October 4, 2008

Boy am I sore, and not just because I got a tetnus booster Friday and my arm aches whenever I move it.  Today was a decent day, though I wish I'd got a bit more done.  The weather cooperated for the most part, it only rained slightly when I was working.  But most of my day was spent spinning my wheels.

I got the truck and went to Lowes, but I couldn't figure out what was the best option for covering my compost bins.  It looks like the best option is to buy 12' corregated fiberglass, but it's fairly expensive considering the bins and what fills them are free.  I would need 2 sheets at $18 a piece, and that's for the thin stuff.  Not going to break the bank, but is there a cheaper way?  I've asked my dad to go with me to help me figure it out tomorrow.  So much for checking that off my to-do list today. 

I did however, get the beauty bark there.  I got three bags total or 6 cubic feet.  One bag was pine dust and the other two were small piece beauty bark.  I figured since pine needles are very acidic, then pine bark would be too.  I put that down first, and then layered the beauty bark over it.





Not sure what I'll do against the house.  It's under the eve, but I don't want anything growing there either.  I've got a bag of sandy mulch that is left over from the compost rings I cut out around the fruit trees. Maybe I'll fill it in there. It won't look good but either that or I buy another bag of bark at the store tomorrow. Since it's only $3.50 I may just do that.  By the way, doesn't it look nice!  Now for the grass to grow back outside the bricks.

Another thing I checked off my list was to plant lettuce.  It was raining and terribly windy when I did it, so I just sprinkled a few seeds on the ground and covered them with some finished compost.  Note that I'm using the original batch that's been cooking nicely since I started my second bin.  I even transported a couple worms to my bed.  Doubt they'll survive, they never do in my beds for some reason.  But unfortunately, the packages of lettuce got wet in the rain. I hope the seeds are ok.  Since two of them are Monsanto owned now, I won't be buying them again.

The third thing off my list was to plant the garlic.  When I picked up the truck from my brother, I grabbed three of his biggest garlic heads.  Then I used a garden hand rake to clear the ground of beauty bark in five rows about three feet long in my old blueberry bed. 



These three were in between the two bushes, and the other two were on the other side of a bush.  I found a great deal of worms in the clay-heavy soil, as well as quite a few weed roots spreading out underneath the bark.  Very interesting, they weren't morning glories but they acted very much like them.  So I cleared out the area where I was planting the garlic to the best of my ability in the short time I had.  Then I used a hand shovel to break up the dirt in a small hole pattern where I would plant the clove.  Finally I covered the cloves with the beauty bark that I raked away.  According to my brother you plant them only a half-inch deep, but I think I went a bit more than that with bark.  Let's hope they make it through easily enough.



When I was talking to my brother, he questioned whether garlic would do ok in an acidic soil, and if so, would it change the taste of the garlic?  So I looked it up online (after I planted it, hehe live dangerously).  Apparently garlic likes slightly acidic soil.  Since I didn't amend the soil between the bushes except for beauty bark, which is slightly acidic, I should be fine. /whew!

I'm not sure what I'll go when I run out of space to plant between the bushes.  Maybe I'll get a kiddie pool and plant half garlic and half yukon gold potatoes in six inches of dirt.  Unfortunately I wouldn't want to put it on the grass where it would kill it.  Hehe maybe I could put it on the roof of my shed, kinda like a roof-top garden.  Wouldn't that be funny?

So unfortunately I only got three of my chores done today.  Thankfully tomorrow is supposed to be mostly cloudy with no rain.  That way I can get a ton done.

Before I went in though, I had to re-cover my potato bin several times because the wind was so strong that it blew off the tarp (I ended up weighing it down with a brick).  I also examined the cantaloupe plants.  Unfortunately they look like they're coming down with blight due to the damp dark weather we've been having.  Maybe I should use stakes to create a make-shift hoop cover and cover it with the plastic I'm using for the potato bin right next to it.  I think there's enough.  Anyway, here is the biggest cantaloupe growing to-date...



All the plants have females on them now, but I'm not holdling out hope for any but this and another one that are growing nicely after I juiced them with fertilizer.

Well, it's late and I've got a long day ahead of me.

Enjoy your garden!

October 2, 2008

Where has the year gone? Fall is here and it is time for winter planting and prep.  So this weekend, despite being crappy weather, will be busy in the yard.  But before my promised to-do list, a couple of things to mention.

The first is a great honor that my friends bestowed on me.  It started with Granny's Blog getting an "I Love Your Blog Award" which you have to pass along to seven more blogs, but she passed it on to a good mutual friend EG's Blog who generously passed it along to little ol' me.  /bush.  These two are great friends and extremely knowlegeable.  So I guess it's up to me to pass it along.  I don't normally do chain letters, but this is a worthwhile cause! ddf

It's a really really hard decision, I like so many blogs that I try to get to at least weekly.  But I think I have to go with one that couples both decades of gardening experience, well written prose and an amazing friendship and desire to help others, something gardening is ALL ABOUT!  Drum-roll please... A big thank you and endorsement to DoubleD's Blog!!!  She's local, she's always around to talk gardening or finanical news. She's a homesteader and the CFO of a major municipality in the PNW.  Who'd have thought a person like that would have the time!  She's nothing short of amazing!

