June 2012

I'm building Mesa Gardens because of these guys...

In mid-June I counted five babies running around.

This one let me get real close for these shots.

They're not as ugly when they're young, but that will change over time...

Ya, ha ha, very cute hiding under the wood pile...

The first mesa garden out in front of the green house is doing nicely.

I made sure to build a nice big gate for easy access.

A lot can fit into this 9 foot by 2 foot garden. I put in 2 tomato plants,

two varieties of lettuce, 6 cucumber plants, 6 cauliflower plants, 

2 zucchini plants and one African marigold!

I began working on my first freestanding mesa garden on June 16, 2012.

It really looks lonely out there... but don't worry, it will have 

plenty of company in July!

The 8 foot by 2 foot box was made from recycled cedar siding.
On June 19, 2012, I planted 3 varieties of bush beans,
a few Russian Mammoth sunflowers, and 1 pumpkin plant.

Here's a photo of a baby bean sprout on June 23, 2012 - that's
just 4 days germination time!

Meanwhile, I've decided to plan for my future garlic this fall by
planting a cover crop of sweet clover.

I couldn't believe how sweet the seeds smelled as
I spread them around the newly tilled soil!
I will till the clover crop in early October to make way
for the largest garlic crop ever!

:)

First Mesa Garden Started in May

I'll begin with a follow up photo of how the onions are doing. 

I think they're doing great! 

The onions are about a foot tall and have enjoyed the 5 plus inches of rain that fell this month. 

I snuck-in a few Iran pumpkins (left) and some cucumbers (right) about a week ago.

May 06, 2012.

 I decided that it was time to finish the greenhouse off with a mini deck.

After all, I needed to address the big 1 foot step up to the door.

My two favorite things to build with are 2x3s and fur strips.

Each support post is set in concrete with nails at each base to keep it from shifting.

3 supports were needed on the end and later, I added another in the center.

Now that the fur strips are nailed in place it's time for a paint job.

Here's another angle before I paint.

I used silver gray porch paint.

I still needed a step, so again I dug holes and set posts and set them in concrete.

I began my first Mesa Garden on May 28, 2012.

This on had to be 9 feet long to fit onto the front of the green house.

The first section was fit into place and holes were dug for 2 support posts.

I'm really getting tired of digging holes!

Here's a view of the support post with my handy roofing nails acting as re-bar at the base.

I let the posts set in concrete overnight then added the table base.

Note that I added 7 supports inside of the frame.

This is because the soil will weigh well over 100 pounds when added.

I stapled 2 foot poultry fence to the top of the base.

Next, I stapled 2 foot wide Weed Guard over the poultry fence.

This will keep the soil in place but allow water to seep through.

I created a 6 inch deep box out of scrap wood for the garden bed.

I simply set it on top and used a couple of joist fasteners to hold it in place.

I added 1 cubic foot of Hummus & Manure and 4 cubic feet of garden soil.

Here's another view.

Poof! Instant garden. I added 2 kinds of zucchini, 2 kinds of lettuce and 6 cucumbers.

May 29, 2012.

Storm clouds over my house.

April is all about starting seeds

 I began tilling on April 15th this season. 

This is the farthest garden to the east on my 4 acres. 

It's also the only one that keeps the ground hogs out via black plastic deer fencing. 

I planted 7 shallots and 60 onion sets (white, purple and yellow) on a raised bed.

Next, I created sort of an anything goes bed about 20 feet long and 2 feet across. 

I planted the seeds by broadcasting them over the bed, then raking them in. 

I used 6 varieties of cold weather plants:

Spinach - Giant Noble

Parsnip – Hollow Crown

Radish – German Beer

Spinach – Bloomsdale Long Standing

Lettuce – Jung’s Sweet Repeat

Lettuce – Red Velvet

The next step was to cover the bed with insect netting 

which lets water in but keeps bugs out.

Insect netting also buffers frosty mornings and helps keep things a bit warmer. 

But the main idea is to keep the insects from munching

 on tender greens and roots.

I saw this Red Bartlett pear tree at Gateway Farm & Pet back on 

June 11, 2011 and just had to have it! 

I suspected it was a 5 or 6 year old tree...

Ah ha! This beautiful tree is in full blossom as of the last week of April, 2012.

This must be the 7th year.

I can't wait to see what these pears taste like!

