Why I Oughta...

I've mentioned that Winter snow came early this year and that cut-short some of my typical garden cleanup. It also dropped most of the leaves on the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams that normally hang around all Winter.   And, those two things - snow packing down and leaves falling - has created a full bed of leaf litter at the feet of the Hornbeams.  Below is a photo showing the fallen leaves that have been matted-down by the heavy snow (that has since melted).   Just in FRONT of these trees is the newly-expanded Pizza Oven bed.  That bed is full of clay soil. One of the things I've been talking about doing this Winter is amending the clay soil to make it a little bit more hospitable to gardening next year - especially with more dahlias on their way.   My first thought was to utilize municipal biosolids and just pile it ON TOP OF THE CURRENT MULCH.  But, now, seeing this leave litter, I'm thinking that I should try to rake it up on top of the clay b...

Here's something that I've never done:  burned parts of my garden beds.  Each Fall, I do a clean-up that includes mulching in A LOT of my leaves.  I also add a big number of mulched leaves to my compost bins.  And, I typically try to 'blow out' my beds into the lawn where I run them over with the mower.  I then...blow them 'back on' the beds.  A modified 'leave the leaves' that works for me .   Then there's the Oak trees.  They hold their leaves WELL past the time that I've called it quits with Fall clean-up.   So come late Winter, our beds are filled with leaves.   Over the past few years, I've tried using a weed propane torch to burn up some weeds.  In lieu of herbicides, the torch is supposed to be 'better' for the world that chemicals.   But, I also thought....maybe I could burn up some of the dried leaves laying around my beds.  And, it didn't take me long to learn that I certainly could.  Her...