It might be said that I don't know - about honey bees, and whoever said it would be right. But I am interested in honey bees, so I try to pay attention to my beekeepers. For example, a few weeks ago they came over to check on "my" bees (their bees in my garden). This is a new hive, created this summer in the middle of the day by
stealing half of the hive with a queen egg cell and the bees that were
home while the rest of the workers were out working. I wasn't present for the "theft", but that's how I take the story I was told on "acquisition day". Anyhow, I had called them because I wasn't seeing a lot of bees, I thought, and found a couple crawling across the ground and unable to fly. He checked the bees and was tickled with his findings: lots of capped brood and lots of honey. The hive had a tall super and a smaller, honey super. He added another small super on top of a queen excluder and commented that if they kept making honey at that pace they would need to add another super in a few weeks. He was suited up, using smoke and moving calmly and deliberately. He remarked how docile my bees are.
Fast-forward to this past Friday. Melissa and I went out to check the garden and I noticed that her late planting of sunflowers were starting to blossom. All I could think about was those huge sunflowers must have lots of nectar and that reminded me that our beekeeper had said he would need to add another super in a few weeks, so I called them up to remind them. She told me that he planned to be over by 1 to check on them.
He pulled in, rather in a hurry as he had a flight in just 4 hours and it's two hours to the airport from our house and he lives a little further out. He had his bee suit half on as he hopped over the bottom two strands of electric fence that he didn't unhook, with a small super in one hand and his gloves in the other while trying to pull his suit the rest of the way on. He reached for the wildlife netting and his suit dropped to his ankles, which showed me he was wearing jean shorts and a t-shirt under the suit. He paused then, suited up and then strode across the garden to the bee hive. He loosened up the tie down strap to make room to add the new super and dropped the loop behind the hive. Then he yanked off the metal lid and the wooden one and set them down and peered in the top honey super. He picked it partway off and set it back down rather hard I thought and then gripped the queen excluder with it and picked them both off together.
I was about 20-25 yards away and could see the bees crawling around on the honey super that is under the excluder. When he went to put the exluder and top super back on it seemed that the excluder got ahead of his fingers and landed rather hard on top of the full honey super. The top super was put back on rather quickly and he began swatting at one of his legs while reaching for the lids. I was in full retreat as I watched him jam the wooden and metal lids on top of the hive, grab the empty super (that isn't needed yet) and move quickly from the garden, flailing his arms and swatting his body the whole way out to the road. When he had finished swatting and brushing bees from himself he came over and talked for a minute and got ready to leave, until I reminded him that he hadn't secured the hive. There was a look of dread in his eyes as he said "I'm just going to put a rock on top of it for now", which is what he did, quickly.
OBSERVATION: If you are kind and gentle with your bees, they will be kind and gentle with you. If you are hard and rough on your bees, they will be hard and rough on you!
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Preparedness
Last month's tornado showed me that I wasn't as prepared as I should have been.
1. I knew that the last time I tried to start our generator that I couldn't get it running.
2. I knew that when I tried to run the house on the generator the breaker kept tripping on the plug I installed for this secondary purpose, most likely because it is a GFI breaker, as required by code since the outlet is in the basement.
3. I knew that the emergency cord I had made up when we lived in a doublewide trailer to feed the house from the dryer outlet was not long enough to reach the laundry room in the modular we built.
4. I didn't know that none of the gas stations in town kept the generators they had brought in during the last big outage a few years ago.
5. We didn't have any water on hand.
The power went out just after 3pm on Thursday, July 26th. My cousin lives a few miles out of town on the opposite side as us and their power was out too, and based on the number of trees we neighbors cut off the road just after the storm passed, I knew it was going to be awhile before the lights came on again. After clearing all of the trees from the road except for the one tangled in the power lines, I decided it was time to see if I could get the generator running.
When you NEED something, you pay a little more attention to details than when you WANT something done "just to check to see if it works". It didn't take me long to figure out that I had turned the fuel off on the generator. It fired up on the 1st pull after the valve was opened.
We found some heavy duty extension cords and plugged in the downstairs refrigerators (mid-size fridge used during canning season and a college dorm fridge) and freezers. We consolidated everything from our upstairs kitchen fridge/freezer to those downstairs for two reasons. First, the fuller a cooler is, the easier it is to keep it cold and, secondly, we only had to run 2 extension cords, which is all we HAD.
Around 8pm I called the power company, just to make sure they knew the power was out on our road; they did and they gave me an estimated time to restore of midnight, Friday. My cousin called Thursday evening to gloat about having taken a shower because they got their generator hooked up and told us about no one having gas in town.
On Friday morning, after running the generator long enough to get the freezers back down to 0º from 20-24ºF and running to my cousin's for a quick shower and 50 gallons of water, we set out to the next town over that had gas with the 1 good gas can that I could find. I also had designs on getting another circuit breaker (non-GFI) and plug and cable from the hardware store there. We stopped to get gas first, which was a good move because while we had to wait on the 2 people that arrived at the pumps just before we got there, the line behind us was 6 deep and growing by the time we left. The station had 3 5-gallon cans left so I bought one of those; with the full tank of the generator that gave me about 14 gallons of gas, or enough to run about 67 hours continuously. At the hardware store I realized that I didn't know what make of breaker I needed and they were out of receptacles anyhow. I ended up paying 50-some bucks for a generator-rated 50-foot extension cord.
Back at the house we figured out that we could run the emergency cord out the dryer vent to reach the generator. It makes me nervous as heck to run it that way because if someone should throw the main back on to the grid, the consequences could be unlivable. First on my list of upgrades is a proper flop-over switch. Scratch that - I'm going whole house coverage!
1. I knew that the last time I tried to start our generator that I couldn't get it running.
2. I knew that when I tried to run the house on the generator the breaker kept tripping on the plug I installed for this secondary purpose, most likely because it is a GFI breaker, as required by code since the outlet is in the basement.
3. I knew that the emergency cord I had made up when we lived in a doublewide trailer to feed the house from the dryer outlet was not long enough to reach the laundry room in the modular we built.
4. I didn't know that none of the gas stations in town kept the generators they had brought in during the last big outage a few years ago.
5. We didn't have any water on hand.
The power went out just after 3pm on Thursday, July 26th. My cousin lives a few miles out of town on the opposite side as us and their power was out too, and based on the number of trees we neighbors cut off the road just after the storm passed, I knew it was going to be awhile before the lights came on again. After clearing all of the trees from the road except for the one tangled in the power lines, I decided it was time to see if I could get the generator running.
When you NEED something, you pay a little more attention to details than when you WANT something done "just to check to see if it works". It didn't take me long to figure out that I had turned the fuel off on the generator. It fired up on the 1st pull after the valve was opened.
We found some heavy duty extension cords and plugged in the downstairs refrigerators (mid-size fridge used during canning season and a college dorm fridge) and freezers. We consolidated everything from our upstairs kitchen fridge/freezer to those downstairs for two reasons. First, the fuller a cooler is, the easier it is to keep it cold and, secondly, we only had to run 2 extension cords, which is all we HAD.
Around 8pm I called the power company, just to make sure they knew the power was out on our road; they did and they gave me an estimated time to restore of midnight, Friday. My cousin called Thursday evening to gloat about having taken a shower because they got their generator hooked up and told us about no one having gas in town.
On Friday morning, after running the generator long enough to get the freezers back down to 0º from 20-24ºF and running to my cousin's for a quick shower and 50 gallons of water, we set out to the next town over that had gas with the 1 good gas can that I could find. I also had designs on getting another circuit breaker (non-GFI) and plug and cable from the hardware store there. We stopped to get gas first, which was a good move because while we had to wait on the 2 people that arrived at the pumps just before we got there, the line behind us was 6 deep and growing by the time we left. The station had 3 5-gallon cans left so I bought one of those; with the full tank of the generator that gave me about 14 gallons of gas, or enough to run about 67 hours continuously. At the hardware store I realized that I didn't know what make of breaker I needed and they were out of receptacles anyhow. I ended up paying 50-some bucks for a generator-rated 50-foot extension cord.
Back at the house we figured out that we could run the emergency cord out the dryer vent to reach the generator. It makes me nervous as heck to run it that way because if someone should throw the main back on to the grid, the consequences could be unlivable. First on my list of upgrades is a proper flop-over switch. Scratch that - I'm going whole house coverage!
Monday, August 13, 2012
TORNADO!