 

 

 Boy was that a hard decision. If you could only see the blog section of my bookmarks, it's amazing!  I look forward to the weekend when I have time to cycle through them all.

Another difficult decision... I get a ton of spam.  Thankfully Judy fixed it so I have a spam stopper program, so it's much easier to control it.  They're easy to spot, a few words and a half-dozen URLs from places nobody would want to go.  However, today I got a different sort of spam comment.  For one it didn't get caught by the spam killer. For another, it was well written and polite.  Finally, it's an advertizement for not only a gardening product, but an organic one.  They wanted to give away organic bug spray to one of my readers.  I looked at their site and found that they sell at Albertson's down the street, so they're legit.  All pluses.  So, do here's the message she sent.  What do you think of it? Do you want to participate?  I could have them send it to me and then I'd forward it on to you so you didn't have to provide your address.  I'll leave it up to you.  Doesn't matter to me.

"Hi there!

My name is Alyssa I am with Branding Brand, an online marketing firm that represents EcoSMART, an organic bug spray that is 100% safe around children, plants & pets.

Given the interest of your blog, we’d love to give your blog readers the opportunity to win an EcoSMART product by randomly selecting someone that comments on any of your blog postings. It’s a great way to generate more interaction with your blog.
All we ask for in return is a link to our website (www.ecosmart.com/household) and for you to provide us with the address of the winner so we can send them their free can of EcoSMART (or we can send you the product to send to the winner).

If you’re interested please let me know.

Thanks!"

Ok, that done, here's my to-do list:

• Plant garlic in the blueberry bed.  I couldn't find out if it companions they dislike each other, but they companion with raspberries, so I'll give it a shot.  I plan on planting six inches apart with I think 4 inch spacing.  My brother will set me straight and provide the seed from his 2008 harvest.  Keep it going in the family.


• Plant more lettuce, successioning it in October for late Winter harvest.  My existing lettuce is doing better such that I may even get some to harvest soon.


• Harvest final cukes and tomates for storage and ripening. 


• Rip out the beans, cukes and tomato plants.  I think the only ones I'll compost are the beans because the rest have succumed to blight or mildew.  I don't want to take the chance that it'll carry on in my compost.


• Remove the trellis and install my old tiny 2x2 trellis with jute twine that I had up when I first started.  It will fit nicely under the hoop cover and be my only trellis this winter.


• Buy the corregated roofs for my compost bins and install them.  The rainy season has started!


• Consider covering the beds. Not sure.  Maybe DoubleD will chime in to help me decide.


• Buy a few bags of beauty bark and mulch the new blueberry bed.  Maybe install landscape fabric under it to keep the weeds and trees from creaping into it.


• Help my aunt transplant plants to wherever she wants them, including the one into my front yard.

Well, that's about it for my to-do list.  Another busy weekend. Let's hope Mother Nature cooperates.  Doubt it.  But that's what why we PNW gardeners have webbed feet, hehe.

Lastly, I have not been so happy with Master Gardener Smith and his Edibles column in the P-I.  Not particularly useful to me despite my love of fruit/veggie gardening.  Instead, this week's article from Ann Lovejoy was great!  It talked about composting and mulching with leaves, something we used to mulch last year and I plan on using for the final push for composting this year before it goes dormant for the season.  But then she mentions garlic and lettuce planting (two things on my to-do list).  Great article!

Enjoy your garden!

July 13, 2008

Well, it's late, yet again, so I'll try to keep this short.  We've got a movie to watch and get back to the store before they charge us, hehe.

Today I got Toasty's SWC torn apart, cleaned and put back together.  This time I used zip ties rather than duct tape. 

 

Afterwards I filled it with Mel's Mix and planted three Minnesota Midget cantaloupe seeds that Judy so graciously sent me.  Thanks to Toasty and Judy I can experiment with late season planting.  I personally think I won't have the season left to let a 60-75 day plant mature.  But who knows, September could be good to us this year.  I still need to build the trellis for them, but I'm not concerned, they'll take a while before I can trellis them.  Of course I'm counting. Today was day one of 75...



Then, I caved on my compost... The original bin was barely 100 degrees after all the work I put into it yesterday to layer and water and blend and fluff.  Nada.  I just had too much saw dust.  I got that from Joe and the book I'm reading... Growing Veggies West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon.  According to Solomon, my compost is now nothing better than mulch for under trees and in flower beds.  So that's what I used it for.  We weeded the rose garden and mulched in the front.  I must say it looks much better now.





Doesn't it look better?  Every year we tear out tons of irises and every year they grow back together. This year I'm giving some of my son's favorite flowers, yellow irises to Toasty.  I have too many so she can enjoy the wonderful golden yellow bearded gentlemen.   I'm not worried, next year I bet they will grow together again now that I mulched with some of the best compost money couldn't buy.  Speaking of compost, "Where has all the compost gone?"



I know it's tough to tell from the picture, but that's the lowest plank of the pallet. I used up 90% of my first compost bin mulching all over my yard.  But just think how much money I saved on beauty bark!?!

Then, my mother told me we had a mutant cauliflower plant.  Unfortunately I let it go too long.  Who knew when it would stop getting bigger?  Instead it startd growing out and maybe going to seed.  So we harvested our first cauiflower.