Another nice thing about April is that I can take the tractor batteries off of the trickle chargers

and put them back into the tractors for the season.

The Red Agway is a 1990 and the Orange Husqvarna is a 2001.

I gave them both new spark plugs and they run great!

Meanwhile, back inside... 

I have 3 shop lights blazing 14 hours a day over the seed flats.

The onions were moved out into the greenhouse about 4 weeks ago.

Now, I have 22 varieties of tomatoes, 15 varieties of peppers, 

6 varieties of flowers and many other miscellaneous items 

including my 7 successful rhubarb plants from 2011 seeds.

:)

March Projects

Homemade Garlic Salt!

I found a simple recipe to make my own garlic salt from what's left 

of my 2011 German Extra Hardy garlic.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add 1 cup of coarse sea salt to a food processor and chop for 3 minutes.

Next, peal and chop about 7 or 8 cloves garlic.

Add garlic to salt in food processor and mix for about 1 minute.

Press mixture onto baking sheet using wax paper to flatten.

Bake for 2 to 3 hours until cake begins to turn yellowish brown.

Let cool for 1 hour.

Brake into pieces and add to food processor to chop as fine as possible.

I keep my garlic salt in a spaghetti glass jar.

Will keep for up to 1 year.

Please note: The first hour of baking will release intense garlic odor in and 

around the kitchen! My eyes teared-up as if I were chopping onions!

Things get better as the baking dries the fresh garlic & salt.

The 2012 garlic began to sprout early this season on March 23rd.

It's a welcome sight to see and to my surprise, it was up seven

days earlier than my rhubarb. The rhubarb's red sprouts were  first

spotted on March 30, 2012.

The greenhouse gets hot after 10 AM these days.
I'm talking 114 and higher as noon approaches.
It's too early in the season to open windows so I needed to 

add a simple (and cheap) venting system.

Rather than spending $300+ dollars on a greenhouse vent, I went the cheaper

route and bought a six inch, in-line duct fan ($30) and a self-closing vent cap ($10)

and painted the exterior portion with a nice hammered green spray paint ($4).

I removed the top-right section of the upper wall so I could us my Jigsaw

to cut a six inch round hole to accommodate the vent.

It's a sure sign of spring when I can get back out into the garage and

use my power tools!

Almost done. The wall was put back into place and secured. Now all

that's left to do is mount the vent with 4 exterior screws.

Perfect fit! Next thing to do was secure the in-line duct fan pipe to the vent pipe

using common 1/4 inch stove pipe fasteners. So now for the brains

of this whole venting operation...

This is the LUX WIN100 programmable heating & cooling thermostat ($34).

This a very cool gadget to use for my greenhouse venting purposes.

All I need to do is plug my vent fan into this thermostat and that's it!

Once the temperature inside hits 75 or 80 degrees, this will kick-on the vent system.

I moved the onions out into the greenhouse today. They like cold temperatures,
so they'rein for a treat - at least during the overnights.
I programmed the vent thermostat to come on at 75 degrees in the morning
 and 80 during the noon hours.

The seedlings in the front are one-of-a-kind Becket strain rhubarb. If you can
save seed from your rhubarb plants and get it to grow, you truly have a variety
unique to your area and growing/pollination conditions.
I will call these rhubarb plants "Becket's Best."
The plants in the background are African Marigolds ( the 3 foot tall kind) which
I saved seeds from last year's groundhog-ravaged crop...
A wonder I actually saved any at all!

:)

First Seeds of the Season

I began the 2012 garden season back on January 22, 2012 by planting two heirloom varieties of onions;
144 seeds of "Brunswick" and 144 seeds of "Ailsa Craig" which I bought from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

This is how the onions looked back on February 12, 2012. I turn the two T8 energy efficient shop lights on every morning just before 7AM and turn them off around 9 PM. How energy efficient? My electric bill just arrived and it only went up by about $2.00.

This is a closeup of "cat grass" that I planted for my cats. It's actually barley seed that germinates in only a few days. The cat grass pictured here is only about a week and a half old. I let it grow for two weeks before I let the cats attack it!

I always welcome the Amaryllis bloom in mid-February. This year I was treated to a quadruple bloom on one stem. Funny, I think the plant is about 4 years old; maybe 5 blooms for 2013?

Stay tuned...
:)