Megan's 2011 SFG

I was hoping to have this be part of my February update, but for various reasons it didn't quite happen. I am now waiting rather impatiently for some photos to upload, but here's the one I've got. My iPhone freaked out and shot a few photos in odd colors, but this is an (otherwise) good picture of the huge pile of deadwood in my back yard:



Snow is pretty much gone and the front yard is ready for some prep work tomorrow. Hubby showed me a photo of a beautiful 8x6 greenhouse and asked me if I wanted it. Do I??? (Did he really have to ask me that question?!!) But I think that will have to wait for another year.

Just a thought, with that deadwood and the trimming you said needs to be done on your back yard trees, perhaps someone you know has a chipper and you can make mulch for around your SFG beds.

Megan wrote:Hubby showed me a photo of a beautiful 8x6 greenhouse and asked me if I wanted it. Do I??? (Did he really have to ask me that question?!!) But I think that will have to wait for another year.

Too bad on having to wait.

A lovely kind of a mess! Whoo-hoo for snow melt and a chance to get dirty.

Furbalsmom wrote:Just a thought, with that deadwood and the trimming you said needs to be done on your back yard trees, perhaps someone you know has a chipper and you can make mulch for around your SFG beds.

We are going to have to take the whole tree out and replace at least one section of the fence. Probably just have it all taken out. The estimate from the landscaping company is lower than it would probably be to have them (or someone else) come in with a chipper. Great idea, though, and I will look into it!

I like that trippy photo, actually. Sometimes, I will mess around with the "white balance" in my photos just be different. After all, it's art....and it's all subjective.

I am looking for a lot of mulch now that my boxes are built. I will be placing mulch all around the beds to make grass free paths. I have decided I will be walking/trampling around enough it will be a real headache to try and keep grass alive near the gardens.

Happy to see you getting cranked up.

Thanks BBG! I used bark mulch out front, and while it looks and works great, I was not pleased with how it attracted pillbugs. May have to do the same again out back, though. There is already landscaping fabric laid down there over almost everything, with a nice thick coating of leaves I'll have to scoop up and try to stuff in our composter (or make another bin, more likely!)

The front yard is in good shape. I am planning bed usage now. The bed closest to the street will be mostly or all flowers; the back one will have some greens or low-lying veggies mixed in. There are onions and garlic already planted, here and there; the other stuff in the beds is leftover from fall and needs to be torn out. Perimeter landscaping is herbs and flowers.





And here, eek! is my disaster of a backyard. Is it my fault? I said to the husband, if you mow the front, I'll otherwise take care of it; the backyard is yours. Eating my words, now. I am embarrassed to show these, but, they are the "Before" pictures, right?

This first one shows the pallets and the 4 sheets of 3/4" plywood we just got for free. Rah!






The tree that needs to come out.


View from upstairs. It's not really very big... but plenty of potential, I think!

I've had trouble posting photos lately. Really need to update my blog instead of here, but, I just HAD to tell you this!

Trees are OUT, yard is partly cleaned up, and I'm buying lumber for the beds this Sunday. And today, I got this!



24 cu feet of medium vermiculite (price was right and could not find coarse), 3 big bales of peat moss, and 3 of the 5 composts. I've found the other two, just have to unload to go get them!

The vermiculite is currently in my kitchen and front hall, need to move it downstairs in a few minutes here. It is packed in heavy brown paper so will have to stay indoors until I mix it. I moved the peat and one 40-lb bag of compost/manure to the backyard before my back gave out. (It's not a trivial move; we're in the middle of a townhouse row so it's way up the sidewalk, down a slope, then back across the row again to our back gate.) The rest is tucked under my new tarp (for mixing the MM) in the back of the truck.

