Snowing like Crazy! 12.30.21

Amazing how much it snowed. Not cold enough so far to cause any damage. Still the coldest months to come. We will see how it goes.

My Grandparents in their Garden. About Mid1960s.

This is my favorite photo of my mom's parents. They lived in Western Illinois (Mt. Sterling). It's diffficult to see the garden in this photo. My grandfather, Glenn Wilbur Alcorn, always grew sweet potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn, turnips, dahlias, zinnias, balsam. I'm sure those are dahlias to her right and balsam to his left. I recall my mom telling me that his doctor told him to garden, after he had a heart attack. I don't remember if my grandmother, Ivy Icenogle Alcorn, also worked in the garden. I'm thinking she must have, but my recollection is more of him.

More pH Tests. 12.28.2021

This is the pH of the bed that currently contains garlic. This is the only raised bed whose soil is entirely from our property, having been salvaged from a neighbor's road building on an easement on our property. This soil color is dark brown, compared to the purchased topsoil being black.

This is New Raised Bed #1. This time I'm doing it right, soil:distilled water 1:1 and letting it sit in a tall jar overnight to settle and clarify. I also did that with the garlic bed soil.

This is comparison of distilled vs. tap water. I assume the pH paper is calibrated with distilled water, since that is what they direct us to use, and I did. D for distilled and T for tap. Our tap is well water run through a purifier and softener system. It's not as acidic as distilled water.

I feel much more reassured about the adding lime and/or wood ashes. New raised bed #1 (and #2) soil is from the top level of the beds, which is soil I have amended with compost, lime, wood ashes, las year. It's certainly not alkaline, and the garlic grew very well, so I think I have a good system going.

Topsoil pH and Chemical Tests. 12.27.21

I used a home test to check the pH, N P K content of the topsoil I've been using to fill raised beds. This is a test of the un-amended soil, nothing added. pH

Nitrogen

Phosphorus

Potassium

pH, using pH strips and dilution 1:5 to make it readable.

I think these are a little difficult to interpret, but maybe OK. If Im reading correctly, pH using the liquid reagent is about 6, maybe 6.5. Nitrogen looks depleted and both phosphorus and potassium look deficient. By the pH strip method, the pH is about 6, maybe 6.5 so similar to the liquid reagent test. I'm not surprisd the topsoil would be depleted. Now I feel more comfortable fertilizing and adding a liming agent (wood ashes).

Fungi. 12.26.2021

There are mushrooms growing all of the time. Last winter I spread a layer of tree chips in several areas, often on top of a newspaper layer. The newspaper is completely gone now, and the woodchips are starting to disappear. Meanwhile mushrooms continue to pop up. They like growing in those wood chips.

The benefits of fungi are legion. The soil should be interlaced with fungal mycelium, for soil health and therefore plant health. Often, I remove some mushroom caps and place them on the raised bed soil the get them started in the new soil.

Winter Day. Raised Bed. Deer. Rufus. 12.26.21

It snowed again. Rufus got to take a walk. He likes to snoop. He sticks his nose under the snow, then snorts like a horse. Then he sticks his nose under the snow, then snorts like a horse. Then...

There were some deer between the woodshed and the woodlot. They like it there. It gives them a chance to see if I leave the garden gate open so they can eat the remaining plants and fruit trees.

They grew nice and big, munching on my fruit trees and flowers and veggie plants. I set a goal of not more than 10 to 15 buckets a day in the raised bed. Today I added about 15, lost count. More is too much for me. At this rate, it will be filled within two more weeks. Next layer is compost from a year-old compost heap, then what I imagine will be the topmost layer of topsoil.

Rufus supervised.

Saving Squash Seeds. 12.24.21

These are seeds from the Pink Banana Squash that I hand pollinated. When I gutted the squash (like making sausage, gutting a squash is not for the squeamish), I rinsed the seeds and then left them to dry for a week on newspaper. I stirred them a few times so they would dry thoroughly.

