Hi there to you Curt
I just love singing that song "This is my Father's World", do you know it ? It's a lovely praise song. Of course what with all the damaged done by the Evil One it is a shadow of what it should be, and could be and will be... when it gets all remade.
I live in a forest area with very sandy soil in our 600 square meters land where our cottage is on. The ground water is high so we can put in srubs and trees that grow well but little of nutrients are in the soil. Because of the wild animals that roam around loving anything of veggies planted I haven't started a food garden here.I have had 18 years of cultivating our veggie garden in the other place we lived in. But here is different. We have such tall trees that the east and south sunrays in the sommer wouldn't hit the gardenpatch rightly for giving the needed synthesis for growth. West sunrays is ok for late developing veggies like pumpkins, squash, cucumbers perhaps.
I will do my cocktail tomatoes in the decorative flower buckets vats outside again this year and will try out those hanging strawberry from pots. There is a very good place where the sunrays are hitting the side of the house. I thought to do a hanging garden in that area. It's big trend here for many who don't need much produce for the family. Just a hobby sort of thing. We have a bio-organic farmer supplying us with our vegetables.
What I am into is high-bed shrubs/bushes/small japanese trees. Up front of the house I have such a fine bed going strong there with wonderful greenery between the big beech trees. It separates my house front from the main road and the greenery is making us almost non-seeable. We have lots of health joggers and walkers go past our place to the paths into the woods for their exercise hours. I was able to gather lots of farn from the woods for free and they are giant farn. They are coming up now just wonderfully but aren't finished uncurling to start spreading out and growing those broard fans. I have already talked to a gardner who will help me for the planning of a high-bed greenery in the backyard coming soon.
We have routed our house's rainwater drains into big barrels. Each barrel a height above the other with a spigot spyphoning water-overflow into the next one. When all 7 are filled up (plus the three others elsewheres) we can rightly water our high-bed plants and all the fir trees around the grounds. We have this hand-waterpump which we attach to the garden hose and throw into the barrel. It has a long wire and we plug it in for the needed e-power. It is real quiet, but powerful enough to pump the water out through the hose and through the sprinkler in a weak way but effective enough.I just have to keep checking it to see if it hasn't turned off. When the buoy float doesn't have a certain level it shuts off the power.
The black birds are digging like mad in the moss to get at the worms. Not bad because it loosens up the soil. I like moss but many think it is awful in the lawn. My bird feeding is still going on. I leave a bit of catfood out at nights for the igel that has been seen wandering around. The wild pheasants are beautiful. I just love how they strut in rythmic slow elegance over our lawn to the birdfeed area and peck up what they need. I need to look up the picture of grouse to see what it looks like and if that may be also what has visited. The forest doves fly in to my place as well. But the antics of the red squirells show me that they get excited about good food nuts when I lay out some for them. The root of their tail goes all wiggley and it looks so wild when they then toss that fluffly tail back and forth for joy. And often they have finished all the nuts, one comes over to the window and looks in by standing up on back legs and leaning front paws on pane of glass, while seeming to say with body language " Hey, gal...get up and come give us more!"
Joan