Progress - Albeit slow!

Given the recent run of above normal temps in our area for the past week, I decided to dive in and begin my garden reconfiguration. It's not often the we have 60 degrees to approaching 70 anytime in January. My garden area is 19 ft. wide and about 34 ft. long including the 48 square ft. footprint of my greenhouse. The current garden was compose of 2-4ft wide paths that ran 21 ft. long before the greenhouse was erected. That means I had 168 sq. ft. plus an additional 48 sq. ft. area in a small area next to my garage. That gave me 216 sq. ft. of planting area. Here are some pictures of what it looked like before reconfiguration.

These pictures show the entrance walkway, the walkway at the bottom of the garden, the first bed, the second walkway with the second bed to it's left, the walkway at the top of the garden that leads to the greenhouse and finally, the 6X8 bed to that is to the right of the entrance walkway. The garden looks pretty unorganized and cluttered. Around October I decided that I needed to get rid of the pavers and cement bricks that I had accumulated over the years. So, I had begun to do that but then decided to stop everything until I had an actual plan in mind.
I have decided to repurpose the pavers to build a pathway in the main entrance all the way to the neighbors fence. If I have enough, I will then use them in the various walkways to cut down on mud and the need to cut grass. If I don't have enough pavers, my next option would be wood chips or some kind of mulch as I really don't want to cut grass. 
o, after analysis and investigation, I have discovered that most gardening "experts" advocate for 3ft. wide beds instead of 4. According to their studies, it allows more of the area you have to be put into production. It also makes for easier maintenance of the plants and allows you to better space the plants which increases the production. After putting this to the test, it turns out that I will have approximately 309 sq. ft. of planting space without expanding the area required and not including the 48 sq. ft. of the greenhouse. I lose about 200 sq. ft with the main entrance path and the 4 paths along the garden beds. I could reduce the main entrance width but I really want that path to carry the width of the 2 fence posts back to the neighbors fence for symmetry. I will now have 5 planting rows along with 2 in the area next to my garage. So, where I had 2, I now have will have 7. I must say I was a little shocked at this. 
On my first attempt to remove the pavers Saturday, I decided to tackle the hardest ones. Those would be the ones shown in the picture to the left below. The other two show where I stopped and the pile I created. They consisted of the pile against the shed and fence and the ones buried in the ground. Not an easy task by any means. It was a rather surprisingly back breaking job. I was able to get about 90 pavers moved so that wasn't a bad days work.

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In order to extract the pavers, I relied on 3 very old friends as seen in the picture. Some people would call them antiques though. They are a 5 tine pan head hoe, a 4 tine wooden handled spade and an old fashion ice scraper The dog in the back round is my neighbors very nosey but friendly dog. He just can't help himself.

I will have more work to report on in my next post in the very near future. So much is going on but I am determined to keep this up to date. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!

Garden renovation progress

As I have related in my previous posts, I am in the process of renovating my garden this fall.  I am doing this because the beds were uneven and it just looked bad to me.  So, after having to delay the work due to family issues, I have begun in earnest to relocate the beds.  What I have desired is to bring everything into alignment including where they end.

I would never harm the tree for garden symmetry

Sunday morning was a beautiful day with a low temperatures and a gentle breeze.  I cranked up the Sirius radio and off I went.  One issue I ran into was that in the bed I was working on, the Oak tree in our yard has a big root running right where the one border is located.  I naturally had to concede that this was not an issue I could solve by removing the root.  It is quite large and I would be concerned that cutting the root would harm the tree.  It's a beautiful tree so I had to figure out how I was going to work around the root.
The issue was that the cement block over the root was standing up higher than all the rest of the blocks and looked out of place.  So, I devised a plan to build up the blocks in the border so that there would be a slight rise to the block and then a slight decline after this block.  As you can see, it's noticeable but not overpowering.

Granted, it wasn't perfect, but it did solve the issue with the least cost.  If I leveled all the other blocks to this one block, I would have had to buy a lot of soil to put under the rest of the other blocks.
I worked for about two hours getting the blocks in alignment and leveled as seen in this photo.

