Project: Garden - 3/4 Full

 (Click all pictures to enbiggen)



My new job is at a Wholesale Landscaping business, and it happens that a cubic yard (front-end-loader bucket-full) is only 10 bucks and change. I bought some, and took it home 2/10ths at a time. A Cubic yard will cover a 10'X10' area at 3 inches deep. I still have 2 recycling buckets full of the stuff, and I guess I'll amend the other half with it.

A side note: One side of the garden is composted Cow Manure, and now the other side is composted plant matter. We'll put this experiment to the test.

The first half is a-blazin! Two weeks later we find that growth is exponential, and we have numerous baby tomatoes and bell peppers. We'll soon have heads of cabbage, I have no doubt, and broccoli is sure to follow soon after.

Planted Onions (12, unseen) Potatoes (10, see mounds/circular dirt) Romaine Lettuce, and Bee Balm (For tea, along with the mint in the other quadrant), and still have a dash of this quad left over for small herbs as yet unplanted, and unplanned (suggestions would be sweet).

A closer look at the newly planted lettuce and Bee Balm.

Fern Leaf Dill was planted in the borcolli/herb Quad today (medicinal, so I hear). The Spicy Globe Basil is going completely insane, and at this rate, I may have more than enough to give away to relatives.

Red Cabbage is doing extremely well, and I hope to see heads very soon.

This Heirloom Mr. Stripey Tomato is over 3 feet tall. I've never been able to keep tomatoes healthy for long, and this whole half quad is doing exceptionally well... exceeding my expectations exponentially.

A whole Quad unused, but I plan on making this the strawberry patch.

Compost, previously discussed.

The fact that 10 bucks can take this project so much further is awesome. Paying 2+ bucks for a bag of 40# manure was getting more expensive than I wanted it to be.

So far, so good. Veggies coming in, and hopefully we'll get those strawberries next weekend in the ground and ready to run.

Project: Chicken! - Redux!

So after the attack we planned on minimalizing the coop, and fortifying its integrity to the nth degree. Success has been achieved, with no trial and error, and no new materials. A rework was necessary, to ensure maximum strength without jeapordizing the lightweight portability of the structure.

Here is what we have done thus far:

I broke some pallets down to use on the perimeter of the garden, when the attack happened, so we used the wood for the stand of the coop instead.

 

We took 2/3rds off of the original coop, which was a minor task. We cannibalized parts to make a swing down door for the entire front side, so they can come and go during the day, whilst being secure at night once we strap it at the top, as seen in the above picture. Also, we use the bottom as a hay keeper, also shown.

As seen in this picture, milk crates serve as nesting areas, while the swing door serves as an entrance. The step-ladder is in the way of the door going all the way to the ground. When it goes to the ground, they use it as a ladder to their new coop, which works out well.

The wooden rod was lashed for a nice perch to the middle of the structure, and the tarp is for warmth and protection on 4 of the 6 sides.

 The entire thing stands 6 feet tall, well off of the ground, and anything that may have attacked it, or thought about it, has no chance. All sides are triple-reinforced wire, instead of the single layer we had prior to the incident.

If anything gets in there now, it must have opposable thumbs, because that's the ONLY way in.

Project: Garden. Growth!

Growing nicely, actually. The ammendment of Black Kow has kickstarted all of the plants quite nicely. We have a few plants that have some holes chewed in the leaves, so I'm tryign to figure out what, exactly, is trying to eat them. Other than that, great progress.

We have another rain barrel we need to install next to thr first one, connect, and we get 110 gallons of watering power.

Some then and now pics:

Then (10/3)

Now (10/15)

Good growth for about 2 weeks. I plan on light fertilization in another week or so.

Project: Garden.

We've dug 11X15 out of our backyard for our garden, here're some pics.

Square foot gardening is what we're aiming for in the long run, so we've cut it into 4 sections. We amended 2 sections with composted Black Kow (our compost is far from done).

 Complete with Rain Barrel Irrigation!

Southwest Florida is a great place for winter crops due to minimal freezing during winter. We've got Heirloom tomatoes (2 varieties), orange and red Bell Peppers, Purple Cabbage, Broccoli, Globe Basil, Spearmint, Thyme, and Catnip. That's  half done, so we're planning on putting some red potatoes in potato boxes, planting some Snap Beans, and not sure what else. Anyone have some suggestions? We have plenty of room left, so I'm willing to listen. :)

The soaker hose works much better than I expected. Due to the lack of pressure from the rain barrel, I was only expecting a very weak drip, but it greatly exceeded my expectations because I forgot to factor in the gravity of a full 55 gallon barrel of water (do'h!). I expect it to deteriorate in proficiency when the water gets low, but that may be a while, since the soil we dug out is unusually good for around these parts (usually it's nuthin' but sand, which is a major suck factor for growing here).

Anyhowl, more to come on this little project.. Next:             Project: Chickens