Aren't they cute?  Logan decided he'd carry it inside the house so he got his wheel barrow and his brother decided he needed to help.

Oh, and Carrie was right, the corn did grow more... It's nearly 4 feet tall (including the 16 inch beds, hehe). So given the growth marching leftward in the bed, I fertilized another row of corn with my mixture of blood meal and veggie fertilizer.  Not only did I water it in, but I watered tonight after it got dark.



Enjoy your garden!

June 29, 2008

Whew, today was a scorcher. Almost made me not want to be in the yard and garden... I say ALMOST.  hehe.  But first, I just have to nention the slew of comments I've been getting.  Not only is the information excellent (if you don't read the comments, please do), but folks have been coming out of the woodwork.  So many people have commented for the first time.  It put a smile on my face that isn't going away any time soon.  Thank you!  Hehe, of course now I'm confused about tomato suckers, hehe.  Good thing they're all gone as of today.  Thank you all for your thoughts.  I love hearing from all of you.

So, today.  Well I woke up early and read more of my garden book, relaxing and petting the cat.  It was relaxing, just like Father's Day was supposed to be. I could do whatever I wanted... I just had to make my own smoothie, hehe.  Anyway, it was relaxing up until I heard the garage door open.  Then it was a scramble to get ready. My folks didn't call first, they just came over to finish chipping up the branches.  Boy was it a hot one, even that early in the morning.  And unfortunately at that hour there was no shade.  Here's the new compost bin full of chips, not nearly as much as all the branches we cut, hehe.



And here's the old bin that's not quite done, but won't heat up.  I figure to heat up beyond 130 degrees I need more material, but I don't want to add anything, hehe.  It's a conundrum...



Does it look done to you?  It kinda looks like Joe's compost that he told me to look at to decide if mine was done.  Not sure what else I need to do with it, but I do want to use it to mulch in the rose garden. What the heck, I've got tons and am making more as we speak, hehe.  Note that I am finding that with the hot weather I am needing to add water to the bins regularly. In fact I need to water everything more frequently.  hehe. Go figure.

When we were done everyone was beat and hot, so they left and I remembered my promise to have a salad for lunch.  My greens are overflowing and I don't want them to get too "woody" on me.  So I came up with creative take on my standard salad.  I cooked up some chicken strips and cut them up on top of my salad.  Doesn't this look tasty?



All that's missing are tomatoes and cucumbers, but those aren't ready yet.  I just have got to get used to doing without what's not in season.  The PtF folks are good at that, and the book I'm reading by Steve Solomon talks about eating what your garden produces year round.  I'm not very far into it, but I'm encouraged that when I'm done I'll have a much better idea on how to garden year-round in Seattle.  That's very good news!

As I was cleaning up the back yard getting ready to mow (boy do the kids have tons of toys on the lawn), I just had to take some pics of my rose garden.  As much as I complain about the placement of colors and the overgrowing morning glories, you have to admit it is beautiful!



And here's a shot from the other side. Unfortunately my wife tried to kill it by leaning the kiddie pool against it, breaking a few of the branches.



I'm thinking about putting strawberries under the bathroom window.  I've got a concrete box already built for them.  It's the old foundation for the bathoom that we shrunk down when we rebuilt it last year.  It would be a nice little 1x5 box that no runner's going to get out of. hehe.  It's a thought.

After lunch I mowed the lawn.  It didn't need it as badly as I thought it did.  I hardly filled one yard waste container, which of course went on top of the branch chips and the contents of my kitchen compost bucket. I've been saving it for the new bin.  Speaking of the kitchen compost, we put tons of browns and greens in it (tissues/paper towels and fruit/veggie scraps) and yet it NEVER smells.  It's amazing!

By the time I was done with the lawn, the family was home and my bachelor weekend was over.  My eldest was a crank after a rare nap (he always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed) and the youngest was ALL about Daddy, even before my shower.  Ewww, hehe.  That's love for ya!

So the weekend's over. Let's see what I didn't get to from my to-do list.  Well, the peas are still on the vine. I was so hungry that we went bad for us. Tomorrow I hope to have a nice sit-down meal with fresh peas as part of dinner.

Enjoy your garden!

June 28, 2008

Well, today was fun.  I slept in until my body woke me up (10 pm). I haven't done that in over 5 years.  Then I leasurely tended the garden before my folks came over to help trim back some more plants that had gotten unruley.

While I was out there, I realized we'd be chipping up the branches and I swore I was going to stop adding to the compost bin.  So the solution was to run to the hardware store (True Value to save on gas... shop locally) and bought galvinized 3" deck screws.  I used only two of my remaining four pallets because I used the side of my first bin as a side of my second.  It also saved on space as I am almost touching my pear tree.   I used cardboard this time to line the bottom because newsprint is just too flimsy to keep the pitchfork and weeds from penetrating it.  Here's a pic of it, sorry it's soooo dark, I forgot to take a pic of it since my folks showed up as I was finishing it, so I went out at dusk.



