Author: Cabincrafted1

The boxes that needed to be built have been. A second long hard day complete. The 14 x 4′ box that had to be dug in to the slope was dug in. Lots of soil shoveled from one end to get it low enough and cardboard put down at that part and the frame screwed to the corner posts. I used a level and though it isn’t totally level, it is far better than some of the other boxes, then the soil had to be shoveled back on the cardboard to work the other end. Eventually, I would like to move more of the wood down from the barn and reinforce or rebuild the cedar boxes that are rotting away. The row above the long box will need to be terraced in as well. Those boxes all sit at a bit of an angle. Since we don’t get our last frost until Mother’s Day, I will attempt to get that row repaired at least before they are to be planted. A single 14′ long 4′ wide bed would encompass the 3 four foot square boxes and they can be terraced in to make the center aisle mostly level.

We purchased more soil and more mulch today and stopped at the pet supply store to pick up cardboard, but they had already discarded theirs today. We stopped at the convenience center and was told they can no longer allow cardboard to be taken because of COVID. There was enough to do the bed and part of the wide center aisle. The soil that was shifted and the bagged soil didn’t even begin to fill the new long box. Some mulch was put down where the paths were covered. The box that was built yesterday got the extra tier on the ends, it is the deepest bed and will be great for potatoes this year, but needs another 8 to 10 cubic feet of soil. We will continue to bring home a few bags at a time so the beds are ready to plant when the weather allows. I hope that between last year’s efforts and this spring’s efforts, that the garden will be easier to care for in future years with no more heavy moving of wood, soil, and only enough mulch to keep a good layer to hold down the weeds. The one addition I want to make is an A trellis to use to train the tomatoes. Son 1 did that last year and was pleased with how it worked. One that fits an 8 foot box can be moved to different large beds as crops are rotated would be ideal.

This morning, as I was trying to loosen the tight sore muscles from yesterday and getting my toast and coffee, 9 deer wandered slowly across the back yard and upper field. You can see that the trees are still bare.

Some of the seed planted on the weekend have sprouted. I have a row of Mesclun mix and one of Kale. One of the herb are beginning to show too.

The tomato seed arrived today and they were put in the new hydroponic seed starter. Soon there will be flats moved in and out of the house to give them sun and light wind to strengthen them into healthy sprouts to be transplanted in the garden at the right time.

I still need to finish laying mulch and try to rebuild the two rows of boxes near the top of the garden. Since more cardboard wasn’t available, I will try to use the remnants of a roll of weed mat or layers of newsprint to finish the wide aisle, but the heavy work is done for now so my body can recover some before more wood is moved. I have decided not to move the compost pile and will leave it on the wider side instead of building another box that isn’t even on the garden plan. The area is not really large enough for another planting box and the narrow corner where I was going to move it won’t be easily accessible when the comfrey grows up this summer. Perhaps a few more medicinal herb can go in that space.

Two days in the dirt and my hands are so rough that spinning finer fiber is almost impossible. I will have to slather on lots of cocoa butter for a few days. That that is even wearing gloves most of the time.

Today we purchased some 2 cu ft bags of organic raised bed soil and a few of mulch. All that I felt the car could safely handle. After I unloaded them inside the garden gate and changed into gardening gear, I grabbed the tractor key and headed for the barn. The old deck joists are 16′ long and double thickness, so they weigh as much as I do (a very slight exageration). I dragged, pushed, pulled, and tugged one on to the tractor bucket that was strategically parked right at the end of the pile. First I had to remove all the wood that had been added after they were wrestled in to the pile. Once it was on, I could get to some 14′ ones that are single thickness and loaded 1 of them and a 4 X 4. I didn’t raise the bucket high enough and lost the load in the driveway about halfway down. With a lot of maneuvering, I managed to get them back on the bucket and made it to the yard between the house and garden. The doubled joist was marked in half and with the circular saw set at max, I was able to get it cut in half with two cuts. Each half is still heavy, but I could move them. The first box was built, though I need to add another tier on the ends. It was build just below the box I moved yesterday, set on cardboard and filled with most of the soil we just bought. After the potatoes are planted there, I will add more soil as they grow and by the end of the summer, the box will be nearly full.

The other box is going to be 14′ long by 4′ wide, built beside the one I moved. I started weeding the area as I dug a trench for the side that is uphill and the chickens were loving the fresh greens being tossed into their run.

They stayed close to where I was working. I got cardboard down on the uphill edged and fastened one corner to hold the board in place as I continue to weed and level that bed tomorrow. I will add the other end and the other side board then.

I think I have enough cardboard to finish under that box, but not enough to do the path that is to the left of those two boxes and I certainly don’t have enough mulch so another trip will be made just for more mulch later this week before the rain showers begin on Friday. The two reclaimed wood boxes are so much sturdier than the deteriorating cedar ones I bought a few years ago from the local big box hardware store. If I can man handle a few more of the 16′ double joists back down to the garden and figure out how to get them in the garden alone, I may replace the rows of 4 x 4 and 4 x 8 cedar boxes with more home made long beds. If I had power at the barn, I would cut them in half there and move 8′ lengths. The boxes to the right of this one are falling apart, as is the one I moved yesterday, though I added some screws to it today to try to give it another year of use. I think because I am terracing the long bed into the slope, there will be enough soil to mostly fill it, though it is going to mean shoveling piles on top of the cardboard then laying more cardboard and raking it smooth. It may take a few sacks of the purchased soil to give it enough depth.

