Enjoyed Viewings - Inspiration

A while ago there was a posting about how people have happily over leveraged themselves. We of course are quite comfortable with this in most societies. It even has a perfectly acceptable term. Mortgages. It is a way that everyone can have instant gratification. Instead of saving up to purchase land or a home etc we take out massive loans and leverage our future time against it to pay them off.

These last few years owning our home (My first, V's Second) has allowed me to develop my understanding on the whole concept of what is a home. What defines it. What do we personally need as individuals, as a couple, and even an eventual family (I would say the cat and Us comprises a family already. ;) ) in order to be happy. Secure.

I've spent plenty of time scouring the internet and youtube on the subject. One of my favorites, although I enjoy each one we are subscribed to, is Jane's "Hardwork Homestead" blog. It is because of the spirit behind it. Working towards self sufficiency. Although I would boil it down to simply security. A feeling or intuition that makes a dwelling a home.

While we have not 'over' leveraged ourselves with a massive mortgage payment over the next year or so I would like to move towards that goal. Purchasing an acre. Building a 'Tool shed' with the accompanied solar array and rain catchment. The secret hidden bunker underneath to house the potatoes. ;) Paid outright.

I'm learning that it really isn't about how much you make in a year. It is about the margins of disposable income. The meaning of this is simple. If you can reduce your over head to its absolute minimum, then even with modest income, you'll find that you have the disposable income of a higher wage earner.

If your 'home' is paid off. The land is yours. You harnest the power of the sun for your energy needs. A bountiful veggie garden view out the window. What do you truly have left other than taxes? ;)

One could travel the world at that point based on savings from minimal wage positions. Now please do not misquote me on this aspect. I still wish to remain a plane flying career, veggie eating, cat petting, all around cool dude. The idea is to bring life back to what it was.

I am fairly certain that nature did not develop the human being simply to spend the majority of their days working to get by. Personally it seems a shame that we have switched ourselves from the majority of our time gathering food, storing it, creating textiles etc to one of working forever to pay off your 'over leveraged future time'.

On that note should you be so inclined, feel free to watch a documentary that hits all the little nerves inside my skull. :) Oh, yes. I want a tool shed as is seen about 50 minutes in.

Thank you!

Thinking again. Trouble afoot.

According to John Jeavon's research. A vegan can feed themselves on 4000 SF of cultivated earth. There is 43,560SF in an acre. Even with a 2 foot path between the rows it would come to a total of 5600SF. That is 5 beds of 4'by200'. An acre being nearly 210'x210'. This is both a large area and a small area in how you approach it.

If we designed out cities to where all houses were placed on the very northern edge of our city plot, we would have ample southern exposure for everyone of us to grow most of our food.

I am currently thinking of where to find an acre dirt cheap so I can build my tiny solar house with rain water catchment.

The nice bit is, while I have no idea what the actual cost involved is for the land.... I am happy to see that you don't actually need an acre to sustain yourself on.

With a plot 80 feet by 200 (A 1/3 acre) you could have your two story 20x40 foot (1600SF) home and your personal farm. Along with enough extra space to leave wild growing a cover crop like alfalfa to produce enough compost. :) If you did manage to get your acre then you would have a huge plot of wild green to compost.


So many thoughts. Now to find money to do it.

Potatoes are making a break for it!

Two days back we, the gang of spuds and I, decided to wing it (Go Wings!) and plant them up. Or deep down. Yes, definitely deep down. That was their choice. I could have gone either way with doing that or just tossing them on top of the lawn. Either way something is bound to happen with them. It would be heaps easier finding them all at the end of the season wouldn't it?!?

This years method of choice is to place the heavily chitted pieces directly on top of the 2nd layer in the double-dug process. First foot layer being most of the top soil. The second is the broken up hardpan, heavy clay in my case. Break up the hardpan with a garden fork. Place one piece every 9-12". Layer the topsoil back over it. Thus making them about a foot down. What this will eventually give you is a bed that only has to be bothered with twice. Once during planting and twice at harvest. No constant hilling needed. How good is that!