I think I'll move some of the old compost to the new bed to make it not so much.  It's nearly to the top of the bin. hehe.  I'll also have more chips tomorrow and likely grass clippings. I've got to mow.  My aunt wants to use some of my compost to mulch the rose garden.  I'm not sure it's the perfect mulch, but it should help them grow, hehe and if it smothers out morning glories, then I'm all for it. hehe

Anyway, today it was pruning the "parking strip" which is the area on the edge of my property just outside my garden on the corn side.  It's where I park my car and has a storm sewer down the middle of it.  Well between a vining maple, a lilac, a rhodie and some other bush, they were all too tall and definitely encroaching on the parking area, especially where my mom parks when she comes over.  So that's why she wanted it done.  Hehe.  Anyway, we didn't do much for the height but it looks much better now.  We didn't get it all chipped up so we just left it in the driveway and will finish tomorrow. 

After that we went out for a nice steak dinner and stopped by at the dollar store afterward.  There I found a great deal on a tricky component in building an SWC.  When I was shopping for materials, the pond basket I found was too big and nearly $10.  It would have taken up too much of the reservior space.  I went with a smaller improvised basket though it was still $7.  Anyway, in the dollar store I found a basket that would work just as well for, you guessed it, $1.  Hehe look at this.



And for all you "guys" out there, sure it's purple, sure they're butterflies, but who cares, once you build it, you never see it again.  It's a good height and width and everything. I won't let out much dirt and will definitely let in water.  That makes the SWC even cheaper to build.  Too bad I don't need anymore SWCs or I'd have bought one.

As the evening drew to a close, my mom (the veggie gardener) checked out my cauliflower. I've got a second head forming and my first is almost the size of a soft ball now. WOW!  She said it's not time to tie up the leaves but she did bend a young leaf over the top of the head to keep the sun out.  The big leaves are doing a good job of that too since the sun is never directly overhead.  She also picked close to two dozen radishes for her radish sandwiches.  I didn't mind since I went overboard planting after we ran out the first time.  I have GOT to eat more salads now that I'm healthy.  Tomorrow for lunch for sure.

She also showed me how to cut or pick off the suckers on my tomato plants.  NOBODY ever told me that tomato plants get suckers.  Apparently when a vine splits it splits it Y's.  Sometimes a third branch will sprout from the middle of the Y.  That's a sucker. It won't grow flowers or fruit and should be removed to conserve water and nutrients.  Since I didn't know that before some of mine were pretty big. Those got snipped with my key-chain leatherman.  The small leaves got pinched and that was much easier.  Now that I know I'll keep an eye out.  Learn something new every day.

I have to admit that watering today was an afterthought, as in I wanted to water all day when it was 95 degrees in the sun (per wunderground.com), 85 in the shade, but forgot to water at dusk.  So I took my flashlight out about an hour ago and watered.  Under the flashlight it kinda looked like I was developing broccoli heads in my biggest plants. I'll check tomorrow.  Wouldn't that be cool! 

Well that's enough for me for one day. Enjoy your garden!

May 25, 2008

Wow, what a glorious day! As is often the case in Seattle, the forecast can change often and even then it can be completely wrong.  I had been very excited about partly cloudy temps in the mid 60s, which was the forecast most of the week.  Then, at the last minute, the forecast changed to mid 50s and rain showers all weekend.  Just to make the forecasters completely wrong, we had a high of 77 with at worst whispy clouds if you really searched for them.  It was beautiful and my garden loved it!  I swear I could see the tomatoes growing! hehe

First off, my wife graciously let me sleep in this morning til 10 am, which is completley unlike me.  During the time she was up with the kids, she saw the beautiful weather and plotted out a 5 mile walk for us (compared to our standard 3.5 mile course).  So after our smoothie we started packing up for a long walk.  Before we could make our escape my father and aunt showed up. My dad wanted to work on his car and my aunt wanted to work in the yard.  Tis the season to butcher, er... prune rhodies and azaleas, and boy do mine need it.  Needless to say my wife wasn't happy. She had her heart set on going for a walk and my aunt wanted me in the yard.  Thankfully one of the items on my to-do list was for my aunt... to weed the rose garden area.  If you recall, I'm not big on flowers. They're pretty, but I don't want to work for them, hehe.  So we went to exercise while she started weeding.

By the time we got back she had half a yard-waste container filled. No, I didn't use any of that for my compost bin. I'm not that hard up for greens, ROFL.  After changing clothes, I immediately went out and we started whacking back bushes.  We did a ton of work. I was running around helping my aunt with the clippers, saws-all and chain saw and helping my dad with his car.  The good news is that my dad helped me string up the trellis. It doesn't look nearly as good or straight as GardenGirl's or Judy's, but somehow I don't think the plants will care.  I tried to get the peas to grab the trellis with moderate success.  I'll work on it more tomorrow.



After lunch it was back at it.  We accumulated QUITE a pile of branches from rhodies, azaleas, lilacs and some short tree we just cut down (after we cut it down I realized I had a huge hole in a garden area, now I have to plant a bush).

The funny thing is my eldest. He's four and loves to help.  He was saying how strong he was by dragging branches from the front yard to the back yard.  It was so cute.  Here he is helping with a branch with part of the pile in the background...



Instead of taking a pickup full of branches to the dump and paying $20 to give Cedar Grove more material to charge $28 a yard for compost, my folks brought over their chipper.  YAY!  Just see if they get it back. MUAHAHAHA hehe.  So the rest of the evening was spent shredding and chipping buckets full of composting goodness.  The bits of leaves and branches all mixed together over the top of of a fluffed compost pile with a layer of Starbucks coffee grounds in the middle.  Mmm Mmm Good!