We're not supposed to have tornadoes in north central Pennsylvania, but on Thursday, July 26, 2012 we had one touch down here in Coudersport, PA. I heard it coming. And it passed over/very near to our house before continuing over the town to where it touched down just to the east. The National Weather Service confirmed it was a tornado, along with one in nearby Elmira, NY.
I subscribe to weather.com's text notification service for severe weather and received a notification at about 2:55pm that we were under a tornado warning. Always the skeptic, I opened the sliding glass door opening onto our back deck, which faces westerly. Everyone always talks about tornadoes sounding like a train, but I don't think so. I would describe the sound as a dull, continuous roar, like you might hear when blowing over the end of a small pipe, only louder. WORRRRRRRRRRRRRL. I retreated to the basement, where Melissa and the dogs were cleaning the basement bedroom, and went into my den and watched the weather unfolding. The tree tops began circling in wide arches like I have never seen before. When the rain blanked out the treeline some 150 feet away some time between 3:05 and 3:10 pm, I decided it was time to move to our "safe room". The safe room is a closet I built in the middle of the basement that is along the front wall, which is underground and the concrete wall that keeps it from pushing in because of the back being a walk-out at the south-western corner. I built the closet big enough for our family of 4 to hunker down in and Melissa, 3 dogs and I fit inside without too much crowding.
We were lucky in our subdivision overlooking the town. Only one building was hit by falling trees, the neighbor's garage on the downwind side of us. We had the top come out of the top of a large beech tree at the southern end of the house. It fell eastward, between the deck stairs and the shed about 20 feet away. It missed the fence's 4x4 post by mere inches, taking out just 4 boards.
In the garden on the northern end of the house, the plants did okay for the most part. All of the peppers were laid down, pointing at the house; most of them have erected themselves. The tomatoes fared the worst. They rubbed hard on their ties and some of them were broken off at the ground. Many of them have since caught the blight, I believe because of the stress of their wounds. The top snapped in one of the maple trees at the top edge of the garden, and is still hanging there. Another 50 feet or so and another had it's topmost branches stripped of all it's leaves and the ends of it's branches too. The oak tree, our best oak tree, on the downwind side of it was pushed over onto some smaller trees. It leaned there for over a week before coming the rest of the way down on the 9th of August. It is out of the frame, to the right and I missed getting a photo of it before it fell completely.
No one was hurt on our road, nor by the tornado but the storm did cause one wind-related death when a tree fell on a camper nearby.
Power was out throughout much of the county due to numerous fallen trees and it was out on our road until Sunday around noon.
I subscribe to weather.com's text notification service for severe weather and received a notification at about 2:55pm that we were under a tornado warning. Always the skeptic, I opened the sliding glass door opening onto our back deck, which faces westerly. Everyone always talks about tornadoes sounding like a train, but I don't think so. I would describe the sound as a dull, continuous roar, like you might hear when blowing over the end of a small pipe, only louder. WORRRRRRRRRRRRRL. I retreated to the basement, where Melissa and the dogs were cleaning the basement bedroom, and went into my den and watched the weather unfolding. The tree tops began circling in wide arches like I have never seen before. When the rain blanked out the treeline some 150 feet away some time between 3:05 and 3:10 pm, I decided it was time to move to our "safe room". The safe room is a closet I built in the middle of the basement that is along the front wall, which is underground and the concrete wall that keeps it from pushing in because of the back being a walk-out at the south-western corner. I built the closet big enough for our family of 4 to hunker down in and Melissa, 3 dogs and I fit inside without too much crowding.
We were lucky in our subdivision overlooking the town. Only one building was hit by falling trees, the neighbor's garage on the downwind side of us. We had the top come out of the top of a large beech tree at the southern end of the house. It fell eastward, between the deck stairs and the shed about 20 feet away. It missed the fence's 4x4 post by mere inches, taking out just 4 boards.
In the garden on the northern end of the house, the plants did okay for the most part. All of the peppers were laid down, pointing at the house; most of them have erected themselves. The tomatoes fared the worst. They rubbed hard on their ties and some of them were broken off at the ground. Many of them have since caught the blight, I believe because of the stress of their wounds. The top snapped in one of the maple trees at the top edge of the garden, and is still hanging there. Another 50 feet or so and another had it's topmost branches stripped of all it's leaves and the ends of it's branches too. The oak tree, our best oak tree, on the downwind side of it was pushed over onto some smaller trees. It leaned there for over a week before coming the rest of the way down on the 9th of August. It is out of the frame, to the right and I missed getting a photo of it before it fell completely.
Power was out throughout much of the county due to numerous fallen trees and it was out on our road until Sunday around noon.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Garden Progress Update
The Cauliflower are under attack, along with the beans you can see in the beds in the back half of the garden. I believe the culprits are army worms, based solely on the leaves being eaten from the edges in. There were flea beetles in the eggplants, which are above the green beans, a chipmunk is eating half of each strawberry left to ripen and the beets are disappearing, I think crows might be getting into them.
Other than that, the plants are all healthy and growing well. Melissa visited relatives down state this weekend and she said their plants look sick compared to ours :-). That makes my competitive side happy!
I'll try to get some pictures posted of the back half of the garden soon.
Chickens, Chores and Staining Tip
On Thursday morning I had scheduled a contractor to install gutters on our house so bright and early Luke and I were out putting silicon in the nail holes of the aluminum fascia where they had pulled through and tacking it down before they arrived at 9:45. In the meantime, Melissa started building a small chicken fence inside our large dog fence. She went out to our friend's around noon and got the chickens.
When the contractors were finishing up around 2:30 with the gutters we were talking about the things I had to do that afternoon, which included staining the deck floor and the steps on the stairways. He passed on a tip that we found very useful: instead of using a brush for staining, use one of those rectangular paint edging pads that you can put a broom handle in. We happened to have one and gave it a try. Melissa stained the entire deck floor in an hour and a half, the same amount of time it took me to brush-stain one of the 2 sets of steps.. The last time she did it with a brush and it took her all day. She did the other set of steps in about 30 minutes.
At 5pm we started working on a chicken coop for our new "flock". We found some left-over pressure-treated 2x2 square railing spindles to use for the frame. Then we found some tongue and groove cedar plank cut-offs left over from my brother's camp we had planned to use for a dog house that we used on the two sides. We had a sheet and three quarters of 3/16" interior plywood that we used for the floor, front, back and roof. I keep a supply of deck screws and roofing nails on hand and we had shingles that were left-over from building our house. By 9pm we put the chicken coop in the fence and then put the last piece of fence up and locked the chickens in their new coop for the night.
On Friday morning we got the roll of wildlife netting that we had left over from fencing the garden and and covered the entire enclosure to keep Miss Houdini in. SHE'S NOT GETTING IN MY GARDEN! We've been getting 2 eggs a day ever since. - Thank you, Sharon!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Vermin Venison
Last year we planted a flat of Strawberries (4 dozen) in front of the boulders in front of our house. Some of them disappeared before fall and I strongly suspected the local Whitetail Deer population. This past week I've been watching my nice lush plants with berries with just a hint of color starting to appear in them.
This morning, while going out for our walk, I discovered that I no longer have berries with any color, and most of the leaves on most of the plants were gone as well. Out of the 4 dozen plants we planted last spring, we transplanted just 17 survivors to the bottom of the fenced-in, back garden and only 3 of them escaped undamaged. The rest are just gone, even though I had let the sporadic volunteer wheat from the straw mulch I put down grow up around them, standing.
The incriminating hoof prints in the road in front of the garden, pointed directly at the strawberries are all the proof I need. Yes, deer are vermin, tasty vermin, but still vermin; and I'll be fighting the ever-losing battle to eliminate them again this fall!
This morning, while going out for our walk, I discovered that I no longer have berries with any color, and most of the leaves on most of the plants were gone as well. Out of the 4 dozen plants we planted last spring, we transplanted just 17 survivors to the bottom of the fenced-in, back garden and only 3 of them escaped undamaged. The rest are just gone, even though I had let the sporadic volunteer wheat from the straw mulch I put down grow up around them, standing.
The incriminating hoof prints in the road in front of the garden, pointed directly at the strawberries are all the proof I need. Yes, deer are vermin, tasty vermin, but still vermin; and I'll be fighting the ever-losing battle to eliminate them again this fall!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Mounds of Dirt
On 12 May we hurriedly planted our broccoli in the traditional garden rows we grew up with, not exactly understanding what we've been reading in "THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE" by Edward C. Smith and on several gardening blogs. We were in a hurry because our fathers were arriving for our daughter's college graduation on the 13th. A week later, Thursday evening actually, as we were sitting at the picnic table looking at the garden and discussing our growing plans, we realized just how much space our 8 doz broccoli consumed (our garden is now a multifamily garden). If we continued to plant in traditional rows, with traditional walkways between the rows, we would run out of space before we planted half of what we wanted.
