Sticks with Strings

Last weekend we finished the raspberry support system.

Sticks

These are the posts for Kate's raspberries that I mocked up last weekend.  They will be finished to Kate's satisfaction soon with final screws placed and support line hung.  There is much replanting to do all around the yard today or tomorrow.  In the background is one very bushy lemon pepper plant, with a smaller jalapeno plant swallowed up in front of it here.

Garden 'Lids'

I took the time on Saturday, with a little help from my friend Jerome, to build two 'lids' - for lack of a better term - for the garden.  Just something to cover an area where Kate plants things so the squirrels don't dig it all up.  In this picture is the bottom of the west garden.  There is garlic coming up that was planted last fall and above that, covered by the 'lid', is more garlic that she planted on Saturday.  I thought I may have to screw it down, but the squirrels have not moved it at all.  They can get underneath if they really want to, but so far it seems they don't want to, which is very good.

Quick Notes

Just a quick update to note 2 things:  The posts are in for the raspberry trellis and last night was a frost warning so we covered the east (nearest) garden with a sheet.  Other than that, not much to say yet.

No Rain Yet...

After only getting .31 inches of rain in June, we have received only a trace so far this month. Any thoughts of planting anything else this year have been long laughed off. What we have left may or may not survive well. The squirrels have been getting the tomatoes and peppers -even the jalepenos- before they have a chance to get to full size. Besides having to find water, their food supply is probably drying up as well.

The strawberry bed is a wasteland.

I don't think they can survive the cooking they have had the last two months.  We'll have to have a new plan next year, and hope for a seasonable summer - for a change.








I am on vacation this week and have gotten some small yard projects done so far.  You can see the pics here.

Trellis Makeover and Wild Chives

The small pea plants were grabbing for, but not really attaching to, the trellis.  So I had to rethink the design.  I wound up getting some cheap 1x2's to frame it out and some chicken wire to attach to the front.  If they can't climb it now then they can't climb!

We used to have chives at the top of the garden, and this year some just sprang up at the top of the path (which you can see if you look closely at earlier posted pics).  Kate replanted them in the lower right of the west garden, above the thyme plant.  She also planted a few more garlic bulbs in a row above the existing garlic, not pictured here.  There wasn't much as some of the garlic bulbs we had for planting had gone bad.  We should receive the preordered plants this week to start filling out the garden.

Trell Isn't, Trell Is!

Over the weekend I picked up a 2' x 8' trellis (they didn't have any 4' x4'), cut it in half, and now we have a trellis for the peas to attach to and climb.  We still may have to put something in front later on.  Last year I cut a conical tomato cage and spread it open to do this and we may have to use it again this year.

The garlic is looking well.  Some of the bases are pretty thick which should mean big bulbs.  I guess that's the difference between planting it in the Spring versus the previous Fall.

In the east garden, the strawberry plants are getting blooms all over the place.  The plants that Kate transplanted into the upper right are surviving, I just hope that corner doesn't get baked again this year or we may have to find a more sun-friendly vegetable or plant to put up there with the strawberries.

Edit:  Last night we did get some frost here, it doesn't seem to have hurt anything, thankfully.

New Gate For The Gardens

Yesterday I added a front rail and gate to the gardens.  I'm actually pretty proud of how it turned out.  It looks nicer, I think, and the easier access to the path in between the gardens is just soooo convenient!  Check out my regular blog post here for lots more pics and commentary!

Strawberry Fields Forever

I snapped this pic when Kate paused to retrieve the last few strawberry plants this afternoon.  So that's about that, then.  I must still purchase some netting to protect them eventually, but we don't expect more than a sporadic yield this first year.  Hopefully they are firmly established next year and give us a fair bunch.

Now we water, weed, wait and hope for the best...

The Plants Arrive!

When I got home from work yesterday, I found a larger box by the door that I wasn't expecting.  I guess I wasn't sure how they shipped plants, but I found out! 

At right, my wife starts to go through her new plants.  In these bags are small potted plants, some garlic bulbs, and what appears to be a bag of strawberry plant roots.

Kate has decided to go with more of an herb garden, which is fine with me. I've never been crazy about green beans and carrots. The different herbs she grows I know she will use in her cooking all the time, plus we can dry that stuff out and use it year-round.

So, the far garden bed is herbs on the topside (right side in pic) and garlic on the bottomside. Bonus!  We got some free lettuce seeds with the order so Kate made a small row of lettuce along the far garden's bottomside.  I'm crossing my fingers for the lettuce!

