Second New Raised Bed Completed. 10.30.2020

 This is the second raised bed.  I completed it and filled with a mix of purchased  top soil mixed with prior raised bed soil.  The purchased top soil is a little less than 50%.  It's nearly full.  I added maple leaves to the top to see if they compost and add some organic matter.  For minerals, I also added about 4 cups of wood ashes, which contain the cremated femurs of 10 chickens (thighs made into dog food).  That adds minerals, mainly calcium and phosphorus, with some iron, magnesium, and potassium I think.

This is for tropicals for next year - pickle cucumbers and peppers.  They get planted in May or June, so it has lots of time to settle in.  There is one more planned raised bed, no hurry on that either.

Protected Raised Beds for Pepper Plants. 4.7.16

Pepper Plants in Raised Bed.  4.7.16

Protected Raised Bed.  4.7.16

I planted 18 of the pepper plants into the building block raised beds.  Initially I have planted seeds for cold tolerant plants,  but they haven't done well.  These are the peppers that I started from seeds in Jan.  Most are blooming, some have small peppers.  The sunroom becomes too hot now during the day - into the 80s and sometimes 90s.

I planted the pepper plants.  They need protection from cool nights.  I had some old Remay nonwoven fabric from a previous year, constructed frames from old metal fenceposts and bamboo.

I can keep the  beds open during the day when I am there, and close up again at night.

When the Remay goes, I will need something to keep rabbits and deer out.

Peppers. 4.25.14

Peppers in raised bed with poly cover.  4.25.14

I removed the Chinese chives from the pepper bed, and replanted them with another bunch of Chinese chives.  That opened up room for 10 more of my pepper starts.  Most of the ones I planted earler are starting to make good growth.  I gave them a dose of diluted home made nitrogen boost.  Tonight looks like rain and chilly so I re-covered with the poly tunnel.  I think I will remove it for next week.  Expected daytime temps in 60s to 80.

I've been carrying pepper plants outside in the am, back inside in the pm.  Also running out of room under the fluorescent lights.  It helps to have these outside now.

Raised Beds. Renovated One and Added a New One. Multiplier Onions.

Kitchen garden, from the west

 I cleaned up one raised bed.  There were some plant starts I no longer wanted.  I saved the row of Egyptian Walking Onions to clean up, divide, and replant.  I planted some at the same time last year with good result.  The cleaned up bed will be Ning's Chinese Cabbage bed.

Egyptian Walking Onions, before planting

Egyptian Walking Onions, cleaned and arranged

 After carefully digging out the onion bulbs here is what remains.  It's enough for about 50 starts.

Egyptian Walking Onions Large plants in place, now for the sets.

I cleaned them up, cut off the tops, split apart the topsets, and planted into rows.  They are about 4 inches apart.  We'll pull out every-other-one for scallions, leaving them a reasonable 8 inches apart.

Now they are planted and watered in.

This raised bed is another "molehill gardening" bed.  All of the added topsoil originates as mole hills.  I go around the yard with the wheelbarrow and a shovel, removing the mole hills.  I keep them in a pile and when constructing a new bed, that is the source of topsoil.  I mix with about 30% compost.  The compost is "yard waste" compost from H&H recycling.  I'm suspicious, some of that yard waste is really demolition waste - they grind up old wooden waste - but I think that's OK.

The molehills are finely ground, light, no clods, no stones, no plant matter.  Since they originate fairly deep, using them brings minerals back to the surface level.  They are very easy to remove and haul to the garden.   I'm not worried about the lawn sinking - stomping down the molehills would not help with that anyway.  

Planning for a less energetic tomorrow.

I have much less energy than a year ago.  i don't know how far or fast I will decline.  But I want to continue gardening.  That means planning ahead.  What will I do?

- Get the tree planting done now.  It almost is done - a few minor additions, but the orchard is a complete as it needs to be.  Other trees are just icing on the cake.