I started thinking about last year's garden that did really well even though I had spaced the rows really, really tight. It worked because we applied a PILE of mushroom soil to transform our woods soil/clay into decent top soil. Since we took out some trees to double the size of our garden to about 1/4 an acre, we applied 30 yards of mushroom soil again this year. I deduced that we could probably plant the garden as tightly this year as we did last, with all of that extra nitrogen laying around. With our new plan formulated, we went in for the evening and I picked up "THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE" to refresh myself about the different requirements for some of the plants I would be buying the next day. I read again "deep, wide beds", but it still didn't click.
On Friday morning I tilled some of the garden again, while waiting on the garden center to open. After picking up all of the plants on my list, and waiting for the heat of the sun to dissipate some, we planted the the Hungarian Wax Hot Peppers. Melissa had scheduled dinner out with a few of her friends. After she left I puttered around the garden some more and I put a string up below the hot peppers and stepped back to look at it. I thought to myself, what a waste of good mushroom soil. All of that work going into a path! Then I got an idea. What if I shoveled the good, nutrient-rich, soil out of the path and put it in the next row to be planted?
Bright and early Saturday morning I left Melissa weeding her flower beds while I went for a load of mushroom soil (1 yard) for our very front garden and for the top, back edge of the back garden where we missed spreading some earlier, and more importantly, a flat shovel. As soon as I got back I backed the truck up to the back garden and set to work with my new shovel.
I found scooping the loosely tilled soil out of the defined path to be relatively easy, except for areas where we stepped on it repeatedly while planting the hot peppers. I remedied that problem by re-tilling the tramped in areas. Tilling the pathway helped immensely in reducing the the amount of force required to move the dirt and it wasn't very long before I had a 55 foot long path below the the hot peppers.
Melissa finished with her flower beds as I was reaching the end of the row and she decided she liked the idea except for one thing, the path wasn't quite wide enough for our pull along wagon so she widened it out by another 1/2 a shovel width. The BOOK said he (Edward) likes wide rows of 30, 36 and even 48 inches. Needing a number of rows for different plant types, I opted for 30 inch rows so I measured down 30 inches and began digging the next path. We went the whole width of the new garden and ended up with some really deep beds. We leveled off the dirt we had piled on each row as we dug the path above it and ended up with our planting surface, and I was quite pleased.
Late Saturday afternoon we were finally ready to plant. We planted all of the raised beds we had created and then stood back to look them over. What we have looks very good and we're quite pleased but something didn't seem quite right. I studied the book Saturday evening and it hit me like a 2x4 up a'side the head - I made the BASE 30" not the top! Dirt doesn't stack straight up like blocks very well, it tends to settle outward at the base until there is sufficient width to support the height.
On Sunday we worked the back half of the garden, putting in wider beds. My goal was for a 36" wide planting surface on top and I found that a 40" base allowed me to achieve that with the amount of dirt I was digging out of the pathway (4-6") without getting the sides too steep to hold up. I was VERY please with the results and next year I will redo the front half of the garden to have the wider, 36" RAISED beds.
That was my final epiphany: RAISED BEDS. Every time I read about raised garden beds I always pictured a wooden box structure with dirt poured in it. It never occurred to me that a raised bed could be made without any construction materials! Mounds of Dirt aka RAISED BEDS!
I started thinking about last year's garden that did really well even though I had spaced the rows really, really tight. It worked because we applied a PILE of mushroom soil to transform our woods soil/clay into decent top soil. Since we took out some trees to double the size of our garden to about 1/4 an acre, we applied 30 yards of mushroom soil again this year. I deduced that we could probably plant the garden as tightly this year as we did last, with all of that extra nitrogen laying around. With our new plan formulated, we went in for the evening and I picked up "THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE" to refresh myself about the different requirements for some of the plants I would be buying the next day. I read again "deep, wide beds", but it still didn't click.
On Friday morning I tilled some of the garden again, while waiting on the garden center to open. After picking up all of the plants on my list, and waiting for the heat of the sun to dissipate some, we planted the the Hungarian Wax Hot Peppers. Melissa had scheduled dinner out with a few of her friends. After she left I puttered around the garden some more and I put a string up below the hot peppers and stepped back to look at it. I thought to myself, what a waste of good mushroom soil. All of that work going into a path! Then I got an idea. What if I shoveled the good, nutrient-rich, soil out of the path and put it in the next row to be planted?
Bright and early Saturday morning I left Melissa weeding her flower beds while I went for a load of mushroom soil (1 yard) for our very front garden and for the top, back edge of the back garden where we missed spreading some earlier, and more importantly, a flat shovel. As soon as I got back I backed the truck up to the back garden and set to work with my new shovel.
I found scooping the loosely tilled soil out of the defined path to be relatively easy, except for areas where we stepped on it repeatedly while planting the hot peppers. I remedied that problem by re-tilling the tramped in areas. Tilling the pathway helped immensely in reducing the the amount of force required to move the dirt and it wasn't very long before I had a 55 foot long path below the the hot peppers.
Melissa finished with her flower beds as I was reaching the end of the row and she decided she liked the idea except for one thing, the path wasn't quite wide enough for our pull along wagon so she widened it out by another 1/2 a shovel width. The BOOK said he (Edward) likes wide rows of 30, 36 and even 48 inches. Needing a number of rows for different plant types, I opted for 30 inch rows so I measured down 30 inches and began digging the next path. We went the whole width of the new garden and ended up with some really deep beds. We leveled off the dirt we had piled on each row as we dug the path above it and ended up with our planting surface, and I was quite pleased.
Late Saturday afternoon we were finally ready to plant. We planted all of the raised beds we had created and then stood back to look them over. What we have looks very good and we're quite pleased but something didn't seem quite right. I studied the book Saturday evening and it hit me like a 2x4 up a'side the head - I made the BASE 30" not the top! Dirt doesn't stack straight up like blocks very well, it tends to settle outward at the base until there is sufficient width to support the height.
On Sunday we worked the back half of the garden, putting in wider beds. My goal was for a 36" wide planting surface on top and I found that a 40" base allowed me to achieve that with the amount of dirt I was digging out of the pathway (4-6") without getting the sides too steep to hold up. I was VERY please with the results and next year I will redo the front half of the garden to have the wider, 36" RAISED beds.
That was my final epiphany: RAISED BEDS. Every time I read about raised garden beds I always pictured a wooden box structure with dirt poured in it. It never occurred to me that a raised bed could be made without any construction materials! Mounds of Dirt aka RAISED BEDS!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Of Bears and Bees
Today Sharon and Fitz from Fitzgerald's Family Farm are getting in a new bee hive and placing it on our property. We have been busily preparing for this day to make the bees as safe as possible. When you live beyond the edge of a small town, in the woods, bears are a huge consideration. Especially considering one got a bag of our trash a couple of weeks ago and a few days later he walked across our front garden again. The evidence is in the footprints.
We have given a lot of consideration on where to place the hive. Since we already have a 5' wire-mesh fence around the back garden that includes a small alcove at the back, bottom corner with two young apple trees, we decided to place it there. In addition to the wire fence, we have a 7' wildlife netting on the outside of it that is "decorated" with fluorescent pink marking tape to make it visible. The wildlife netting won't do much to stop a bear, except to create a nuisance for him. Over the weekend we began construction of a third, outer-layer of protection: an electric fence.
On Saturday I bought a 30 mile solar powered electric fencer and all of the supplies I calculated that I would need. Why a 30 mile fencer for a small garden? Power. Bears have long hair and a tough hide. I want to make sure that the fence gets their attention and deters them from crossing it.
While Melissa was picking up some supplies in another store, I read the manual for the fencer and ended up going back to the hardware to get some more fencing supplies. The second-most important component of an electric fence is proper grounding. I had bought one 6' galvanized ground rod but the minimum specifications are for three of them, spaced 10' apart with the first one within 20' of the fencer.
First thing Sunday morning I set the solar fencer out in the yard facing due south to start it's 3 day charge cycle that is required for start-up. The sunniest location in our back garden is the back, upper corner, so I put the post for the solar fencer there, positioned so one side is facing due south to hang the fencer on. I spaced the ground rods along the back fence, leading from the post I set for the fencer, down toward the bottom of the garden. We spent the rest of the day clearing the fence line and driving in corner posts.
