Weeding Out Mother Nature's First Responders

From the Gardens of Cheesecake Farms
www.CheesecakeFarms.com

Your garden soil is a labyrinth of networking life forms.

When you dig and disturb the soil, Mother Nature sends out a distress call to protect the habitat.  

Like magic, tiny plants emerge to repair soil damage and fill in bare spots preventing erosion.

We call them weeds.

Mother calls them her first responders.

The Winter Garden - Dreaming About Spring

Dream'n About Spring

By Karla Jones Seidita
Home Economist & Master Gardener
www.CheesecakeFarms.com

Thinking about spring?

You're not alone!

Every gardener longs for the spicy scent of spring's early thaw.

This is a good time of your to plan a little before the gardening rush begins.

As you dream about the beauty of a manicured lawn, carefully pruned bushes and the beds of bulbs, think about the activity of your landscape.

A healthy garden or landscape will have lots of birds, bugs and butterflies.   Hummingbirds, too, and bees.  Your Garden of Eden should be as congested as Times Square on New Years Eve.   

Without activity and buzzing around, your garden might as well be filled with plastic flowers because it has ho life.

To pump up the volume of activity in your garden, attract birds and butterflies by adding brightly colored flowers (like zinnias) and a water feature like a bird bath.  

Forget pesticides and weed -killers.  Don't be afraid to let the bugs come.  They'll make a hearty dinner for the birds who'll reward you with their beauty and grace.

It won't take long for your garden to come alive.  The more activity in your garden, the healthier it is!!!

Welcome to the Gardens at Cheesecake Farms!

This is the first blog about our gardens here at Cheesecake Farms.

Our regular, main blog (just called Cheesecake Farms) has been up for a few years and we posted recipes, helpful hints and general information about good food, great gardens and a healthy life style.  We posted about our Bed and Breakfast located in Sumerduck, Virginia.

But this morning, just as the dawn was breaking, I was out in the garden with my first mug of coffee, watering and planning for the day when I thought that maybe, just maybe you might be interested in how we 're developing and managing our gardens..... so, I'm creating this very special gardening blog.

Cheesecake Farms is a 25 acre farm that's home to 3 horses, 1 dog, 11 cats and us - my husband Tony & me.  We have a Bed and Breakfast on the farm.  Several of the rooms are in the "Mane House Inn".  Some are at the barn.

We're working on the gardens of the Mane House Inn right now.  It's the most challenging.  The Inn was a newly constructed house - built about 4 years ago.

The builder, who claimed to know everything about landscaping and soil, removed every bit of top soil from the house site and took most of it away.  What we were left with was solid red clay that was impossible to get a shovel into.  Nothing would grow on it - not even grass.  It was a nightmare.   I had lots of "professional" people out to give me advice on what to do.   All they could tell me was to bring in truck loads of new (and purchased!) topsoil.   Can you imagine what that would cost?

So I set about to find out what I could do and not spend a fortune.  I'm going to chronical what we did and what we're doing.  My goal is to make a place so beautiful and so filled with wild life that we're asked to be part of the annual Garden Week in Virginia.  Yes, that's what I want.  A beautiful, healthy garden - vegetables, flowers and herbs. 

I hope you'll join me here from time to time and see how we're doing. Maybe you'll be able to use some of our ideas in your own garden.