- Keep the trees well watered this year.  Water deep and with decreasing frequency, for deep rooting.  Mulch with compost, to make the ground more spongy.  Cover that with straw mulch - cheap, biodegradable, keep the ground moist, keep the weeds down.

- Change the circles around trees, into contiguous rows of trees, for easier mowing.

- The raised beds are almost all done.  Three more.  It takes weeks to build one now, that I put together in a day before.  But once done, they are so much easier to manage, compared to in-ground garden rows.  No tilling.  Weeds easy to pull.  Few weeds - grass doesn't enter from the sides.  Just replenish the compost every year or two.  The higher level is much easier to plant, weed, and pull, compared to ground level.

- Continue to convert to dry tolerant plants and trees.  Watering doesn't just take water, it takes time and is tiring.

- I may need to install soaker hoses or other type of sprinkler in the raised beds, so I don't have to haul around a hose.  Not sure about that yet.

- The tree cages - keep out deer - only need to be built once.  A few more are needed, then they are done.  Mulch keeps weeds under control, nicely, in those cages.




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Kitchen Garden. Strawberries and Snowpeas. Planting zucchinis and squash.

Strawberries and Snowpeas

Getting more strawberries and snowpeas.  The individual harvests are small but good enough for two.  We have had several harvests of both, for 2 weeks.

Also a broccoli spear.  I wondered if it was worthwhile to grow my own broccoli.  It is.  More tender and flavorful than grocery store broccoli.

Zucchini seedlings

I planted zucchini seedlings, yellow and green varieties.  Also a butternut squash.  These are seeds I started about 2 weeks ago.  Covered with chicken wire.  Loose.  They grow fast.  I'll have to come up with better protection in a week or two.

I didn't have the ambition to build another raised bed.   So they are in the native soil, plus some steer manure compost.   I have been collecting molehill soil from around the yard.  There should be enough for one or two raised beds, in a couple of months.

Strawberry Raised bed.

Ning gave me 2 bales of straw. Not my birthday. Great present. With temps in 80s the plants will grow rapidly. The soil will dry out rapidly, too. A good straw mulch will help.

Raised beds. Progress report.

Iris raised bed. Growing nicely.Potatoes. Barrel, technically not a raised bed, but close enough.Onions, shallots, garlic, chinese chives. Very pleased.Various vegetables, bok choy, chinese cabbage, lettuce, beets, swiss chard, minimal snow pea growth, and odds and ends.

First batch of Chinese Chives for 2013

Well on their way to becoming the best dumplings in the world. These are the first Chinese chives from the Battleground raised beds. They grew stout, fast, early, and have a strong aroma.

Kitchen Garden. Scallions

Fantastic! The first vegetable from the raised beds at Battleground. These were Egyptian Walking Onions, planted Sept 27th.  Not only did they survive the winter, they flourished.

Raised Bed. Progress Report.

I pulled the soil thermometer out of the soil.  The air temp outside was 50F. The temp of the soil was 60F inside the row cover tunnel. This row of radishes has germinated. The snow peas seem to be germinating.  At the front are some cuttings I stuck into the soil.  Buddleia, a rose. And German Camomile plants. This is the first raised bed.  I started itlast fall. Garlic and Multiplier onions have perked up nicely. Chinese Chives starting to grow.  Looking nice for Feb.  On the right, the "Illinois" heritage Chinese Chives have put on 2 incesh of growth, thick and lush. The bigger growing, less delicate Changchun Chinese chives are on the left.  Very hard to see. They are starting to grow.  They will catch up and pass the Illinois Chives, growing much larger by mid Spring.  I also planted more seeds of the Changchun Chives. If they germinate I'll have a big stand of them.

Winter Gardening for Spring Vegetables

This is a start for gardening for the year.  The raised bed is the standard 4ft by 8ft raised bed that I've been building.  This is the 4th one so far.  The difference now is, I wanted a cover, to warm it up a few degrees.  Pus, protection from deer and rabbits once the cover is in place.