Here is where I sat and wrote where things were planted,  the 'Supervisor's Chair,' as neighbor Dave called it.  I haven't said much about him yet (here or on my main blog).  He is a very nice older man, a widower, right next door.  Between Jane and Dave I hope we never have any other neighbors.  Both are very nice, helpful, yet not nosy or intrusive.  Hopefully we have been the same.

The strawberrys bound for the other garden bed are chillin' and will be planted very soon.  Rain is coming this weekend so I hope that helps the plants and doesn't wash them away!

Fencing In The Garden

The fence was not my favorite part of yesterday.  It took up way too many hours of yesterday.  This was probably my least thought-out area.  I developed this idea using leftover bracing just recently.  I'm not sure what I thought I would do before.  I'm still not sure exactly what I'm gonna do about a gateway into the garden... 

Above is the (finally) mostly finished product, at least for this year.  I can plan a better fence/gate next winter.  All that's really left is to make the gate a little more feasable of an entryway for my wife to get in and out, and maybe a little more dirt to top it off.  I think we are supposed to get some rain tomorrow, so I do expect a little more settling of the dirt.

If you have any suggestions on how to easily connect and disconnect 2 chickenwire fences I'd be happy to listen in the comments!  I may end up having to build a gate yet.

Ready for Installation

The twin garden boxes are fully assembled and ready to install!

That will wait for another day, however.  While I believe it would be possible for me and Kate to install it ourselves, it definitely wouldn't be the smartest thing to do. They have a little heft to them so I'll see about rounding up some help for Friday afternoon or Saturday. I had thought about assembling them in the yard, but it was easier to square them up on the flat surface.

So far I'm pleased.  There will be some digging and filling I'm sure, but I hope they set down right where they should sit very easily.  Then all that's left (for the construction part) is maybe break up sod a bit more and fill the damn things with alot of dirt!  Hopefully less than 20 bags, probably more.

Each box is 5' x 8', outside dimensions, so each is a bit less than 40 square feet.  There will be a space between them of about 2 feet.  I've had this as a general plan for a while now but mostly I built and revised it in my head as I progressed.  I had felt hurried before this weekend, but I think we're about on track to have it ready in plenty of time for whenever people usually start planting.  My wife has her plan for that, I have focused on the building so we'll see what she does next...

Starting The Assembly

Sometime around noon today my wife started doing a thorough vacuuming of the house, prompting me to get out of the house and get started on building the twin gardens.  I proceeded to make big pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood then putting them together again.  I almost bought sawhorses but I thought I could make do with the old box shelves I had instead.  Turns out the trash bins were even better for my back because of the height. 

Below is a mock-up of one of the boxes. Only the sides are assembled, the 2x6's ,2 at the top and 1 at the bottom, are not attached yet.  The one at the bottom of the pic will actually be attached at the top of the sides.  This is the high side that will be next to the garage.  The bottom 2x6's on each side on this end may be trimmed to fit the landscape more or else go underground.  That will be determined in the backyard.

That's as far as I went today.  Tomorrow morning I need to run back to the lumberyard for some studs to use as bracing, more screws, and 1-10' treated 2x6 that I somehow shorted myself on my lumber list.  If you look to the left you'll see the new wheelbarrow, still unassembled, that will help us fill the boxes with dirt. 

It's finally starting to take shape!

Sod Off!*

My plan has been to till up the areas where the twin gardens will go, even though the sod will be several inches below the final surface of the garden. That turned out to be rather unfeasable. The large rear-tined tiller that will go through sod required a trailer or open truck to transport, of which I have neither. So I decided to try a smaller front-tined tiller and break up the top layer of sod with a shovel first. Since I reserved one for this morning, I had to go out last night and do a little work. The soil was actually not as hard as I had feared and I soon realized that just digs with the shovel should be fine after all. First thing this morning I cancelled the tiller and saved some money.

Above is what the area looks like today. I pretty much mapped it out (with my wife's help) with a shovel and a tape measure. This morning I finished the edges and turned alot of the sod near the garage, the area that will have the least dirt added above it.  All in small bits and at an easy pace to avoid the usual back issues.  As a happy coincidence, the timber edging the garage aroud the corner is a perfect length- no cutting or removing it!  I may break up more sod if it seems necessary later, but I want to have the wooden box out there to see what it looks like.

That was last night and this morning, this afternoon I started building the boxes.  More on that to come...


*Apologies to readers across the pond if the title is offensive.  If you say that to someone here they would probably be mostly amused at the odd saying.  I thought it was a clever title for this post, is all.