June 2020

June 22, 2020
June has been an interesting month. We are not even close to the 5 inches of average rain fall. So far this month it's only been 2.11 inches. The plants are doing well even with the moisture drought. 

Other that basement watering of plants, there's been no garden activity today. 

The big project of the month has been the water tower platform. It's coming together nicely and should be functional by the end of the summer. I am hopeful to have it operational by next year. with a couple more beds in operation. I haven't decided just what to do with the next two beds. I don't have the two sweet corn beds fully planted just yet. I did get the cucumbers planted under the trellis and will plant the squash when I get the seeds from eBay. They are supposed to arrive July 2nd. That's about the right time to plant them to circumvent the vine borer. The zucchini plants are not affected just yet and I'm trying to keep an eye on them to see if eggs are being laid around the base of the stem. So far they look good and healthy.  I would like a glut of zucchini to give away to friends.  I wish I could have planted more but even with the pandemic, friends, family, and others have kept me busy. I have had more time but it's never enough.

May 2020

May 24, 2020
Well May is almost over. Just one more week left. I have really not gotten much done with all the extra time that's been given to me with the Coronavirus. I'm a little disappointed at how much my body has gone down hill and can't do as much as it used to do. I can still do what I used to do but for only a couple hours a day and then it takes the rest of the day to recover. I want to get some major improvements done to the Urban Ranch as well. I really thought after nine years at Terra Nova Gardens it would look a lot better than it does. I guess those heavy work years with great accomplishments are gone. It was what I thought would probably happen. I have to get some thing worked out that will move forward but at a much slower pace to deal with the aging body issue.

The living poor man's patio looks fairly decent this year. I built two pedestals to set flower plants on beside the driveway on the West side. It's a great display.  The project for the patio is the replacing of the chair wood. I have one Cedar board to begin the process. It looks fairly simple with just cutting the board to the right length and bolting them onto the frame. The frames are in good shape it's just the wood that needs attention.

This is the beginning of the bucket garden for this year. I now have the tomatoes in the gutter nearest the grass planted. The next gutter in the middle has four peppers planted. I have more peppers to plant and complete the pepper planting in the bucket garden. I have enough peppers to put some out at Terra Nova Gardens. The first gutter is now on automatic bottom gutter watering with the float valve in place and adjusted. I discovered last year that until the roots make their way down to the net cup and out into the gutter, top watering needs to happen. I will use the suckers from the tomatoes to start more tomato plants this year. Supposedly it will work quite well. I'll give it a try and see if it works for me. 

I have the moveable fence up around the sweet corn. The batteries are charged and the fencer was tested. All are in good condition still so it's ago to put up the electric wire around the steel fence and once again the sweet corn will be protected. I tried the circle growing method with corn again this year but I've decided that it's just too much work and won't visit that method again. It's just easier and quicker to plant in rows.  I still need to prepare the second bed for sweet corn. 

I've started cleaning up the front Rugosa Roses by the road. Much of the initial growth has died off for some reason. I'm hoping by cleaning it up and mulching the ground again it will regrow. It really looked great after about four or five years but the last couple years it's really struggled. I'm wondering if it's because of Tim's spraying for weeds along the road. I suspect the drift hits the bushes and doesn't kill them but really makes them sick.  

The Urban Ranch planted sprouted corn seeds are up and growing. Only one didn't come up. I'm going to sprout some more for Terra Nova Gardens.

May 26, 2020
Today is another rain day. It's been a rain week so far. It's good for gardens planted but not good for planting gardens. 

I have been working on restoring the patio furniture wood. It was given to me a few years ago by Teresa my cousin. It lasted some years but being outside all the time even in the Winter takes a toll on patio furniture. It's time to replace the wood in the complete set. The frame is still very solid and doesn't have much rust on it. 

What a difference this makes. It was a little tricky to do the back as not only was it curved on the ends but it was slanted 15 degrees. It's not as smoothly cut as the original but good enough for me. So now it's on to the next chair and then a bench and table top.

March 2020

March 6 - Here comes March like a lion. Yesterday the winds were strong. They were staining winds of 25 to 30 MPH and gusts up to 55 MPH. Today not so much. March is a volatile month with weather changing almost at a moment's notice.

