Lately is has been a mixture of cold, wet, and sunny days now that Spring has finally arrived. Saturday was so nice and sunny out, I decided to do some work out in the garden. Nearly every morning I go out in the #yard, literally looking for trouble: a knocked over pot, a tender #sprout eaten by a #slug, a flower being attacked by aphids, or a #weed trying to outgrow one of my bonsai trees in the same pot.
In my cover photo, I found this mysterious weed growing in the center of our back lawn. Even though it had been disguising itself within the grass, I could tell by the wild growth the shoelace shaped leaves that it was not grass. I gave the leaves a little nibble, and it tasted a bit like #onion to me. So I dug it up, and sure enough it had little white #bulbs at the bottom, smaller than my fingertips. They bulbs grown deep into the #clay soil of the lawn; about 4 inches down. Had they planted themselves there from the wind? Had I dropped some seeds here this past year. I'm not sure. The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted to keep them, but they would have to be moved. So I dug them out, and replanted beside the lawn, and gave them some moist fluffy #soil to help the roots settle in.
This weekend, I had also had a bag of garden #grounds (#coffee), which I wanted to spread out into all of the various #planting zones of my garden.
The grow bags had started #sprouting little #arugula veggies. Yes, I sowed those seeds here less than a week ago. Either the slugs are too busy getting wasted on the #beer I have been feeding them, or the coffee grounds seem to be offering a small bit of protection in this area. Whatever factors are happening back in my yard, it's working in my favor here.
The large #brussels sprouts stalks in this bag are also helping to hold the soil in tact, to prevent erosion, and holding open some air spaces for new healthy roots. As soon as the #brussels-sprouts flower and form seeds, I'll be there to capture them. If I get a couple volunteers that grow here again, that would get great.
Most of the sprouts are surviving the cold, wet temperatures, and a forest of slugs.
To get the coffee grounds to dust the surface evenly in a thin layer, I use a colander (like one used for straining spaghetti noodles). Just tap the side of the filled colander, and it instantly provides a soft, even layer of coffee grounds over a wide area.
Another nice benefit of applying the coffee grounds, the #squirrel has stopped digging through the grow bins as much as it was doing last week.
This year I allowed clover to grow in my grow bags as a #green #mulch so I could experiment with the chop and drop method of turning the living mulch into a green manure to feed the soil. The squirrel hated that idea, and had been on a mission to scatter as much of the chopped clover as possible. Maybe squirrels don't like clover because it #roots everywhere and makes the soil harder to dig in. I have no idea.
All I know is the coffee grounds have had an immediate benefit in the garden. Not so much as a nutrient to the plants yet, but primarily as a barrier of protection against squirrels and slugs.
There are also a few bare plots of soil I went around on with the coffee grounds. I'll be growing #corn, #pumpkin, #beans, #turnips, #cabbage, and #carrots on those areas, so hopefully it will make the soil a bit more #fertile in the coming weeks. I'm not sure what affect the wood chips these past two years have had on the formerly barren soil. There are definitely some pocket areas of #mushrooms and #fungal activity deep in the soil I have found.
As you can see, I've been busy sprouting seeds indoors over the long winter. The #tomatoes are looking the most ready to be planted, but they will have to wait another month or so to be hardened off.
Some of these plants take forever to get larger because I am not giving them very much root space in those tiny little pots.
The pot with the thick growth is all wild arugula. They seem to grow better in a dense pattern like this because the stems are so weak and fragile. This way, they can help hold up the other #stems so they can reach up taller towards the light.
As you can see, I don't much heed the suggestions on the seed instructions on seed spacing. Whatever works, that's how I roll.
Bonus Photo:
Need to make a #humidity dome for a new plant that needs the extra tender loving care? You can use any clear cup, and pair it with a simple yogurt cup like this one. The lip on the rim is just wide enough to rest on top. My little jiffy peat cup is actually suspended inside the bottom cup, so water can fully drain through, and the humidity can fill both the top and bottom areas. While the plastic and #sunlight has a greenhouse warming affect, the water in the air actually has a slight #cooling affect according to what my friend 
The #lavender I had growing in a folding plastic pie-slice container, however is growing marvelously in a humidity dome #micro-climate, and it's already adjusting to outdoor temperatures while inside the plastic container. I should have a nice cluster of lavender to #transplant into the garden in a month or so.
