Cucumber Trellis

I needed to construct a cucumber trellis in the middle of a bed and this is what I came up with.

I was afraid the weight of the cucumbers as they got bigger would pull in the middle and break the string.  So I attached a piece of bamboo through the top and secured it to the post for more support.

We will see what happens, so far the cucumber is starting to climb nicely.

New Bed

After refilling all the beds, amending the in ground garden and filling an extra large trash can there was still this pile left with no where to go.  We don't have any back corners that a pile of dirt can go and we don't have a vehicle to transport it to someone who needs it or to dump it somewhere.  With rain coming and it taking up driveway space we needed to find a home for it.  So we went to the store to look at options of where to put the extra product.

I ended up with this, an extra 4x4 bed.  Andy has been wanting one in this spot and I have been dragging my feet because I didn't want to finance all the materials.  But when we had the extra soil and the cost of lumber is the same as a container that will hold the soil for future use we decided to go with the lumber.

The spot hasn't had a bed before because it is shaded by the neighbor's house by 2pm in the afternoon.  This makes it a less than superb location for summer crops but we are hoping that it might be just what a bed of lettuce needs to last through the season.

Bee Stand

This past weekend was another working weekend where we checked a bunch of our projects/chores off our list.  First was creating a stable bee stand for the hive.  We had already leveled the sloping ground and built a mini retaining wall but we needed to build a sturdy and stable foundation for the stand. 

Our stand is 9 cinder blocks, 6 which have been painted white to match the hive.  It's important to have the hive off the ground so that moisture doesn't ruin the hive and critters can't get in it.  We dug a hole to bury 3 of the bocks as the "basement" making sure that they were level and secure.  Once the foundation was placed we just stacked the rest and filled in the soil around the blocks. 

We also determined that the mini retaining wall needed reinforcements since the blocks would move a bit when you stepped on the soil next to them.  We laid the same blocks that formed the wall down on their faces against the privacy fence.  We tamped down extra soil around them and in between the fence to fully secure them.  We now have a very secure, stable and level stand for the bees.

With the mulch raked back into place and ready for the hive.

This is what happens when you don't wear gloves, but sometimes gloves just get in the way :)

Working Weekend

On Saturday we were in the garden placing and leveling the raised beds, filling them with soil and spreading mulch from 9am to 7pm.  It was a long day and hard work but we got it all done in one day which was exciting.

We ended up having two deliveries.  The first delivery had a 50:50 mix of topsoil and composted manure along with as much mulch that would fill the rest of the truck.  But we ran out of mulch partway through the project and had a second delivery of mulch and composted manure to work into the old garden and top off the raised beds.  We ended up having enough compost to spread over the landscaping before spreading mulch.  In total we had 4 cubic yards of mulch and 4 cubic yards of soil and compost.

The raised beds filled and mulched.  We intended on only mulching a 2 foot border around all of the beds so as not to need to mow around them.  But once we mulched the garden and all of the landscaping on the property we still had plenty of mulch and decided to make the garden free of any mowing.  I have to admit that the leaves are driving me crazy and I resisted the urge to go pick them up off my fresh mulch one by one.  However many of our neighbors haven't finished their Spring cleanup and so new leaves would just blow right back on.

On the left is the prepared spot for the bees next to the old garden.  Andy built a mini retaining wall to hold up the soil we leveled.  A little more work has to be done in compacting the soil and making sure the bee hive doesn't become a leaning tower.  On the right is the old garden with a couple inches of composted manure worked in.

The overall finished garden!  Everything left of the driveway from the street to the garage is now garden, bee yard, or compost pile.  Now all I need are my seed orders and transplants.



The Next Step

The last two days I have been hard at work digging up sod, turning over, tilling up and leveling soil.  The next step in our garden expansion is complete.  The entire space for our new garden is prepared and ready for the raised beds.  In the tilling process I know that I have most likely awoken sleeping weed seeds but I did not want to put down weed blocker under the raised beds for two reasons.  One, I don't want plastic permanently under the raised beds, if plastic food storage containers leach chemicals into our food wouldn't  it the same be for the plastic weed blocker leaching chemicals into my organic garden?  Second I want plant roots to be able to reach deeper and when planting tomatoes I dig a hole at least 12 inches, weed blocker would inhibit these abilities.  In a couple of months when I am fighting weeds I might be feeling differently.

We are ready and prepared for our big soil and mulch delivery tomorrow!

All sod and soil dug up and turned over.

All tilled and leveled ready for the raised beds!

The spot for the bees slopped towards the fence but has now been tilled and leveled.  It is now waiting for a thick layer of mulch.

Raised Beds

Yesterday my Dad and I built our raised beds!  I am thrilled to have this checked off my list.  It was a nice project to be able to complete with my Dad.  My Dad has always been surrounded by a household of women where most of the time he does these projects for us not with us.  So I know he thought I was just using him for the free labor which I fully appreciated but I also appreciated the time on the project together. 

We built three 4x12 beds that are 8 inches deep.  We built them in my "workshop" (aka garage) on the floor and had really high tech equipment such as a large outdoor garbage can and hand saw to cut the 2x4 corner stabilizers.  All joking aside it took a little bit of time but was a easy project.

I bought eight 1x8x12 untreated cedar boards, two of which were cut to 4 foot lengths for the edges.  Luckily the man at the lumber store was feeling nice and since we only had 4 cuts did this for us.  We also bought a 2x4 to make the corner supports.  We cut the 2x4 into eight inch lengths since we bought 1x8 boards only to find that a 1x8 is technically really .75x7.5, whoops.  The extra half inch on our corner supports will be used the anchor the beds in the ground, so it worked out.

Once we had the 2x4 cut we attached the end pieces to the corner supports first and then set up all the boards attaching the long sides to the end pieces.  We had an assembly line set up where I drilled all the pilot holes and my Dad followed with the screws.  I also had the chance to put a few screws in as I am constantly wanting to learn how to be more handy.  The beds look great and next on the garden expansion to do list is to turn over all the sod and till up the ground.

I'd also like for you to notice that on March 30th when it should be in the fifties it was in the high 30s and snowing as we were building our raised beds.  It just felt off to be getting ready for gardening as it snows.