The bits of newspaper stuck to the seeds are harmless and I don't remove them. This is enough Pink Banana Squash seeds that, if I planted them all, and they all made squashes, I could feed a moderate sized city.

Garden Raised Bed 1/2 Filled With Soil. 12.24.21

Due to space constraints, I have to fill this raised bed, bucket by bucket. I tend to overdo the work then regret it and get mad at myself. I have all Winter, and Spring if needed, before it gets planted with the main crop. This year, a community of moles moved in under the previous raised bed and had big mole parties. I think they were mole weddings, or maybe mole political rallies. They dug up the paths and mixed dirt with the nice thick layer of tree chips I had as a pathway. So the pathway is useless now. So, I dug off the top layer, which made the bottom four inches or so of the rebuilt raised bed. Eventually the tree chips will compost themselves and just be soil. Then I covered that with about six inches of new topsoil. Then a bag of leaves, which wont add much volume but will add a little organic matter and feed the soil fungi and earthworms. Now I've started adding the top layer of topsoil. When completed, the bed is 18 inches high, a good height for accessible gardening.

I'm ahead of schedule. If I set my goal for a half dozen buckets a day, it will be done in January. Then I'll put down a barrier in the pathways and cover with something that stays reasonably clean and comfortable to work on.

Next Step on Quilt - Making The "Quilt Sandwich". 12.21.21

I struggled with ways to make the "Quilt Sandwich"- Backing layer, inner batting layer, top pieced quilt layer. With my first quilts, I tried spray adhesive that washes out when the final quilt is washed. That stuff is aweful - fumes like an auto body shop. Even with windows open and fan running. Plus, I still couldn't get the layers matched up to my satisfaction. It was a mess. With the last quilt, I spent a few hours pinning it together on the sunroom floor which is big enough and is porcelain so won't be scratched by the pins. That worked OK but took a lot of trial and error. Working on the floor isn't that much fun for me, either. Taping the bottom layer to the floor helped a bit but not a lot. This time, I cleared off the kitchen island and used that. That actually worked a lot better. I can work while standing, fold the quilt layers over as I pin them together, smooth under and over as I go along, the coffee pot is close by for emergency infusions. The island surface is slick enough that I can slide the quilt back and forth to smooth it and pin.

Now this quilt sandwich is all together and ready for sewing. That will take a while, but is rewarding because the final quilt begins to emerge. Even before it's sewn together, with the layers all there it now has the thickness, the feel and the weight of a real quilt. I think putting the quilt sandwich together is one of the most difficult parts. Working on the island helped tremendously.

Rebuilding the Last Raised Bed. 12.21.21

Today I laid down a mole barrier, and rebuilt the raised bed that Ms. amd Mr. Mole destroyed in late summer. I had emptied the soil earlier, which I used for filling the newest raised beds. Today I smoothed the base ground a bit more. I think what happened was part of the original mole barrier was chicken wire, which rusted away. There is still galvanized hardware cloth in place. The moles had undermined the corner supports, which splayed outwards, then the boards collapsed and I no longer had a tidy and functioning raised bed. The base is galvanized deer fencing, with a second layer of plastic deer fencing. These were previously used around trees, so nothing new was needed and I didn't have to dispose of those used fencing.

Around the sides, later I will put down walkways, and the mole barrier overlap wont show any more. The rebar that runs through the cement corners was two feet long, so only 6 inches into the ground. the new rebar is 4 feet long, so 2 1/2 feet into the ground. That should help anchor the corners better. After installing the lower two layers of cement corners and boards, I ran wire from rebar to rebar, to tighten them a little more against splaying outwards too.

Then I added the top layer of cement corners and boards. The wires will not show at all and wont be in the way.

Now all that remains is a sheet-plastic liner on the sides, and fill again with soil. The liner is meant to reduce contact between the boards and soil to a minimum. I can get that started this week, and gradually fill, taking as long a time as I want. This bed wont be planted until May or June, although I'd like to plant a cover crop or cool weather stuff like spinach lettuce, radishes, in Feb or March.