Soil For New Raised Beds. 11.3.2021

I decided to have the soil hauled here instead of doing it myself. I calculated the beds will need three cubic yards each, and Ning also wants a cubic yard. My little pickup, trusty as it is, can only handle 1/3 cubic yard at a time. On a good day - for dry soil mix or wood chips. That would have been about 28 trips. This project is a signifant part of my gardening future, so it's worth it. This soil is recycled from whatever is brought to the yard waste center, mainly sod or yard re-grading. I used recycled topsoil from the same source, last year, for one of the raised beds, amended with home made compost. That was an excellent crop (garlic). Various places sell mixes - sand, compost, perlite, forest humus (that one sounds suspicious). All of the organic fluff will break down in a year or two, resulting in a lot of volume loss. The sand or perlite might help drainage, but I think will dry out too fast. Topsoil is what the garden is anyway, so I bought plain, sifted topsoil. I'm surprised he could back that giant truck through the gate. But he did.

In a sense, that truck was full of next year's tomatoes :-). First, I need to fill the raised bed. The top foot will be fresh compost plus enriched soil,from a raised bed that I have to deconstruct and rebuild due to mole damage. I think the first bed will be completed and ready for winter's mellowing and settling, in about a week.

Green Jalapeño Hot Sauce. 11.2.2021

I fermented some green Jalapeño peppers and made hot sauce, so the end of season crop wouldnt go to waste. This has the flavor we expect from Jalapeños, more "green" and not fruity like the red ripend ones. The texture is a little more crunchy, compared to the red. Still, quite tasty. Other than using green peppers instead of red, it's the same recipe - the peppers, garlic, onion, brine, and a bit of life starter from a jar of uncooked sauerkraut.

Garlic Crop for 2022. 12.2.2021

Most of the garlic that I planted last month is growing. There is a row of holdouts, and a few here and there, plus I did add one more row when I cleared out a row of marigolds last week. This is the variety "Music" which I grow year after year, maintaining my own starts. They got a big scattering of coffee grounds and eggshells. Now that they are up, I can cultivate between rows.

These are starts from last year's bulbs grown from top bulbils. I'm glad they are growing. They were a bit behind the others, so I need to cultivate some more. These are in the ground, so I have to get onto my knees to weed them.

The Lorz Italian Softneck garlic isn't up yet. Maybe it's a type that won't emerge until Spring. I don't know, we will see :-)

Work on A Newer, Taller, Bigger Raised Bed. 11.2.2021

I have two big raised beds to build. These are two feet tall, compared to the last ones that were 18 inches. The taller size is much easier for me to work with hand tools, keep cleaner, mulch, thin, harvest. This is all about easier, more accessible gardening so I can continue doing it for more years to come. After pricing various wood and metal options, these cement blocks turned out to be the most economical option, by far. Plus, I think they will last for the rest of my life. I've used this kind of block in the past, and was happy with them. For the base, I'm using two barriers. Some wire fencing, and plastic chicken wire. These are what I had around from old garden fences. I hope they keep moles from digging up into the beds. I'm also adding barrier to the pathways because moles tend to undermine blocks at the sides of raised beds. This will need some touching up, and if I'm lucky the moles will travel further so they don't damage my work so much.

These are longer than my previous garden beds, deeper, and wider. I tried making them even more wider, but could not easily reach the middle. The idea is to make it easier for me, so I narrowed the bed slightly. I can reach the center of this bed, barely. Good enough to use a small hand hoe, and do the various maintenance tasks. The capstones are reused X 3 or X 4 times. In their last life, they were edging. Before that, Capstones. Before that, a large patio and walkway. They give a nice, aged, finished look and not as stark as the bare cement blocks, I think. Plus capping the cement blocks creates an air pocket to insulate the soil a bit, and keeps weeds out of the holes. This construction project is a bit much for me now. I can carry and install about ten blocks in a day. Twenty if I push myself really hard. Then I regret it. The hardest part is getting them level, even, and plumb, which takes multiple tries on the soil base. There's no hurry - They are about 90 blocks, so if I average 15 a day, then it's only 6 days. 