Updating everyone on the brassica and lettuce plantings. They are all snug and thriving. The subfreezing days and nights haven't fazed them. Yesterday the blustery weather did wreak some havoc on the garlics planted out on the first. Those in the east garden bed were unaffected. The green house structure build last year keeps the wind out with the large shoji like screen panels on the sides. A number of garlic from the front yard were roughed up. The winds were strong enough to bend the tops completely over. Not to worry. I am positive its transitionary, when it warms up they will resume taking off.

Oh yes. Picked up some Azomite this afternoon. I'm sure everyone is familiar with it. Rock dusts to remineralize our depleted soils. Apparently in the early 20th century there was a senate report discussing (circa 1920) this. If I recall, our soils contain 80% less minerals. What this means for you and I is even as we are meeting our caloric needs we possibly are still starving ourselves. Our foods to no fault of their own have no way of being as nutritious as they should be. Taking vitamin supplements is a joke. Many of them are never digested. They are simply being flushed down the waterways. The only one I consume is B12. A vitamin derived from the bacteria that creates it. Not animal nor plant. Another side effect of our modern living is the lack of helpful microbes because of irrational cleanliness. A dusty carrot from your organic garden isn't going to strike us dead, Folks. Just remember to replace the minerals in our soils. We are all expecting that produce to lead us to better health.

We purchased a number of plastic seed trays today from an amazing local garden shop. It was exciting finding Azomite there. Saved $30 over having it shipped. V and I spent the early evening planting up a bunch more spinach, beets, radishes, and the various 11 flower varieties. Our soil mixture is a blend of coir, perlite, compost, Azomite, and myccorhizae. I think it should provide a good foundation for them to start. Later I will plant them into garden soil amended with more Azomite, compost, and myccorhizae.

Sadly some of the plants seem to be a little off. I've been thinking that they need a bit of fertilizer. Yesterday, we purchased fish emulsion. Oh geesh. What a horrible idea that was. It smells horrid. I'm sure it is quite useful. The thought of it, however, makes me decided to return it for a refund. Here's to sticking with plant based nutrition. Leaf mould. Green manures. Rich compost tea.

Oh! Lastly. You all know that we planted corn. 5 kernels of which have become quite the foot tall plantings. That was until Kiki decided to give them a trim. Replanted them to one gallon pots a piece. Good thing we purchased a bunch of large day lilies last year for the english garden. Now we have a few good pots to repurpose. They were done with the dixie cups after several weeks. The roots were running races around the bottom of the cups. When I gently broke them apart from each other (they were incredibly woven together amongst themselves) the roots were over a foot long. Incredible. That should hold them out for another couple weeks until after last frost when the final decision of putting them in blocks of 5 gallon pots for the season or in a bed to their own will be made.

Happy Gardening everyone!

ps. look out for that supplemental in the works.

Garden Expectations : Supplemental

Here is the video Accompaniment to the Garden Expectation Posting:

Garden Expectations

Do most gardeners have a new garden expectation that changes when a new season shows its' face?

I think I do. I believe there are several actually. It may be commensurate with the amount of work that has been put into converting over on this scale all at once. As 1st man recently blogged about personal frustration at knowing his expectations are going to be a little off timeframe I can certainly attest to the same apprehensions. For the most part we have managed to do the roughing in on all the cultivated space to be worked. We do not have near the area as Two men have amongst themselves which makes it devilishly more attainable in a short term. My hat to you for your journey.

Garden Expectations:

I do not expect that the backyard will be as intense as it would be if It was awash in absolute sunshine. The thing to be seen is whether enough of the surrounding offending tree canopy can be trimmed out (so to believe) we can get decent results. Anything else will be entirely dependent upon our vigilance of breaking up the soil, what nutrition naturally is present, and how much we end up adding overall. It appears attainable.

The original garden on the east side last year came away with plenty of tomatoes, a few eggplant, heaps of cucumbers, and a number of peppers all with only partial full daylighting. Not to mention we planted things quite late. Another 2 months would have been perfect. It will show off the real abilities of bio-intensive methods. At least on a personal level as I already know they work. Having long ago been demonstrated.

