Finally, the snow is GONE and the dirt is no longer frozen, yippee!
With Old Man Winter slowly fading into the ever-higher, rising sun, it's time for us to get soiled. Like most kids, playing in the dirt was the boom. Who knew that as I got older, playing in the dirt would be even more fun?
This past week was mostly spent getting many of the garden beds back to snuff. Boards that had been used to make raised beds, garden boxes, and the wooden structures that support the boxes, were in disrepair. For the past six years, raised beds and container planting have kept us off of our knees and have been a blessing for our back.
Before planting, these issues needed to be addressed.
While putting together a hobbitational plan, prior to getting started, I reminded myself several times to take it easy in the beginning. "DON'T OVER FARM, it has been a long winter."
With potatoes being a veggie that doesn't mind the cold, I figured I'd start here. We already had the seed potatoes and I was excited to get them in the ground!
The wooden side of the bed had to be totally replaced and the opposite side, the rock wall, needed to be reworked. Our plans were to widen the bed a little. This would necessitate adding some soil to the bed, but I had that covered.
Decaying leaves in one section of our compost pile were getting ready for the Spring of 2024. After two years of cooking recycled plant vegetation and leaves, the other section was ready to go.
With some of the compost in the wagon, dirt emptied from @farm-mom's flower boxes would be mixed in with it. I can already hear the potato seeds saying, "Thanks for cooking me up such a nutritious meal."
After the new sideboards were replaced, shoveling the homemade, worm-filled, BLACK GOLD into the potato garden was a RUSH.
Here are the seed potatoes that we ordered for this go-around, Red Norland, German Butterball, Yellow Fin, and Burbank Russet.
After baking in the sun for the past two days to activate growth, let the planting begin.
The bag of sulfur you see in this picture is used to treat the cut ends of the larger potatoes. The big ones can be cut in half, basically giving you two seed potatoes for the price of one. Treating the freshly cut spuds with sulfur will help to prevent any disease from damaging the freshly cut potato.
With 54 seed potatoes planted we're hoping for a banner year.
When all is said and done and watering becomes the focus of the garden, in the past, we have watered everything by hand. This will be the first year that we'll be using a drip irrigation system on some of our garden beds. Not only will this save us time, but we're also hoping to cut down on the amount of water we use.
The next area of the garden that needed to be refashioned were these four planter boxes. I made these 10 years ago before we even had a garden. They were placed in sunny spots around the property. When we decided to start a real garden, these boxes were placed on top of the support structure you see here. Last year I noticed that the bottom of the boxes were rotten and this year I made one big box to replace the four boxes.
Placing the black bin under the boxes worked out great. As I lifted the boxes off of the support structure, the bottom of the boxes fell apart and the dirt ended up in the bin. This saved me from having to shovel the dirt off on the ground.
The old boxes were only eight inches deep. I made the new box with 14" walls.
At this new depth, carrots can now be grown in this box. Now there're three beds that are at least 12" deep, giving us another area to rotate the carrots into.
Last year this box, that was planted with tomatoes, almost didn't make it. The framing under this box had split, and the box was leaning badly to one side. The legs supporting this structure were also leaning very badly, throwing the entire run of beds out of plumb. A few of the legs were several inches off of the ground. I jacked up the pillars and reset the legs.
After several hours of hobbitizing, the structure was once again sound. Filling it back up with soil was a good workout.
After several days of refurbishing the wooden boxes and the structures that supported them, it was time to move onto the garden bed that was outlined with stone. After reworking the stones I added a mixture of compost and dirt to this bed, increasing the overall depth by several inches. This bed will also be watered with a drip irrigation system. When running the hosing to this bed I attached the hose to the structure that use to support the hops. Doing this will keep the hose off of the ground and I will not have to move it every time I cut the grass.
With all of the repairs completed, the last thing we addressed were the two apple trees. We removed the grass from around the base of the trees, side dressed them with loads of compost, pruned them, and restacked them. Last year we harvested just three apples. This year we hope to get a lot more.
Watering the garden by hand has always been very time consuming. We installed three different drip hoses to water the peas, potatoes, and the bed where the cucumbers and tomatoes will be planted. This should cut the watering time in half.
With this many valves and five different hoses at the ready, it's just a matter of opening the correct valve, and then remembering to turn it off.
Oh man I just need to bring a trailer and live on a corner of your property already. So much great stuff going on and that garden is going to be bountiful for the family again this year. Awesome use of the old truck bed liner!!
Great start. Hopefully I am close behind you!
Thanks my friend. It took about a week with some long days to put everything back together, but with the weather cooperating it was a lot of fun. It's a big corner, bring the trailer and the family.😀 You never know, one day we may end up crossing paths, now wouldn't that be a gag.
The truck bed liner does come in handy.
A master gardener and just to think that just the other day you had a lot of pain after the hip replacement.
But nothing can keep a good man down and I hope that all of your efforts here will be bountiful rewarded.