 This one is done until the soil comes. I'm leaving the end open so I can wheel in the soil with a wheelbarrow, then finish the end and add the last amount of soil using a bucket. I do want these done before Winter really sets in, so the soil can settle in and mellow with the compost that I will mix into it.

The First Schlumbergera Cactus of the Year. 11.2.2021

I repotted this one during Spring. It was a grocery store purchace a few years ago, just now starting to get some nice size.

Nikita's Gift Persimmons. 11.2.2021

These are my favorites. They are not quite ripe. They can be ripened indoors so that birdies don't eat them.

Persimmon Trees. 10.26.2021

Here are some of the persimmon trees. First, Nikita's Gift, a Ukranian hybrid of American and Asian species, on D. lotus rootstock. Nikita's gift, so far, is my most productive and tasty persimmon. Nikita's gift persimmons ripen in Nov or Dec.

Saijo, an ancient Japanese variety. This is also on D. lotus rootstock. This tree isn't nearly as vigorous or productive as Nikita's Gift. It's still a nice persimmon. The tree always looks a little sick, but always makes a few fruits anyway. Ripening is similar to Nikita's Gift.

Yates, American persimmon. This tree usually produces OK, smaller and earlier fruits. this year either it didnt make any or they already fell off. I suspect the incredible heat spell during bloom time, as responsible.

Then there is Prairie Star. Very small persimmons, flavor quite nice. I also have two very small trees, Coffee Cake (Nishimura wase) Persimmon and Chocolate Persimmon. They are in an out of the way location, and don't get any care. Despite dryness and weeds, they grew about a foot this year. I didn't water or weed at all. That encourages me to do more for the next year.

Gingko Trees. 10.26.21

These are the two ginkgo trees that I gre from deeds my dad collected in the mid 1990s. At the time, I was living in Chicago in an apartment. I grew them in flower pots on the porch. Here, I planted them in the Vancouver yard. I moved the smaller two to Battleground in 2012. One died after a year. The other grew, then the top died but it grew back from low on the trunk. This is the one in Vancouver. It's male (so none of those stinky bombs that people hate). It's a tall, elegant, handsome tree.

This is the one that I moved to Battleground, that "came back from the dead". It has a similar shape as the Vancouver gingko, but far from as large. I feel optimistic it will continue to grow over the years.

The Windmill palms were also planted in about 2012 to 2014. I doubt this one will grow to the magestic size of the Vancouver tree within my lifetime, but who knows? There is also a smsll grove of ginkgo trees that we try to keep trimmed as big bonzai trees, plus one planted near thecwoodlot and another that has roots from a Vancouver seedling but the too is from the tall one grown from my Dad's seeds. That one always leans over. It doesn't want to grow straight. I don't know why.

A Reversable, Chino / Flannel Cadet Cap. 20.24.2021

 There were a few left over pieces of chino, after I made a grocery tote out of Ning's old trousers.  As posted before, I like wearing cadet caps.  Without that protection, I bump my head regularly, leaving divets and scabs on my scalp, which I don't like.  I use an old, disassembled cadet cap for the pattern. However, I add 1/4 inch to each dinension for better fit.  Chino fabric is perfect weight and comfort.  This time, I used scraps of flannel for a lining, quilted the top part for scalp padding, and made it reversable.

Laying out the remaining trouser parts and patterns.  Will it work?  Note, I didn't wind up making the unnecessary hat band.

 

This time, I added more stiffness to the brim, using medium weight fusable woven interfacing in addition to the thick foamy interfacing I usually use. For the lining, I used exactly the same pattern as the shell. It will shrink just a little, I think. The sides are stiffened a little too with a medium weight, nonwoven fusable interfacing.

Then the hat is sewn together inside out, with a big gap at the back. I had to hand baste the brim, which points inward at this point. It's too difficult to pin or clamp the stiff, awkward, thick three-part sections, but hand basting actually works. Then turn right side out and sew the rest together. I hand basted that together too.

The cap came out pretty decent. I think it's the best made of my attempts, so far. The chino fabric, with interfacing, is the perfect stiffness / warmth / comfort. The added interfacing makes the brim stiff enough to hold its shape, without being a herd piece of plastic. I like it better without the hat band. This brim came out better too. I used an edge hem to hold its shape, and drew the lines on the fabric before sewing, using a washable fabric pen. That helped a lot.