Hehe yeah, I do look silly with those big ear phones.  They're the best you could buy back 15 years ago when I worked in a safety supply warehouse for two summers.  The did a good job because that little yellow machine was LOUD!  I didn't finish the pile today, light gave out on me, but I made a huge dent in it and added about 6 inches of incredible mulch like chips.  Hmm, I wonder if it'd work as a mulch for my SWC... I still need to cover the plastic. hehe.

Ok, just to warn you. The rest of my post has no pictures attached.  See the digital camera batteries died and I was too busy to change them.  So I relied on my wife to take the pictures, so the last one was the ONLY one with me in it or what we were doing.  The rest were all of the kids. Hehe.

I actually stopped work on the cleanup before dusk.  I had a to-do list that needed to get done in amongst the rest of the work today.  In a half hour I got tons done.  I cut another BAYG bin layer's worth of douglas fir and installed my first (or second) layer and added dirt.  I must say I made a mistake in putting the bins so close to the fence.  I can't get the screw gun between the fence and the bin.  So I screwed the boards together and not into the 2x2 on that side.  I got the idea from a forum where someone used the BAYG bin concept but made a frame out of the boards and slid it over the 2x2s like a sleeve.  I didn't use that for all the boards, just the one in back our of necessity. 

I filled them with dirt, covering up the stems again.  Boy did it take a ton of dirt to cover all but 2 or 3 inches of potato plant.  In the Butte bed I have a huge drop-off in the back right corner because there is a tiny sprout from that slow starter.  Since it sprouted I didn't want to move it up to the level of the rest for fear of disturbing roots that may be finally growing.  It was really hard to mound a ton of dirt to cover 6 or so inches of growth. 



I also finally got to plant out my corn bed.  Well mostly.  I ran out of Seneca Horizon seeds that germinated, but the Precocious half is FULLY planted out.  YAY!  And what was already planted is really growing well.  Well for this area mind you. Not like Judy's or Shots from GW in climates known for farming.  I know I can grow corn here but until I eat the first cob out of my garden I'll remain cautiously optimistic.  The last thing I did for my garden tonight was to soak more Seneca seeds to get germinating on the fridge to get in the ground fast.  I want to get my corn bed growing in this nice weather so they get a jump on summer.



(NOTE: I snapped some pics in the morning and updated the page.)

Ok, sorry if this post isn't exactly coherent, but I'm fading fast.  Time to take some Aleve and hit the sack (I wore my heart-rate monitor today and just the exercise and heavy working burned me 3,740 calories!).  Let's hope the weather holds for tomorrow so we can continue to make more great compost (note that the forecast just changed to a high of 68 with a chance of thundershowers /sigh).  And to think Mel suggests compost from 5 different sources. I can count two dozen off the top of my head, hehe!

Enjoy Spring and your garden!

May 18, 2008

Well, I did get to mow this morning.  I started at 9 am and it was already 65 degrees and hot.  All I got done was the front yard before the garage sale got into full swing, and I filled up one 65 gallon yard waste container, which I promptly dumpe over top of a week's worth of tissues, paper towels, banana peals etc.  I wanted to do the back yard but it was cluttered with toys big and small.  That and my wife needed help with the sale and the kids.  So I jumped back and forth helping set up and taking care of the kids. 

The three boys had a fun morning going shopping to store after store to find a new wide-brim hat for my eldest.  He had been wearing an 18-24 month hat and we didn't realize it was that small.  Thankfully it fits my youngest perfectly because he grew out of the infant one he was wearing.  Gotta keep the kids from burning. Anyhow, remember how I said yesterday that my father-in-law found all this hardware to help build my deck, trellis and compost pile?  Well this afternoon we threw together my trellis posts. 



Well, only 4 2x4s worth since that's all I had. Thankfully he had amazing gold-plated lag screws because apparently it's not sturdy to attach 1 foot to a bed and leave the next 7 feet unsupported.  Note in the pic above we had to install the 2x4 such that the netting will hook on the back side of the board because the roofline over the door kept us from moving the board where we wanted it.  Anyway, here's what it looks like all done...



I'd like a few more 2x4s to provide more support, but we'll see if I get any more.  Oh, and I had to move the SWC a bit to get the 2x4 in there after removing the 2x2 trellis I had built.  I sure hope the netting shows up tomorrow because the peas want something to grab hold of.

I've got to say, working in the hot sun in my garden area, it was HOT today.  I hated it but the plants sure loved it! The tomatoes, beans corn and peas all showed noticable growth in the last three days!  Sure all the plants loved it, but it's no coincidence that all my warm-weather crops faired incredibly well in the heat. Go figure.

What I noticed working in the garden on such a hot day was that the garage reflected so much sun into the garden area that it dries out really quickly.  I need to mulch.  But I don't really want beauty bark which is so prevalent here because I want to be able to either brush it aside or remove it to plant.  I really like what Judy uses (Cyprus mulch I think she calls it). We don't have it here so I'm still on the lookout for he perfect mulch. 