!PIZZA !LOL !LUV
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I told him that's the last thing I need.
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Those days of walking around with a gimp are in the past. I'm feeling great and I just need to slowly build up my strength and endurance. After the first few days of putting the garden back together I was a little sore, but it felt great.
Thanks for your generosity. I know that you said that it was not necessary to thank you, but I just don't feel right when I don't recognize kindness.
I hope all is well with you and Marion.
Robin did tell me that you were going to have a medical procedure soon, I pray that it all goes as planned!
Thank you Bob, I had the first series of tests done today for my critical low level of iron problem, and they took three biopsies from my stomach. Now we will wait for the doctors, but the doctor has already booked me back here in the hospital on the 18th of May.
Well, look at it this way, at least you are up and about again, and it is only natural that you will feel some pain, especially when you overdo things. We sound very similar, as I did the same when my leg came out of plaster after 2 years, and I was so glad that I almost had to go back into plaster again, because of my over eager movements.
You guys are just as, if not more, generous, and I think that we have the same hearts, or like some say, we are cut from the same stone !LOL
!PIZZA and !LUV to your lady.
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Stuffed animals.
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At our age, there's always something going on. I hope they figure out what the deal is with your iron problems. I would imagine that your iron levels being so low has zapped some of your energy.
On a different note, yesterday I sent Marian an e-mail concerning the donations. I've included the two receipts that we received from PayPal. Hopefully, you guys received the mail. If these transactions didn't show up on your end just let me know and I'll get in touch with PayPal and try to find out where the funds went.
Stay in touch my friend.
Greetings Bob, and you can say that again !LOLZ]
We were away for the last 2 days as I was booked into another government hospital, as they are the only ones that do a capsule endoscopy. Basically, a capsule with a built-in camera that one swallows and as it passes through the digestive system, it sends photos to a PC.
But that didn't happen, as the doctor decided that I had to go through the entire procedure again!
So they did a gastroscopy again and they cut 3 biopsies from inside my stomach. Back home now and my next appointment for a colonoscopy is on the 18th of May for 2 days again.
Thank you for the mail and I ask Marian to have a look at our PayPal account now. If it's still not in, she will let you know via the mail reply. Thank you for your kind support and I am worried that you guys will lose the funds.
!PIZZA and !LUV
Holy cow, what will they think of next, a camera that you swallow, I've never heard of that before, but it sounds like that was canceled and you have to redo everything that you already had done, what a bummer.
You would think that they would have gotten it right the first time around. Hang in there my friend us old-timers are tougher than most.
I'm more worried about your well-being than I am about the money.
Good luck with it all!
They call it an "endoscopy" and the camera is built into a capsule. The method is that they plaster receivers on the stomach and a main receiver in a belt that one has to put on. Then the capsule is swallowed and as it travels through the entire digestive system, sending a gazillion photos to the receivers and the main receiver on the belt transfers the photos to a large medical PC linked to a computer. The computer then analysis the photos and it shows up all of the bad spots in the digestive system.
The reason that the previous gastronomy and the colonoscopy was not accepted, is that the new doctor found wrongs that were not corrected by the previous doctor. Some blood spots were not cauterized even though it cost us a fortune as it was a private practice.
Our GP in desperation arranged for me to get an appointment in a government hospital that costs a fraction of the previous charges. Problem is that the old hospital is dilapidated, and one has to wait in queues for half a day. But the saving grace is that the new doctor is one of the best.
So now the gastronomy was done, and I am booked to return on the 18th of May for the repeat of the colonoscopy. They were also able to look inside the start of my inner intestine and some blood lesions also showed up.
According to the doctor, I might not need the camera pill episode, as he thinks that once all of the blood lesions are cauterized, my inner bleeding problem might be solved. If not, the camera system will be used.
Sorry about the long reply, but I wanted to bring you up to date. Living with a critically low iron level is not easy, but as you say, we old timers can beat the odds better than most.
Amazing how the Spirit works as your donations has arrived to meet the needs of many people.
Thank you once again and the Lord will continue to take care of my health. Just as He has done for you.
Blessings and thank you for the care. Please share our confirmation of the receipt with our Lady Robin.
!PIZZA !LOLZ and !LUV to both of you.
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He could never reach the city limit.
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Ps. Marian just looked and no mail received from you. So I don't know what's happening.
Please check if your spelling of the mail address is correct?
[email protected]
[email protected]
The address was not correct. I resent the e-mail and hopefully, I got it right this time.
Oh! Marian has just discovered your real name and yes, we have indeed received it. Also, all of the previous gifts from 2021.
She sent you some thank you mails every year and also a certificate on the 29th of January. Did you receive it?
Now this mystery donor has been revealed and we are so happy that it is you guys !LOLZ
!PIZZA and !LUV
I went to order organic potatoes this year and they were ridiculously high priced. I checked several suppliers and they were even higher than Fedco. So it was decided no potatoes this year. Just curious how much you paid for yours?