Yesterday I was able to get out and do actual gardening. Planting 18 broccoli, numerous heads of lettuce, and even several swiss chard. It felt natural. Currently in the process of uploading a video segment of it. I think it came out pretty well. For the time being it looks somewhat sparse but I know in a very short while this broccoli will fill in all the little gaps. Amazing onlooking neighbors at the density of it all. There still is another 4x8 section over there which needs to be planted with the remaining various lettuce, leeks, beets, carrots, and garlic.

The front yard rests my fullest hopes. Plenty of direct sunshine. Hours upon hours of working the earth. Well manicured areas. A place to show off to those around me that things are feasible. It has to. lol. I know that there is bound to be some 'setbacks' but at the scale of doing everything out of the gate the overall should easily end up in the right direction.

Earlier I wrote about Kiki leveling off the corn plants. We both were quite upset about this. Myself from the act. The cat from the consequence. No, I didn't do anything rash to the cat. Just a stern talking to and subsequently the silent treatment which he absolutely hates.

For years my beliefs have been that what you feed yourself and your pets gives them the best chances at a long fruitful life. Barring of course the equal possibility that any one of us could randomly get hit by a bus whether they took pristine care of themselves through diet and exercise or ate McD's garbage day in day out.

Taking this approach with Kiki has been no different. He is fed a grainfree diet. It's called 'Before Grains'. Certainly not as cheap as the things you find in a grocery store. Frankly that muck is scary! Much in the same way as the 'human' food is in there. The cat has as a result thrived throughout the years. The other day being woken up to his corn munching got me to thinking. After all these years of grain free bliss (he is a true carnivore after all) he chose to go straight for the grain. Wonder if he missed it? Perhaps all of this is on the same line as people whom missed things they gave up long ago in the thought of eating healthy. The cat just happens to miss all those damn cup cakes I suppose.

Mr.Pickles (aka Kiki aka the Cat) woke me this morning.

Blasted Cat.

He wakes me up this morning to harsh hacking noises. Looking out the bedroom door it was easy to see the utility room door was also open. Quick mental calculations mean, crap, the cat ate my stache of plants!

Running out from the covers to shoo him off and assess the damage. Luckily over the last couple days most of them have been moved into the sunroom. Sad bit now is he got the corn. Where they once were 6 inches tall now they remain at 3. I am thankful that there is a raised lip on the dixie cups otherwise he might have opted to chew it from the ground up.

HRMF.

Trudging outside after all the morning ruckus bringing the garden fork with me. Today was testing day. Checking up on how the soil workability is coming along. I want to plant some spuds soon. Lets start in the front yard which is the northern part of our house. The first half of the 10 foot long beds along the sidewalk are already workable. The beds near the house are still very frozen. Can only shove a fork in an inch or two. Along the driveway things are coming along. It should be perfect soon enough for peas. That is in several weeks.

The 100SF long beds in the backyard are workable without much effort. Must have to do with getting more sunlight than the front this time of year. Assuming lack of an ice age the spuds should be on track to be placed in soil in another two weeks. I've read that a few people plant around St. Patty's. My take on it, however, is that if the soil is workable there shouldn't be any reason for me to hold off longer. In nature after all the tubers would have remained in the soil for the entire time.

This afternoon I was working the original garden along the east side of the house. The area was a huge mess when we purchased the house several years ago. It was being used as a compost area. Heavy on woody materials. Somewhat late last year we put down a 16' x 4' garden. It turned out to be a surprise. Although the garden was not bathed in incredible amounts of sunlight it still managed to produce a lot. It would have been better if the idea had occurred to me in the beginning of the year. The tomatoes and peppers would have had another two months to get on. That was also before I learned about double-digging. This year it will be a salad green area. I spent an hour double-digging to renovate the soil for a new season. I want to see if there is a drastic difference in production over last year. Also for some reason the soil over on this side of the house is warm enough to plant in.  It must have to do with a combination of being out of the wind and the bare trees giving access to sunlight.

Tomorrows plan is transplanting all the lettuces in the flat to this area and place plastic over it for a cold frame. Perhaps even taking a picture or two.

One month into Growing

According to this blog the plants began on January 12th. That is those started in the first 'Lettuce mix' flat.  Over the course of the last month it has been interesting noting the various stages of growth. How the plants are fairing with each incarnation of grow light set up. Bearing in mind that they started out under two 100watt equivalent CFLs and later moving up to the recent addition of another two sets of shop-lights. Three total.

