Re: OhioGardener SFG

mollyhespra 9/4/2021, 3:01 pm

Your garden is looking GREAT, OG!

I'm still in the process of setting up the new metal garden beds and I've got another question for you: burrowing things like voles, etc. will have a field day if I don't put some kind of barrier underneath my beds.

In my previous SFG I used hardware cloth and it worked great, but those beds are wooden and I could attach the hardware cloth to the bottom.

With these metal beds, how do you attach the hardware cloth? Or maybe you don't have a problem with voles?

Many thanks!!!

OhioGardener 9/4/2021, 4:48 pm

mollyhespra wrote:Your garden is looking GREAT, OG!

Thanks! The beds have been so productive that we are feeding half the neighborhood. Very Happy

mollyhespra wrote:In my previous SFG I used hardware cloth and it worked great, but those beds are wooden and I could attach the hardware cloth to the bottom.

With these metal beds, how do you attach the hardware cloth? Or maybe you don't have a problem with voles?

I didn't attach it to the beds. I bought a 4' wide roll of 1/2" hardware cloth. I made sure the ground was level, with no humps or dips where the edges of the beds would set. I then rolled out the hardware cloth and set the bed on top of it with about 3" extra on each end of the bed. As the bed was filled I ensured there was no space between the hardware cloth and the bottom edge of the bed. No mole, vole, or gopher will be able to squeeze between the metal edge of the bed and the hardware cloth. Be sure to get 4' wide hardware cloth, though, so that it is one solid piece under the bed with no seams.

**Scorpio Rising** 9/4/2021, 9:03 pm

Hey Molly!

mollyhespra 9/6/2021, 1:19 pm

Scorpio Rising wrote:Hey Molly!

Hi, SR!!!

**sanderson** 9/21/2021, 1:25 am

Hi you two!

OhioGardener 9/26/2021, 4:47 pm

Trying something new this year with the cold frame on the raised bed. I put some straw around the bottom outside of the cold frame to help insulate it from the winter winds. Hopefully this will help keep it a little warmer during the coldest months.

**sanderson** 9/30/2021, 11:11 pm

Nice. $$?

OhioGardener 10/1/2021, 8:57 am

sanderson wrote:Nice. $$?

That is a Juwel BioStar 1500 Premium Cold Frame. I bought it several years ago when Home Depot had them on sale, and it was a little less than $250 with free shipping. I love the cold frame! It allows me to grow lettuce & spinach all winter long. Last year I tried growing Swiss Chard in the cold frame, but it was too big and I had to take it out mid-winter.

I recently saw them for $339.00 at Costco, but I have also seen them on-line at places like Burpee for around $450.00.

markqz 10/1/2021, 10:24 am

From a solar cooker perspective, if you could pile hay bales up to the edge it would be better. You can also get inexpensive Styrofoam boards and put around the edge.

OhioGardener 10/5/2021, 9:31 pm

Today we finished the harvest of the Cushaw Squash. A total of 17 large Cushaw winter squash were harvested, and prepared them for winter storage. Last year we had two squash plants, and harvested 7 squash from those two plants. Seven 20# winter squash is a lot of food, and we weren't able to use all of them before summer gardens started producing. This year I planted two Cushaw plants again, but they produced 17 squash fruits, instead of the expected 7. We have to find some friends and neighbors that can take some of these squash.

I made a short video of the harvesting process for those interested.

OhioGardener 10/23/2021, 3:11 pm

Pulled about a third of the fall beets today. They'll be delicious for dinner this evening. We eat both the roots and the greens, so there is not much waste.

OhioGardener 1/5/2022, 8:11 am

Picked up enough compostables yesterday to start a new section in the compost tumbler. Got two 5-gallon buckets of fruit & vegetable scraps from the juicing bar, and got two bags of coffee grounds (with no filters) from the coffee bar. Each bag of coffee grounds weighed just over 10 pounds.

I had 3 sections empty in the Jora compost tumblers, and with the pine pellets I added for the carbon content, this batch of compostables filled one of those sections. The Jora compost tumblers are insulated, so hopefully the microbes will start generating enough heat to keep it composting through the coming cold spell. Very Happy

Without us gardeners, all of this valuable compostable material would go into the landfill.

**sanderson** 1/7/2022, 12:46 am

OhioGardener wrote:. . . Without us gardeners, all of this valuable compostable material would go into the landfill.

You are absolutely correct. Sobering thought.

OhioGardener 3/1/2022, 4:15 pm

Last Fall's leaf collection has composted down over the winter to make some good leaf mold for this spring's beds. Last fall that bin was filled to the top, where the gloves are on the wire, and the leaves have composted that much over the winter.

**sanderson** 3/1/2022, 5:47 pm

Makes me miss composting. Sad

I loved collecting fall leaves.

OhioGardener 5/8/2022, 7:54 pm

Finally got the 3 new fire ring raised beds installed for transplanting the Rhubarb plants. I removed the wood chips down to the soil level, and then installed 1/2" hardware cloth under the rings to prevent gophers digging up into the new beds. Then filled the fire rings with the compost/peat/vermiculite mixture, with added Azomite rock dust and Biochar. Thoroughly moistened the soil as it was added to the raised beds, and will let it set overnight before transplanting the Rhubarb tomorrow evening.

OhioGardener 5/13/2022, 10:19 am

Set up the tomato cages yesterday, and plant to plant the tomatoes in them this evening after it cools down. Good day of exercise just putting those cages in place and securing them. Very Happy

has55 5/20/2022, 11:41 pm

Excellent!!! Love it!!! Very Happy

OhioGardener 8/23/2022, 4:55 pm

The one disadvantage of having 8' high tomato cages. Ha!

OhioGardener 8/25/2022, 5:15 pm

Have one bed open after removing the bush beans that I don't need to plant any fall crops in, so I decided to fallow it for the winter. I put down a light layer of used Starbucks coffee grounds, covered with about an inch of compost, and then mulched with Comfrey leaves. By next spring that shold be some really nutrient rich soil for planting. Very Happy

OhioGardener 10/6/2022, 5:08 pm

Harvested the winter squash this afternoon ahead of the freeze. Some of the squash are not fully ripe, but if it freezes as the weather service says it will, the squash would be ruined. So, I picked all of them. Harvested 9 Red Kuri, 13 Butternut, and 7 Cushaw.

yolos 10/7/2022, 10:56 am

Wow, that is a lot of nice looking squash.

OhioGardener 10/10/2022, 7:10 pm

We weighed the squash today before putting them in storage for the winter. The largest Cushaw squash weighed 22#, and the second largest weighed 20.2#. The smallest Cushaw weighed 10.8#. The largest Red Kuri weighed in at 10#, and the smallest one weighed 8.3#. The Butternuts are the light weight ones - the largest one weighed 8.4#, and the smallest one weighed 4.8#.

With the 7 Cushaw, 9 Red Kuri, and 13 Butternut squash at those weights, we are going to have a lot of winter squash to eat this winter. Very Happy

OhioGardener 8/12/2023, 7:20 pm

My compost bins have become self-decorating. Sunflowers have come up between the bins and fence behind it. Very Happy

The sunflowers are brightly shining in the sunshine

On the back side of the bins there is a tomato that came up from some seeds and has started blooming

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