But I think I have some time before it's truely needed because after three days in the mid 80s next week it's dropping to highs of 58 and rain.  Again.  Haven't we had enough of this for a season?  Well at least I won't have to water as much. hehe.  I just hope Mother Nature doesn't shock the plants to much.

After the garage sale was done and everything put away, I finally got a chance to mow my back yard.  I had been talking to my mother and aunt about my compost and pulling stuff out of the recycle bin to compost, mostly cardboard. I want to use it to line the bottom of my bin because the newspaper's not stopping the weeds from growing up into my bin.  Maybe a layer of cardboard will do the trick. Eventually it will break down.  Anyway, when talking to my folks, they thought I was wierd to be composting everything I have been.  They didn't think cardboard could be composted.  I should send them the link to 163 things you can compost.  What they don't understand from their years of cold composting is that green without brown is cold composting and takes years longer than hot composting.  I'll take months over years any day if I can swing it, and if the last few weeks is any indication, we go through enough brown household waste to make it work!  So here's a pic of my compost bin after mowing both the front and back yards today.



Another thing that happened at the end of the sale is that my mother took all but the last 5 of our mature radishes, and would have taken all of them had I not stopped her.  Hehe I've got about 4 SF worth of radishs planted around the garden to get us more, but who knows how much longer it will be until they're ready.  Let's hope they mature much faster than the one's we've been eating. hehe  I just wonder if I can replant radishes in the same squares I had radishes previously. I know you're not supposed to do it with other plants but radishes take so little time.  Hmm?

Oh yeah, another crop that really liked the heat were the potatoes.  Last week I finally needed to add dirt and bury some leaves.  Now look at them!





Looks like not only do I need to add more dirt but at least the Butte bin needs another layer of boards.  So the last thing I did for the evening was to cut more boards for the Build-As-You-Grow bins.  Unfortunately I got quite a surprise when I went to cut the 2x6s.  They were leaning up against the house in the fenced garden area waiting to be cut.  When I got everything ready and went to grab one of the dozen left I found only one there. 

My first thought was that we were robbed.  This is a good neighborhood and the wood was behind a fence.  Of course the ten foot boards stuck up over the height, but why would someone leave just one board.  It's not the money, I got a screaming deal on the boards and could get more, but it was the point of the matter. So I cut the one remaining board (over a tarp so I could catch the untreated saw dust and shake it out over the compost bin, hehe I'm getting into this!). When I went in to tell my wife, I started with "bad news, looks like we've been robbed..."  She had the same reaction I did.  But when I explained the details, she informed me that her father had used the 2x6s to set on his saw horses to make tables for the garage sale.  Hehe. I had no idea.  Whew.

So despite having to do a garage sale this weekend, I got my to-do list completed. I didn't get the door put on the compost bin though. I have the hardware for it. Mostly I ran out of time, but also I'm thinking about moving it over so that the legs of the swing set don't stop the door of the compost bin from opening.  If I did that though, I wouldn't have the room to build the second bin.  I don't really need two bins because it seems I really don't make that much compostable waste, but as Joe said, it helps to mix it up.

Well, I hope everyone got out in their gardens this fine weekend, and if it was as sunny where you are as it was here, I hope you wore a hat and used tons of sunblock in between drinking water to remain hydrated.  Enjoy your garden!

April 27, 2008

Today I started about a dozen corn seeds of both my varieties soaking, as well as 2 SF of bush beans.  I let them soak for a half-hour and then put them in damp coffee filters.  The filters are now in un-sealed zip-lock bags on top of the fridge.  I hope they don't mind being stacked on top of each other.  When they germinate I'll plant them immediately into the garden. 

While the seeds were soaking, I took the opportunity to tour my garden.  For once I went to the potatoes first, mainly because was sure I'd have something popping any day now with the warm weather and keeping the soil moist.  Sure enough, I counted not one, but FOUR sprouts!!! Three in the Butte and one in the Yukon Gold.  Sure they may not be as impressive as Judy's tower, but they are sprouting, even in this wacky weather we've got here this year.



Don't they look cute. Like little cabbages.  I'm sure more will be sprouting any day now.

Yay! I just found out my brother (who doesn't read this blog), picked up some russet seed potatoes from a nursery yesterday and is using an old garbage can to plant them.  That was my original plan, until I found the Build-As-You-Grow Bins.  I'm excited. I gave him some pointers from my research, but we'll see who gets more production. Flatlander the engineer would be proud. It's an experiment!  I've got russets, he's got russets.  Unfortunately for him the above pic is from my Butte bin, so I've got a bit of a head start on him.  Of course he's got a decade of experience on his side, just none planting potatoes.

Anyway, I was going to clean up the back yard so the kids could play outside without poking themselves on a stick, but then I decided the pieces were pretty small (six inches or so) so they'd probably compost and act as some much needed BROWN material.  So I left them on my patio until I can build my compost bin and mow my lawn to get the GREEN stuff.  Unless I come up with a better container. I think I'll build my bin out of 6 pallets.  One for each end and two on each side of the middle.  That way it should be approximately 4x8, assuming pallets are 4x4. Not sure.  I've got tons of grass clippings to put in it.  For the bottom I'll use two or three sheets of news paper.  I hope that's what folks mean by layers.  I'll use the insides of my wife's extra news papers from her route.  Most of the pages have color on them, so I can only use a few inside sheets from each paper.  Maybe I can even use some the excess as brown material to get some heat going.  Plus I'll use the list that I got from Ft2Garden.com of 163 items you can compost.  I may just get some hot composting in this year yet!

