Your dear old Aunty has a very focused philosophy about yard and garden care: Do nothing. If you can’t do nothing, do as little as possible.
What does that mean at Chez Siberia?
Well, it means things like the following:
1) We mow the lawn as little as possible during the hot summer months, taking the position that ‘what is above the ground is what is below the ground’ – the more there is on top, the more roots there are below, which is really a good thing if you are having a hot dry summer.
2) We compost everything that is not meat and put it on the garden and dig it in in the spring.
3) We mulch everything we can – our township has a woodchip generation and composting facility where we can go and fill up as many garbage cans as we can – we mulch all the beds and paths to hold in moisture and keep down the weeds. All the weeds (except for wire grass and bind weed) get composted.
4) If it is really dry and hot, we run a hose from the sump in the front basement out to the garden and deep wet the soil in the morning. Using sprinklers on the garden is basically a waste of water. (more…)