When I ran the drip irrigation for the little trees, they were in a line so I ran it in a line. The last 4 or 5 at the end didn't get much water, though the pressure I think is 70 lbs.
So I set up a system sort of like yours with the diverters and watered each section at a time. I'd set a very obnoxious long ringing timer, so I could hear it through the house or in the yard. I let it run an hour or 2 hours, depending on how dry it was, and turn off that section and on the next.
Your beds look great and you are far ahead of me in the gardens. I've had too many projects to finish before I can start...
We paid $7.98 for three pounds of the seed potatoes, which I didn't feel was too bad in today's market. Heck, everything cost a heck of a lot more than it did last year.
That is also my concern, certain plants not getting enough water. When we watered by hand we knew that all of the plants had the water they needed to prosper.
That is the one thing that we are still wrestling with, just how long do we leave the water on for each section? We started out with 45 minutes for the potatoes and just a half hour for the other two beds. I need an obnoxious ringer like yours. Right now we set the time on Alexa and on the stove timer, both of which are not very loud. We're looking to save water, and all we have to do is forget to turn the water off just once and we could run our well dry.😟
We've got all of the beds ready to plant and have planted the crops that don't mind the cold, potatoes, beets, and lettuce. With the temps forecasted to drop into the low thirties for this coming week, it may be a while before we can plant the rest.
The amount of work put in this post, and in the garden, is so impressive! Sorry for finding the time before to comment on your post, I truly enjoyed every bit of it, well done for the amazing "black gold", and brilliant idea to use drips, I will also use them this year with the drought incoming this summer!
Wow, so good!
Thanks my friend, This will be the first year we have used this kind of watering system, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully, we'll be using less water and it will definitely save time.
good luck with your garden.
This is quite interesting but it seem to be a lot of work. Kudos to you!!!
I haven't worked a day in the past six years, since I retired. Everything I do I consider a hobby. Instead of using that nasty four letter word w--k I've coined my own word, hobbitizing for all that gets done here on the farm.
Have a splendid day.
$PIZZA slices delivered:
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Looks so good! I might even get me a couple drip hoses. You guys really know what time it is!
This will be the first time that we have used this type of watering system.
Since we water everything with our well water, our concern is always using too much water and having our well run dry, that wouldn't be any fun.
I used them once almost 40 years ago, and it degraded too quickly and spewed water in uneven spurts after that. Hopefully they are better now. I can see why you are trying them. No fun indeed.
I let you know how we make out.
Happy gardening.
Oh wow, great post - and so excited to see your garden start to come alive. Some great potato growing tips here for me as I look at mine and think about moving compost. Sigh. My back is hurting from moving mulch!
You know what they say, slow and steady wins the race. That's how I think now that I'm a senior citizen, but back in the day it was balls to the wall.
Last year we purchased the seed potatoes from Lowes, we weren't too happy with them and they didn't produce very well. this year we went back to an outfit called Grow Organic. In the past, their seed potatoes produced lots of spuds.
Just a suggestion, bribe your hubby to do the heavy lifting. When Robin wants something, she'll bribe me and it works all of the time.😁
Looks like your garden is in full swing now, I am excited to see your crops once again. Greetings from the Philippines!
It took some doing, but we've got things back to snuff. Now if the weather would cooperate a little more we'd be able to plant the veggies that need warmer weather. We've planted crops that don't mind cold temps, potatoes, lettuce, and my favorite beets.
Hopefully, doing well. your garden is
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What a great work done! It's amazing that the bed boxes lasted 10 years! It will be interesting to see all your crops thrive sooner. The drip irrigation is a brilliant idea! Lots to learn from here which we can apply in our own yards.
Thank you for such a nice comment. I hope that the new boxes I built will last as long, if they do they may outlast me.
This is the first time we've used this system to water and we'll have to see how it goes.
Now, if the weather were to warm up some, we'd be able to start filling the boxes with veggies.
They look sturdy and the wood look thick too and I believe are treated as well so they will last long.
We also heard from others around here about the drip irrigation especially on greenhouses. But it's good to see you did it on open garden. All the best to you as you start anew in your garden.
Since the wood we used is rough-cut lumber it is a true 1-inch thick. When you buy lumber and you purchase a 1x6, the true thickness is 3/4 of an inch and the width is 5 and a half inches, so yes it's nice and sturdy.
We'll see how this new watering system works out, hopefully, without a problem. I just need to remember to turn off the water.
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Thank you for such amazing words! 😍
I also have a drip irrigation system installed in my garden. But as all plants have different water requirements, how long do you run the drip ?
That's a good question. With this being the first year for this type of watering system I'm playing it by ear in the beginning. As the warm weather arrives I'll be watering the garden regularly and time each section, after which I'll push back the hay and use a water meter that I have.
Up to this point I haven't needed to water at all, no sun and lots of rain the past 10 days.
Good luck with what you've got going on.
Ok.