This little crocus is trying its best to show us all the Spring is indeed here. I for one am ready for this year's garden to begin. I just might actually have a garden to enjoy this year. The last couple years have been challenging. For two years it's been a bust for gardening. I haven't really had a true garden since 2017 which was my best year. This year other than having the structure still in place, it will be like starting over. It will be a lot of work and time spent to bring up to a workable garden again. It may not all get done this year but I can hope for major accomplishments. One of the main time obstacles has been removed from my schedule so it will give me much needed time to spend at the garden. I have more plans in my head than can ever be accomplished in one life time but it's what keeps me exciting about living.

The lettuce and radish experiment was a great success. I am ready to harvest the third harvest from the lettuce and have a couple more good radishes on track to be harvested. It's a little more difficult to grow a good radish but the up side is that once it's known that the radish won't be turning out so good, it can be eaten as a microgreen so not all is lost even for a bad radish.

It's time to start sprouting some Bell Pepper seeds. Last year I sprouted the seeds and in 10 days I had plants growing. The seeds sprouted in five days and the planted sprouts were up and growing in another five days. I'm hoping for the same this year. It's a sure way of getting 100% planted germination. If the seeds are planted directly in the seed starting tray, it can take up to three weeks for them to germinate so if they don't germinate or are sporadic, then it's another three week wait to see if the next group will germinate. So the sprouting before the planting method worked great last year and this year will be the test to see if I still have the touch.

I hooked up the rain water hose to the tank a couple days ago. It's now set to collet water for the roof. February was a very dry month and it looks like March has started with dry weather. I think February had about .02 inch of moisture and so far there's been nothing in March. I'm just waiting for those Spring rains to kick in. 

Saturday March 7 

First day at Terra Nova Gardens. Not much happening there at the moment. I started building the east side of bed number 3 with the blocks that came from the flood area north of Fremont. I have a stack large enough to build one raised bed. This bed is in the formal area of the garden. It will most likely take me most of the summer to get it built. I do want the path done by the end of October. With the extra time in my schedule it just might happen on the road back to full production of Terra Nova Gardens. I have a high hope of really getting some things done this year. There's much to do and I have a head full of plans for both Terra Nova Gardens and Urban Ranch. 

This is the end of the first day's work.  The wall will continue for about 20 more feet. The top will be covered with a solid top block to finish out the side. I am hoping to be at least a section like this added to the bed every time I come to the garden. A little bit each day will get the job done soon enough. As I look around at Terra Nova Gardens I see need every where. The neglect for two years has really taken a toll on this garden. 2017 was an awesome year but now the garden just looks very sad and unhappy. I do hope nothing happens to circumvent the progress this year but one never knows what the future will bring.

It's raining today but so far it's been very little moisture. Not even enough to raise the rain water tank level. The website says .24 inches of rain which would be about 36 gallons of water.  The rain guage in the garden says no measurable moisture and the was in the big tank says no water saved.

This is the lettuce after two harvests and from the looks of it, definitely will be needing to harvest again today. The radishes are a little more finicky about growing. Maybe it just the way radishes are but not every one will turn out to be a good radish. After about a week of growth some will stand straight and stocky and some will be leggy and spindly. I've just pulled the leggy ones and thrown them in the salad for microgreens. I'd say only about a third of the radishes planted turn out to be good radishes. It takes about 20 days for a radish to grow to harvest size.

I have more kinds of radish to plant to see if one would be better than what I'm using. Right now the best I've found is Champion. The foliage stays small and the radish grow to a deceit size in about 20 days. I have some others that I want to try that are a bigger size but they might not be suited for indoor growing in PVC pipe.

February 2020

Here it is February already. An entire month has passed by. I'm happy with how the seed area is progressing. Now if the plants can just keep growing and produce a harvest, I will be ecstatic. It will mean that I can sustain a garden inside the basement basically year round. The possibilities are huge.

The lettuce plants are on day 7 from planting and the radishes are on day 5. In a couple more weeks on Valentine's Day, the onion seed will be planted. That will be the official start of the garden year.

02-02-2020

 


More of the same. The Radishes are a little spotty with germination. They have germinated but at way different times. Some germinated at three days and some are just now germinating at 6 days. Well, it was old seed.

