March 16, 2010

Week in review:
Made beds for side yard and filled with purchased topsoil and humus.
T/P strawberry plants
Collected 10 bags of leaves and 3 bags of grass this morning and used some of them and the old side yard open-ended bed to frame and fill a new passive compost heap.
Taped up the top of the green bin and will use it for kitchen scrap compost.
Turned active pile today.
Filled planters for the stair step: purple zinnias, big marigolds and Liliput zinnias. Fourth planter is chives, a golden thyme and a herb to be chosen.
Constructed and planted a Tomato Bag with a Sweet 100.
Weeded paths, put down newspaper, garden bags and the last of the weed block in bare areas and covered with new leaves. What I found when weeding is that the leaves/grass on the paths get trodden into great leaf mold. The new plan: rake cover off paths twice a year and sift for leaf mold. NB: BUILD OR BUY SIFTER.
Lost the weeder somewhere in the new leaf cover, but it will turn up.
Put in nails for twine trellises. Cut boards for green mesh trellises for driveway fence.
De-cluttered porch, swept and sprayed.
NB: DO NOT START T/P's IN POTTING SOIL WITH FOOD. The seedlings are VERY spindly.
Use Jiffy, not Miracle Grow. It was like feeding steroids to Morgan Jane.
Bought a load of dirt at Strong's and will use it to fill in yard and top off beds.

Hot weather vegs are supposed to go in on the 23 rd, but may wait a week. It is still quite cool and damp. Global warming, my foot. It was like this last year, too.
Peas are up.

To-Do:
Plant corn, radishes, lettuce, mesclun, morning glory, moonflower, sweet peas, nasturtiums and other annual flowers.
Finish and hang mesh trellises.
String twine trellises.
Have Ves figure out a yields chart on MSWorks.

Progress So Far...

Baby vegetables-

I haz dem.

Various garden views

The Garden Shrine
yes, that's a recycled squirrel feeder.

Inspired by the urban gardeners in the last post, I decided to make an experimental container garden area, using deck stair stringers from the Bob Store (Lowe's) and left-over and/or scavenged lumber. The shortest shelf is 24", the longer ones are 30". They're cut to fit the length of the planters, also recycled/scavenged.

The stringers with 2x2" braces in placed. I did not want to attach this to the fence, so we added some 2x4" uprights. A better view of the shelves in place. The three narrow shelves are placed in the middle of the steps to give the planters more room on the back. The shelves were attached with a single screw on each side. I'd like to put in a plug for the ratchet screwdriver, my new best friend. The kids got to help put the screws in. We drilled the holes before they arrived, b/c while I do allow them to mess around in Sedona Sunset deck stain, I do not allow them to actually use power tools.One of the purposes of this project is to play around with different types of DIY underground watering systems. I have ollas in one of the garden beds and am trying to find a less expensive substitute. This is an unglazed terra-cotta rose pot. Notice that it has no drainage hole in the base. I'm using one of these in both the pumpkin tub and the tomato container, sinking them so that their tops are a little above the soil level. They'll be covered with a terra-cotta saucer of the proper size.

Other candidates are plastic water bottles and large plastic drink cups from the BBQ.

The shelf unit in place:

And with some planters:

I'm wondering if the space underneath could be used for a small-scale composting bin, if you added ran some boards along the sides of the stringers. I think that with a wood frame and some plastic sheeting, this could also make a little greenhouse for seed starting.

The top shelf is herbs. The middle two will be salad greens, radishes, possibly carrots. The bottom shelf will have a tomato, a pepper and an eggplant in single containers.

Journal May 2

In the time of the 3 W's- Weeding, Watering and Waiting.
Put the new bed in the NP, added the dirt and TP tomatoes, pepper and basil.
Moved the bench to the back corner of the yard and have begun to dig up the space where it used to be, for another bed. Probably for shade vegetables, if the birds will let them be. Or root crops. We'll see.
Put in some new sages and guaras, re-set stepping stones and ran strings for the clematis. The morning glory and moonflowers are beginning to twine. Need to run strings for the moonflowers.
All flower seedlings are doing well. Thinned them out, a job I hate. I want everything to have a chance to grow. I throw them into the compost heap- the circle of life.
O and I need to make me a scarecrow, a job she would love.
TP daisy and marigolds in the tiny patch near the fence, after adding compost and new soil.
Put the rest of the marigolds in the mixed bed.