I also made sure that the two block borders were 48" apart which is what I consider the optimum width.  It allows you to work on the bed on each side and you can reach every plant in the bed.  My previous bed was 44" wide and that did not quite allow me to plant my vegetables with their correct spacing.

Cement blocks: a concern in vegetable gardens.

One concern I have heard people express is that my borders are cement bricks.  People are concerned that the blocks will cause the soil to turn alkaline.  While I understand the concern, research is inconclusive as to the mobility of the acids coming off the blocks.  But I also know that the bricks I have are at least 20 years old and were out in the elements their entire life.  My neighbor gave me about 100 of them because he just wanted to get rid of them.  I would think their age would negate the issue of acid bleaching.
Cement blocks are extremely durable so I know that I will not have to do this again.  My reasoning for doing this is to first widen each bed to 4 feet widths.  Additionally, I can now use drip irrigation to water them if we have another dry spell next summer like we did this year.  I am also doing this to get an aesthetic look to the beds.  I plan to fill the holes in the blocks with dirt and grow bee attracting flowers in them.  That will also anchor the blocks in place so they won't shift.
So, in two hours time, I was able to get the first plot about 70% completed.  There is supposed to be a period of about 16 hours of on and off again rains.  It supposed to be clear most of the weekend so I am hoping to complete the first plot and then maybe get the second plot about 50 % complete.
You may be saying that you don't have this much space at your house to do something of this proportion.  You should remember that everything can be scaled to fit whatever space you do have. Even a small garden can produce great abundance.  It's all in the planning you do.  Don't rule out a garden just because you think it cant be done in your case.  The rewards are too high not to have a garden that fits your space.
So, there you have the status of the project at this time.  I will follow up with more reports as I work through this.  So, until next time, happy gardening everyone!

Composting deluxe

Before I begin writing about my continuing composting activities, I must relate that today and tomorrow are very sad days for my wife's family.  We begin the funeral process of saying goodbye to her beloved grandmother who passed away on Saturday after living for 90 wonderful years.  I have known this fine lady for almost 20 years now and I can honestly say - I have never met a sweeter, kinder, more loving and accepting person in my life.  She truly epitomize the very essence of being a lady living under grace.  I will deeply miss having her in my life.

I decided to look into the progress of my composters as I had some kitchen scraps to add to my current working pile.  I have three units which I have lined up behind my garage as seen here.

 I have one composter with finished product which I will add to my beds once I finish the reconfiguration of my beds which I an currently working on.  It's the furthest composter in the above picture.  Here is a picture of how much is available.

 












Additionally, I have one pile that is probably 80% through the process as seen below. It's the nearest composter in the first picture.

And, I have one that I just recently have been adding product to so I can get the last possible compost for the year as seen by these two pictures.  It is in the middle as I am going to take steps to attempt winter composting and I figured it may insulate it from the winds.  

 

As can be seen, the decomposition process is underway already as attested to by the gray pores developing on the compost.  They showed up at about day 4.  Those are fungi and actinomycetes which are generally prevalent at the beginning the breakdown process.  They prepare the waste for further breakdown by other actors in the pile.  I wanted to show you how it looks when the fungi appear.  So after I took these pictures, I added leaves, watered it down a little and turned the product in order to get the proper breakdown process underway.  

I will continue to add product and water to the middle pile through the winter - snow permitting.  I will also continue to add moisture to the other pile to assist with the ongoing breakdown of that pile. By the beginning of next Spring, I should have two composters filled with ready to use product.  

Composting is an ongoing year long process.  It pays dividends to do this if you want to control what your produce is taking up.  

One misconception is that compost is only for vegetable gardens.  It is actually a great amendment to a variety of items.  I use it as a planting medium for flowers and grass seed.  You can use it as a foliar spray on any plant by making compost tea.  It can also be used as a fertilizer for your lawn by spreading the compost over the lawn.  Additionally, it can also be used as a side dressing for any plant.  And on an environmental note, if you compost, the waste you recycle through composting is kept out of the landfills.

