Saturday, April 23, 2011

Complete Garden Update

It's Easter and the first weekend we have both been home for a long time. We are spending the weekend working in the yard and not doing much else. It has been a little while since I did a full garden update so here goes.

Bed #6: The peas are up through level 2 and flowering.

Bed #1: Garlic is up. The cages are place holders for future peppers.
Bed #2: A trellis is up in the back for the sour gherkin cucumbers. Both beds 2 and 3 will have trellises. Last year we planted 3 cucumber plants. This year we will have 12. I better figure out how to make better pickles. A few blocks of radishes are filling in. The cages are for future tomatoes. The pots have a few sungold cherry tomato plants and one early variety.

Bed #3: The tomatoes and peppers are hanging out here for a few more weeks soaking up the heat. There is also carrots and cucumbers in here. This bed will get infilled with tomatoes.

Bed #4: This is our first year trying a production flower bed. I think we have 12 kinds of flowers planted.

Bed #5: The plastic was replaced with floating row cover. This bed has greens which don't really like the hot weather. The row cover helps to keep them cool and keeps out the moths.

Lettuce is in the back, then spinach not doing much, then mustard, then some very small swiss chard. The soil in here was a little too loose and the greens aren't very happy.

Bed #6: Peas, onions and fennel. The squirrels have been digging in the onions and they aren't doing very well. I put up some chicken wire to try and convince them to move on. They aren't eating the onions, just pulling them out.

Herb box: This is an experiment. The squirrels pulled out a couple things. We will see if this survives.

I haven't said much about the composter. The naturemill is running like a top. Once a week we get a nice container of compost like this. It sits outside in a pile to mellow a month or so before I will put it on anything.



Monday, April 18, 2011

A Quick Update

I spent the weekend working in the yard getting more brush cleared and grass planted. I also got almost all of the garden in. When I get some time I will do a full update. I promise that when this semester is over there will be some pictures of house projects other than the garden.
This year I ran out of room for herbs in the garden and had to find an alternate site. The one site in the yard that gets plenty of sunlight is the space along the back wall. So I built a couple planter boxes to side on the wall. I used ipe and a a few zinc-coated brackets. The bottom is lined with chicken wire and landscaping fabric.






Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Missing Yard and A Growing Garden

Sam took her structural engineering exam last Friday and Saturday and I was at three conferences last week. So, needless to say we have been busy. Here is a quick update, although a couple weeks old now. It will help get caught up.

Here is the garden, circa April 1st. Six raised beds, two hoop houses, and lots of baby plants. The garlic is going crazy.

Under the hoops are onions and peas in this one, and greens of all sorts in the other one. The tomatoes and peppers have been pushed to the driveway since there is no room. I don't know how I managed with one hoop house last year because I'm full with two now. Meteors? Nope, as soon as I turned my back the squirrels starting looking for gold. I managed to salvage most of the onions, but those tree buffalo are really pissing me off. By the way, if I started marketing tree buffalo meat, would anyone be interested?
Mark was almost ready to start drywalling next door and really needed an excuse. So we decided to tear up the front yard.
The grass was non-existent and with Mark redoing his front yard, it seemed like an opportune time.
Since I was out of town Mark's crew had to do all the work. Interested in joining? All it takes is the standard uniform and a willingness to work for beer. No, you can't drive the bobcat.
Meanwhile, Monday Sam took a mental health day to recover from her exam. She spent most of the day planting in the back yard and making everything look pretty.

Ok, now you are all caught up. The garden is going crazy and there is plenty to do. Stay tuned