Last night we did our best to finish the fence. Unfortunately, when I was calculating our material needs I missed counting one corner (my garden isn't a rectangle) and I didn't allow for using twice as many insulators on the hinge side of the gate. One set is to terminate the run and the second set is to connect the gate strands to it; one set on each side of the post. Electricity at the gate is fed into the gate strands from the handle connection. This has the advantage of removing the electricity from the gate strands when its laying on the ground while we're working in the garden.
Melissa has picked up the additional insulators we need to add rows 3 (mandatory) and 4 (will be nice for deer). Hopefully the rain will hold off this evening until we can get those 2 rows hooked up and the fence tested.
We have given a lot of consideration on where to place the hive. Since we already have a 5' wire-mesh fence around the back garden that includes a small alcove at the back, bottom corner with two young apple trees, we decided to place it there. In addition to the wire fence, we have a 7' wildlife netting on the outside of it that is "decorated" with fluorescent pink marking tape to make it visible. The wildlife netting won't do much to stop a bear, except to create a nuisance for him. Over the weekend we began construction of a third, outer-layer of protection: an electric fence.
On Saturday I bought a 30 mile solar powered electric fencer and all of the supplies I calculated that I would need. Why a 30 mile fencer for a small garden? Power. Bears have long hair and a tough hide. I want to make sure that the fence gets their attention and deters them from crossing it.
While Melissa was picking up some supplies in another store, I read the manual for the fencer and ended up going back to the hardware to get some more fencing supplies. The second-most important component of an electric fence is proper grounding. I had bought one 6' galvanized ground rod but the minimum specifications are for three of them, spaced 10' apart with the first one within 20' of the fencer.
First thing Sunday morning I set the solar fencer out in the yard facing due south to start it's 3 day charge cycle that is required for start-up. The sunniest location in our back garden is the back, upper corner, so I put the post for the solar fencer there, positioned so one side is facing due south to hang the fencer on. I spaced the ground rods along the back fence, leading from the post I set for the fencer, down toward the bottom of the garden. We spent the rest of the day clearing the fence line and driving in corner posts.
Last night we did our best to finish the fence. Unfortunately, when I was calculating our material needs I missed counting one corner (my garden isn't a rectangle) and I didn't allow for using twice as many insulators on the hinge side of the gate. One set is to terminate the run and the second set is to connect the gate strands to it; one set on each side of the post. Electricity at the gate is fed into the gate strands from the handle connection. This has the advantage of removing the electricity from the gate strands when its laying on the ground while we're working in the garden.
Melissa has picked up the additional insulators we need to add rows 3 (mandatory) and 4 (will be nice for deer). Hopefully the rain will hold off this evening until we can get those 2 rows hooked up and the fence tested.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Behind Schedule - Or Are We?
It sure feels like I'm behind last year's schedule, but after reviewing last year's garden notes - not yet! Yesterday we came a long way in getting ready for this year's garden season. I hired Smoker Excavating to put a sluice in the ditch that divides our property so we can get in and out of the garden with heavy equipment (dump truck loads of mushroom soil, for example), without running over our water line from the well.
He removed the stump pile from above the garden and leveled it out. The top soil from the roots looks like the best soil on the property! It's too bad that we didn't have that area cleaned up before we made our garden! I also had him bring in a tri-axle load of mushroom soil, about 30 yards worth.
I wish I would have had him come in last fall instead of the kid I did hire. I think the garden would have been ready for easy tilling instead of the back-breaking work we have ahead of us to remove the roots and rocks the other guy buried.
One last note on excavating - if you hire an excavator make sure you're able to be present during the entire job. Questions always come up and the excavator might have a pretty good idea on what you want, but if you're not there to make sure it's EXACTLY what you want, you may not get it. Everyone has a different picture in their mind and you need to be on hand to provide some direction when your picture and the excavator's don't match precisely. Using yesterday for an example, David and I had a different idea on where the sluice pipe was going to be placed, had I not been there it would have been 20 feet further down the ditch than where I wanted it. It still would have worked, but it wouldn't have been where I planned it to be which would have interfered with my ideas for the future.
Back to the garden.
We are now on par with last year's schedule, except for planting onions. Last year we didn't plant them until May 1st and most of them didn't get very big. This year we planted some around March 24th and they're already as tall as the garlic! I hope we get enough large bulbs to can all of our spaghetti sauce with them this year. Last year we had to buy a 25lb bag to finish.
I finished reviewing last year's notes. We didn't buy our plants until May 15th and couldn't even start planting them until the 21st, finishing on the 26th. I need to take a deep breath and relax, instead of trying to work in the mud like I just did!
He removed the stump pile from above the garden and leveled it out. The top soil from the roots looks like the best soil on the property! It's too bad that we didn't have that area cleaned up before we made our garden! I also had him bring in a tri-axle load of mushroom soil, about 30 yards worth.
I wish I would have had him come in last fall instead of the kid I did hire. I think the garden would have been ready for easy tilling instead of the back-breaking work we have ahead of us to remove the roots and rocks the other guy buried.
One last note on excavating - if you hire an excavator make sure you're able to be present during the entire job. Questions always come up and the excavator might have a pretty good idea on what you want, but if you're not there to make sure it's EXACTLY what you want, you may not get it. Everyone has a different picture in their mind and you need to be on hand to provide some direction when your picture and the excavator's don't match precisely. Using yesterday for an example, David and I had a different idea on where the sluice pipe was going to be placed, had I not been there it would have been 20 feet further down the ditch than where I wanted it. It still would have worked, but it wouldn't have been where I planned it to be which would have interfered with my ideas for the future.
Back to the garden.
We are now on par with last year's schedule, except for planting onions. Last year we didn't plant them until May 1st and most of them didn't get very big. This year we planted some around March 24th and they're already as tall as the garlic! I hope we get enough large bulbs to can all of our spaghetti sauce with them this year. Last year we had to buy a 25lb bag to finish.
I finished reviewing last year's notes. We didn't buy our plants until May 15th and couldn't even start planting them until the 21st, finishing on the 26th. I need to take a deep breath and relax, instead of trying to work in the mud like I just did!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Greenhouse Plantings and Flowers
In addition to more ground-breaking in the garden and cleaning up some of the brush, we started planting in the greenhouse this past weekend. Melissa planted flowers, spices, lettuces and mint. The mint is a lot like horseradish in that it will spread like a bad weed so you have to be careful where you plant it.
The garlic is doing well and has come up through the 2 inches of compost we covered them with last fall by another 4 inches or so. The crocuses I planted last fall are blooming. So far there's yellow and white and none of the blues that I like. Daffodil's and Tulips all seem to be coming up and the Pansies are starting to bloom.
Our ground-breaking continues in the garden with about another 500 square feet added on. I believe we're harvesting about 2 lbs/rock and 1 lb of roots per square foot, but my estimate may be LOW. I don't know how our fore-fathers managed to clear as much land as they did for cultivating crops without the modern tools we have available to us today. It must have taken a long time to carve out an opening large enough to grow gardens and crops among the eastern forests. I've used chainsaws, bulldozers, backhoes, and a tiller to help clear our small garden.
The garlic is doing well and has come up through the 2 inches of compost we covered them with last fall by another 4 inches or so. The crocuses I planted last fall are blooming. So far there's yellow and white and none of the blues that I like. Daffodil's and Tulips all seem to be coming up and the Pansies are starting to bloom.
Our ground-breaking continues in the garden with about another 500 square feet added on. I believe we're harvesting about 2 lbs/rock and 1 lb of roots per square foot, but my estimate may be LOW. I don't know how our fore-fathers managed to clear as much land as they did for cultivating crops without the modern tools we have available to us today. It must have taken a long time to carve out an opening large enough to grow gardens and crops among the eastern forests. I've used chainsaws, bulldozers, backhoes, and a tiller to help clear our small garden.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Ground Breaking
Looks like I'm a bit behind schedule this year, compared to last. On March 22, 2011 I wrote that I had spent 3 weeks on garden soil preparation already. This year, soil preps began yesterday, March 11, 2012.
Luke, Melissa and I spent most of the afternoon tilling some of our garden expansion area. There's nothing like a hand tiller to find lots of rocks and roots! All of the rocks are making a nice border around the maple tree at the edge of the garden. This will help keep me from killing it by whacking off the roots.
Anyhow, all of the work that we did on Sunday effectively doubles the size of last year's garden. The net planting result will remain the same as we need to spread some of the bushier plants out some over last year (tomatoes) so I can get through them without breaking them off.