At first I thought the flat was a wasted experiment. They grew very tall. A flat of very leggy plants made it precarious to water due to them falling down. Later it was decide they would do well to be completely dug up, spaced, and planted deeper up to their first leaves. They recovered remarkably well. Turns out now there are a hundred useable aka transplantable plants growing happily.

Since then I have been inspired to add another grouping of Tomatoes, Eggplants, Peppers, Brassicas, and even Corn. Yep. Corn. Btw it is doing fantastic. One of the better growing plants actually. Suspicion tells me that here soon they will end up being planted in 5 gallon buckets and around 2-3 Feet in height by the time I can transplant them. How exciting! So far, however, they are about 4 inches tall.

My birthday passed on the 13th of this month. Turned out fairly mellow but quite decent. Ended up receiving a $40 dollar gift card to our regular big blue box store with the caveat of finding something for the garden. Suspect it should work out nicely. First impression is that it will be applied to hoop tunnels over a couple beds to get things started. This is the first year of the massive garden. Nothing has been over wintered. Aside from a few Alliums which were transplanted several weeks ago into frozen earth (well the top 3-4 inches were workable due to the rain - but it has since frozen and they live under cloches) the land is barren.

Surprising about the alliums. They are a bulb plant though which are generally rugged. The eighteen garlic plants left in the flat are getting out of control. Rather, they were out of control until being trimmed back. *whew wee* The entire lower level of the house is an italian restaurant. Sniping off garlic chives is intense. So much in fact that it gave me a headache from the intense aroma. The leaves have a bold flavor. Brings me to ponder that throughout the year nothing really needs to be harvested. Just cook with the occasionally clipped leaves. Sustainability.

Enough Yaking. Here is another video :

So you want to break the norm and loose the Lawn.

I say 'L'awn here because of its iconic stature. I've heard it is a throwback to the days of large estates. Perhaps even it gives a modern home owner a primal feeling of security being able to see people approaching their household unobstructed. Doing the norm and not sticking out could even be taken out of our childhood schooling. Never wishing to be pointed out or the center of attention. Please don't call on me, Teacher, not because I lack the answer, but because I would fear my peers jeering. Probably not that.

When I am outside working the earth many people come by and ask. It is gratifying that most of it's positive. Wouldn't it be a shame to hear jeers for the next years we lived here. After all, it wouldn't stop us  would it. Sociology has always fascinated me. It is my belief that it does most. We simply call it people-watching. People are generally quite civil to one another but certain things elicit this great change in them. Say politics. While this is my very corner of blogville I'm not here to rant about my leanings.

Something very similar elicits a response in people. Ideas that challenge their own choices by simply existing. One that I have dealt with on a personal level is being a conscious herbivore. Years ago when I was still learning to fly in Arizona, I happened to ride the bus. There was one occasion where a gentleman had noticed some patchwork on my flight bag that pertained to Ahimsa. Live and let live. Compassionate living to all that surrounds you. It is my personal belief that everything has a right to live. Who am I to choose whether it does or not. Quite a responsibility we as human beings take on to judge that. (This is something I have pondered now with my mass scale gardening ideas. Where do I sit with the plant munchy bugs? I have already determined my stance with the mosquitos. Since leaving AZ where the dry conditions allowed me to never have to deal with them I've found that I react quite violently from the bites. Huge welts. My take on it is this : I won't go out of my way to kill them, although I will keep their breeding areas clear, but if it goes for me it's self defense at that point.) The man at the bus stop without any interaction from myself proceeds to chastise me about my own choices. A conversation that develops into him discussing with me about how fish and crustaceans aren't conscious enough to warrant ethics. I barely spoke throughout the entire encounter. Sometimes you just really wanted to get to school, y'know?

These things challenge people. It somehow causes them to debate their own choices. Perhaps it was myself calling for the attention with a patch on the bag. I don't think that is correct though in much the same way having a symbol of anything you cherish is a call for another to chastise you for it. Religious symbolism for example. Maybe, just maybe, the conscious choice to 'boldly' place our food self sufficiency right out in the public view is the same thing. Taunting those around us. Forcing them all to rethink their own hard worked choices in life. A stretch indeed. Most likely not, but having your lawn willingly torn out and placing food out in front where the good sun is does get passerby's to question. Once again, thankfully it's so far positive!

