Our vegetable garden blesses us with a feast for our eyes as well as our palate. This clump of Johnny jump-ups volunteered to fill some otherwise unused space.
Category: Gardening
Cheerful
It is a chilly, damp, breezy day – more mid-March than mid-May. These Johnny Jump-ups spread, without encouragement, into part of our yard. I photographed them a few days ago and today they gave me some cheer that spring is indeed here.
Splash of colour
I have come down with a cold. It’s more an annoyance than anything else, but is dragging me down a bit.
As an antidote here is a reminder that mild days are ahead, and wanted to share my reminder with you. Our gaillardia in joyous bloom.
We have spuds
Our potato box was very productive. Last spring we started our potatoes in this approximately 3′ x 3′ box. As the vines grew we added boards to the box frame, layer by layer, and piled in straw with each layer until the straw was about 15″ deep. I harvested the bounty today and reaped about ten lbs. of potatoes and there may be even more below the level I dug to. Ten lbs. is certainly not enough to last all winter but we now have the confidence of knowing the method works for us. The earth I turned over is amazingly rich in organic matter, earthworms, and other good stuff. I suspect we’ll try again next year.
Glory
Industry
Our gaillardia were pleasingly happy this year, as this industrious (and in non-stop motion) honeybee attests.
Rainwater harvesting
This is our rainwater harvesting system. It’s instrumental in keeping our garden irrigated.
We obtained two food-grade olive barrels (free!). I drilled a 1″ hole toward the bottom of the vertical side of the one on thre deck and another 1″ hole toward the top of the vertical wall. I installed a brass spigot in the bottom hole and a fitting with a 1″ I.D. tubing in the top hole.
Then I drilled two holes in opposite sides of the upper portion of the bottom barrel. The other end of the tubing with a fitting on that end plugged into one hole and serves as an automatic overflow from the upper barrel into the lower barrel. An inexpensive plastic spigot fitted into the other hole and serves as an overflow valve for the lower barrel.
Faye stapled window screen to the inside of the screw-on rings to serve as mosquito barriers. I had to do a little cutting on the downspout so the upper barrel would fit underneath. Then we put them in place.
Betweeen the two barrels we can store about 100 gallons (375 liters) of rainwater. Our various water jugs – repurposed laundry detergent, water, and vinegar jugs – add another 8 gallons’ capacity. For the past three years this has been more than enough to keep our garden, potted houseplants, and some specimen plants irrigated, and we have never run out of water. Our financial layout for the whole setup has been around $40.
We do not irrigate our lawn, either with harvested water or city water. While we like the look and feel of turfgrass we are gradually decreasing the amount of lawn. We are a little different from many people in that we do not see the point in watering and fertilizing something that you then mow, that you water and mow, that you water and mow, that you fertilize and water and mow . . .
We expanded the garden this year and this may test our water storage capacity. Only 13mm of rain has fallen since May 16. After the (probably overly) prodigious watering I did while Faye worked we have around 50 gallons between the two barrels.
It’s a bit of a fiddle to carry water to the garden. We are looking at adding eavestroughs to the shed which would empty into one or two barrels inside the garden area, shortening the carry.
Garden fencing up
In previous years we fenced off a small portion of the yard for our vegetable garden, using chicken wire. That served the purpose yet was usatusfactory for several reasons. This year we decided to greatly expand our garden and concomitantly use a less flimsy barrier. We agreed to fence off the entire portion of the yard 8′ in from the east chain link fence. This not only encloses our current and expanded garden, it allows for future expansion and protects our compost piles from three marauding dogs named Achilles, Kendal, and Stella.
We bought a 100′ roll of 16 gauge rabbit fencing with a 2″ x 2″ opening size and a few more 4′ steel posts. We put the posts up using orange tape as a rough straight line.
Then I unrolled the fence. We will have two gates, one allowing quick access to the compost piles and one quick access from the house into the garden and the staging area (background, near the shed).
We used one zip tie per post to ‘tack’ it into place while I wired the fence to each post. Faye keeps working in the raised bed as I get the fence up.
Kendal is unimpressed with our work.
Fence is up!
We have more work to do. It includes taking the slack out of the fence, installing permanent gates, roto-tilling after the ground dries a little more, mulching, and relocating the clothes line.
Pleasant surprise
When we bought green onions we frequently wound up composting part of the bunch. We buy bags of onions because it’s cost-effective. Often though we don’t use every one in time and have to compost the last few. Faye had an idea.
When these became undesirable to eat she put them in containers with a little water covering just the bottom of the bulb. After several days they sent out green shoots, so Voila! Fresh, homegrown ‘green’ onions and just enough to use before they turn into compost food.
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