Thursday, May 15, 2014
Transplants and lawn repairs
Squash seedlings were outgrowing their pudding cups so it was time for a transfer to something bigger. Basil is still small enough to remain in its pudding cup.
Cut down 2 liter juice bottles will do nicely as temporary containers
Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs went in to new store bought pots as the ones we have used for the last ten years a bit long in the tooth. Lettuce went in to a couple of sections of old vinyl rain gutter with wooden end caps.
This way they can be put outside during the day and brought in to the mud room at night when it is cold.
Three or four hours a day of lawn work over the last 4 days. Rake, fertilize, grub insecticide, seed, till the soil, straw, and water. As you can see last weeks repair patch is starting to show some green.
Good chunk of change spent on all of it including 3 bales of straw that was still not enough to do all of it.
And a good luck charm? well two of them actually. Last Sunday we cracked two eggs in a row both with double yolks. How often does that happen?
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I love the make shift pots. I was lucky and a few years ago did some building work at a place that handled lots of plants
ReplyDeleteThey gave me loads of pot but the numbers are starting to run down now.
Not sure I could go to the effort of all that work for a front lawn every year!
Yes Kev, the lawn is a bit of work, more than I bargained for but this winter was brutal so it burned off a lot of the lawn, and as I am on a corner and quite visible to the passing traffic. I hate to have the place looking like a pig sty so I put in the effort. Next property I buy will not be a corner lot. Come to think of it it will be out in the boonies, 50 miles from the nearest neighbor with no road and 50 cal Gatling gun on each corner to keep the undesirables at bay. I am thinking desert southwest, rocks and cactus no lawn at all.
DeleteLike you I'd like to live away from everyone, but in the meantime why not use your front garden like this http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oxORRJRWKH8
DeleteActually Kev, I am not lacking for space for planting a vegetable garden. Aerial view of my property.
Deletehttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/--Rll-trMkEY/U20yE98iz6I/AAAAAAAADlA/u3BAd21-1ww/s1600/P1010642.JPG
Front lawn though would not be suitable for it gets tons of road salt dumped on it every winter and thus the soil is basically junk. Not suitable for vegetables. That is why the lawn has such a difficult time surviving the winter. I did actually have a 40x40 foot veg garden behind the barn a few years back. But given the number of diseases, blights, molds, and insects and the fact that I was spending well over 500$ a season to combat them in order to just keep 10% of what I planted I decided to give up on it it was hardly justifiable for 2 mouths to feed. By the time all was said and done, It was far cheaper to buy veggies at the grocery store and far better quality. Growing season is vastly different here than California. Here it is really only about 100 days long. Usually mid May is as early as you can put your seedling in the ground and then by mid August you are all done. Length of day also being an issue at both extremes. Simply not enough daylight to keep things healthy. So I keep things limited to what I can move in and out of the house to accommodate the weather and extend the season at both ends as much as possible.
Don't worry I was only pulling your leg, to go to that length is a bit extreme! Although I did think the video was interesting. Our growing season is nothing like theirs either. It must be weird to grow all the year round like they do. 40x40ft is a fair size, I bet it took some keeping on top of. I think my veg garden will take a day a week to keep on top of it when its all in full swing.
DeleteNice to see your part of the world without piles of snow... Enjoy the sunshine ;)
ReplyDeleteYes Brian it is quite a relief to see the green lawn again, what survived the winter. Temps are still quite cool at night mid 40s Fahrenheit, Refrigerator temperatures. You could leave milk outside at night and it would not spoil. So I put the plantings out for the day and back in at night. It is all to short a season though. 90 maybe 100 days of nice weather and then it all goes pear shaped again.
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