of potting soil or cornmeal help your worms digest their meal.
Harvest
After 3 to 4 months your worms should have eaten the bedding and the scraps. Top layer of matter should be dark brown and the consistency of chunky sand. Harvest the castings. Push the castings to side, add more bedding and scraps. Worms will go to the new bedding and scraps. Dig out castings and add more bedding and scraps. Make sure to pick out stray wigglers and return
