Slow Progress

I haven't posted for a while because I was hoping to have a bit more to show for the week. I think we've had more snow since the official beginning of Spring than we had all winter. We very much need the moisture here, so I won't complain too much. We seem to have a couple of fairly nice days and then a little return to winter. It's coming again this weekend.

The asparagus and rhubarb arrived last week. After a couple days in the garage (because of snow) I got them planted. I worked on the raspberry patch last week to change it from a giant lasagna bed to the U-shaped patch it was intended to be. I used some of the "lasagna" to top off a couple of the newer beds that have settled down a few inches, to create rings #3 & 4, and soon will take some more to prep for the blackberries. I need to make some progress with the blackberry spot because they should be arriving in the next week or so. The strawberries should be arriving any time now. I hope they come tomorrow so I can get them planted before the weekend.

I did have a surprise this morning though. Last week, while I was out planting potatoes -and let me tell you, I had A LOT of potatoes - I even had to dig a couple small beds because I ran out of planned space and still had some more to plant! Anyway, I was out planting potatoes, and I saw the power company cutting some shrubs at a house down the street. I wandered over (after much debate with myself whether or not to do it) and asked if they had any wood chips to dump. They didn't have much in the truck then, but took my name and address. This morning, I had a load of pine mulch delivered (Free! Yay!) . Of course, it's A LOT of pine mulch... it looks a little funny because the pine needles are still green, but I don't think it matters, they'll brown and blend in before too long. I wish I had known when he was coming, I could have had a better spot for him to dump it, but I'm not going to complain. I don't have to hook up the trailer and go get it, so it works for me. I wonder if the pile will heat up since it has the chipped wood and green needles (and is about 4' tall and 6-8' around).

I've collected a couple buckets of snow from these storms. I'm making a bucket of compost tea (though I'm not sure it's doing anything, maybe I'm just making dirty water??). I also want to try making lacto bacillus (sp?) or something... I need to do some more reading so see just what I am going to make. I collected the snow now, because it might be a long time before I can collect a bucket of rainwater. I also collected a little bit of fresh, clean snow for something else I haven't had in years, Sugar on Snow. For those who don't come from the land of maple syrup, the syrup is boiled down a little more and drizzled onto the bowl of snow. It is supposed to be sort of chewy and candy-like. I must have boiled a little too long. I made some really hard-to-eat maple candy that seemed to completely encase a couple of my molars for several minutes before I could finally pry it off (pretty huh?). What was left in the pan turned to a much easier-to-eat bit of maple sugar. I have one more bowl of snow in the freezer, so I may attempt it again one of these days.

I've had a few more seeds sprout (indoors), moved the wintersown containers to the front porch (where they should be warmer), took some cuttings of the creeping phlox we have out front to see if they will root, moved another small tree (I needed to fill about a foot of dirt around the corner of the patio, so the tree had to move), and moved the 2 clematis from the front to the back.

The poor clematis, I'm surprised they were doing so well. I moved them because I'm going to plant Jostaberry bushes in front of the front porch (where the clematis were). When I dug them up, I discovered they were planted in bottomless coffee cans. One of the cans was mostly rusted away, the other I had to cut off. They were very rootbound. I'm amazed they got enough water to survive (and bloom quite nicely) last year, as I rarely watered directly where they were. I assumed they had roots out around the plants. I can understand if they were mint or something, but I have never heard of planting clematis that way (of course, I've never had clematis before). I think if they can survive that, they just might make it growing up the posts to the back deck.

***update*** Steve over at Valley Gardens (see my blog list) tells me that rootbound clematis are supposed to bloom better which is probably why they were in the coffee cans. Thanks for the info!!

I've been working on quite a few things, I just haven't gotten so many things finished. I don't even have any new pictures (can you believe it? I'll take more soon though). I actually feel a little more productive now that I have written down what I have worked on. It didn't feel like I had done much, even though I have been busy. If the weather is decent tomorrow, I need to take the poor puppies out for a walk. We've played ball a bit, here and there, but they need some good exercise and attention.

Playin' in the dirt

The weather was beautiful today (high 60's) so I thought I'd get outside and see what I could get done. First, I turned the horse manure compost pile. The pile was smelling a bit like stagnant water when I dug into it yesterday so I figured it was time for some air. I skipped the plastic on the bottom this time as the plastic was a pain when I was turning the pile and the worst odor in the pile was the wet hay at the bottom, on top of the plastic. I think it's probably done enough to use when I am ready for it . There's still a fair amount of the paper bedding visible, but I think it's no different than the paper in a lasagna bed, so I'm not going to worry about it. I do kind of wish I had gotten the compost thermometer when I started the pile so I knew for sure what temperature it reached, but too late for that now. Oh well.