Journal April 3

Temps still below normal for spring: only 71 today.
Finished digging up Bed 6 and since it is on the higher side of the yard, cut a deep trench
along the high side, to level it.
I notice that the bed I didn't dig out (being a lazy man in a hurry), but only loosened the sod and covered with several layers of newspaper before adding the topsoil, is completely weed-free.
The other two have problems. So, will cover 6 with paper as well.
Mulched the path between Beds 1 and 3 and the herb bed. One of the leaf bags had quite a few twigs mixed in, but I think they will break up when walked on.

One brave cowpea has sprouted. No okra yet- soil temp too cold still, I think.
TP the cherry tomato. The Big Boy shows signs of recovering, so I will leave it for now and save the new plant.
Moonflowers are up, two anyway. My very favorite annual vine.

NB: READ LABELS. I think the broccolli is actually brocolli rabe. This makes no difference when steamed and tossed with a nice lemon-garlic vinaigrette, but it would have been useful to know.
I was letting the 'heads' almost flower, waiting for them to form the big bunches.

V. bought the lumber for the tool rack he's making for me. I look forward to not having them lying about the porch. Because of the bank of windows that look out over the porch, he's constucting it horizontally, instear of vertically. Think of a car gun-rack, but with two sides.

R.I.P. Tomatoes

Got back from Austin to a sad site- two of the tomatoes were limp and brown.
Ro said "I tried to call you to see if I should cover them up the very cold night we had, but your phone was off."
New directive: when in doubt, cover.
Snooze, lose: Red Pick-up Guy beat me to the real mulch on Chesterfield, but didn't get the grass bags on Cromwell. Someone took the metal frames off the shower doors on Wingate, and left the glass. That was kind of random.

Journal March 21

Busy days. Babysat on Tuesday and took O to the nursery with me that afternoon, then had all the children overnight on Thursday through Friday afternoon.
Ordered another load of topsoil from Strong's, which they delivered the same day (Thursday).
Constucted and filled two 2x10' beds across back fence. O and I planted one (Bed IV) with coneflowers, zinnias, cosmos and moonflowers. The second (Bed V) has yarrow, summer squash seedlings and morning glories for now.
Drilled holes and filled pumpkin barrel with planting mix.
Ollas arrived from Path to Freedom. They were wrapped in T-shirts and a sweatshirt, which will be re-cycled to the Thrift Store. The kids and I planted them in Bed II, and filled one as an experiment. Checked the soil around it today and it is, indeed, damp.
Mixed planting mix for the hanging baskets and TP herbs to two of them to hang on back fence: one has three thyme varieties, the other has chives, sage and rosemary.
Bed I: TP summer squash, basil plants. Zucchini is up. Harvested romaine and mesclum for dinner. Watered with soaker hose.
Bed II: TP Roma tomato.
Bed III: Corn is up- most of it overnight at the same time! Watered with soaker hose.
Bed IV: Moved in shepherd's crook from Bird Area, hung with lantana in hanging basket.
Bed VI: (formerly Herb Bed): TP zucchini along fence.

Bought a new mom-friendly drill at Lowe's, as well as a new saw. Also bought V. a ratchet screwdriver for his poor old hands. He finished the little shrine for me - I think it will go on the back fence.

To Do: construct cuke trellis
Hang trellies for squashes on fence.
Put up strings for morning glory, moonflower
Hang shrine.
Finish paths: buy mulch, collect cardboard (from MSSC?), put down weed block.
Plant pumpkins, cowpeas, cukes, flower annuals, sunflowers
Dig up old rosemary
Hang baskets on fence
Construct bed in Bird Area.
Work out watering schedule: print

Journal March 6

Sunny, windy, hi: 70's

First time in a week I've had time/felt like working in the yard, other than feeding birds and watering.

Picked up mobile butterfly garden plants, one more herb and two tomato plants at Lowe's.

Time to start P/TP the hot weather vegs.

Blessed Bed II and TP two tomatoes: Better Bush and a cherry type.

There are now two peas up in the herb bed.

Moved some pavers in the Bird Area (it needs a better name) to make room for the new bed, and cut down the rosemary, prior to digging it up. It's about 10 years old and we let it grow out of curiosity to see how large it might get. But it's now in the way of a bed and nobody needs that much rosemary. So, good-bye and thanks.

Washed the feeder, watered. First daffodil up in the BA.

Ves mowed and trimmed for the first time this spring.

If Sissy brings the kids by tomorrow, we will plant the butterfly garden.