Composting saves you money.  It has been a long time since I bought commercially produced compost or fertilizer for any part of my landscape.  And, I know that the compost I produce is as fresh as it can be.
You may be thinking that you don't have the space to compost in your yard.  While I have 3 what I consider larger composters, there are alternatives for small space composting.  There are numerous small composters offered online that fit into every urban landscape quite well.  And, you have to keep in mind, that with a small landscape/garden, you have less demand for compost.      

So, there you have it.  If you have any questions regarding composting or any other gardening subject, you can add a comment or you can email me through this site.  Happy Gardening everyone!  

Sunday in the garden.

Like any gardener, I spent a fair portion of my morning in the garden.  Yesterday was absolutely hot and humid.  I tried to endure the heat but when I checked the weather on my phone and it was 90 degrees with a feel like 98.  Now, I like to garden, but it just seemed pretty illogical to continue to fight the elements.  So I stopped even trying to get stuff done in the garden.  And for me, that's a very hard task to do.  I don't like missing a day in the garden, especially a weekend day. 
So, I just resolved to get up early today and knock some things out. 
First priority was to pick some veggies.  I watered the veggies last night so they would be firm.  That's something I have always done and it seems to work very well.  I picked Peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers.  All favorites of my family.  As you can see, there was a good amount of fruit available. 

The one large cucumber was the result of the vine travelling into the pepper plot unseen.  I did not see that one until this morning so it matured to a larger size than I normally pick them at.  I will eat it but when they get to that size, they begin to become overrun with larger seeds inside.  The quality is diminished for sure.  But like I said, I will eat it nonetheless.  After all, it's a cucumber. 

The big tomato on the bottom second from the left is a Cherokee Purple.  That's an heirloom which can grow tomatoes up to about a pound or better.  And the taste is almost as good as my favorite heirloom - Brandywine.

My wife made me a cucumber/tomato mixed salad for dinner tonight.  I can say this, there is absolutely nothing as great tasting than fresh garden tomatoes and cucumbers with my favorite dressing.  No store bought - even local sourced tomatoes and cucumbers - can even come close.

On another note, as I mentioned in my last post, I have decided to renovate my garden to give it more structure and better production.  Well, that process has now begun.  As seen below, I have removed the first set of bricks at the back of my one bed.  I measured the area to make sure I wasn't reducing my beds and when all was measured, turns out the area will be a bit larger.  Seems I will have an extra 4 square feet per bed.  All good news. 

 So, there you have a day in the life of my garden.  Hope you enjoyed your day as much as I did.  Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone.       



Back from vacation

Our family just finished a great vacation cruising on the Carnival Pride out of the Port of Baltimore.  I cannot say enough good things about our experience as it was fun and the crew was fantastic to say the least.
While I was on vacation, I had some time every morning to think before getting busy with the activities onboard and the ports of calls.  And it became clear to me that it is time to begin renovations to my garden.  I want to get more production and make it easier to maintain.  I have two uneven beds that are producing but I've had a feeling that I am not getting the maximum utility out the space I have available.
The first order of business will be to even out the beds.  As seen below, the right bed is shorter than the left bed.

This is from a different perspective.

I will shorten the left bed and stretch the right bed so they won't go beyond on the fence post.  I think it will give the beds symmetry and make working them easier.  I have hopes that it will allow me to use soaker hoses connected to my rain barrels next year.
I know this appears to give me less space for my plants but there is another area I can use that I presently am not.  Behind each bed is a walk way along the neighbors fence. 

I plan, at this time, to pull the pavers up behind each bed and run the bricks directly to the fence.  My initial calculations show that this will be a small net gain in space. 
Another idea I have is to widen the beds to perhaps 5 to 6 feet each.  I still have to do some calculations to see if that is both plausible and necessary.  After all, I can expand the garden to the whole area but the question remains, do I need that much space?  I am not totally convinced as of yet.