Last fall we had several stumps removed and added on to the fence to keep the deer out. We thought that the work we were having done would leave us with a straight-forward, ready-to-till garden, but the landscaper we hired thinks that 2" is deep enough for a garden. We were left with most of the roots and rocks still lurking just under the surface. We had also talked about him running a rock hound through it, but when the time came he said "It isn't designed for that". I have heard that about various pieces of equipment from different folks since we first started clearing our garden 3 years ago. I know that a tiller wasn't designed for that, but it helps to get the job done.
But, I digress. Our plans for this year will result in our garden being nearly 3 times as large as it was last year. It sounds like a lot described this way, but it's not even a quarter of an acre. (An acre is 40,000 square feet: 200x200). With all of our gardens added together we MIGHT reach an eighth of an acre this year. We had enough space last year to raise all of the broccoli, green and yellow wax beans and beets that we needed, all but about 2 bushels of tomatoes (for 2 families), and enough pickles for 3 families. We also grew some potatoes, onions, peas, garlic, lettuce, hot and sweet peppers, and carrots. We plan to plant another 3 doz tomatoes and a few more hot and green peppers this year. Things were a bit cramped though and I broke more than one plant trying to get between the rows.
I have nasturtiums started on the basement windowsill (I hope I don't let them dry out like last year's parsley) and we're chomping at the bit to get some fresh greens planted in the greenhouse.
Luke, Melissa and I spent most of the afternoon tilling some of our garden expansion area. There's nothing like a hand tiller to find lots of rocks and roots! All of the rocks are making a nice border around the maple tree at the edge of the garden. This will help keep me from killing it by whacking off the roots.
Anyhow, all of the work that we did on Sunday effectively doubles the size of last year's garden. The net planting result will remain the same as we need to spread some of the bushier plants out some over last year (tomatoes) so I can get through them without breaking them off.
Last fall we had several stumps removed and added on to the fence to keep the deer out. We thought that the work we were having done would leave us with a straight-forward, ready-to-till garden, but the landscaper we hired thinks that 2" is deep enough for a garden. We were left with most of the roots and rocks still lurking just under the surface. We had also talked about him running a rock hound through it, but when the time came he said "It isn't designed for that". I have heard that about various pieces of equipment from different folks since we first started clearing our garden 3 years ago. I know that a tiller wasn't designed for that, but it helps to get the job done.
But, I digress. Our plans for this year will result in our garden being nearly 3 times as large as it was last year. It sounds like a lot described this way, but it's not even a quarter of an acre. (An acre is 40,000 square feet: 200x200). With all of our gardens added together we MIGHT reach an eighth of an acre this year. We had enough space last year to raise all of the broccoli, green and yellow wax beans and beets that we needed, all but about 2 bushels of tomatoes (for 2 families), and enough pickles for 3 families. We also grew some potatoes, onions, peas, garlic, lettuce, hot and sweet peppers, and carrots. We plan to plant another 3 doz tomatoes and a few more hot and green peppers this year. Things were a bit cramped though and I broke more than one plant trying to get between the rows.
I have nasturtiums started on the basement windowsill (I hope I don't let them dry out like last year's parsley) and we're chomping at the bit to get some fresh greens planted in the greenhouse.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Our First Greenhouse
My wife, Melissa, has been talking about her mother's greenhouse for years and now that we have our own place, I want one too. Since her birthday was yesterday, I figured it was the perfect time to fulfill her overdue wish to have one, so a few weeks ago I set about preparing for it.
My original thought, and ultimate plan, is to build one right above the garden. But after clearing the brush pile deposited there during construction of our home, I found much more to do for site preparation than I could accomplish before this growing season.
During this time-frame we were walking around in our more-or-less local big construction store and we stopped to look at a little 4x6 plastic-covered job. Even though it was indoors, and not in direct sunlight, it was a few degrees warmer inside it. Melissa said something about it, and even though I can't remember anything close to the words she used, it planted a seed.
Fast-forward to President's Day and I found the perfect excuse to be going in the opposite direction from the wife - she had made plans for a friend to accompany her to Altoona. That left the neighbor and I free to go to the other big construction store in an even less local town under the guise of retrieving my trailer from my brother, which is more or less on the way.
When we went I had intended to buy the materials to build the "Winter Optimum" Greenhouse I designed and posted in a previous post, but due to the time constraint, and stumbling upon a 6x8 model of a similar greenhouse to the one Melissa and I saw, I changed my mind. For $199.95, an opportunity to use the greenhouse this year and a chance to make Melissa happy on her birthday, I bought it.
The neighbor and I hid it in his garage until this past weekend. I had him call me Sunday morning when he got up and used the ruse that he needed my help laying out the stairs in his garage for about an hour or so. I got "the look" as I headed out the door, but sometimes you just have to take it.
It took us a little over an hour to put the metal framework together in his garage - no tools required. Then we snuck it through the treeline between our houses out back. We set it tight against the back porch and then went and got the cover from the garage and started putting it over the framework. We were nearly done when Melissa texted me, asking me how much longer we'd be. I replied "10-15 mins". We were attaching the last strap that holds the cover to the frame about 5 minutes later when I heard the front door open and Melissa yelling at the dogs. Mostly she was yelling at Whiskey who had heard us and came tearing around the back of the house, barking the whole way. I quickly thanked our neighbor for his help and headed around front to make sure Melissa didn't come around back. Whiskey and I found her headed for the front steps from starting her SUV to warm up, and followed her inside. She was getting ready for the two of us to go out and do some of the myriad things we had talked about doing on Saturday but didn't do because of the high winds. Fearing that we wouldn't get back until after dark, I led her out onto the back deck to show her something. She seems to be happy with her birthday present and now she wants to know what we're going to plant! Sunday evening Luck and I went out and moved the greenhouse over the septic tank and ran pole-barn spikes through the feet to hold it down.
I chose the location because of the heat from the septic tank. It does get snow-covered in the winter but the snow is always shallower there and is the first place to melt-off in the spring. It was 42° on the ground inside the greenhouse at 8:40 this morning, 36° under the enclosed back deck, and 27° at 9:10am downtown.
I will update the blog from time to time on the performance of the greenhouse. I hope to have fresh salads all winter long this coming year.
My original thought, and ultimate plan, is to build one right above the garden. But after clearing the brush pile deposited there during construction of our home, I found much more to do for site preparation than I could accomplish before this growing season.
During this time-frame we were walking around in our more-or-less local big construction store and we stopped to look at a little 4x6 plastic-covered job. Even though it was indoors, and not in direct sunlight, it was a few degrees warmer inside it. Melissa said something about it, and even though I can't remember anything close to the words she used, it planted a seed.
Fast-forward to President's Day and I found the perfect excuse to be going in the opposite direction from the wife - she had made plans for a friend to accompany her to Altoona. That left the neighbor and I free to go to the other big construction store in an even less local town under the guise of retrieving my trailer from my brother, which is more or less on the way.
When we went I had intended to buy the materials to build the "Winter Optimum" Greenhouse I designed and posted in a previous post, but due to the time constraint, and stumbling upon a 6x8 model of a similar greenhouse to the one Melissa and I saw, I changed my mind. For $199.95, an opportunity to use the greenhouse this year and a chance to make Melissa happy on her birthday, I bought it.
The neighbor and I hid it in his garage until this past weekend. I had him call me Sunday morning when he got up and used the ruse that he needed my help laying out the stairs in his garage for about an hour or so. I got "the look" as I headed out the door, but sometimes you just have to take it.
It took us a little over an hour to put the metal framework together in his garage - no tools required. Then we snuck it through the treeline between our houses out back. We set it tight against the back porch and then went and got the cover from the garage and started putting it over the framework. We were nearly done when Melissa texted me, asking me how much longer we'd be. I replied "10-15 mins". We were attaching the last strap that holds the cover to the frame about 5 minutes later when I heard the front door open and Melissa yelling at the dogs. Mostly she was yelling at Whiskey who had heard us and came tearing around the back of the house, barking the whole way. I quickly thanked our neighbor for his help and headed around front to make sure Melissa didn't come around back. Whiskey and I found her headed for the front steps from starting her SUV to warm up, and followed her inside. She was getting ready for the two of us to go out and do some of the myriad things we had talked about doing on Saturday but didn't do because of the high winds. Fearing that we wouldn't get back until after dark, I led her out onto the back deck to show her something. She seems to be happy with her birthday present and now she wants to know what we're going to plant! Sunday evening Luck and I went out and moved the greenhouse over the septic tank and ran pole-barn spikes through the feet to hold it down.
