The weather has been great!

I think that this is the first "real" spring we have had since we first moved to Chicago 10 years ago. The weather has been pretty great and except for a few serious downpours, it has been relatively warm with clear skies. The yard is doing well. The garden looks great as well. The inside of the house is a mess but the outside is looking o.k.After a couple weeks of using the rain barrels, I have learned a couple of things. I can water the yard (front and back planting beds and garden) daily for a week before I run out of water. Perhaps I'll get two more next year for the other side of the house because they are working well. Unfortunately, I can't use a soaker hose unless the barrel is completely full. So I need to find some other way to easily water the wildflowers coming up in the front. I also have a little tweaking to do with the barrel installation as my front barrel is creating a lot of splash onto the stucco during a rainstorm. This is not good.

We are almost used to the whole composting thing. We located the pile adjacent to the garden. It is separated by a wire fence "pen". I have been trying to layer kitchen wastes with yard waste and stockpiled leaves. We keep a medium size tupperware container near the sink and put all peels, coffee grounds, etc. in it and dump it when it fills (every couple of days). I create two stockpiles at the front of the pen, one for yard waste (weeds, grass clippings, etc. - these I collect each morning I work in the yard) and another of old leaves. The only reason I have these is because I had a scarecrow from Halloween that we never disposed of. I turn the pile weekly and water it every other day. It is already looking pretty good and there are no odd smells or visible signs of rodents. Even the rabbits are getting more scarce.

The weather has been so great, I even resorted to making some much needed repairs on the back step and today I cleaned out the garage. It is a little disconcerting to have so much space in there. Maybe it will rain next weekend so that I can get back to working on that bedroom.