On the side of this blog there is a section that details the cost of our conversion. Tonight we were thinking about how more people could do what we are doing. Nothing special to it after all. Earlier I was conversing with another garden blogger about how even if you didn't have any money you could garden. Trading in more manual labor for the lack of finances. $20 bucks of seed could grow quite a supply. Could we have demonstrated this better with our own yard? We did choose to create raised beds with wooden borders. Very utilitarian in look. We could have used those plastic borders that you unroll to create curved flower beds etc. Our front garden is currently 585SF. This turns into 402 linear feet. A good thing to know for when we decide to use masonry to edge everything. Turns out that with the economy untreated pine boards we went with it comes to $.48 a foot. That plastic edging is $.45 a foot. Guess the only way to make it any cheaper than we did is to not have bordering at all. Choose inexpensive seeds from the store. Gardening is truly something everyone can do. Less than a hundred dollars would suffice including the purchase of a shovel, fork, and seed could feed you for the year assuming you had the minimal space needed. According to Jeavons, a vegetarian diet would be 4000SF. Ours will be Little over 1500SF.

At its core that is what this page is about. It's my attempt to continue to elicit a response in myself. To become a better person. To validate that I can in fact take care of myself. Life really isn't as complex as we want it to be. I mean, really?

Here's to a year of letting you, and me, know if I did it.

The spuds cometh.

What a decent day. It wasn't anything overly crazy. Outside was low 30s most of the day until it warmed to about 36F. The nice part, however, was the sun room. (An attached room with three sides of floor to roof glass. Sun Room, Arizona Room, Three season room. Which you use depends on your location. What do you call it?) As seen from my attire, thin sweater and loose scarf, it felt quit warm.

Dragged all the little seed cups outside. Even got help to move out one of the flats. The other one with lettuce is just too heavy and boxed in under the stairs to be move-able. Is it strange that It felt good treating them to a nice sunny day? A feeling similar to giving your pet a treat just because. Or your kids aren't making you pull out your hair so all is good.


Back to the spuds. Had to run out for errands. Finally got the much needed 3-way switch for the grow light. Now the broccoli will be happy with their added 2150 lumens. I've been pondering about where to purchase potatoes. How much. Varieties etc. Originally we were going to purchase from Maine potato lady. They carry a number of neat varieties in both organic and standard. To get the order by march or was it may, hmm, the order had to be in by January 30th. We let that slip by. Instead we are going to use store bought. 60lbs total for $28 bucks. Helluvah savings over shipping 50+lbs in the mail. I figure it this way, our state already grows some darn good potatoes we enjoy. Minimal expense. If anything is good enough to show the viability of growing them in the backyard where I want then a local mass ground version is a good start. I was cracking up looking at my shopping cart filled with all its bags. Thinking to myself about how onlookers must imagine that really big bowl of mash to come. We did pretty good though. Going through the bags on display I was pleasantly surprised at how many had decent root growth already! That took care of my wonder about how to get them going far enough to plant in the upcoming months. 40lbs of a white variety well sprouted and 20lbs of an organic russet which isnt deeply sprouted. Some of the russetts have tiny eye buds.

What is the best way to get them going in time to plant them in the next few months??

Harvest Monday - Right?

How does Daphne's Harvest monday go? Oh, that's it, you grow something and put it up so people will believe you. Proof is in the 1000 words right? Ok, so here it goes. The lettuce flat was getting out of control. A bit of it was leggy from growing under weaker lights for the first weeks. I had to thin them out anyway. It's finally starting to look like lettuce! Real leaves. Everything. Most exciting. After all of that managed to get a bowl of delicious sprouts. Spicy flavor and aromas mixed with general lettuce-ness.