Yay for the backyard SFG

Your trek reminds me of gardening in the townhouse in England. There was no outdoor faucet in the backyard so everytime I watered I ran the water hose through the middle of the house. I just had to make sure there were no connections INSIDE the house. First connect fell JUST outside the back door. If I didn't have the tendency to overplant I might have been able to find time to hand water, but alas I just had to have a yard and fence full of flowers in every contain I could find. (govt housing, could only dig into certain areas)


Kay

Love the updates and good luck with the mixing!

SO is the bike still in the house?

No, the bike is out front now. Thank goodness!!

Walshevak, I'd have a really tough time running a hose the way you did. Our townhouse is the sort where you walk in from the front on the first floor, and the basement is walk-out in back....so I'd need a 100-ft hose to run in, down the stairs, around the basement, and out the door. Whew! Good thing I have another bib out back.

The weekend plan:
Tonight
* Finish unloading the truck.
* Double-check my box layout plan and plans for potato bins & compost bins, to estimate lumber needed. The yard isn't completely cleared yet, so I can't lay out the boxes with stakes and string, but my on-paper design will be good enough for amounts of lumber.

Tomorrow
* Lumber day! I'm going to a recycled building materials warehouse in Springfield.
* If weather allows, work on clearing the rest of the yard, re-lay the string grid out front, and get some materials planted there.
* Unload truck again once dh gets home. (Lucky truck-unloading boy that he is! )

Sunday
Sunday is supposed to be snowy, or at least wet and cold, so probably not a great outdoors day. I may go to Lowes for the final two types of compost, a counter-sink bit and screws, though.

Mental note: Also need to get second irrigation system from Lowe's, but I'm not going to do that until the boxes are actually built and filled.

Megan wrote:Snip..... And today, I got this!

I love me a pick-up (wo)man

This great-grandma drives a dodge 1500 4x4 V8 (but not the HEMI) Bought to pull a fishing boat. Sold the boat kept the truck.

I want a truck!

I waited a good couple hours after he got home tonight to ask him whether he wanted to unload the whole truck tonight, tomorrow, or half tonight and half tomorrow. (He had already agreed to participate.) Imagine my surprise when he told me it was already DONE!!! He came home, and without telling me, drove the truck up over the curb, carried approx 425 lbs worth of sacked compost, manure and soil conditioner the 20+ feet from the back gate to the cement patio pad, and covered it all with the tarp when he was done.

MY HERO!

What a good man. That means tomorrow will be much easier for you. You're on a roll now Megan!

That's a keeper right there!

Glendale-gardener wrote:That's a keeper right there!

Oh yes. 10th anniversary last year.

He was a bit bemused by my SFG'ing efforts last year, but really got into it, in the end. He was always coming to me with stories of the wildlife he'd seen drawn by the plants, or how something had grown so much in a day. And (despite him trying to avoid eating anything green as a fundamental bias) he enjoyed eating the fruits of my labor, too. (Except the pickles. He is anti-condiment, for the most part.)

sounds like you have a busy schedule and a happy one at that.

gotta love the truck.


Running hoses through the house::::::::::::;
I do it every year.
I have so many seeds to germinate and they need warm water.
So i buy those hose facet connectors for my kitchen sink so I can attach my hose to the
kitchen faucet----set my water to warm---run hose to mini greenhouse and water thousands of seedlings. You can get those hose faucet connectors in many fish aquarium catalogs.
Anyway----I have always wanted a hot water heater in my greenhouse. Never wanted to spend the extra money on a hot water heater but----we had to buy a hot water heater for our temporary living space while we build the house. Our power company will give us a new hot water heater when the house is built. I will be using the currant hot water heater in the greenhouse next spring and I wont have to run any more hoses through the house.

I can see how running a hose from the front yard to the back yard through the house and a basement, etc..... would be aggravating.

