Devine Gardens May Winner Announced

Devine Gardens May Winner Announced

The winner of the May Devine Gardens quarterly drawing is MM from Syracuse. February's winner picked the half pound of composting worms for their prize.

  Garden Goodies Basket Raffle – I thought it would be fun to do a raffle.  The winning name will be drawn June 21st. The basket will be with me at the garden shows or you can see it on the Devine Gardens facebook page. Just send me an email if you would like to enter.  The basket contains the items below:
  • Birch Lip Balm from Mumbling Mountain
  • Devine Garden t-shirt – size of your choice
  • Devine Gardens vermicompost  - 1 quart bag
  • Devotions from the Garden – Finding Peace and Rest from Your Hurried Life
  • Gardener’s Friend hands soap from Creekside Meadows Farm
  • Gardener’s Liquid Hand Soap from Syracuse Soapworks
  • Garden Gloves – size of your choice
  • Goats Milk Lilac Moisturizing Lotion from Silly Goats
  • Sunflower Oil & Beeswax Salve from Mumbling Mountain
  • Wooden planter with trellis
The spring plant sales and garden shows are coming:

The Master Gardeners of Onondaga County 3rd Annual Plant Sale at Beaver Lake
  • May 23rd from 10:00 – 2:00

Baltimore Woods Plantasia Annual Plant Sale and Garden Festival
  • May 29th, Friday 4:00- 7:00 member’s night

  • May 30th, Saturday 9:00 – 3:00, I will be speaking at noon about the benefits of vermicomposting

  • May 31st, Sunday  10:00 – 2:00

Lysander Spring Market Festravaganza
  • May 31st Sunday, 11:00 – 5:00 Lysander Town Offices in Radisson, 8220 Loop Road

Master Gardeners of Oneida County Herb and Flower Festival  in Oriskany, NY
  • June 20th, , Saturday from 9:00 – 3:30
Garden Goodies Basket Raffle – I thought it would be fun to do a raffle.  The winning name will be drawn June 21st. The basket will be with me at the garden shows or you can see it on the Devine Gardens facebook page. Just send me an email if you would like to enter.  The basket contains the items below:
  • Birch Lip Balm from Mumbling Mountain
  • Devine Garden t-shirt – size of your choice
  • Devine Gardens vermicompost  - 1 quart bag
  • Devotions from the Garden – Finding Peace and Rest from Your Hurried Life
  • Gardener’s Friend hands soap from Creekside Meadows Farm
  • Gardener’s Liquid Hand Soap from Syracuse Soapworks
  • Garden Gloves – size of your choice
  • Goats Milk Lilac Moisturizing Lotion from Silly Goats
  • Sunflower Oil & Beeswax Salve from Mumbling Mountain
  • Wooden planter with trellis
If you’re looking for Devine Gardens vermicompost these are the locations selling it:
  • Ballantyne Gardens, Liverpool
  • Baltimore Woods Nature Center, Marcellus
  • Buyea's True Value, Cazenovia
  • Cucurbit Farm, Acton, MA 01720
  • DeRuyter Co-op, DeRuyter
  • Manlius True Value, Manlius
  • Mumbling Mountain, Syracuse Regional Market
  • Parry's General Store, Hamilton
  • Village Ace Hardware, Fayetteville
  • Watson Greenhouse, Lafayette
  • Westvale Garden Center, Syracuse
Super Compost Mix: My goal is to have a 10% vermicompost and 90% compost mix bagged and available for sale next year. I’m looking for 50 people to try this Super Compost Mix and give me feedback. I have 50 cubic foot bags to give away, no charge, but you have to get back to me with your comments - good and bad. Call or email me if you’d like to try it. I’ll also have bags with me at the garden shows.

 Around the farm:
The cows are happy to have lots of fresh grass to nibble on. They’re not happy about the flies. Being our first year having cows our first instinct is to kill the flies with chemicals BUT it’s going to kill the good bugs too so we’re holding off. The chickens were supposed to be eating the fly larvae BUT we have a red fox around who has killed the rooster and 3 of the chickens. The 3 chickens left are spending most of their time in the coop where they’re safe. Hopefully, we control Mr. Red Fox soon.

We have honey bee hives! A neighbor’s friend who owns Angry Bee Acres is using some of our land for his bees. I had thought about having some hives of our own but now I don’t have to do any of the work and we get free honey! I’ve started substituting honey for sugar in some recipes. How about strawberry jam made with honey? Pamona’s Pectin has a recipe for it.

This summer on the to-do list is building more high tensile fence to finish off the perimeter of the farm not including the woods. The land can still be hayed but we’ll be able to move the cows to where there is lots of food for them and the cows can fertilize the soil. We are also putting in a water line to the cows behind our house. I have to admit that there were many days this winter when it was a real pain in the neck to get them water from the house.

I almost have the garden weeded and need to start planting before the weeds take over again. The strawberries were a mess and look a lot happier now. I bought a climbing hydrangea vine for shade and think I’ll buy another one so that they can be on either side of the swing. The raspberries that were planted last year are looking fantastic. The kale wintered over and we’ve had that a couple of times.

I hope that you have a great growing season and enjoy our warmer weather. Take care, Tina
Back to blog