Hey now... Be nice! It counts. I recall planting them seeds, watering, giving it light, and 'harvesting'. So there. *tongue*



Earlier I was replying to a comment on a previous posting. Seems humorous enough. (sad face) I'll just repost it here:

" Sadness though, a day or two ago I was using the pressure cooker to make chili, aka beans from scratch. The pressure cooker was being a butt. Had it only half filled but it still wanted to froth out of the top when it got to pressure. Opened it up, emptied a bit of liquid out. Cleaned the seal etc. It did it again, however, the fun happened the second time when it frothed and liquid poured over the lip of the oven creating a nice colorful mix of zaps and sparks of blue and orange. Me screaming bloody murder as I am running to 
the breaker. Turns out I toasted the entire range. Melted electronics. *damn* Thats an expensive diner!! "

That's real lettuce! I'm excited.

Message in a bottle - Terrarium Idea Photos

 

This is my take on the ship in a bottle. Now how did those potted plants get inside that tiny hole! Amazing. If you act now... *rattle rattle*

• Take a 2 Liter bottle and cut off the bottom (they have a nice line to show you were already on them!)
• Remove the Label
• Take a dixie cup, plastic in this case, drill 5 holes in a star pattern (one center, one all points)
• Fill with your favorite soil mix
• Insert as few or many seeds as you want - I've done 5 seeds per in a star pattern to give me an idea on germination rates/success
• Place cup on the bottom of the removed 2 Liter bottle bottom, which conveniently is the perfect size for a party cup (Lets water drain away and insulates it from a cold surface its sitting on - neat!)
• Slide over the main bottle and push the bottom until its back into one piece - voila!
• Adjust cap on or off to maintain your desired humidity/heat ratio

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Decided to take a household shop light fixture with its two 40 Watt fluorescents (which put out a combined 6400 lumens) to ramp up production on this under the stairs urban farmstead. These terrariums do a nice job at holding in a bit of heat. The temp probe clocks them in at 70F. 

As of the 27th I'm trying to get a huge jump on some of the main crops. I want to be able to transplant large well established plants in the garden by the time last frost rolls around. Who wants to wait til the end of summer to eat something. So far, broken down as follows :

1.  The two tomato varieties - Polish Linguista and Brandywine
2. The various peppers, hot and sweet - Jalepeno, Jwala, red/gold marconi
3.  The eggplants - aswad and ping tung
4. Cherokee corn (Seen some positive results online with people transplanting. Experimentation is good)
5. Okra (Same mentality as with the corn)

In the lettuce flat There were 20 garlic bulbs planted. They are doing amazingly well. When I went to pull one out and transplant it to its own cup.... my my, it has the hugest root system ever! Oh my, it is so profusely garlic stinky as well. Subsequently I have decided to just let them stay in there and be happy. There are two transplanted in dixie cups that the plan is to see if I can get them to tolerate going outside as if planted back in the fall. I'll let you know how it turns out. Started another seed flat using a paper plate filled with soil. This one has a combination of Red and white onions and lettuce in the center. The onions in the other flat have managed to finally come up. Originally they were struggling to bury their root in the dirt so I put a bit more soil over them. They are a lot happier now emerging. 

Hmm, what else. Planted a store bought onion that had sprouted. It was yellow to begin with. After just setting in on top of the soil in the lettuce flat it turned green and sprouted roots within a day. It wants to live. Gave it a nice home with dirt and shop light.

Anybody in the habit of growing full plants before placing them outside to cut off a few months of growing season?

Seven - Updated

Total : 72 Hours

Soil and weather being frozen as it is, spent the last few days working on the trellis edging. Had no other choice than to upload another video. This squirrel I told you about that buried his loot in a bed came back for it. It isn't really all that surprising. After all, that was a gold find of various seeds. Now I am happy that  instead of removing it we opted to leave it for the little guy. No need to ruin his day. You could spend an entire day watching them through the window with their antics.

We've been trying to finish the last few beds to no avail. Pushing a temp probe into the dirt reveals 30-31F. Not too cold, however, when trying to work the bed 3/4th already done, I am unable to break up the dirt. Here's to hoping that really is not it for the season. We would love to have this done before spring planting. Plus it is in the front yard after all where it should be manicured and pretty like.

