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.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
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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