The cover consisted of:
6 2ft rebars.
12 copper brackets with nails
3 10ft long vinyl pipes
2 sections of 4 ft wide chicken wire
row cover.

All but the row cover came from the big orange home improvement store.  The row cover is from Johnny's Selected Seeds.  The chicken wire is held in place by plastic bale twine, recycled.

With row cover in place.  It looks like a conastoga wagon without the wheels.  The row cover wasn't quite wide enough, but I'll get some clothes pins to hold it to the chicken wire.

The rebar is easily removed, in case I don't want to keep this arrangement in place.

The tallest portion of the hoops is about 4 feet tall.  That height will be plenty tall enough for most vegetables, including tomatoes and okra.  But those are for May or June planting.  Here, I planted Oregon Giant snow peas, which grow 3  or 3 1/2 feet tall.  The packet states sow as soon as ground can be worked, so here we are.  Before planting, I sprinkled Plant Success mycorrhyzal inoculant on the surface and worked it in.  Probably more important, I used legume Rhizobium inoculant from Territorial Seeds - made a slurry in water, swirled the seeds around in the slurry, let them soak 10 minutes, then planted and watered in with the rest of the slurry.

Also planted, after adding Plant Success as sort of a "good wishes":
Boston Red Beets 1/2 row
Mini Bok Choy, from New Dimension seeds. 1/2 row
German Giant radish, 1/2 row.
French Breakfast radish, 1/2 row.

There is room for a row of spinach and a row of mesclun.  Room fills up fast.  May need to build a second raised bed for more winter vegetables.

As always this is an experiment.  I don't think it's too early.  I planted radishes and other cold tolerant vegetables in late January, 2011, and they grew nicely.

Kitchen Garden / Raised Beds

Today I built a raised bed for late winter seed planting.  Prep for Spring keeps me in a good mood.

It's easier to build the raised bed on a flat surface, in a sheltered location.  So I built it in a shed.  The wood is already cut, I planned ahead.  So it's like putting together a kit.  Except I made the kit.

This time I stapled chicken wire to the bottom to protect the bed from moles, but I did not apply cardboard to the bottom.  I've used cardboard ot prevent growth of perennial weeds up through the bed.  I don't think that's required with this depth.  The lining, to protect the wood a bit / slow degradation due to the enriched organic soil, is made from big woven-plastic dog food bags.  Rugged.  Free. Reused.

Filled a bit more than half way with soil I dug in Nov or Dec, and yard waste compost I bought then as well.  Not too muddy.  Next weekend I can mix a little better, and add soil/compost mix to the top.  Will use better quality leaf compost for the top portion.

I also added 5 pounds of coffee grounds.  Feed the soil.  The soil will feed the plants.

This will have a little time to settle, then  ready for radishes, brassicas, spinach, scallions.  Cold weather vegetables.

The garlic is frozen.  Taking a photo is good for reference for next year.  It always looks dead at this time, then revives in a month or two.

Hard to see here, but this is the Ixia experiment.  I noticed they grew a few inches. The question now:  Will they survive freezing.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Kitchen Garden Plan

This is the plan for the kitchen garden for next year.  I used a high-tech method called "writing on an old mailing envelope using a pen".  Bio-powered system.

The three beds on the eastern side are planted as noted. When the alliums are done, in July, I can prep those beds for crop rotation, adding in compost and start fall-planted radishes, cabbages, turnips, mesclun. Another option is late-planted bush beans. I'll build the two late-winter beds next. That will give the coli/compost/supplement mix a chance to settle and "cure" before planting. Probably late feb. Those are fast growing. When they are done, the warm-requiring solanums (eggplant, chilis, tomatoes) and Okra can go in. The taller ones will go to the back. I can build the other beds through the winter and prep them in early Spring, March and April, before they need to be planted in May or June. By then I'll be tired of building raised beds and, especially, hauling soil to them. The soil hauling is heavy work.