I chose the location because of the heat from the septic tank. It does get snow-covered in the winter but the snow is always shallower there and is the first place to melt-off in the spring. It was 42° on the ground inside the greenhouse at 8:40 this morning, 36° under the enclosed back deck, and 27° at 9:10am downtown.
I will update the blog from time to time on the performance of the greenhouse. I hope to have fresh salads all winter long this coming year.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
LED Lighting and Sticker Shock
On Friday Melissa and I went up to the "big city" to do some shopping. We needed a few supplies from the big construction store and made that our last stop before heading home.
As we walked down the first aisle I spotted light bulbs and remembered that Melissa had one missing from her sewing room. We had talked to a solar company while at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show and one of the things he talked about was how much brighter and even more efficient LED bulbs are over CFL's (compact fluorescent light).
After studying the lighted display, and recovering from the price shock, we chose 3 different bulbs to try out. One of the reasons we decided to go ahead with trying them out is that they come with a 5 year warranty and when starting prices are $9.97 a bulb, a warranty is needed!
The bulbs we chose for our trial are an 8W (40W equivalent, 429 Lumen - $9.97), a 13W A19 Daylight (60W equivalent, 950 Lumen - $25.97) and a 16W BR 40 (90W equivalent, 950 Lumen - $34.97). I know, absolutely ridiculous, right? Maybe not.
Let's talk a minute about the alternatives, regular light bulbs and CFLs. The obvious disadvantage to a regular bulb is the amount of energy required to operate them, 47W/hour/bulb adds up in a hurry. CFLs on the other hand are only a few watts more per hour and relatively speaking, are still quite a bit cheaper, but the kicker here is they all contain MERCURY; you know, that crap the government was trying to get out of our environment until China started selling us CFLs.
The reason we want to try out LED lights are to reduce our electric bill and our power consumption. I SO want to go Solar. And, I hate where CFLs are made and the fact that they contain Mercury.
THE TEST AND MORE ON THE BULBS
First, we put the 13W bulb in the corner of the sewing room. It is much smaller and lighter than the floodlight-shaped 16W bulb with the same Lumen measurement. (A Lumen is a measurement of light emitted). It did a pretty good job of lighting the area around it. We then replaced the 13W with the 16W bulb and there was a noticeable difference. The floodlight-type shape of the 16W bulb seems to spread the light a little further. It is a good choice for the dark corner of Melissa's basement sewing room. We have 2 lights for the long basement hallway and I replaced the burnt out light first with one of the 2 8W bulbs we bought and tried it out. The area around the LED light was noticeably brighter than the area around the CFL, so I changed it out too. This was our plan since our son frequently leaves this light on all night long. Next I replaced one of the bulbs over the kitchen island with the 13W bulb and the difference was immediate! The fixture is one of those enclosed globe-type fixtures, tight to the ceiling, that takes 2 bulbs. The LED bulb is a brighter blue-white light compared to the soft yellow of the comparable CFL that is in the fixture with it. We will be getting another of these bulbs for the other side of this fixture. At $25.97 I think that's saying something about the light output. Note: These lights put very little light out behind them. They don't reflect very much off of the ceiling, for example.
The next test is longevity - time will tell.
As we walked down the first aisle I spotted light bulbs and remembered that Melissa had one missing from her sewing room. We had talked to a solar company while at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show and one of the things he talked about was how much brighter and even more efficient LED bulbs are over CFL's (compact fluorescent light).
After studying the lighted display, and recovering from the price shock, we chose 3 different bulbs to try out. One of the reasons we decided to go ahead with trying them out is that they come with a 5 year warranty and when starting prices are $9.97 a bulb, a warranty is needed!
The bulbs we chose for our trial are an 8W (40W equivalent, 429 Lumen - $9.97), a 13W A19 Daylight (60W equivalent, 950 Lumen - $25.97) and a 16W BR 40 (90W equivalent, 950 Lumen - $34.97). I know, absolutely ridiculous, right? Maybe not.
Let's talk a minute about the alternatives, regular light bulbs and CFLs. The obvious disadvantage to a regular bulb is the amount of energy required to operate them, 47W/hour/bulb adds up in a hurry. CFLs on the other hand are only a few watts more per hour and relatively speaking, are still quite a bit cheaper, but the kicker here is they all contain MERCURY; you know, that crap the government was trying to get out of our environment until China started selling us CFLs.
The reason we want to try out LED lights are to reduce our electric bill and our power consumption. I SO want to go Solar. And, I hate where CFLs are made and the fact that they contain Mercury.
THE TEST AND MORE ON THE BULBS
First, we put the 13W bulb in the corner of the sewing room. It is much smaller and lighter than the floodlight-shaped 16W bulb with the same Lumen measurement. (A Lumen is a measurement of light emitted). It did a pretty good job of lighting the area around it. We then replaced the 13W with the 16W bulb and there was a noticeable difference. The floodlight-type shape of the 16W bulb seems to spread the light a little further. It is a good choice for the dark corner of Melissa's basement sewing room. We have 2 lights for the long basement hallway and I replaced the burnt out light first with one of the 2 8W bulbs we bought and tried it out. The area around the LED light was noticeably brighter than the area around the CFL, so I changed it out too. This was our plan since our son frequently leaves this light on all night long. Next I replaced one of the bulbs over the kitchen island with the 13W bulb and the difference was immediate! The fixture is one of those enclosed globe-type fixtures, tight to the ceiling, that takes 2 bulbs. The LED bulb is a brighter blue-white light compared to the soft yellow of the comparable CFL that is in the fixture with it. We will be getting another of these bulbs for the other side of this fixture. At $25.97 I think that's saying something about the light output. Note: These lights put very little light out behind them. They don't reflect very much off of the ceiling, for example.
The next test is longevity - time will tell.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
The USDA has come out with a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map. It now contains 13 zones. They are based on a 10° F window for the average cold temperature during winter. See the USDA news release here for more info. If you want to go directly to the interactive map, you can find the map here. For those living near me, we're in Zone 5a.
Garden Preps Begin
Okay. Okay! I get it. I might be a tad bit antsy but, I can't wait to dig into my garden expansion area to find out if I'm going to be able to get it ready in time for the spring planting. Given that the ground is frozen I can't very well start tilling it yet, so I started thawing it out! Well, not exactly.
It all started on Friday. It was a beautiful day out and I spent the whole day running around taking the dogs to the vet and getting their licenses. The relationship to the garden is that I was outside frequently, seeing bare ground and tolerable temperatures. And, after getting home from the vet's, the dogs and I wandered out back and had a look around the garden. It was late in the afternoon so we didn't tarry long, but I made a couple of mental notes on things that need to get done.
On Saturday morning the pull was irresistible and I found myself back in the garden with my faithful companion, Whiskey. The most pressing item on my agenda is to install an electric fence to keep the bears our of the honey bees that will be arriving early this spring. With this in mind, I started taking the brush that was stacked near the woven-wire fence and piling it in the middle of the expansion area. Whiskey and I worked on that until I couldn't take anymore and we called it a day.
Sunday found Luke, Whiskey and I back in the garden to burn the brush pile that I stacked the day before. I purposely chose to burn the brush in the new garden area so I can just till the ashes right into the soil when the time comes.
Of course it snowed 4" or so Saturday night, just to make things nice and damp for burning. We got it going without too much trouble and before long I had singed half my mustache, both eyelashes and eyebrows (Kayla would like the trimming they got) and a little of my hair. It's probably a good thing I shaved the beard off Friday night!
Anyhow, Luke and I (and Whiskey) cleaned up the brush above the garden near the gate; and we took out a bunch of the young beach brush there to get ready for leveling an area for a small greenhouse. We'll also be planting some of the 300-odd trees I have coming in the beginning of April there.
My next task will be to clear the entire path for the electric fence and start building it.
It all started on Friday. It was a beautiful day out and I spent the whole day running around taking the dogs to the vet and getting their licenses. The relationship to the garden is that I was outside frequently, seeing bare ground and tolerable temperatures. And, after getting home from the vet's, the dogs and I wandered out back and had a look around the garden. It was late in the afternoon so we didn't tarry long, but I made a couple of mental notes on things that need to get done.
On Saturday morning the pull was irresistible and I found myself back in the garden with my faithful companion, Whiskey. The most pressing item on my agenda is to install an electric fence to keep the bears our of the honey bees that will be arriving early this spring. With this in mind, I started taking the brush that was stacked near the woven-wire fence and piling it in the middle of the expansion area. Whiskey and I worked on that until I couldn't take anymore and we called it a day.
