Harvest Monday......3/21/2011

We had a small harvest this week from the cold frames. A little lettuce and the remaining pak choi. This pak choi started to bolt just as the others did. I'm sure it was from fluctuating temperatures in the cold frames.

The lettuce in combination with the carrot and radishes from last week made great dinner salads! The pak choi is still waiting in the refrigerator for "The Italian" to make it into a fine dinner this week!

This week's harvest total was 8 oz: 4 oz. of lettuce and 4 oz. of pak choi.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

We are Gated!!!

"The Italian" and I spent 6 hours yesterday and about 4 hours today at the plots. Yesterday it was very windy and the air was very cold even though the temperature was in the 50's. Today it was much nicer outside. The temperature was in the low 50's and there wasn't much wind. From talking to long time gardeners at the plots, we have learned that it tends to be windy there.

After all that time we finally have the gates installed and added some height to the front fence.

The gates are 5' tall and wide. They are attached to 8' posts. "The Italian" has some kind of water saving system designed that requires these two posts to be that high. He is also going to install turn buckles and gables at the top of the gates to keep them from saging. The old gate to the right was screwed shut and wire fencing was put over it. Although you cannot see it in the picture, I did put bunny fencing at the bottoms of the gates. It does drag on the ground a bit to try to keep the critters out.

I took pieces of 4' high fencing that was left at the plots from the previous gardeners and attached it to the existing fence. There were several old metal posts left there too. "The Italian" hammered them into the ground and I did the grueling task of cutting pieces of heavy wire and wiring everything together. As you can see, there are waves in the fencing...but, it was free and will definitely serve it's purpose!! I have to say that this has been my least favorite thing that we have done at the plots. I wasn't the happiest of campers yesterday and today. It will all be worth it when those beds are full of beautiful veggies though.

Oh...look at the plot to the right of us.....no more weeds!!! We have newbie gardener nieighbors who have been waiting over a year to get a plot. I was so thrilled when we got there yesterday and saw that the weeds have been removed. They really seem like nice people. They also have a four year old son who will give my "Little Garden Helper" someone to play with.

Speaking of "My Little Garden Helper", he is going to Florida tomorrow to see his other grandparents. He has only seen his grandmother once and has never seen his grandfather. I'm feeling quite teary knowing that my little guy is leaving on a jet plane and will be gone for two weeks.

Plotting Along an update

The weather has been good and we have been able to get some more work done at the plots.

Bed 1 (3' x 34') on the right I dug last week and added some compost to yesterday. Bed 2, the next one to the left is 4' x 30'. This bed took me two afternoons to turn over. It was covered with abandoned strawberries, a lot of thick grass and a bunch of living weed roots. I put all of the strawberries in a few bucket and added a little dirt to them. Since I had already ordered 75 strawberry plants for the strawberry bed, we don't need them. I was hoping that I would find a gardener to take them. Well, today a new gardening couple at the Community Gardens were there and were very happy to take them off my hands. It was so hot today, that I was afraid they would dry up and die. They took them home to separate them and pot them up until they are ready to be planted.

Yesterday, "The Italian" and I dug bed #5. This bed is 4' x 28' and it only took the two of us 1 1/2 hours to dig it!! Boy, turning over a bed goes a lot faster when you have a good helper!!

 

Today I went over to the plots by myself to install the bunny fencing along the left side. This had to be done since it is behind Bed #6 which is the strawberry bed. This bed needs to get turned over and ready ASAP!! I think my strawberry plants will be shipped next week.

This fencing was a pain in the you know what to install!! The neighbors to the left of us had installed fence but it was not buried in the ground. I took shorter pieces of fencing that I had here to bury in the ground and attach to the existing fencing. This side of the plot 47' long....3' longer then the right side. Well, I had to dig and cut wire and attach and dig behind the cold frame....boy, I was a dirty mess when I got home. It took me 3 1/2 hours to install that fencing!!!

While I was at the plots, look what "The Italian" made....the gates for the plots!!! Aren't they just wonderful??? We will take them over there tomorrow, cover them with wire fencing, install the posts and put them up!!!

Guess what today is?????

It's somebody's Birthday!!! No, it's not mine or "The Italian's"

No it's not

Miss Banana's

It's

 Alvin's 9th BD!!! Now he's the same age as us!!

The Great Blind Vole Catcher!!

Home Veggie Garden Mid-March

Since we had rain this morning, I did not go to the plots. I have spent several hours over there the past two days, but have not taken any pictures. I will take pictures of the plots tomorrow and post an update on them in the next day or two.

The weather was nice this afternoon so I decided to clean out the veggie and perennial beds. Here are some photos of what is going on in the veggie department at home.

I weeded  and loosened up the soil in the two cold frames. Now all I have to do is move some of the plants around next week. There is a lot of wasted space in them.

Some Arugula and Lettuce in the cold frames.

Kale and Rainbow Chard in the cold frames

The garlic bed behind the cold frames. There is one Brussels Sprout plant from last year that looks like it may give us a harvest after all.

These little guys spent the day outside and will soon begin to spend the nights out there too.