Happiness Is….

Here’s $19.40 of the most happiness any garden could ever want 

I finally got to the Amherst Compost Facility this weekend…  the prices went up a bit, but they are still the best deal around.  Not to mention the fact that the compost is gorgeous.  Right now I have about half the trailer emptied – I’m hoping to get the rest of it emptied by Friday so that Saturday I can go pick up a load of mulch.   The rutabagas and beets that I had started early are now in the ground and they look like they took the transplant well.  The peas are coming up nicely too, but it looks like only about half of the lettuce and cabbage I directly planted are coming up.  This weekend I will reseed the spots that didn’t come up and I still have to get watermelon and pumpkins started…

It looks like my fence is working – my plants are all still there 

And my hoop house?   It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!  I’m sooo glad I decided to make one this year.   Now that I see exactly what it can do, next year I will be able to use it to it’s full potential…

They say that there isn’t any more danger of frost after the last full moon in May, so after the 27th I should be able to take it down and put it away until next year…. but maybe I’ll pull it out in the fall and see if I can extend my growing season a bit.  We’ll see!

Garden Update

So my plants were getting a bit leggy staying in the basement under their lights, so I decided it was time to move them outside.

The plastic is now on the hoop house and I couldn’t be happier with it.  It was really easy to put up. 

I cut up some pieces of leftover PEX tubing and made some clip-type things to hold the plastic to the frame.    Easy-peasy to put up, easy-peasy to open up on hot days…

On a really windy day like today, it was nice to have the young plants protected by just leaving the ends open.  When it’s really nice out, the whole plastic covering just rolls up off the frame.

The only seeds that haven’t come up yet are my watermelon and pumpkins.  I even re-planted new seeds and still nothing    I’m going to plant the whole package of each this week and hope I can get something started.  Other than that, everything else looks like they are going to be OK.

I am definitely disappointed in the peas and lettuce I planted in the ground last week – especially after the stuff I planted inside came up after only three days.  The peas are just starting to come up and I haven’t seen any sign of the lettuce at all.  They are  supposed to be cold weather crops, so I expected them to have a better showing than they are…

And as long as the fence works to keep the rabbits and deer out of the garden, I’m anticipating strawberries this year – yum! 

 

I never made it to the Compost Facility on Saturday – too much going on – but they are supposed to be open late on Wednesdays, so I’m going to try and get there before they close then…

Hoops

Every year I always get my garden going a lot later than I hope.  This year is going to be different – I’m going to be ahead of the game!

This past week I put together a small mini-hoop house in one of my garden beds.  My plan is to start some seeds this coming week, and when the plants get big enough, keep them out in the hoop house until it’s safe to plant them in the ground.

 

Easy peasy - I kept it really simple…  I used some scraps of PEX tubing I had leftover from installing my radiant heat system, some pieces of rebar and some zip ties.   I pounded the rebar into the ground and just slipped the PEX over them.  By using the zip ties for the brace on the top, it’s going to be really easy to take down and apart when it’s not needed anymore.  I have leftover heavy weight plastic from another project, so my only cost was for the rebar (10 x .87).

I have all the seeds I want to plant except for two… I know where I want to order them from, but I am waiting to see if I can can a free shipping deal first.

The other project I want to get done this week will then be getting a fence around the garden area to keep out the Stupid-Evil-Garden-Eating rabbits out this year.  The most inexpensive thing I could find was plastic garden fencing, so that’s what I’m going to have to use.  It won’t be the prettiest thing, but hopefully it will do the job    I’m hoping the weather will cooperate this week…