Speaking of neighbors. While spending the last few days building the trellis I have encountered a number of 'intrigued' neighbors. The misses and I believe it gives a better curb look. It facilitates a better division between out in the open for the public space and one that remains inviting but still creating a personal space. So, about those neighbors.... Yesterday I had to put down the drill. One of our neighbors driving his mini-van decided to nearly run me and the city easement tree over. Just kidding. He did make it apparent he wanted to chat so I took the initiative by putting down the tools and walked over , "Hi!". Turned out to be a nice chat about how :

• "Isn't the ground frozen yet?, Sorry we haven't gotten around to introducing ourselves (when you moved in nearly 2 years ago). What are you up to out here, I am intrigued." 
• Myself, "Hasn't been but certainly is now. Hopefully not for too much longer. Thats ok. I do hope its generally a good intrigued..." :)  

He shrugs and remained 'intrigued'. Told him all that we were going to plant. The extent of the trellising. Pointing out the lack of light in the backyard necessitating putting everything in the front. Not forgetting to add a good casual dose of, " The backyard doesn't get much light. After checking in with city ordinances, they say if you have turf it can not be more than a foot tall but if you do not, anything else is allowed. (Me pressing the idea that everything is done to keep it orderly, with appearance, and clean.)"

It is a collaboration between hearing their curiosity and possible concerns with something different near their homes, letting people know the extent we plan on doing everything, and showing them we have done our homework about the legalities of what we can do as homeowners on our own property. 

Through the hours spent outside, being sociable to everyone that walks by, I have not found any one that is against the idea. Some are more enthusiastic than others and that is ok by me. :)

Thaw...Thaw...Thaw (Time to see it all in its splendor with green! Muhahaha)

Playing with Sketchup

Before starting this adventure I was dabbling with Google's SketchUp program. A simple, but nifty application that allows you to render 3D objects. Use it to visualize your dream home etc. It was a great tool to help my significant other 'visualize' just what level of craziness I was conspiring. Through that (and many other discussions) welcoming approval was given and I've been digging up the yard ever since.

While not entirely finished with all the renderings, namely parts of the house, several obscenely tall and foliage full trees, the remaining to be dug beds in the backyard etc, figured it would be a neat quick post to show a couple shots of the 'big picture'.

What you can see though is what I have already placed down in the front yard. The large red square is our already established 'english garden' with a japanese cherry tree we planted after the magnolia tree died. Sad day to see it go. The smaller circle is where another unknown tree is that has these tiny black berries. Wish I knew what it was. Someday.... Note the 'Fencing' I've added to the ends of the 5' by 10' raised beds. It's attached directly to the beds and not a proper/actual fence. It merely serves to demarcate where people should walk and not walk. :) Plus I think it gives a better visual from the curb to keep everyone happy. What do you think?

Unknown Tree with its unripe Berries 

English Garden

In the air tonight.

Total : 67 Hours. (No, I didn't spend two hours building two beds... I actually dug earth yesterday :) )

Whew. I actually decided to go outside and see if I could coax the dirt into submission. No dice. After ten minutes in that real feel of 2F was no longer cutting it for me. Instead, freezing my bollocks off in the garage building the last of the raised beds. Placed two more outside and called it quits.

All things considering, that is a lot of work done for a time when nothing would normally be occurring outside! Right? Right?...Er. no? *shrugs

I did get to use the electric snow blower this morning. Highlight of the day.

Another thing I like is when you spend enough time away the cat eventually starts to miss you and want to spend time around you.

Winter activities

Total : 65 Hours

What is everyone in Blogger world doing lately with the unusual winter weather? Confused and twiddling fingers, garden cleaning chores, or lofty ideas of complete upheaval and redesign?

Spent an hour outside today. There was a break between the rain and the oncoming snow-ish weather. Finished the other 1/3rd of a bed I missed before snow actually hit several days back. I've sowed swiss chard, a few garlic bulbs, and broccoli into the second flat. Half of the flat was frozen yesterday. I added soil that was in a big pot from outside that was pretty much brick consistency. Now that the entire flat has finally warmed up to close to 60F i'll bother myself to seed the rest in spinach.

Going to need to purchase more lights....

Anyone bother to grow indoors using lights for the first few weeks then transplant outside?

Nothing else, it does make you think you are gardening for real when you see green things coming along. Perhaps even if they all failed to make it in the end, it still gave you something to do to pass the time in the bleak weather....That is if there was bleak weather.