02-05-2020



Four radishes have grown from 10 planted but it was from old seed so I will except that as an excuse. The lettuce and the radishes have really popped since I gave them a feed. I'll wait another week and give them a light feed again. It's been 11 days since planting. I'll wait another week or two to transplant the lettuce plants to one plant per cup I think I'll have about 10 plants.

02-14-2020



The radishes are starting to put on some weight and I'm thinking that this might be viable way to grow radishes year round. I'm interested to see how the bigger radishes will do as they approach harvest. The radish that I just planted can get up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter which is the diameter of the PVC pipe. If need be I could go to a bigger pipe.

The lettuce just keeps growing leeps and bounds just like the video said. I don't bathe them in the hydroponic nutrients but I do feed them once a week with miracle grow general fertilizer

02-16-2020

The outside tulips are up and growing. The tulip containers have no sign of growth. I'm not sure the bulbs made it through the winter. If they don't come up, next year I'll just keep the bulbs in the refrigerator and plant them about this time of the year in the containers.

In the ground tulips are up and growing.



Radishes are really putting on weight now and starting to look like a radish. Roots are out the bottom of the PVC pipes. The new radishes are reaching toward the light. I think I should have put them in a different tray closer to the light. They are looking a little spindly. If they don't do well, I'll start the next batch closer to the light.

Lettuce continues to grow and look ever so good. So the lettuce is 22 days from planting and the radishes are 20 days from planting. Ten more days and radishes should be ready for harvest. Twenty three days until lettuce should be ready for harvest.

02-19-2020

The second planting of radish turned out very leggy and had to be replanted.

The experiment with winter gardening has been a complete success so far. The next round will be expanded into a bigger planting. It might be a year round operation.

02-20-2020
Radishes are looking good with seven more days to go for a 30 day harvest. I think they could be harvested right now and maybe I'll have to harvest them early. It's time to think about what the next step will be in this experiment. I could ramp it up big time but I'm just not ready for that. Maybe a few more and gently ease into the routine of a steady crop of greens and radishes. It's better than microgreens for me. Actual salads are a good step toward winter growing.

02-22-2020

This is the radish harvest after 25 days. I probably should have harvested about three days earlier. So it would be around 21 days or three weeks. The lettuce could be harvested and I just might have a fresh garden salad today.  The lettuce is just under 30 days. This is a hugely successful experiment. Now I just have to figure out how to get a succession of harvest schedule.

The onions are coming along. I have replanted some of the empty pods and it looks like I'll be planting some more empty pods again. This method seems to be working wonderfully well.
I have snipped off the bent tops. I did that last year and this year I learned that is what needs to be done to keep the stems strong. It seems that every thing I figure out on my own gets confirmed that it's the right thing to do.

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January 2020

1-29-2020
The New garden Year has begun. I've always wanted to grow a garden inside during the winter months. After some research I've found that it's really not all that hard. I've attempted it a couple times but discovered that I was going about it not wrong but more difficult than it should have been. I was using five gallon buckets when 12 ounce Dixie cups are just fine. It sparked by imagination into a total salad greens garden that could be grown inside with grow lights. I'm now experimenting with root crops as well. If that works it will open a whole new inspiration of gardening for me. Greens and root crops like radish and carrots do not need pollination so they would be just fine grown inside. I'm not interested in hydroponics but maybe a hybrid of soil and liquid nutrients would be more my style. 

These are lettuce plants that I think are about four or five days since being planted. There are already several plants popping up. When they get big enough, they will be separated into their own cups. Hopefully, in four to six weeks I'll be eating salad from these plants. My research has given me instructions to feed the plants with nutrients from hydroponics but I'm just going to feed the plants with general fertilizer from miracle grow maybe once a week. So this could be a new adventure in gardening.

Radishes are popping up through the soil. So all is well way down below.

1-30-2020
Lettuce is growing nicely and radishes are start to show themselves. I see six out of ten planted starting to pop through the soil. So the grand inside experiment is under way. The first fertilizing was today. So next Thursday, I'll give them another shot. I don't want to give them too much or it will burn them out. Just enough to keep them healthy and strong.