I also spent about an hour looking for instructions similar enough to Judy's SWC that I could remember all the steps and make one for my tomatoes.  Unfortunately I struck out, so they'll just have to wait another week. 

While I was outside, I remembered another project I wanted to get done. All of the trees that I cut back the grass around and put compost down over landscape fabric have GREAT blooms all over them. While the trees I didn't help out are looking pretty blah.  So I decided to put some compost down in front of my son's dogwood. I only had one bag of compost left so I decided to do his tree rather than my pear tree.  I'll grab another bag next time I'm at Sky.



Another 400 calories burned with my trusty pick axe and I was ready to compost.  I cut out a 4x4 piece of landscape fabric and split it down the middle.  After fitting it around the tree, I spread my compost around the tree (leaving a few inches room around the base).  Then I put a bag of mulch around it since I had extra.  My kids were "helping" me outside all day, but as I was spreading the mulch, my wife called us in for lunch.  I was not quite done spreading the mulch evenly when I heard her scream!

Filthy as I was, I ran to see what was up.  Owen (the little guy in the picture above) was going inside and tripped on the mat in front of the sliding glass door.  He broke his fall as well as could be expected for a 22 month old, but he hit his head on the edge of the vinyl door frame.  My wife was there and picked him up, only to find that he'd split a 1.5 inch gash into his brow over his left eye!  And me with muddy gloves on.   Cleaning it up we found it was pretty well filleted so we threw a huge band aid on it and ran to the ER. Poor little guy. Three hours later and 4 or 5 stitches, we came home.  He's so tough he only cried when they were stitching him up and mostly because they had him in a straight jacket and were holding his head like a vice. 

After I put Owen down for a much needed nap, I went out and finished my project and cleaned up.  Unfortunately I did it in the rain this time, but this is Seattle, so nothing new.  Anyway, here's an after shot with my wife's camera which takes much better pictures.

 

If it stops raining, I'll plant some more radishes. Its probably time to finally succession plant the longest maturing radishes on the planet.  Then I'll try to keep my little guy from picking at his stitches.  /sigh

April 26, 2008

Short post... The Mariner's won!  Pitching fell apart with the bullpen, grrr, two days in a row, but we had enough of a lead for the putz Putz to hold on by a thread to get the save. Anyway, not important.

I didn't get ANYTHING accomplished off my list except to go to the game.  Instead, my aunt showed up with a dozen plants in pots that she stole from her immaculately landscaped yard. 



Here is a "before" picture of the approximately 4 by 6 area where I had to remove sod to create a rock garden.  My aunt calls them that because she likes to put decorative rocks in them.  A while ago this was a flower bed but it got overgrown with grass and grass reclaimed it, all except the elephant ears at the bottom and the tam at the top.  So I used my favorite took, the pick axe, to root out the sod between the tam, around the elephant ears.  I burned 800 calories doing it and boy was it hard work. That pick is heavy. hehe.

After getting some bags of Sky's bulk Potting Mix and some Summit Mulch, that I hope looks better dry, my aunt and eldest son planted all dozen of her plants.  I was busy so I only snapped a few shots, mostly of my son planting.  Here's my favorite showing more of the bed.



Don't ask me what all the plants she planted are. She told me, but unless it's a veggie, I jus think they're pretty.  Though the 4 little pots he's planting now are supposedly called lamb's ears because the leaves are fuzzy soft like lamb's ears.  It looks good, but it took all day and I didn't get anything else done.  Good thing I still don't need my trellis. It may get built tomorrow. And since Judy's SWC instructions are still down, I can't remember all the steps, so I may not build that either.  Grrr. At least the weather was great!  Let's hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.

March 2, 2008

Busy day, exhausting day, good day!

Today was the day I was going to follow the advice of a blog reader that suggested I mulch around my fruit trees.  I only did the new apple and plum tree because my father thinks the pear isn't long for this world.  So this morning, I started the day with this...



And working several hours with my favorite pick axe, a shovel, landscape fabric and three of those four bags of compost...

 

I got this...



I'm not sure if leaving a bit of landscape fabric against the trunk of the trees, but I am under the impression that it's bad to let the compost mulch touch the trunk.  If I had decent topsoil I'd put it around the base.  I may still steal some from my cleaned up rose garden (thanks to my wonderful aunt!).



I've only got four roses left, but the one in the center is by far the biggest and it's awesome that it's in centerpiece (even though I'm partial to the deep red ones in the far left of the picture over the centerpiece pink ones).  By the way, the green foliage in the front of the bed is a mature Irises that my aunt cuts paths between patches.  Every year they grow back together. Good thing they transplant well.  She's repopulated the bulbs she removed from the paths to the side of my house. They're perfect there.

