Suburban Gardening

I posted a discussion thread on the Modern Victory Garden's forum asking the best spacing for garden hoops. While I know I live in Texas and have about a zero percentage chance of snow in the winter (don't be jealous), but we do get some freezing rain and some nights that it will drip just at the freezing level. I am thinking a little protection would not hurt.

I am also thinking that these will also help me at of the times of the year. Such as in the late spring when the birds are attacking all of my tomato plants, a little bird netting would not hurt. Also in the summer in the blazing heat (we have 60 days over 100 degrees in the past 3 months) a little light shade cloth will go a long way.

I am starting this a little early, as I know that while the weather is a little warmer, the PVC will bend a little easier. When PVC is cold, it doesn't really bend, and really tends to shatter! Pieces of PVC flying at your eyes is never a good thing.

HERE IS THE PLAN:

○ Drive 2 foot rebar into the ground just on the inner edge of the raised beds

○ Every Four Feet, based on the advice received above.

○ Carefully bend the 8 foot pieces of the into place.

I put in one to see if this will work "as planned" and seems to be good. Here is a quick picture of it.

I will post the finished product next weekend, when I pick up the rest of the supplies and get them into place.

Until Next Time!!

SG

It has been a while….I apologize!! I was working long 15 to 18 hour days, and it left me exhausted, and little time to manage my blog obsession.

Here it the happenings in the vegetable garden

I have pulled up all the onions. Some were very small (barely cocktail onion size), but most were about the size of a golf ball. Since the green stalk was bend over on all of then, as well as turning brown, I did not think they would last too much longer. Since I got a very late start on them, I didn’t expect to get as much as I did from them. I got over 3 pounds in total. This final batch ended up 1 pound, 10 oz. The plans are to chop them up and freeze them. We will pull them out when the tomatoes & jalapenos are ready, so we can make some fresh salsa.

All the corn was silked, and was hoping to pull them in the next week or so. However, I went out this morning, and found that a squirrel has eaten one of the ears. So I pulled that stalk up for the compost pile (it only had one ear), and moved the owl statue over to that part of the garden. Hopefully this will buy me a little time.

Boy, will I have some tomatoes when they turn ripe. After losing my first batch of 12 or so to one of the dogs, I have about 25 of them coming in on the red tomato plants (three plants total), and dozens coming in on the yellow pear plants (two of them). They all look about the right size, now we are just waiting for them to ripen.

We just filled the newest bed with soil, and since it is hot right now (over 100 degrees every day) I am still trying to decide to plant there. I can’t wait too long, as in September, I need to start the plantings for the fall season.

I HAVE CANALOPES!! I was not sure how these would come in, it was a transplant I bought at the local grocery store. I worked on getting the vine to trellis on the fence, and it had tons of blooms on it. I looked a couple of evenings ago, and found three LARGE melons coming in. I am telling you, large like the size you would get in the store. I had to run to Walgreens to purchase some panty hose to give them some support. The cashier kept looking at me a little strange! I will post some pictures of this later in the week.

We are starting our project that I have decided to call the Tropicalization project. We are taking to entire length of one side of the backyard and adding a koi pond (left over from the neighbors), native rocks as the outline, and tropical plants including Bananas, papaya trees, agave cacti, and purple plants (sorry I am unsure of the name of them). I will post as we go along in the stages. We started the first third of the garden this evening.

I will also try to post some pictures of the garden as it stands now this week also.

Take Care….Have fun in the garden!!

SG

Well it has been a very productive day!!! We had rain the rest of the weekend, so I accomplished nothing. But today...it was a good day.

GARDEN: I harvested 10 more oz. from the garden. 6 ounces of Argula and 4 ounces of two small onions. This has brought me over 2 pounds produced and harvested!!!! Check out the harvest dashboard on the home page.

I will be eating this as a salad this evening, with a little grilled chicken. Know that I am thinking about it, I think I will harvest another 4 ounces or so of Parsley and make a chimchuirri (I am sure I have misspelled this) to use as both a basting of the chicken breast, as well as a salad dressing.