1-31-2020

I count nine lettuce plants growing in three cups. The fourth cup didn't sprout any lettuce seeds. I'm not sure about what happened there but I have not concern about it. Nine plants will be enough for the experiment. When they get a little more growth on them, I'll transplant them into a single pot for each of them. They seemed to be a little dry this morning so I sprayed the top and watered the bottom. I will keep watering the bottom each day from now on. I have bigger cottage cheese and yogurt containers that I might use for the plants to give them and chance to expand their roots a bit. 

October 2019

October 3rd
Wow, the summer is over and I've got a lot to do in the yard and garden. It's probably not all going to get done. The garden this year was even worse than last year. I'm just going to clean it up and move on. The soil in the containers is a question as to what to do with it. I've done some research and will reuse it. Basically the videos that I watched just mixed the old container soil into new at about half and half. Then they might boost it up with a little extra organic fertilizer. I have the advantage of having a large composter that I use for mixing soil. It works great for that.

I finished up cleaning up the Urban Ranch garden.

 Yeah, it doesn't look pretty but all the buckets are empty and the supports are stacked. I still want to give the patio a good clean before Winter sets in but it might not get done until next spring.

There is all the soil from the buckets. I'll let it rest a bit and use some for the next round of containers. I have purchased tulips and crocus to put in some larger containers. I will use some of this soil mixed with fresh potting mix soil and plant the tulips and crocus when the temperatures start freezing at night. Hopefully, it will keep the bulbs from sprouting until spring. I might bring them inside a bit early to start them growing early.

August 2019

August 3rd
The summer is quickly passing by. I totally skipped over July so I'll catch up some with July gardening. All my vlogs that I follow are harvesting buckets of produce now. I'm harvesting a few tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers. The buckets this year are struggling. First it was cold, then extremely hot and now moderate temperatures. The bucket soil got up to 98 degrees during the extreme not weather. I think that greatly affected the plants. They are producing but the foliage doesn't look too healthy. The two in ground tomatoes faired better.

The poor man's patio has really put on a show this year. I did it the same as last year but it sure seems to be having a better display this year. Well, there is one difference this year. I usually set up automatic watering but this year I didn't. It requires me to get up close and personal to every plant while watering it. I kind of like it better. Maybe that's why the plants are doing better. They like the personal attention.

The old water tank had to be retired. It was just too much to keep patching up the leaks in the tank. This one even though it's advertised as a six foot tank is smaller and hold 50 gallons less than the old one. I'm thinking about painting the tank but it's quite a process to clean off the oily film and scratch the surface with sand paper before painting.

August always seems to be out of control weed cleanup month. This August is no different. I've already harvested five bags of yard waste from just three beds and around the water tank. There's still much more to go. The tree sprouts alone will give me a ton of yard waste this week. 

My idea of setting out potted flowers where the spring bulbs are has been a great one. The flowers are last sales of scraggly Walmart plants and grown from seed Marigolds. They are just starting to flower and will be putting a spectacular show during August. Well, I hope.

August 15th
Sheesh, the month is half gone; school for Bradley has started; and the garden is dwindling down. The bucket garden this year is struggling. The hot July week heated up the soil in the buckets to 95 degrees. It nearly cooked the roots. Next year will be a different plan of action. I'm thinking that the plants will be started in buckets but when the weather warms up enough they will be buried in the ground. The soil bucket will have the bottom cut out and holes cut in the sides. The soil bucket will have weed fabric that lines the sides to keep the soil from coming out the sides. The soil bucket will be set inside another bucket with the net cup. When the time is right, the net cup bucket will be removed; the weed barrier will be cut to let the roots grow out of the soil bucket and the soil bucket will be buried in the garden bed up to the neck of the bucket. In theory it all looks good in the mind. The biggest thing is the removal of the net cup bucket and getting the soil bucket into the ground without destroying the plant. If it works it should be the best of both world. 

I always seem to forget to take a before picture. This was a four bag yard waste project. Every year about this time I start the yard and fence clean up that always is a major task. Trees and vines seem to love my yard. I would like to plant a Fall garden but I just don't think it will happen. The time is just not there again this year. Yard work won't happen again today, tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day. Well, I don't know maybe some today. Well, that is if it don't rain. A big storm front is headed this way. As I watch the radar, I see it dwindling away. That happens quite a lot. It must be the lay of the land for God's hand that directs most storms around Omaha. August

August

August

August