I also separated the bunches of earthworms that I had put in the raised beds in clumps yesterday. Apparently they didn't spread out on their own. They didn't even leave the shredded newspaper medium they were packaged in.  So I dug them up and moved them individually all over the beds.  Hopefully they'll survive.  Some of them weren't moving all that fast.  They've got a wonderful new home. 15.5 inches of great soil material.  But then I think, they've got 2 inches of amazing material, so why do they need to move down?  I'm afraid to fertilize with my 5-10-10 veggie mix thinking it will burn the worms.  Hopefully if they don't like it they'll move down below the top 6 inches where I plan to work in the fertilizer with a claw fork prior to planting.

Speaking of planting. I ran out of time to plant seeds or seedlings today.  That's ok since I think Chris Smith actually said that planting should be Mid-March, not the beginning of March.

Other things I accomplished today included getting a new (to me) upright freezer to replace my small apartment fridge in the garage. My brother was getting rid of it so I took it.  We have enough space between two refridgerators and a chest freezer, but with all the fruits and veggies I hope to grow this year, I expect to freeze up some. Now I have a place to put them in an organized way. We put the small fridge on Craigslist, first for $30, but then for free since I just want it out of here.  I got only one call, to use it as a keg fridge, but it was too small. 

I also went on a 3.5 mile power walk after catching my breath.  I started out strong but peetered out in the end.  Finally we went to Red Robin to celebrate my pre-birthday.  Don't you hate mid-week birthdays.  Go and Grow!

March 1, 2008

Well, I didn't post on Leap Day because my wife had a thing last night so she dropped the kids off at my folks house.  After work I went there instead of home and spent the evening with the family.  By the time I got home it was close to midnight and after the week I've had and fighting this cold, I fell into bed.  So I'll have to wait another 4 years to post on Leap Day.  Ah well.

So my dad and I talked about the blackberries, the wood and the potato bins.  He thinks the blackberry pruning is a good idea (of course he does, he doesn't have to do it).  However he didn't think just putting my "dirt" on top of the weed infested ground for the potato bins was a good idea.  I used up all of my landscape fabric doing my garden area, so I've been reluctant to buy a new roll for just over 4 SF.  Then my dad suggested we use it over the concrete patio when we build a deck over it.  It will help keep anything from growing under there and also drain well.  So now I've got a reason to buy a new roll.  Looks like a trip to Costco is in order since they've got their garden pallets out now.

So here's what my garden to-do list looks like for this weekend:

-Direct sow broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, peas and spinach.

-Buy fertilizer (5-10-10) for the peas and spinach at least.

-Buy mulch for around the trees.

-Mulch the trees.

That's about it for this weekend, but I've got a ton of other errands and taxes to work on. 

Today's going to be a good day for the running around because the weather's crappy.  Yesterday I went out at lunch without a coat on.  By the time to go home, it was rainy, windy and grey. It's been icky ever since.  Tomorrow's supposed to be better weather for working outside.  We'll see.

Well, the rain has been just as predicted, showers.  Not worth working in but worth waiting out.  My day has been pretty full since I wrote that list.

I had planned on taking my eldest out to run some errands, including several for the garden, but my aunt and dad showed up.  Of course my son wanted to play in the yard with my aunt so my dad and I went on the errands. 

First we went to Costco and got gas and landscape fabric.  They had 4' x 220' for $21.  Can't pass that up and we can use it for under the deck we're building this spring in addition to the potato bins. 

Then we went to the local nursery (the $28 vermiculite one).  They're still the best thing around for gardening information and stuff.  We spoke to a knowlegable person there and he directed me away from Miracle Gro fertilizers because of the salt content that depletes the soil of nutrients to a more natural product.  So I not only got my 5-10-10 All Purpose Vegetable fertilizer, but I got the one for Azalelas and Rhodies (read bluberries) as well. 

 

While I was there I got mulch for around my apple and plum trees.  Of course, my gardener aunt was right, they recommended compost for mulch around the tree, just not touching the trunk.  So I got 4 bags or Cedar Grove compost for nearly the price of a cubic yard in bulk (if I needed that much or wanted to bag it myself). 



We also asked about worms there, but they only had composting worms like Flatlander has, and agreed that they would not be good for putting in my beds.  So from Sky Nursery we went to Joe's (formerly GI Joe's) sporting good store on a mission to set some bait free.  We got 8 dozen worms, nightcrawlers to be precise, and dumped them in my beds, two dozen each.



Then we started unloading the bags of compost.  Boy are they heavy.  So I got my trusty wheelbarrrow out to move them to where the tree is.  Unfortuantely over the last two weeks, the wheel went flat.  Odd.  So up to the gas station to fill it.  Sure I could have carried them by hand faster, but I also want to move all the left over Mel's Mix to the area between the two potato bins since that's where they're going eventually.  While we were filling the tire, the rain started so we came back, put the tire back on the wheelbarrow and my folks called it a day.  I made lunch for the family and am posting while I eat it.  

If the weather cooperates, I'll put landscape fabric under the potato bins to keep weeds from growing up into my fertile soil, mulch around the trees (putting landscaping fabric under them too rather than newspaper (since I've got it).  If the weather doesn't turn nice, I'll end up doing taxes... come on sunshine! 

The weather held to just be overcast.  Was a bit chilly after 5 as the sun was going down, but I got the landscape fabric under both bins and put the Mel's Mix I removed back on top. Let's see the weeds get through that, hehe.  It got too dark so I cleaned up and came back in to finish up today's entry.  Hope you like it.  I sure had fun making it!