Friday, April 29, 2011

The Garden: DIY Compost Bins and Pre-Soaked Peas

The garden is officially expanded.  Sod turned.  Garden soil dumped and raked through.  About 500 square feet.  I think this is going to be the perfect size.

I set up a make-shift greenhouse by the sliding door.  They are coming up way faster than they normally do.  I think the IKEA shoe rack/fish tank set up will need to be improved for next year.



Let's see...there's tomatoes in the bottom tank, summer squash, cucumbers, zucchini, cauliflower, cantaloupe....I have more stuff I haven't gotten around to starting yet.


The summer squash is definitely doing the best.
My first asparagus!  It shot up out of nowhere. 
Too bad the rest of the roots don't seem to be doing anything.



Look at the peas!  I soaked 40 for an hour or so, and left the other 40 unsoaked.  The soaked ones all came up, and most of the unsoaked ones did.  I think the soaking helped.


I am still working on painting the fort/swingset.  I painted the inside white and let the Peanut paint whatever she wanted.  Then I tiled the floor w/ vinyl tiles.  I'll take more pics later.


I can't have open compost bins.  There are too many rats around.  Yes, rats.  Ugh.  I had compost bins that looked like upside down garbage cans that did not work.  Got rid of them and bought a garbage can, drilled some holes in it and voila!  Instant and super cheap compost bin!  I'll let you know how it goes.
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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Our Expanded Garden

This was my garden in 2008.  I think each bed was about 4' x 6'.


The following year I expanded it by two more 4' x 6' beds.


In 2010, the Boyfriend helped me expand it to about 15' x 25'...give or take.

And this is it as of today.  The Boyfriend just emailed me a pic while I was in school.  He finished cutting out the sod and is about to turn it over.  It is now around 500 square feet...about 16 x 32.

When he moved the fence, I thought it was too big.  Then he pointed out that last year, I said the same thing when we made it bigger.  Then it turned out to not be enough room...
I think this will be the last of our expansion.  We also have two 2' x 8' beds on the side of the house.  One for the asparagus, the other for strawberries.  One has a trellis for my peas.  I also have a couple of large containers I previously used for beets and carrots, but I think the potatoes will go in them this year.
And for the record, yes he put in the fence and cut the sod in the back, but I turned over eighty percent of the soil myself.  Just saying...