Next I started digging the holes for transplanting the lilacs that we'll be moving soon. There are 3 lilacs along the fence by the vegetable garden that I'm moving so I can add 3 more beds. This is how far I got...

I will admit, I was a bit tired from turning that pile but geez this ground is hard. The one farthest back got a good start but check out the one in the middle! It's about 2-3 inches deep! I just didn't have the strength to attack it with the San Angelo bar today. I'll try again tomorrow.

Here's a close-up of the nearest hole in the picture. The whitish colored area is where the shovel scraped against that layer that is about as hard as concrete. I dumped a couple gallons of water in each hole and called it good for the day. I'll see if the water softens it enough to dig out, otherwise I'll have to break out the bar. I suppose I'm due for a good upper arm workout anyway...

Yesterday's project ended with a bit more success than today's. I prepped a couple of additional spots for spring planting. One of these rings is for rhubarb and the other for zucchini. I'm going to make probably 2 more of these later.


I started with 10' pieces of metal landscape edging (I picked up a stack of it free a while back). My husband riveted them into circles for me. Since I put them on a slightly sloped area, I did have to dig around the edges a bit to level them somewhat though I didn't get terribly particular about it. Thankfully, this area was not near as hard as the spot I was digging today. I put the plastic trim on the top edge and hauled over some rocks to dress it up a bit. The rocks are from a large pile we picked up free last summer (Craigslist again). They look a bit like fire rings don't they??


This is what they're being filled with. Newspaper, spoiled hay, coffee grounds, some of the manure compost from the big pile and about 1/2 bucket of mostly finished compost from my regular bin (not pictured).

(Granny, that's my dumping garden cart that gets LOTS of use! It's how I move nearly everything out here!)

Campfire anyone?? Ok, this is the first layer, newspaper. The wind wasn't blowing a thousand miles per hour at that point, so I didn't have to wet it down first.

Next a couple inches of manure compost, then a layer of hay, which I attempted to wet down in the tote but I didn't let it sit long enough to absorb much apparently. Next a silver bag of coffee, a little compost, the other half cart of manure, the rest of the hay, and a plastic bag of coffee. I poked at it a bit with the cultivator so the coffee fell down into the hay so the coffee layer wasn't quite so thick, dumped the rest of the "hay" water on top and finished it off with a tote full of leaves.

After I filled the second one, I laid a piece of old fencing over the top weighted down with a piece of lumber so all the leaves don't blow away. Now we just have to wait for planting time!

Building the raised beds May 2008

When I first looked at this house with our Realtor, I picked out the spot for the garden. There's a spot that isn't in the back fence with the dogs, but also isn't in the front yard in full view. It's on the south side of the house and is pretty well screened from the street behind a retaining wall.

I decided one week in May that I was going to try raised beds, a first for me. I learned about lasagna gardening online, and thought it sounded worth a try. After a lot of internet searching and a lot of reading on the Gardenweb forums, I decided to get started. I found used redwood 2x6s for free on Craigslist, and started on the plan! The beds are 4' x 10' and 3 boards high (about 15.5"). Each corner has a piece of wood that I screwed the boards into, as some of the board ends aren't in the best shape. I also added a piece of 2x6 inside the center of each long side. This adds stability and helps pull the somewhat warped boards in line with each other. Building with used lumber can make for interesting projects. It may not the prettiest up close, but it serves its purpose well. I lined the wood with plastic sheeting in the hopes that it will help it last longer.

I filled the beds with what organic materials I

could find at the time. The bulk of the filling is well aged horse manure (came chock-full-o'-worms too) that I got from a family who lives a few miles up the road. They advertised the manure free on Craigslist. I started with a layer of paper and layered chicken manure (that was at least 6 months old if not older), leaves and pine needles, horse manure, coffee grounds, coffee chaffe, and a little fill dirt. I don't remember the exact order, but I tried to keep the layers to about 2-4" thick and alternate "greens" and "browns" as best I could.

The photo shows the 2 beds after they were filled. The sticks in the right bed are for the peas and in the left bed is my makeshift stick trellis. All of the materials for these 2 beds I got free through Craigslist and Freecycle or were items I had on hand.

I also built a potato box from old fence boards and 2x4's. The plan was to mulch the potatoes with straw and add the 2 open sides as the plants grew. I left the back side intact since it was against the retaining wall. I left the right side intact because the compost bin will be going just to the right of the bin.