A Couple of Fall Chores. 10.24.21

 This was between rains.  I had some bulbs to plant, and some ashes to spread.

Most of the garden now is clean-up from the year's crops and flowers, with thoughts for prep for next year.

So far my thoughts for next year, building on experience especially from 2021-

Raised Beds.

The taller raised beds made a significant difference.  For the accessible  garden, less difficult, more production in a small space, I was very happy with the three beds I installed last year.  They grew the best, and most, garlic, onions, peppers, and bush beans that I've even grown.  The crops of radishes, lettuce, spinach were also great.  Imdid crowd them too much.  And they were doable.  They were much easier than ground-level gardening - less kneeling, less bending, easier cultivation and weeding.  One was undermined by moles and two sides fell over.  That will need taking apart and rebuilding during the winter, with better screening underneath.  

For 2022:

(1) Repair the damaged raised bid.  Moderately big project.  I need to build the new ones so there is a place to put the soil so I gan dig this one out and put down a mole barrier.

(2) Build two new, fairly long raised beds where I grew tomatoes this year.  There is a little more clearing to do.  I'll order materials and build them gradually during the winter.  One day at a time, Beijing wasn't built in a day.  I have all winter but want to get them done sooner so the soil will settle before planting.

(3) For 2022 I will grow less of a tomato crop.  More of it will be dwarf size plants, which will be more suitable for the taller raised beds.

Irrigation.

This was a learning process.  For the tomatoes, I used 1 gallon per hour drip emitters. For the raised beds, I used oozing hoses.  The drip emitters worked quite well.  I was able to turn on the water lines, go away,  come back in an hour and turn off.  I don't think they were a gallon in an hour.  Probably a couple of quarts.

The oozing hoses were more challenging.  The lines clogged up from the sediment from our well.  I did put in an in-line filter but too late.  The oozing stopped entirely.  So, I used a safety pin to punch many holes in the hose, converting it to a mini sprinkler system.  That actually worked pretty well.  This was better for row crops, compared to the emitters that were better for individual plants.  

I hand watered the squashes and sweetcorn.  That was a lot of work.  The squashes were saved partly by black plastic mulch.  I used buckets to deliver two gallons to each hill of squash, daily during hot weather. 

For 2022:

(1) The tomatoes will be in raised beds, so I need to remove the existing drip irrigation lines and re-install them in the raised beds.  I'll use the same emitters and possible the punched ooze hoses if they still work.  I'll put down brown paper mulch for Romas which are spreaders, and possibly for the dwarf tomatoes too. 

(2) For squashes, use black plastic again but add the 1-gallon per hour emitters for them too.  That's at least 1/2 of my bucket carrying for the summer.  For the sweetcorn, I'm not sure.  Maybe I'll use a sprinkler when it's small, like I did this year, and a thicker oozing hose or other row-friendly system.  That's another big portion of he hand watering.

I'll address individual crops in more detail later.

Meanwhile, I shovel-turned about 40% of next hear's potato bed in between rains.  Before doing so, I spread  gallon bucket of wood-stove ashes over the roughly 200 square foot area.  The ashes add  calcium, phosphorus, potassium and some other minerals, and reduce the pH just a little.  I also use chicken bones from my dog food manufacturing.  I air dry the chicken bones, and store in a plastic bag.  Then, when using the wood-stove, I throw a handful into each wood-fire until they are gone.  The burning reduces them to powder and a small amount of very fragile pieces that break down rapidly in the soil.  Bone ash also adds calcium, phosphorus, and a few minerals, and nothing bad.  Potatoes shouldn't get lime the same year as they are grown, and ashes are a bit like lime but with more minerals.  However, it's about six months of mostly rain before growing potatoes and this is a relatively small amount.  So I think it's good.

I also planted some tulip and daffodil bulbs for Spring inspiration. The daffodils went into borders around the vegetable garden yard. The tulips went into one of the larger tomato containers, where they should be safe from deer browsing. Deer don't eat daffodils so they will be ok.