No, not like getting rip snorting drunk and rolling around naked in Nettles or anything…heck, I don’t drink.

I mean idiotic garden plantings that seemed like a good idea at the time-but were never going to work. I am by nature an experimenter and forever want to try new things. Based on my growing location and climate you’d think I’d know better than to plant some of the stuff I do, but I still keep trying.

Insanity or Incurable Optimist? Hmmm, it’s a very fine line.

Basket Willow in the Herb Garden

Willows are my latest mishap…but I haven’t given up. Yet.

I wanted a graceful willow planting.

Like the kind you see in the UK. Living willow arches, willow seats, willow domes. Try a Google search for ‘willow arch’ and you’ll see some of the gorgeous photos. These are things I long for in my garden.

I already had lots of willows from the nursery, and many varieties are perfect for what I wanted to do….however my climate does not cooperate with my plans.

The plan was to take some cuttings and make a series of small interlocking willow arches on one end of the patio for morning shade. The problem? The willows often die back to the ground in the winter. They grow back in very odd ways.

Here is one of my small willow arches that certainly has grown back in an odd way. Sad and in need of a haircut, isn’t it?

Seriously Bad Willow Arch

Here is the same arch after it’s haircut.

Still just as bad

Yes, It looks like Dr Seuss went on a drunken bender with a pair of hedge clippers.

Well, I’ve decided to give the willows one more year to shape up…or I am afraid I’ll have to replace them with something practical and attractive.

That actually makes me feel kind of sad.

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My Cattle Panel Greenhouse

At home, besides my medicinal herb garden I also have a kitchen garden. I start almost everything from seed or cuttings, so I have a nice little ‘homey’ greenhouse to work in.

The greenhouse at home is unheated except for heat mats in raised grow beds, so most seedlings and starts go into the greenhouse around late March. Around here nothing goes into the ground before mid May-except peas- and we wait until the guys down the road have quit spraying in their fields.

This greenhouse is a nice size for home growing. It’s also a cheap affair, my “Cattle Panel” lean to.

The whole thing is a mere 16′ x 15′- and is attached to the back of the potting shed….or as I like to call it-the Mental Health Center.

There is a small mist system for cuttings, and an 8′x 16 shade house for the 100* months of July and August- it’s also a cattle panel job.

Here is the shade house frame, completely naked and without flooring. It will have it’s top on and have landscape fabric laid down by early summer.  See? Nothing fancy. The LP tank for heating the potting shed is to the right.

Oh sure- go ahead and laugh at how ugly they are, but these things have held up through snow storms, straight line winds that took out a goat barn -WITH the goats in it- and more. Since I am in the middle of open fields I need sturdy. The metal arches wired together does the trick.

New plastic is definitely due this year on the greenhouse-I’ve gone 5 years on this bit and it is showing it’s age…and it was just a 4 year plastic.

The fact that the cats insist on climbing it doesn’t help with rips and tears, so until it’s replaced, all I can say is thank goodness for repair tape!

There are buds. Buds on things that share the herb garden. And there is actually supposed to be sunshine today as well.

That means Spring is here-despite the below freezing night temperatures. Robins have been spotted as well-which makes it all official.

You can see grass greening up which is beyond thrilling. I’ll enjoy it while I can, since I know perfectly well that our lovely Midwest has hellacious Spring storms that can bring tornadoes, ice and snow. Sometimes all at once.

Here is a dwarf Forsythia about to bloom as well.

Kind of brightens up the dull fields behind, don’t you think?

My Poop Manufacturers

Do you compost, or use compost in your gardens?

I do, but then I have tons of the stuff, thanks to my garden and animals.

My friend Steve Wright is ready to go big with his new manure and composting business located in Springfield Illinois.

He’s planning to tackle a big waste problem by composting ‘expired’ grocery store greens and other biodegradables.

He will also be working ‘with’ local farm critters who will be providing some of the manure for his enterprise, so get busy all you horses, goats, bunnies, cows and chickens!

You can learn more about what Steve is doing, and more about composting at his brand new site: http://www.soilsouffle.com.

Well, sort of since it’s possible I may be planting new trees this year!

Check out this video. The dogs are playing in a small area of the back yard near the barn. It rained for days and they were SO happy to get out and romp and stomp. Watch and see what the naughty scoundrels do…