October 8, 2008

Well, interesting post today.  Today was clear and cold.  Well, low 50s cold, but it felt cold walking around with my fall jacket on.  So I checked the forecast and low and behold, the low for tonight is in the upper 30s.  WHAT!?!  Yep, I read it right.  Near freezing.  And me without my hoop covers up.  Time to put my set-up skills to the test yet again.

When I went out there though, I remembered that I didn't have time to set up my pea trellis yet.  No problem, grab the screw gun and the three inch screws.  So the trellis isn't plum (that's level for us construction novices), it'll work.  And unfortunately the left over twine doesn't quite make it.  So I tie more twine on and get it threaded.  Unfortunately it took longer than expected, but doesn't it look good?



Do you see how dark the photo is? Yep, it's getting dark, and I haven't started putting the covers on.  Of course I didn't think that far ahead and took the time to train some of the taller peas to grab the lowest thread.



I kinda got clued into the diminishing light when the flash went off on this shot.  Oops.  Better hurry.



Once I got all the hoops up, it was time to unroll the plastic.  Once I got the two far side, smaller beds unrolled, I noticed quickly that the plastic for the small bed was too short. I ran out of plastic.  Oops, yep, I cut the plastic for bed #2 too long.  Drat.  I knew it was going to be close when I bought it, but I should have measured better when cutting it last month.  But it wasn't so bad, I figured out how to fix it.  I dropped the PVC to the ground rather than have it resting half-up the bed.  That shortened the hoops and made it fit just right!  Nothing's that tall in that bed anyway.  And since I read that the 4 mil plastic won't last longer than a year, I will have an opportunity to get it right next time.  hehe

Sorry to say the pic of the covered beds was taken well after dark.  I was using a flashlight to put the clamps on.



Notice bed #1 still doesn't have plastic on it.  Well, in the dark I couldn't find it.  Where could a 25x10 sheet of plastic get to in my house?  Tis a mystery for another day.  All that's in that bed are carrots, radishes and lettuce.  All things that should stand a light frost, if we have one tonight.  As I'm writing this it's still 52 degrees in the garden.

But while I was looking all over for the plastic, I did find a small piece of 4 mil clear tarp.  So I removed the 1 mil drop cloth from the potato bin and put the small piece of plastic over the potatoes, and used the bigger drop cloth draped over a board pounded into the ground as a T-pee covering my cantaloupe SWC.  Sorry again for the dark pics.  Maybe I'll change the pics out tomorrow if I take new pics.



By the way, a quick glance at the cantaloupe showed me that they're as big as eggs now!

Enjoy your garden and stay warm tonight!