July 2017

Wednesday July 4
Well, Here it is July.  Things are moving along in the garden for this month.  Rains have come at intervals along with winds and hail.  It seems like this year the hail and extreme storms are more frequent than usual.  I'm hopeful to have a good harvest but others not so much.  That's a normal year of gardening.

This is my pride and garden joy.  Sweet corn has always been the main reason I wanted a bigger garden.  I knew that the wild life would be a problem when I first started Terra Nova Gardens.  I knew that fences would be the only deterrent for for saving the corn.  Even though I planted corn since the first year, last year was the first year that I harvested any corn.  Last year I even had electric fences and was able to harvest all the carn.  This year the chicken wire was replaced with steel welded five foot high fencing that's been pinned down to the carpet overlay.  So far that alone without the electric fence has kept the varmints out of the corn.

The squash and cucumbers are looking good and doing just what I wanted them to do.  The squash is crawling over into the sweet corn.  Being away for 10 days caused some issues with the vines not being trained to crawl in the right direction and the cucumbers to crawl up the leaning fence trellis.  I'm seeing squash being formed by the vines.  There still are no cucumbers yet.

Thursday day July 6

It doesn't take long for a garden to get out of control.  This is what happens when a little neglect in the garden is encouraged.  This is that nasty weed with a Velcro weed head that sticks to clothes, gloves, and especially shoe laces.  I had to take action before it became really nasty.

When I put the hardwood mulch down, I didn't know that it would grow weeds in the mulch and compost down so fast.  However the weeds are easy to pull and this path took less than an hour to clean up.  The path look like the left side of the bed with tall grass and weeds in the mulch.  I'm thinking that after each rain if a good raking about three days later would probably kill all the sprouting seeds and be a better way to control the weeds.  In another year I'm thinking just rake this mulch up and put it in the raised beds and put down another layer of fresh mulch.

The Rugosa Rose bushes are really starting to make a good looking hedge.  Every year they get thicker and bigger.  Before long they will have filled in the gaps and have a strong hedge.  This is really only the fourth year for them.  I'm really happy with the selection of tough rose bush for the front of the garden area.

The road frontage was a bit raggy and needed attention badly.  This section took about five hours and 9 wheel barrow loads of weeds to get in decent shape.  The section behind the bushes is still in bad shape and needs a good day to clean up.

I'm still amazed at how much different Terra Nova Gardens has changed since I took over the land almost six years ago.  The garden looked like the top portion of the picture over the entire garden.  Trash, cement chunks, and all sorts of car parts were cleared off the land.  It's always good to look back at the progress that's been done to get encouraged to keep going.

Ok the plants look great but there aren't many tomatoes on the vines.  I'm not sure what's up with that but I'm hearing that folks are having the same problem all across the land here. 

May 2017

Wednesday May 10
May has been a continuation of April with many rain days.  It's never an extreme amount of rain and it's not been with any damaging things like high wind or hail .... so far.  I do like a well behaved thunderstorm.  This morning the rain fell; the thunder rolled; and the air smelled so fresh after the rain was finished.  Upon talking with my friends through out the day, all noticed the birds chirping their hearts out after the rain finished.  It wasn't just one or two song birds but a whole choir of birds singing away.  I think they were just happy and thankful for the rain.

It's been a challenge to get into the garden to work on the preparation but I do have the beds ready for planting.  I wish I could say the same for the pathways.  They have been so neglected.  I haven't really planted any thing at the Urban Ranch yet except for four tomato plants in the buckets.

Terra Nova Gardens has been the focus this year.  

Some times it's good to have taken pictures to see the progress that has been made.  I had hoped to expand the garden beds by two but ended up with a total of four more beds to plant this year.  This is what the expansion area looked like in February.

This is that same area at the beginning of May.  Many hours of building the beds and digging the soil have produced some very nice beds to plant.

The first time through digging up the beds requires rock removal and vine removal.  It takes several years to clear a bed from rocks.  I have some beds that are entering into their 6th season and still rocks and vines will pop up to be removed.  Each year there's less and less but I don't think they will ever be all removed.  I some times think about when I can't continue to garden any more just how long will it take before the garden reverts back to the wild.  I suspect it won't take long.  Nature has all the time in the world and really can't be tamed forever.  Nature will submit for a time but in the end always wins.  

An idea conceived over the Winter months was to have a slanted wire trellis for cucumbers to climb with squash planted under the cucumbers.  The open side faces to the East which gets full sun from sunup to about four in the afternoon.  Since the sunshine hours are mostly from the East the vine plants tend to sprawl toward the East and not West.  