Snowed In

Apparently winter has come. A coat of snow blankets the ground for the time being. Shame though, it has been sunny and clear outside apart from the frozen earth. Much of it melted today. Hmm, perhaps tomorrow will find me back to double-digging the remaining front yard garden?

The last few days in attempt to amuse myself I've taken to building a few seed flats. I had some spare wood left over from the raised beds when I changed the over all design to include a walkway in the middle for ease. Mixed in some yard soil and a bit of compost/potting soil over broadcasted lettuce seeds.

80 hours into planting. A boxful of 2-3 inch plants. These buggers really want to grow. Gardening has officially started.

Check out the video.

64 hours into it.

Total : 64 hours

Here I am, late at night, and 64 hours into it all. Has it been fun yet? Some bits yes, others yes, but not to be everyday. I have been working several hours everyday since Christmas on transitioning this small city plot from lawn filled with grubs to one of a garden filled with 'grub' to eat. Speaking of which, in the long process of double-digging every bed 2 feet deep and turning under the sod layer as green manure... there has been a unbelievable amount of grubs tossed out onto the street. If one had to guess, I am classifying these raised beds as 90-95% grub free! (My eyes are quickly evolving into an eagle eye to spot a glimmer of white in a patch of brown/black earth) Of course knowing how things multiply exponentially, this has been a huge win for our side!

It finally decided to rain this afternoon. Taking a break from digging out another bed, instead deciding to take some of the spare wood planks not being used for raised beds (quick mental change of design ideas - AKA The Big Picture) to build a few seed flats. Took about 45 minutes running around to hash out an idea, cut it all up, screw it together, add a cold frame lid on it with sheet plastic. Voila. One 2 foot square/6 inch deep box. Just for giggles, added some dirt, a bit of compost, and european mesclun lettuce mix seeds to it. Looks nice. Feels strange to finally plant something. Afterall, we have had our seeds for a month now. We must have ordered within days of receiving the catalogs on December 2nd. So far the 'cold frame' seed flat will live on a self in the utility room in a portion that sits just below the stairs. I stuck a temp probe into the soil just before placing it down there. Started around 41F with the cold outside soil sitting in it after watering the seeds with warm water. Last time checked a few hours later (House 65 day, 68 evenings, 63 night) it had managed to creep up to 57F. *Big Smiles* Should equalize out nicely. After a few days I'll be happy to even use the grow lamp.

January Update

Total : 45 Hours

It was around 50F today. Amazing for a midwest january. Ive been working daily for the past week in the garden. A lot less sore today than some of the previous days. Must be the warmer weather. Put in about 7 hours of double-digging over the last two days. Plenty of neighbors stop by to ask whats going on. I have a theory : If you stand outside your house for hours on end, doing something different, someone is bound to walk by and ask what you are getting up to. The weather forecast for the next week is pretty warm and without precipitation. Guess I'll be here all week! Finding heaps more worms in the soil. The bed I was working on today was loaded with them. Some night crawler sized ones too!! It is interesting where you find them in the soil stratification. They should be really busy with all the new fluffy soil given to them.

Progression

Total : 38 Hours

20F

Total : 35 Hours

It doesn't matter how early you go outside to work in the garden when its 20F outside. At the end of the day you will realize that, not for lack of effort, you've not gotten as far as you would have liked. Everything moves a little slower at 20F. Over the last day or two I've managed to double-dig three beds in the front yard. The previous idea was to shovel off the top inch or two of dirt to remove the sod/roots. Take that layer and place it in a pile in the backyard to compost itself for a season in attempt to have the beds weed and grub free. New idea (Less wheel-barrowing) is to dig off the sod layer, set it to the side, dig the topsoil layer and move that, dig the clay/sand layer with a fork, then layer the inverted sod on top(roots up/grass down), then add back the 8 inches of aerated top soil over it. After some conversations and videos with other gardeners I believe that its buried deep enough to kill the grass and weeds while giving it a green manure of sort. All in all less moving for me. WOOT.

This afternoon's test run of this improved version worked marvelously. I was still able to find a large number of grubs and some sort of soil millipede looking creatures to remove. Any ideas on what the dark, shiny, black millipede looking bugs buried in the soil at grub level are?

Tomorrow should be a bit warmer. Here's to making progress before last frost hits!