Garden 2016 let's get this thing going.

I feel like I'm really behind in terms of the garden this year. It's already May and there's NOTHING done! Well... not nothing, the compost is spread and the ground has just been tilled. Now it's time for the really hard work. Building the rows.

check out the before (top two) and after (bottom two). Huge difference!

Enjoy the garden while you can girls, you're getting fenced out. 

This year we opted for a tractor and harrow instead of just rototilling. My goodness, what a difference! The soil is so smooth! We have heavy clay, this year it was better but still very heavy. I added compost and that helped. I might add sand next year but that's not even worth thinking about yet.


Now for the hard work, building rows, then landscape fabric, planting and drip irrigation. I'm going to use straw in-between the rows. It'll break down quickly, help keep the weeds under control and it's cheap.

We've been doing a lot of work outside and with each step of each project I want to do more. More more more!We have a few more fence panels to put up. I'm like to run them out to the field, but we might just stop where the long grass starts. We'll see what happens.

In case you're wondering what our garden looked like last year, here's a few highlights (The first tilling and what it looked like by July)

I can't wait until I have more produce than I know what to do with!
Are you growing anything this year? Tell me about it! I love to know what other people are doing!

2016 garden plans

This winter can end any time now. It wasn't particularly cold, we did have a few sprinkles of snow. The rain and the floods, Ugh! We had another tiny flood, just in the low spots. Someone told me that this winter we had over 2 feet of rain. That is a whole lot of rain!
I don't know what it is about this year (well ok, I do) but I am exhausted and ready for the sun to be out before 7 am. I'm starting to think about hibernating next year. Bears are onto something! Any chance I get, I've been doing small bits of work in the garden, but it really needs to dry out before I can really get working.

Our bulbs have been coming up since December, and are ready to bloom! The neighbors already have flowers. The time has come to start planning and working out what we're going to do for our garden this year. I've already started pulling up what ever is left. There is already some slugs that will be to be taken care of. I have a nice pile of compost ready to be spread. I'm guessing I'll need a few yards for top soil and manure.

I put the green house up on the deck this year, that thing is on it's last leg. It's filthy but it's doing it's job. It's 55 degrees outside and 82 degrees in the greenhouse. Thanks person who gave that to us!

In case you forgot, our garden is 60'X40', last year was our first year planting. First things first, we need to pull everything and get the add-ins in. Compost and manure. We will have our rows running north-south, not that I think it'll make much of a difference. I'm hoping for 8 to 10 rows this year, last year we had dozen or so running east-west. Each row will have weed barrier fabric around the plants and a nice thick layer of straw between the rows. Weed control is going to be top priority as last year it was out of control.

Next up is a chicken fence, the chickens discovered late in the season that the garden was full of delicious treats. Not this year, they can have the bugs. Realistically I'll end up going with just chicken wire and upgrading to something nice in a few years.

Up next, watering. Last year was dry, we went months without rain. We're putting in drip irrigation to minimize the water loss and get the most bang for our water-buck. We'll be putting gutters on the barn and getting a few rain barrels for the fall and winter. It seems silly not to collect the rain.

I'm going to try and get the kids to start some seeds with me in the next 2 weeks. It's tough to get them interested, it takes a long time to get things growing and they lose interest.

Coming soon will be selecting our plants and planning our rows.

DIY Pallet compost

This spring I cleared out our compost dune making the garden. We also had a compost tumbler that just wasn't cutting it for our needs. Scribs decided to make a new 3 walled compost bin for our new compost pile.


Materials required

6 pallets (or 3)
drill
screws
6 T posts and driver or mallet
a few scraps of 2x4
Zip ties or bailing wire

Time: about an hour for 1 person with 2 kids running around
Difficulty: Easy
This project cost us $36 for the T posts. The pallets were free.

First thing, drag your pallets where you want 'em and line 'em up.

Drive or pound a T post into the ground where the center of the pallet will be. Stand the pallet up and attach with zip ties or bailing wire. Repeat 3 times. This will make the back wall. 

Attatch the pallets together with scrap bits of 2x4.
Do the same thing on the ends to create the side walls and again in the middle for the middle divider. You can easily make 3 sections with an extra pallet.

Screw the sides and center pallets to the back and add extra support by using scraps of 2x4 attach the side walls and center wall and side walls. Our center pallet ended up being a bit of a different size, we added an extra block. 

TA-DA! Easy peasy lemon squeezey. You can easily cut this in half and make a smaller, 3 walled compost bin or add 2 more t posts and slide a pallet over it for a removable 4th wall.

Garden update!

I've been meaning to talk about the garden for a few weeks but sadly I haven't made much progress until the last 2 weeks. We were planning on getting straw and top soil to build up some raised rows but after a visit from our favorite master gardener we scraped that idea. He suggested that we were just making more work for ourselves since our soil is good (I wouldn't say good, but what do I know), it's already tilled and has a lot of compost and organic materials. His suggestion was to just build up raised rows using the tiled earth. That's what we've been doing.

It takes me about a hour and 15 minutes to get one row finished. Our soil is heavy clay and is especially tough around the edges. We bought this Prohoe hoe and that is helping a lot but a lot of the soil still needs to be broken up into smaller pieces. I've found just stabbing and twisting it with this hand cultivator works best.


We have 11 30 foot rows. I've already planted most of a row of tomatoes, I'm going to wait a few weeks to plant the rest so we don't have a billion tomatoes that are ripe at the same time, aside from tomatoes I planted a row of onions, a row of various carrots, half row bell peppers of varying colors, half a row of egg plant, broccoli and cauliflower. Something…rabbit… has eaten 2 of my broccoli plants. I went out to check everything is morning and 2 were mysteriously missing. You want to play this game rabbit, you will lose!

I've got to say that my body is sore. Last week I hurt my already sore back and needed to let it rest. Unfortunately things still need to be done, after almost a week of resting it's finally starting to feel better. And it's going to rain today. The perfect excuse not to garden.

Next month I'm sure I'll be able to show you a bit more! One of our tiny pepper plants already has the beginning of flowers! Thank you started in-doors seeds!

I'd love you hear how your garden is coming along, I know after the longest winter in history it's going to take some work!

Compost

This morning I was feeling rough! To say I was tired was an understatement, no amount of coffee could stop the yawns. After dragging my butt all morning and being a lazy mom by letting the kids watch TV until nap time, I went outside to do some work. I sanded the baseboards for the dining room, put another coat of paint on N's dresser and went to check out the yard. Most of the grass that we mow is going to be a garden and our compost heap is out of control. I went to turn it, pick out the random stones and trash that made it in and try to make it more manageable.

Nothing wakes you up more than hard work in the cold rain! My hands a blistered, there's tiny bits of dirt still stuck under my nails and I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow.
The compost is amazing. I always forget how much life is in there. It smells earthy and clean, there's worms, spiders and little beetles doing their magic.

The picture isn't great, it's blurry and from my phone but you get the idea. That's what is living in one pitchfork turn. I understand what is happening and why, but I don't ever think "Yes, it's a living breathing thing." I tend to just think of it as the place I dump my scraps. I can't wait to start planting, teaching the kids about growing our own food and eating! What kid doesn't love eating right out of the garden?


I could have taken a nap  but I don't think that would have helped. It's just one of those days!