The next bed over in the foreground will be sweet corn.  The plan is to let the vine plants (squash or pumpkins) grow across the path and into the sweet corn.  The other vine plant bed which is not in the picture will not have a cucumber structure but will be allowed to spread across another path in a bed of sweet corn.  I have a total of four sweet corn beds this year planted two weeks apart for a harvest over four weeks or maybe six.  Last year was the first year to finally get a sweet corn harvest due to raccoons.

I'm hoping to get the cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and chard started in the seed cells.  It's a good way to get 100% germination planting.  A lot of plants need to be planted.  All the green peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, onions, and eggplants need to be planted.  There's lots of work to be accomplish over the next couple weeks.

April 2017

Friday April 28
April has been a month with a lot of rain. The official rain measurement has been about an inch but it really seems that the moisture has been much more than one inch.  It's been a cold deary month with not a lot of sunshine.  Today I'll be taking my seedling plants down to the basement to keep them safe from the three days of rain and near freezing temperatures.  

 The last bed of the garden area for this year was finished and ready to be dug.  A total of 12 raised beds are finished and ready to be planted.  It's two beds more than I had hoped to get completed for this year.  Progress the last two years has been much more than expected.

Bed #11 has been dug and ready to plant.  This bed will be stirred a couple times before planting.

Stones and vines were under the surface of the ground in bed #11.  It will take many diggings to finally rid the bed completely of rocks and vines.

                         Bed #9 Potatoes Planted
The first cutting of 35th street Corner was used for mulch on the planted potatoes.

                         Beds #6 through #12
This is a picture of the North half of the garden with the six prepare beds.  Fences and pathway mulch need to be spread.  It's shaping up to be a good year.

Over all April has been a month of great accomplishments in spite of all the rainy weather.  It's time to start planting with weather permitting.

March 2017

Friday March 10, 2017
March has been an up and down month.  Warm temperatures, rain, and now snow and cold.  Then back to warm again.  My lettuce plants are ready to be put out but the ground is no way ready to have them planted.  It's time for the warm weather to stay and get better.

The bug patrol is on duty all ready.  Turkeys are roaming the neighborhood once again.  I didn't see many last year but this year they seem to be coming around again.

Bed number four is almost completed.  I'm hoping to get another two beds completed which will complete the entire north side of the garden.

Two stringers to support the platform.  They are set in hangers and leveled with the sides.

                        First half of Spring Platform
The platform was made from a heavy duty pallets.  The entire platform was water sealed both top and bottom.  Hopefully it will last a long time.
The back half of the platform will be made in the same way.  I've been thinking how to get water from the main spring over to the burried barrels to the right of the platform.  The stand pipe will have a sandpipe inserted in the tube with a old fashioned hand pump to be used to pump water out of the pipe.  I am thinking of building a wooden struture to simulate a wishing well around the pipe and pump.

Bed number five half way done.  Maybe next week will be good weather to work on finishing up this bed and getting the next one completed.

February 2017

Wednesday February 15, 2017
I spent some time at Terra Nova Gardens yesterday.  The ground is soft and too wet to dig but other things can be done to get ready for Spring.  The sign part of the fence is in bad shape especially where it was destroyed and repaired.  I plugged the holes but I'm thinking it's probably the last year for that part of the fence. 

 

 The entry way held up good over the Winter.  My plan for this year is to extend the path all the way down to the Sweet Corn Fortress.  It will look great and be great for weed control.

 

 This is a bit of a mess and needs cleared.  The fence along this side has been removed to expand the electric fence area with at least two more raised beds.  It will all be covered with carpet and rocks will line the beds and the centers will be cut out.  Hopefully all that will be finished by planting time.

 This area will be covered with cardboard and carpet as well.  Eventually, this area will be raised beds as well.  I expect another two or three beds will fit in here.  The rose bush in the back corner will be moved to a new spot out by the road.  It's time to start taking shoots from the well established rose bushes and fill in the gaps for the hedge by the road.

This will be a brick path as well and I am really hoping it will be finished this year as well.  There are lots of plans for garden projects.  The other paths will have to wait.  If I get the two main paths done, I will be thankful.  The area in the back will be the last one to be developed with a shed, compost bins, and a cold frame.  This plans will take years to accomplish.  Perhaps a life time.