Sunday found Luke, Whiskey and I back in the garden to burn the brush pile that I stacked the day before. I purposely chose to burn the brush in the new garden area so I can just till the ashes right into the soil when the time comes.
Of course it snowed 4" or so Saturday night, just to make things nice and damp for burning. We got it going without too much trouble and before long I had singed half my mustache, both eyelashes and eyebrows (Kayla would like the trimming they got) and a little of my hair. It's probably a good thing I shaved the beard off Friday night!
Anyhow, Luke and I (and Whiskey) cleaned up the brush above the garden near the gate; and we took out a bunch of the young beach brush there to get ready for leveling an area for a small greenhouse. We'll also be planting some of the 300-odd trees I have coming in the beginning of April there.
My next task will be to clear the entire path for the electric fence and start building it.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Greenhouse Designs
I was reviewing Solar panel positioning data yesterday for our area and it suddenly occurred to me that if I wanted to build a greenhouse with maximum light penetration and heat generation in the winter, then the south-facing wall should be at about the same angle as for solar power generation. See U.S. Solar Radiation Resource Maps for the data I used. The winter optimum angle is your latitude minus 15°, and the summer, static, optimum angle for power generation is your latitude plus 15°. Coudersport's latitude is about 41.65°, which I rounded to roughly 42°. This gives us angles of 27° and 57°. In my design tool I have to have a wall to put the degree measuring tool against so you will see the angles converted 180° out, or 153° and 123°.
My design program doesn't have fine-enough setting to land exactly at the foot mark when adjusting the angles, but you can bet I'll be rounding these lengths off when building mine. It's not that critical, I just need to be in the ballpark.
The left side of the drawings are the south-facing sides.
My design program doesn't have fine-enough setting to land exactly at the foot mark when adjusting the angles, but you can bet I'll be rounding these lengths off when building mine. It's not that critical, I just need to be in the ballpark.
The left side of the drawings are the south-facing sides.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The Beginning
I wanted a handy place to check last year's gardening activities by and FB just doesn't cut it. Here's what I recorded:
08/20 Friday: 24.5 quarts of Spaghetti Sauce from the garden, 6 quarts and 7 pints of Kosher Dill pickles, and 12 pints of Mild Salsa. All from the garden.
08/13 Saturday: Canning 1st batch of Spaghetti Sauce from the garden. ALL vegetables in it are from our garden plus the Oregano, Basil (fresh) and Garlic are from our garden.
08/08 Monday: Canned 12 pints of Hot Salsa. The Broccoli is coming on strong again since it's rained the last couple of days (finally). The Pickles are blooming hard again too. A few Spinach plants have poked through.
08/07 Sunday: Canned 12 pints of regular Salsa (all ingredients from our garden - even the spices) and 14 pints of Hot Pepper Mustard (w/3 Cayenne peppers for a little more kick).
08/01 Monday: Dug the potatoes. Got 10 gallon.
07/31 Sunday: Canning the beets we had to pick yesterday after the deer ate all the tops off. There's a half dozen or so tomatoes that are turning red after yesterday's haircut. If it doesn't rain we'll be digging the potatoes since they're dead, and butchering the last 2 rows of tomatoes that didn't get scalped yesterday.
Spinach
07/30 Saturday: Apparently the Spinach was ready - the deer ate it ALL, along with the swiss chard and fancy lettuce! Apparently they don't care for regular leaf lettuce. Picked half a bushel of yellow wax beans in the morning and gave the tomatoes another hair cut. Some of them are over 5' tall! We got 2 ripe tomatoes. We put down a couple more landscape timbers between the driveway and the front garden. I tilled up the green bean area and planted spinach. Spinach takes 40-45 days, I tried to ensure quick germination by burying a soaker hose before I planted the rows and put the rows in close to it. After letting the soaker run for about 30 mins I hit it with the sprinkler until the top of the soil was thoroughly dampened. Time will tell.
07/27 Wednesday: Left the soaker hose on ALL night (quite by accident). The Back Garden is nicely watered. Missy canned 4 qts 14 pints of Kosher dills and froze 7 bags of yellow wax beans. We had blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup for supper - mmmmmmm. We picked the green beans in the front garden and pulled the plants as they're dying from the heat and drought.
07/26 Tuesday: Picked another 1/2 bag or so of pickles and some yellow wax beans. Peas and Broccoli froze (we're up to 33 bags of broccoli). Blueberry freezer jam made as well as blueberry syrup canned.
07/22 Friday: Picked another 1/2 shopping bag of pickles, 3 or 4 zucchinis and some secondary broccoli. Missy's making pickles today.
07/21 Thursday evening: Missy and Kim canned 21 pints of pickled beets from our garden.
07/21 Thursday: Haven't had any measurable rain on top of the hill since early June. Don't know how long we can keep watering it. Zucchinis are suffering the worst, except for the strawberries and potatoes. I dug a hill last night and didn't get near the yield I was expecting.
07/20 Wednesday: Picked more green beans and our first crop of peas. Dug the rest of the garlic and all of the onions. Wild blackberries in front of the house are ripe. 6 packages of peas and 10 packages of green beans frozen (approx 1-1½ pints/pkg).
07/19 Tuesday: Picked a 5 gal. bucket of pickles.
07/18 Monday: Kaitlyn and I dug 2 rows of garlic.
07/16 Saturday: Our lonely Red Raspberry plant yielded a couple of ripe ones that we managed to get before the birds.
07/12 Tuesday: Picked green beans.
07/11 Monday: Picked and put up broccoli.
07/06 Wednesday: Missy made 2 quarts and 5 pints of dill pickles from those picked the last 2 days. This is just from the 4 hills in our garden. Picked 9 more zucchinis! Had to water the garden for the 1st time. Luke and Missy put up another 50' of permanent fence.
07/05 Tuesday: 1st broccoli head picked! 4th load of mushroom soil delivered and extra cauliflower, peppers and broccoli planted.
07/04 Monday: Picking pickles! Tom moved some rocks around in the lower garden with his tractor to give us more gardening room.
06/28: First Zucchini picked! Peas started to blossom.
06/27: Beans started to blossom.
Thursday 05/26: Cleared some more Beech brush from in front of the back garden. Missy planted another 3 doz tomatoes.
Wednesday 05/25: Hoed a 4" deep trench through the middle of the garden to help drain the water off the top of the mountain! Planted 8 tomatoes.
Tuesday 05/24: Landscaped a ridge out of the back yard with the tiller and a rake.
Sunday 05/22: Planted Hungarian Wax Peppers, Big Bertha Sweet Peppers, Cayenne, Jalapenos and more Broccoli.
Saturday 05/21: Planted Broccoli, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Acorn Squash, Bush Pickles, Green Beans, Peas, Sweet Basil, Thyme and a couple other spices.
Friday 05/20: Finished the wildlife net fence around the back garden.
Wednesday 05/18: Rain, rain, rain. All I did was measure the back garden 24'x48'.
Tuesday 05/17: Added 100' of wildlife netting fence around the back garden.
Monday 05/16: Cleared brush from fence perimeter around the back garden.
Sunday 05/15: Bought 5 flats of plants (broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cucumber, etc.). Came home and stretched 100' of fence along the top and back of the back garden.
Saturday 05/14: Tilled the manure into the back garden even though it was really too wet so we won't lose the nitrogen. It'll also help keep the clay spots from clumping back together.
Friday 05/13: Spread manure over the edge of the yard that we finally reclaimed from clearing the site for the house and seeded it. By the sound of the rain tonight the seeds' probably headed for the diversion ditch. Missy finished spreading manure on the back garden this evening before the rain.
Thursday 05/12: Finally Finished landscaping the edge of the yard into something that will at least be mow-able. Missy planted potatoes. Onions and Garlic are up and doing well.
Wednesday 05/11: Planted about 50' of beets.
Tuesday 05/10: Spent 3 hours tilling the back garden (width-wise) for a measly 4 tiller-widths. Dug out a wagon-full or so of rocks, mostly about 1/2 the size of a basketball hoop.
Monday 05/09: Spent the day tilling more of the top edge of the ditch off at the edge of the yard and tilling over the buried brush pile to level it out into something mow-able. Burnt a PILE of brush in the fire ring. Had to extinguish it with the hose (twice) before I felt it was cool enough to go to bed.
Sunday 05/08: Cut down the beech trees at the edge of the yard to make room for more yard and fruit trees. Started tilling off the top edge of the diversion ditch there to smooth it out into something pleasing to the eye and so we can mow it. Burnt a pile of brush in the fire ring.