It didn’t get finished today, dinner had to be prepared and cleaned up, but tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day, so I hope I can get that box finished if not totally filled.

One of the double 16′ joists is on the top of the pile, so maybe I will fight with it tomorrow or the next day. Where are the strong teenage grandsons when you need them.

In spite of it still be sunny, chilly, and windy, the outdoor part of the summer garden was begun. All of the existing boxes that aren’t planted with garlic, asparagus, or blueberries were weeded and amended. One box was shifted to the left and this week, I will rearrange the stored wood in the barn to pull out a few of the long joists left from tearing down the old deck and they will be cut and built into a long box that will hold this year’s tomatoes, and will rotate with corn and potatoes in other years as they are the crops that require the biggest beds. Another double box will be built and a narrow long box will be build. I will have to purchase more Black Kow to help fill and amend them and may need another run by the pet supply store where they willingly give me the large cardboard boxes that come in. I have enough in the garage to put down for the longest box and maybe one more. The narrow box will go where the old compost pile was and that soil is good, it just needs to be regathered from where the chickens spread it out in the fall.

To the left of those two boxes is where the longest bed one goes, the other right where my shadow is.

The box on the cardboard is the one I shifted to give me space for the long box. The narrow one goes to the right of the two rows at the top of the photo. I realized that I am going to have to restring the hot wire before I turn the charger on, it is sagging enough to touch the metal fence in spots. I dug out some of the more stubborn weeds in the paths, but most of what is there will die off once new cardboard and mulch is laid over them.

Since we only have my old CRV now, and nothing to pull the trailer, the bags of compost and mulch will have to be brought in in smaller loads, enough to wear me out each day.

Last summer, I set two 5 gallon buckets full of comfrey filled with water that makes the best, stinkiest fertilizer along the fence. I used a bit of it on the fall peas that froze before they produced and the lid blew off that bucket so it filled again with rain and snow. It was used to fertilize the transplanted raspberries and the blueberry bushes while I was out there. The other bucket will be diluted and used as I plant the tomatoes and peppers later in the spring.

I finally received a notice that the tomato seed shipped, so they will be started this week. It is nice to be outdoors again and know that the garden didn’t get ahead of me with weeds before I could get it ready. Onions and peas will go in this week, probably late in the week when it is supposed to warm up and be followed by showers next weekend.

I tried to move the half barrel that I thought was still semi sound and the bottom fell out of it too, so I have loose staves and barrel rings to clean up. Maybe the staves can be pounded in the edges of the asparagus bed as it lacks a box. Soon it will be time to pull the mulch back from that bed and start looking for the first fresh green vegetable of the season.

We took a short noon time drive and you can see the hints of buds coloring the tops of the trees, not green yet, but the pinks and reds of the bud covers that swell first. This winter of isolation is going to end.

Late this week, when it has been two weeks since my second COVID vaccine, we are going out to replace the dishwasher that failed a couple months ago. I still don’t feel “safe” in the big box stores, but safer than I did 6 weeks ago.

I took advantage of the beautiful evening last night and in the last hour of daylight, I removed the 3 half barrels from the walled garden, transplanted the plants that were beginning to come up in them directly into the garden. One at a time, the barrels were hoisted over the low stone wall and put in the garden cart to move across the yard to the vegetable/fruit garden. The wooden half barrels that are now 15-16 years old and were “containing” the raspberries were rotting away, the bottoms were gone and the slats rotted more than half way up. Only the metal rings were sort of holding them together. Though it really isn’t the right time of year, I know that killing raspberries is like trying to get rid of a guest who overstayed their welcome, so I dug them out of the rotting barrels, thinned them, pruned back the canes that were old and dry and shortened some that were so long they draped over the hot wire on the top of the fence. The wooden barrels were moved aside, weeds and volunteers that had come up between them were pulled and the three plastic ones set in place. I removed about half the soil from each of them, divided up the rooted canes and planted a third in each barrel, adding back enough soil to hold them in place. I’m seriously thinking about putting a tomato cage in each barrel to hold the canes more upright.

The one barrel closest to the camera is still semi sound with a bottom in it and I may move it back to the walled garden and set it on the stone wall to replace the plastic one that has the bird feeder pole planted in it. That one is filled with soil and rocks to keep it from tipping over in the wind and the wooden one is heavier, especially if half filled with soil and rocks piled on top. The remaining two would be fun to learn to rebuild, there is another in pieces behind the house that isn’t rotted out, but fell apart.

Today isn’t quite as warm as yesterday, but still dry and clear. The trips into the garden last night revealed that the weeds have a head start. I should spend an hour or so each dry day with the hoe and see if I can beat them back before it is too late. We need to go out to get a bale of straw for cleaning the coop so maybe I will get a couple bags of Black Kow compost and lay the cardboard for the bed where the mint grew and was fought all last summer. That would be a good bed to plant potatoes in this year.