Wednesday February 15, 2017



Wednesday February 15, 2017




Wednesday February 15, 2017




Wednesday February 15, 2017




Wednesday February 15, 2017

January 2017

OK it's not January just yet.  This is Christmas day.  I'm already thinking about January and the start of a new garden year.  There's lots of plans in my head to become reality this year.  Of course there's always way more plans than what I can accomplish but I'm anxious to get started.  The first thing is to get the seed starting area cleaned up and prepared to start seeds in February.  I still have to set up my Winter garden area in the basement and plant it.  I was hoping to have that started already but alas Christmas cards consumed my time for the month of December.

Today, on Christmas, we had a wonderful thunder storm with rain, thunder, and lightening.  It's still raining as the temperature inches toward the high of 55 degrees.  Last year we had about eight inches of snow to shovel on this day.  What a difference a year makes.

Tuesday January 3, 2017  
So let the inside projects begin.  With the toilet not shutting off fixed and the kitchen sink drain leaking fixed, it's time to move on to repairing the washing machine shut off valve.  There are some challenges with this project.

So, what's the issue?  These shut off valves are old and haven't been turned in decades.  They have become corroded.  In my experience with these valves to put some muscle on them and shut them off is a mistake.  Oh, they will shut off but when turned back on they leak. Then it becomes replace the valve.  That opens up the issue of twisting the pipe in the wall which could lead to breaking the pipe.  Now there's leak behind the drywall.  The first alternative is to always shut off the water to the entire house every time the washing machine needs to be worked on.  Even though that's unhandy, it's the only way to be sure not to disturb the corroded valve and cause unwanted issues.  

These are the parts that will fix the valve issue.  Instead of replacing the valve, I'm just going to put another valve in front of the existing one.  These valves are made different and will not have the shut off issues of the original valves.

Here is the new valves installed with no leaks.  Stage one is complete on the shut off valve replacement.  Now the real transplant needs to be done.  I took down the model, serial number, and stock number of the washing machine to take to the parts place.  The parts guy said it's not on the computer.  This machine is probably 20 years old.  It didn't surprise me that it wasn't in the computer.  So now I have bring in the part to who the parts guy for him to come up with a replacement.  They all kind of work the same and I actually believe I've replaced this one before.


Monday January 9, 2017 
Well, still no gardening but plumbing continues.  

Yeah, I'm still wondering just how to fix this.  There are a lot of complications to this plumbing issue.  It's where a plumbing vent pipe, tub drain, tub over flow, and sink drain all come together to drain out into the main sewer pipe.  I have a couple ideas but none really make me feel comfortable about a permanent fix. 2017 is the year of plumbing I guess.

Monday January 9, 2017 
The hole in the ceiling is bigger and the clean up from the mess has begun.  It's a real trick to get the dust totally cleaned up from drywall.  I keep forgetting it's better to vacuum drywall dust than wet mop it up.  

Tuesday January 17, 2017  
Started working on the new seed starting area. The long rain gutter was cut in half and each half was set on top of two concrete blocks.

I still have some work to do before actual use.  Two more lights are needed and leveling has to be done.  I want to build a structure to hang the lights so the chains don't have to be so long.  I think I have every thing I need. It just needs to be put together.  So maybe tomorrow more things will be accomplished.  Slowly but surely things are falling into place for the gardening year 2017.  

November 2016

The month November will be working on projects around the Urban Ranch and maybe Terra Nova Gardens.  The weather is providing perfect temperatures for working outside.  I'm not sure how long it will last but I'll be taking advantage of the nice weather as long as I can.


Monday - Urban Ranch - November 7, 2016

For many years I've always thought that my side yard would be a great place for a brick area to sit in the afternoon.  It's on the East side of the house and would be out of the hot afternoon sun.  As the years passed nothing happened but junk piling up.  Old cans, bits and pieces of hose, piles of rocks and gravel, and assorted other things that just got thrown in the heap of rubble.  Then the scrub trees started to grow up betwixt all the nooks and crannies.  Yes, it was and still is quite the mess.  This is the first two rows of about 10 rows of patio blocks.  That's about half of the complete patio.  I would really like to get the first half done before it get to cold to dig in the dirt.  Along the right side of the picture is a drop off with a three foot high rock retaining wall.  When the patio is completed some time next year, a short cedar fence will run about a couple feet in along the top side of the rock wall. 

 
Monday - Urban Ranch - November 7, 2016

Half of the side yard patio is finished.  Six rows of blocks were set in place.  Next comes two levels of retaining wall blocks and a wooden fence.

Thursday - Urban Ranch - November 17, 2016
I worked on the side yard again today.  Two posts for the fence are now set.  The part to build the first fence panel were purchased yesterday so now the building of the fence panel can begin. Sixteen fence boards hopefully will be enough.