One great thing about planning on paper is, I can continue changing it as I think of better choices.

The raised beds now. The soil pile and compost pile are in approx locations for two of the beds. I hope people don't think someone is buried there.

It's great to have company, even if they are sleeping.

Raised beds. Progress Report.

These are the onion and garlic raised beds. They look vulnerable to freezing. I am reminding myself that I think that every year and they make it through the winter fine. That's true for both the garlic and the multiplier onions. I think the onions and German Porcelain garlic are way ahead of previous years. I hope that doesn't mean the freeze will kill them. Every year is a new lesson to learn.

The front is German Porcelain garlic. Germination was 100%. One had mottled leaves which had me concerned about viral infection so I pulled it out. Not sure that makes a difference. This bed also has rescue garlic, unnamed from the yard. And one row of Inchelium Red. The rescue garlic and Inchelium red were much slower. That may not matter next year. We'll see. Germination for those was 100%. The Holland shallots germinated 100%. Today I pulled the innumerable small weeds. Then I mulched with leaf compost. The chinese chives leaves are dead. The sprouted chinese chives seedlings look delicate, about 2 inches tall.

All but one of the Inchelium Red garlic germinated. So that's 34/35. Maybe the last is just pokey. I pulled out weeds and mulched with leaf compost. After that I remembered the mycorhizal inoculant, which I spread around the multiplier onions and chinese chives, which I also weeded. Weeds were about 2 inches tall. I used a kitchen fork. That sounds difficult but it was easy in the raised beds. The small tool gave me control around the delicate plants. Then I scratched in the inoculant and added compost.

A few garden chores / Progress report.

Planted the rest of the ginkgo seeds in the iris raised bed.  That's about 20 seedlings if they grow.  Lots to give away then.  By planting outside now, they get the winter cold for stratification.

Moved one grape vine from the house in Vancouver to the Battleground place.  I don't know the variety; green when ripe, with seeds.  I recall them as excellent flavor, but it was in a shady spot under an old cherry tree, next to a fence.  About 9 years old.  The vine would grow to the top of the tree, 25 feet in a year.  I pulled off lots of leaves for the chickens.  I cut it back to about 4 feet tall, with a couple of recent canes.  I shortened those canes to 3 or 4 nodes.  Digging it up, it wasn't possible to get a big root mass.  I think grape roots are long and rangy, like the vines.  Even so, since it's easy to grow grapes from cuttings, I think the severely pruned-back vine should grow.  It will be a head start over starting a new cutting.  In its new location, I can prune more formally as a 4-arm Kniffen, which is sort of like espalier for grapes.  Much easier to take care of that way.

The soil is moist down to at least 2 feet now.  That's how deep I dug for the grape vine.

35 of the 40 Inchelium Red garlic plantings have germinated.  So they were just a bit slower than the German Porcelain Garlic.

None of the Safeway shallots has germinated.  100% (only 10 plants) of the Holland Shallots have germinated.  So there must be germination inhibitor on the Safeway shallots.  I planted a row of ginkgo seeds in the safeway shallot row, so as not to waste the space.

Very few leaves remaining on the trees.  Buds look fat and happy.  No freeze yet.

To do list for moving trees and shrubs:

2 hazelnut trees.  These are about 2-inch diameter trunks, about 8 feet tall.  Squirrels have taken every nut - not leaving even one for me.  Damn squirrels.  The top and roots will need a lot of pruning - too much for me to dig fully intact.

Brunswick fig.  Similar size to the Hazel nut trees.  Not very productive.  It's time to either move it or cut it down.  Maybe it will produce better in a more open setting.  Sever top and root pruning will be needed to get it out of the current location.

A large camelia.  2 smalll trees, one a Japanese maple and one a weeping birch.

I planted a dozen lily bulbs in the location where I dug out one of the cherry trees last month.  Late, but they should do OK.