Saturday 05/07: Cut up the logs that were in the brush pile at the edge of the yard. Burnt a good portion of them and the brush that hadn't composted yet.
Monday 05/01: Tilled the front garden to level out the terrace against the log we installed yesterday. Missy and I spread manure on the top 1/3 of the back garden and did more tilling. Missy planted the onions in the front gardens.
Sunday 04/30: Luke and I pulled the blow-down out of the front tree-line and placed it in the front garden to aid in my terrace design. We began stacking rocks in front of it to give it support against the pressure from the dirt.
Friday 04/28: Had a dump truck load (~10 yard) of manure delivered for the back garden and yard. $120! That's a $25 increase over the cost in March! Fuel prices are killing us!
Tuesday 03/22: Had a dump truck load of manure delivered into the front garden. Spent the next 3 weeks spreading it out and putting in landscape timbers to keep the garden out of the driveway and dress it up a bit.
Garden Notes 2011
08/21 Sunday: 21 quarts of Spaghetti Sauce canned (and 1 more eaten) + xx pints Peach Jam - non-garden day.08/20 Friday: 24.5 quarts of Spaghetti Sauce from the garden, 6 quarts and 7 pints of Kosher Dill pickles, and 12 pints of Mild Salsa. All from the garden.
08/13 Saturday: Canning 1st batch of Spaghetti Sauce from the garden. ALL vegetables in it are from our garden plus the Oregano, Basil (fresh) and Garlic are from our garden.
08/08 Monday: Canned 12 pints of Hot Salsa. The Broccoli is coming on strong again since it's rained the last couple of days (finally). The Pickles are blooming hard again too. A few Spinach plants have poked through.
08/07 Sunday: Canned 12 pints of regular Salsa (all ingredients from our garden - even the spices) and 14 pints of Hot Pepper Mustard (w/3 Cayenne peppers for a little more kick).
08/01 Monday: Dug the potatoes. Got 10 gallon.
07/31 Sunday: Canning the beets we had to pick yesterday after the deer ate all the tops off. There's a half dozen or so tomatoes that are turning red after yesterday's haircut. If it doesn't rain we'll be digging the potatoes since they're dead, and butchering the last 2 rows of tomatoes that didn't get scalped yesterday.
Spinach
07/30 Saturday: Apparently the Spinach was ready - the deer ate it ALL, along with the swiss chard and fancy lettuce! Apparently they don't care for regular leaf lettuce. Picked half a bushel of yellow wax beans in the morning and gave the tomatoes another hair cut. Some of them are over 5' tall! We got 2 ripe tomatoes. We put down a couple more landscape timbers between the driveway and the front garden. I tilled up the green bean area and planted spinach. Spinach takes 40-45 days, I tried to ensure quick germination by burying a soaker hose before I planted the rows and put the rows in close to it. After letting the soaker run for about 30 mins I hit it with the sprinkler until the top of the soil was thoroughly dampened. Time will tell.
07/27 Wednesday: Left the soaker hose on ALL night (quite by accident). The Back Garden is nicely watered. Missy canned 4 qts 14 pints of Kosher dills and froze 7 bags of yellow wax beans. We had blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup for supper - mmmmmmm. We picked the green beans in the front garden and pulled the plants as they're dying from the heat and drought.
07/26 Tuesday: Picked another 1/2 bag or so of pickles and some yellow wax beans. Peas and Broccoli froze (we're up to 33 bags of broccoli). Blueberry freezer jam made as well as blueberry syrup canned.
07/22 Friday: Picked another 1/2 shopping bag of pickles, 3 or 4 zucchinis and some secondary broccoli. Missy's making pickles today.
07/21 Thursday evening: Missy and Kim canned 21 pints of pickled beets from our garden.
07/21 Thursday: Haven't had any measurable rain on top of the hill since early June. Don't know how long we can keep watering it. Zucchinis are suffering the worst, except for the strawberries and potatoes. I dug a hill last night and didn't get near the yield I was expecting.
07/20 Wednesday: Picked more green beans and our first crop of peas. Dug the rest of the garlic and all of the onions. Wild blackberries in front of the house are ripe. 6 packages of peas and 10 packages of green beans frozen (approx 1-1½ pints/pkg).
07/19 Tuesday: Picked a 5 gal. bucket of pickles.
07/18 Monday: Kaitlyn and I dug 2 rows of garlic.
07/16 Saturday: Our lonely Red Raspberry plant yielded a couple of ripe ones that we managed to get before the birds.
07/12 Tuesday: Picked green beans.
07/11 Monday: Picked and put up broccoli.
07/06 Wednesday: Missy made 2 quarts and 5 pints of dill pickles from those picked the last 2 days. This is just from the 4 hills in our garden. Picked 9 more zucchinis! Had to water the garden for the 1st time. Luke and Missy put up another 50' of permanent fence.
07/05 Tuesday: 1st broccoli head picked! 4th load of mushroom soil delivered and extra cauliflower, peppers and broccoli planted.
07/04 Monday: Picking pickles! Tom moved some rocks around in the lower garden with his tractor to give us more gardening room.
06/28: First Zucchini picked! Peas started to blossom.
06/27: Beans started to blossom.
Thursday 05/26: Cleared some more Beech brush from in front of the back garden. Missy planted another 3 doz tomatoes.
Wednesday 05/25: Hoed a 4" deep trench through the middle of the garden to help drain the water off the top of the mountain! Planted 8 tomatoes.
Tuesday 05/24: Landscaped a ridge out of the back yard with the tiller and a rake.
Sunday 05/22: Planted Hungarian Wax Peppers, Big Bertha Sweet Peppers, Cayenne, Jalapenos and more Broccoli.
Saturday 05/21: Planted Broccoli, Cabbage, Tomatoes, Zucchini, Acorn Squash, Bush Pickles, Green Beans, Peas, Sweet Basil, Thyme and a couple other spices.
Friday 05/20: Finished the wildlife net fence around the back garden.
Wednesday 05/18: Rain, rain, rain. All I did was measure the back garden 24'x48'.
Tuesday 05/17: Added 100' of wildlife netting fence around the back garden.
Monday 05/16: Cleared brush from fence perimeter around the back garden.
Sunday 05/15: Bought 5 flats of plants (broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, squashes, cucumber, etc.). Came home and stretched 100' of fence along the top and back of the back garden.
Saturday 05/14: Tilled the manure into the back garden even though it was really too wet so we won't lose the nitrogen. It'll also help keep the clay spots from clumping back together.
Friday 05/13: Spread manure over the edge of the yard that we finally reclaimed from clearing the site for the house and seeded it. By the sound of the rain tonight the seeds' probably headed for the diversion ditch. Missy finished spreading manure on the back garden this evening before the rain.
Thursday 05/12: Finally Finished landscaping the edge of the yard into something that will at least be mow-able. Missy planted potatoes. Onions and Garlic are up and doing well.
Wednesday 05/11: Planted about 50' of beets.
Tuesday 05/10: Spent 3 hours tilling the back garden (width-wise) for a measly 4 tiller-widths. Dug out a wagon-full or so of rocks, mostly about 1/2 the size of a basketball hoop.
Monday 05/09: Spent the day tilling more of the top edge of the ditch off at the edge of the yard and tilling over the buried brush pile to level it out into something mow-able. Burnt a PILE of brush in the fire ring. Had to extinguish it with the hose (twice) before I felt it was cool enough to go to bed.
Sunday 05/08: Cut down the beech trees at the edge of the yard to make room for more yard and fruit trees. Started tilling off the top edge of the diversion ditch there to smooth it out into something pleasing to the eye and so we can mow it. Burnt a pile of brush in the fire ring.
Saturday 05/07: Cut up the logs that were in the brush pile at the edge of the yard. Burnt a good portion of them and the brush that hadn't composted yet.
Monday 05/01: Tilled the front garden to level out the terrace against the log we installed yesterday. Missy and I spread manure on the top 1/3 of the back garden and did more tilling. Missy planted the onions in the front gardens.
Sunday 04/30: Luke and I pulled the blow-down out of the front tree-line and placed it in the front garden to aid in my terrace design. We began stacking rocks in front of it to give it support against the pressure from the dirt.
Friday 04/28: Had a dump truck load (~10 yard) of manure delivered for the back garden and yard. $120! That's a $25 increase over the cost in March! Fuel prices are killing us!
Tuesday 03/22: Had a dump truck load of manure delivered into the front garden. Spent the next 3 weeks spreading it out and putting in landscape timbers to keep the garden out of the driveway and dress it up a bit.
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