Though I didn't find everything on my shopping list at the ReBuild warehouse, I did get my lumber! Twelve 2 x 6 x 14' and one 2 x 6 x 8'. (Note: If anyone else shops here, please be careful which lumber you get. There is the regular stuff, which I got, and Antique Lumber which is truly dimensional. I.e. if you buy a 2x6, it really is 2x6, not 1.5x5.5. The antique material is much more expensive.) Also, they priced it for us at 14', but a bunch of them were 16' or longer.

A friend is also building new SFG beds this year and met me at ReBuild. He doesn't have a vehicle suited to hauling big timbers, but knows much more about lumber AND hauling than I do, so he was a HUGE help....especially as my truck has only a 6-ft bed and hauling 14-foot lumber presented a logistical challenge!

We picked out the lumber (he got more lumber in addition to mine listed above) and we got it out of the pile (non-trivial) and loaded in the truck. I had a ratchet strap and a tension bar, and between that and the tool box, the lumber was in pretty good, but he had some extra line that we cinched the lumber together a little more, and then pulled a seat out of his vehicle and piled THAT on top, too. (We weren't convinced that the tool box was bolted down, and were more than a little concerned that a good bump or two might launch both the tool box AND the car seat into the air!)

The plan was that this would get us over to his place, a shorter hop than my hour-long drive home, unload everything, then cut mine down to size for safer transit over the longer distance.

He volunteered to drive my truck, and so I followed him back in his vehicle, and here we are. (I wanted to take a picture from the loading dock, but I forgot.)



Oh yes, I also scored some PVC for worm tubes!! Two bucks for a 10-foot length of 6-inch schedule 40. Now I just need to buy a hole saw and find some red wigglers!

Car seat. You can't see the tension bar, it's down under the seat.


Lumber, cut to size and ready for painting! The tubing is some material for my irrigation system.


Before you say anything, no, the tension bar is doing nothing in this last picture. Just hadn't been moved from the first short haul.

It took a long time to measure and cut all the lumber, then had a VERY late lunch and finally drive back, so I didn't get home until about an hour ago. So, not going to touch the front yard tonight and will unload the truck tomorrow, snow permitting. But, I hadn't planned on getting all the lumber cut today, so I have a nice feeling of accomplishment. And a slightly less nice feeling of exhaustion, but, oh well.

Just remember to all who chip wood for mulch, you have to let it age at least a year. It will leach nutrients out of your soil.

Ok that said...about MY truck. we have a joke at our house. DH and I married 7 yrs ago. I have an old dodge pickup (1982 auto on floor with towing options). EX had taken the car, but I couldn't afford the payments and all the house bill anyway! I was working nights. We had had one date and I had decided he wasn't my type! THEN at 6:30 am after getting off work, when it was 5° and snow up to the wazoooo, the truck wouldn't start! who the heck can a female (in the middle of a NASTY divorce) call that would come out in that weather and knew about old trucks? Rofl...boss says you gots to call him, I says "no, then he will expect another date!" sat for a few more minutes. DARN, I had to call him rofl...Ben came, took me home, he fixed it (soon to be ex had "worked on the starter") the month before. He had left it hanging by the wiring! Ben left my truck running to warm up while he came and picked me up to drive it home. Yes, he got his second date
Ok that is the background. Now, I have a quarter of a city block for a yard. He had a narrow lot. Now we say he married me for my land, and I married him to keep the truck running. As along as the truck runs we stay married. That truck still runs! It's the reason I gave him a second chance.

CindiLou wrote:Just remember to all who chip wood for mulch, you have to let it age at least a year. It will leach nutrients out of your soil.

That is a great truck story, CindiLou! But I am confused about the reference to chipping wood for mulch??

Megan,

I am so glad you are getting to work on your SFG in the backyard.

I just saw on the news that you are getting snow - luckily for me I am in Central NJ. It is ironic.

I took a chance and planted 2 squares of peas, watered and covered them with black weed protector to help keep it warm... While planting the peas my neighbor mumbles too early..he

doesn't even have a garden...so strange. I just hope he's wrong.

I am too anxious for spring.

Dunkinjean