COMPOSTING: I have turned the entire pile. Back breaking, put amazingly, as I was turning it tons of steam was coming out of it. Even in the high 90 degree weather we are having. I am going to watch for another bag of grass to add to it, I want to keep that thing COOKING.

NEW PROJECT ON THE LIST: I have added a new project to the list. Not exactly gardening, but felt I would add it anyways. We are installing a multi-tier pond. Can we say Aquaponics!!! Well, we could not pass it up. It is Bulk Trash pick-up week, so the neighbor, who is going thru a divorce, decided it was time to CLEAN. So she ripped out her pond, and threw it to the curb. So we decided to take it (we asked) and now we are finalizing the plans in our yard. It was the whole kit (pump, pond, and even some plants). We have cleaned it out, and have it storing out back. The pump was cleaned and in the garage, and the plants are in a large flower pot that has no drainage holes, filled with water. I image this will be a long weekend project, once all the plans are finalized.

EXPANSION OF THE GARDEN: The same neighbor ripped out some of her raised beds, so I took one of them, and added it to the veggie garden. Below is a new Plot Plan with this 7 foot bed addition. They are labeled as plots 49 to 55. Double click on the link to open it to full size mode.

THE MAP 2009

The bottom of it is lined with cardboard.  It will degrade, but in the meantime will kill the grass that is beneath it.  Think of it as weed barrier.

DOGS & THE GARDEN: So as everyone noticed in the previous post that the dogs invaded the garden. They ate all my green tomatoes. Well I went to Lowe's as pick up some metal posts to secure the temporary fencing. I thought, well, they will not be able to knock that down, and will keep them out of it. I WAS MISTAKEN! My 80 pound dogs squeezed thru the 12"  holes in the fence to get into the garden!!!! So now, I have interwoven some wooden stakes thru it to make them too small to squeeze thru. Let all keep our finger's crossed. I would really love to have some tomatoes this year.

One item off the HONEY DO list: When we moving into this house about 9 months ago, the previous owners left a old wooden/cast iron bench. The wood had rotted away, and the cast iron ends were sitting beside the shed. This was put on my honey do list, about a month after we moved in. Finally, I got around to installing new wood pieces to it as well as some carriage bolts. Now it is sitting on the front stoop...not for sitting, but as a decoration piece to hold plants. Sometimes it is better not to ask..

Well that was the productive day!!!

SUGGESTIONS NEEDED: I am a planner! That is the accountant in me. Here is my planting calendar so far. Anyone has some suggestions for a late season plantings. I would also be interested in any mixings! I know that Engineered Gardener inter-mixes Corn and Cabbage. I am open to ANY suggestions!!!!!! Below is my "planner". Please click on it and open it and give me some suggestions! Remember this is my first real true year at this. Sure, I have planted tomatoes for years, but I am new to everything else. Net year, I really do want to attempt some heirloom tomatoes??but man can not live by Tomatoes alone!

THE PLANNER

Thank you in advance!!!

I will try to post the recipe for the sauce/basting/salad dressing tomorrow for any that is interested!

Thanks!!

SG

I did it. I built the Compost Bin!!!

It was actually fun, and once I had all the materials; it only took me about 30 minutes. I will upload some photos also.

Basically, I "recycled" a tile crate that was sitting next to a dumpster, and added some chicken wire I had at the house, along with a couple of hinges so I can open the top ( to add the new material) and to the front, in order to allow me to turn the pile. In the end, it is completely encased to avoid a few pests from getting into it.

Best of all, it cost me a couple of hinges, the rest was recycled from others?.

I also have to admit; I was a little anxious to get this pile going, that I even "borrowed" a bag of leaves from my neighbor to start the pile. As I already use a composting blade on my lawnmower, I do not have any grass clippings for it, but I will watch in the neighbor hood.

ONE ITEM CROSSED OFF THE TO DO LIST!!!!

And here is an update....full of leaves, some kitchen scraps....and another bag of grass (borrowed from the house up the road)....