We still have about a week of clear drier weather with mild days and cold nights, so it would be a good time to start getting the garden cleaned up to plant the peas and onions mid March. I really need a good load of wood chips to put down over new cardboard between the beds. And now that the chickens don’t have the run of the garden, the mesh over the garlic can be removed as can the fence around the asparagus bed.

The morning was begun with cleaning the chick’s brooder box. They have been here a week now and it was time. As they grow, that task will have to be performed a few times a week. I didn’t lose any last night, but one is standing away from the other, less active, and not as large. I suspect she will fail too, which will bring me down to 9 out of 19, not very good odds. Early on my chicken adventure, I found a gal in Floyd that raised Buff Orpingtons and two years I got healthy, strong, several week old chicks from her, but I can’t find her information anymore and I haven’t seen her advertise on Craigslist in a few years. I could go back to Rural King with my receipts and get a few more. At $3 each, the loss so far is $30 worth of chicks, though they did replace 4 so far. I am unsure about adding ones that are a week younger to the brooder. Chickens tend to pick on the smaller, weaker ones and I don’t think that behavior begins this young.

Last night while browsing the internet, I found a 12 pod hydroponic starter garden with light for a reasonable price. Since I want strong determinate tomatoes for DD and GD’s garden, I ordered the starter and the seed. They should be here by mid week and I will get a dozen tomatoes started. She will get 3 of each variety, total of 6, I will plant the other 6 and see what else I can find when the garden center offers them in late spring to give me the rest I will plant, usually about 9 or 10 tomato plants provide enough tomatoes for our canned tomatoes and sauces for a year. Once the starts have some size, I will put them in 4″ pots in a transparent crate that can be moved in and out of the sun on the back deck and indoors at night until time to plant the in the ground and I will start some salad greens in the hydroponic garden on the kitchen counter then. Last year I planted Thai, Serrano, Jalapeno, and bell peppers. The Thai peppers were so prolific that I still have a half gallon jar of dried peppers after giving away strings to Son 1, DD, and a friend, so I won’t plant them this year. I can the Jalapenos for DH and make a Sriracha style sauce with some of them and the Serranos, so they will be in the garden and I want some bell peppers. I only got 2 or 3 small peppers last year from the plants, I think the marigolds overshadowed them before they got good sized. Now that DD and GD’s garden plan is done and given to them, I need to work on my own. I need two more 4 by 8′ beds and a 4 X 4′ bed with new cardboard and mulch between them. A good load of compost to fill the two new larger beds, the smaller one will go where last year’s compost pile was, so it just needs to be raked on a mound until the box is built around it then raked smooth in the new box. It is nice to be able to get outside a little. I know winter isn’t over, our last frost date isn’t until Mother’s Day, but it is time to get things going.

Spring is coming. Today we delivered the Garden planner and seed to DD and GD. GD was delighted at her binder with a simplified plan, companion planting guide, square foot planting sheet, and when it is safe to plant sheet. After going through DD’s old seed and combining some seed packages, we took a walk out to their 3 boxes from last year to discuss the best arrangement for the new 3 boxes they plan to add. It is a glorious, sunny, mild day, a delight to be outside.

Yesterday morning, as I was adding water to my hydroponic herb garden and trimming some of the herbs, I took a picture of it for Son2 and his family that gave it to me for Christmas. I am thoroughly enjoying the fresh herbs in cooking and salads and drying dill and mint as I can’t keep up with them.

As I worked with it, it occurred to me that a large version of it would be the perfect seed starter for the tomatoes and peppers for the garden and could be used to grow lettuce and spinach in winter and when it is too hot outdoors in the summer. DH suggested I put it on my wish list and he could get it for me for next Christmas.

As I was preparing to lock up the hens last night, one of the Welsummers is almost always the last to go in the coop. She stood there looking up the ramp and as usual, I was amused by the pantaloons that breed wears.

After thinking that I had turned the corner on chick loss as they all seemed healthy and active yesterday, I found the second Maran this morning, so there will be no chocolate brown eggs. In talking with DH about it, I told him, I could have ordered directly from the hatchery if I wanted a dozen of the same breed, but since everything I have ordered in the past few months has been delayed by the USPS for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks beyond the original tracking delivery date, I feared that chicks would meet the same fate and not survive the trip. That is why I purchased from Rural King, but 9 out of 19 dying is not good. I don’t know whether to go back with my receipts and see if they will replace at least a few of the 5 they haven’t already replaced or accept that I have what I have and just keep some or all of the older hens too. I am hoping that the nights will soon stop dropping into the 20’s and start seeing more feathers on the chicks so they can be moved to the garage. I really don’t like having them in the house, even in the basement.

I need to get a new bale of straw and do a coop cleaning. In about 6 weeks, I will have to thoroughly clean and sanitize it before I can move the chicks to it. Either they or the older hens will have to use an old style feeder bucket until the two flocks can be on the same feed and in the same coop. I really like the 5 gallon feeder I made with the pvc elbows, but I think the chicks wouldn’t be able to reach the feed in it and they need to stay on starter/grower until they are at least 16 weeks old.