Cheesehead Gardening Episode 14: Beating the Heat

Using cardboard to line flower beds - bye bye landscaping fabric

There are a few things that a lot of people use in their gardens that I just cringe at the sight of it.  One of those things is landscaping fabric.  I won't tell you the rest, since I will probably start receiving nasty emails.  Yes, I admit that I have landscaping fabric in my garden.  As a beginning gardner I didn't know any better.  But now I know just how hard it is to work with.  Not only is it hard to put plants in once you have the fabric down, but it also doesn't prevent weeds as they grow on top of the landscaping fabric.  So here is my method for laying out a new flower bed.

 1. Choose your location. I always dig up the sod in the area, but I know others who skip this step.

 2. Line the new garden bed with cardboard. (You can also use thick sheets of newspaper (not shiny colored ad) I tried this but I have so many birds they were constantly pulling it through and I had newspaper everywhere.)

 3. Cover the cardboard with compost.

 4. Start laying out your plants.

 5. Once you have them laid out the way you like them, then you can dig in and plant them.

 6. This is the garden a year later.

7. This is the garden three years later, and I hardly ever have to pull weeds from this garden.  My only issue with this garden is the chipmunks who like to eat my lily bulbs.

Adding some color to containers by repurposing household items

I love blown glass garden art, but I can't afford to fill my entire garden with it.  When I was in Lincoln City, Oregon a few weeks ago I watched how blown glass floats are made.  I fell in love with some of them, but I seem to have expensive taste.  Every time I would find a piece of glass art perfect for the garden it was $300 or more.  So I walked away empty handed.  On the way back to our rental house we stopped at a liquor store to pick up some margarita mix.  The first thing I noticed when we walked into the liquor store were these cool glass twists in a vase they had placed throughout the store.  Then it hit me that they were twisty straws.  I just had to buy some, as I knew they could be used in my garden somewhere.  Here is the result:

The today I was in a party supply store picking up a birthday card and found something else I could use in pots.  Can you guess what these are?

I sometimes wonder if I am the only one who sees something and tries to figure out ways to use it other than the way it was intended.

Oshkosh Garden Walk

Despite the hot weather today, I decided to tour the gardens in the Oshkosh Garden Club's garden walk.  Here are some of the highlights from the walk.

Review: Remington RM212B Electric Battery Push Mower -win a lawnmower

This spring Remington contacted me to find out if I would like to try one of their electric or battery powered lawnmowers.  I really wanted to try a battery powered lawn mower, especially since our old lawnmower died earlier this spring.  We have too many trees and other obstacles in our yard for a corded electric lawnmower.

Here is the lawnmower Remington sent me:

Pros:

• Easy to put together
• VERY easy to start
• Quieter motor
• Adjustable height (all four wheels are adjustable at the same time)
• Comfortable handle
• Can choose from side discharge, mulch, or bagging lawn clippings
• No gas required
• No winter maintenance, simply store battery for winter
• No cord required
• We mowed lawn twice and never had to charge battery (still life left)
• Has indicator lights on battery so you know when power is running low and it needs to be charged
• Most important: it was great at cutting the lawn (better then our traditional lawnmower)

Here is video of how easy lawnmower is to start:

Cons: 

• Because of the battery lawnmower is a little bit heavy, would not work if you have very large hills or steep inclines to mow.
• Not self-propelled, this is only a drawback if you are used to a self-propelled lawn mower.
• This was a smaller base compared to our other lawnmower.  This is 19" and our previous mower was 22"

Would you like to win your own Remington RM212B Electric Battery Push Mower??  Cheesehead Gardening and Remington are giving one away!!  Just enter here.  A winner will be chosen by random number generator on July 25th.  So be sure to enter by 9pm (central) time July 25th.  Good Luck!

Remington sent me the lawnmower free of charge, but asked me to be 100% honest in my review of their product.
  

Wordless Wednesday - see it's not always about hosta

Asters

Short post, but I just realized that I never cut my asters in half yet.  Usually I try to do it on or around July 4th.  It keep them from getting leggy and falling over in fall when they are in bloom.  So if you have asters, I would get out there and cut them in half if you haven't already.