New Cold Frame

Now that the spinach is planted and colder weather is on the way, I needed a new cold frame. I bought the conduit today with extra straps. Jenna helped me. She bent the conduit into hoops. (My job was holding the completed sections so that they would be more or less straight when she finished.) We did as good a job and Doug Shaw and I did the other day.

Installation when fairly quick. Jenna wanted to drill the straps in, but she didn't want to sit down because the ground was wet and she had already seen what it did to my seat, so she was a little challenged not being able to deliver all the pressure the drill needed. But she did a lot of the work and I just had to finish a few things off.


I spent a couple of hours this afternoon creating the plastic sheet. The sheets I made before are actually just a bit too short. We measured the length needed. Fortunately, I had just enough 6 mil. plastic left. I used to put in 3 grommets on each end and 2 on each side. I have figured out that the side grommets were not very useful. So I skipped them this time. I used to also hem up the sides of the sheets. I abandoned that this time. The sheet now hangs down past the bottom of the raised bed (past where the raised bed meets the ground).

It is supposed to get down to the high 20s F tonight. I'm hoping the ground will stay warm enough for the spinach to sprout. Time will tell.

Growth

This morning was dedicated to starting to compost leaves. The trees shed a lot in the last few days. I don't quite have the energy to do a lot at a time. So my strategy is to pile up a tarp, take it to the compost piles and shred it. That way I get one tarp done at a time, but I get it all done. It means starting up the shredder/chipper multiple times, but I'm fine with that now that I have the secret of the starting fluid down.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow. Indeed, it rained a little today. So I uncovered the cold frames. I was also curious about how things were growing and how many weeds had sprouted. The garlic and onions are doing well, but there are a lot of weeds in those beds. The cauliflower and brussel sprouts are doing reasonably well, but there are no heads yet.


The brocolli has some very small heads starting to form. The turnips are starting to show small roots. The beets are growing, but are not large.

Spinach

I planted my spinach seeds today. I had soaked them for three days in the house, laid in a paper towel. None had sprouted yet.

My immediate concern is that the potting soil in the new beds was very dry. I'm not sure how well it will hold water until it decomposes a bit. The water barrels are still nearly empty so I used the hose.

My next task is to get them covered with cold frames. It has been chilly but hasn't been below freezing the past few days.

Empty Water Barrels

I went out this morning, thinking that I would start the process of getting the new beds ready to plant spinach seeds. I've counted 192 seeds (4 x 4 x 12) and got them soaking. I've tested the new soil for pH (6.5 in all beds). So I thought I would water them down.

I went to get the hose and heard a slight sucking sound as I picked it up. The cock that closes off the hose was just slightly turned to one side. I opened it up all the way and got absolutely no water. So I took off the screen on the barrel I typically use to test the depth in the barrels. I couldn't see any water or reach it when I stuck my arm through the hole. I went inside a retrieved my measuring stick. I think there is maybe 3 inches in the bottom, below the faucet inset in each barrel.

So, I either the valve on the hose was just open enough to allow the water to slowly drain, or I have a broken hose. We have had cold weather, but I am hoping it wasn't the latter. I've closed the valve completely, but I have to wait for rain to figure this out.

Dirt at Last

It seems that it has been a long time coming. Finally, I was able to get soil for the three 4' x 12' raised beds that I started adding to the garden last spring. I actually got the dirt for my birthday; a very good present that I am happy with. Maybe the best present in a long while!

Jason helped me wheelbarrow the dirt in yesterday. He has become strong and was able to make the job go quickly.

The dirt wasn't the same as it has been in the past. Two and a half years ago, when I put the last top soil in the beds, the soil had been manufactured by a retired police officer who had access to cotton dust from the local cotton mills. (This according to the woman at Oak Ridge Shrubbery.) Since then, however, the mills have gone overseas and the cotton dust with it. I never knew that that was what the soil was composed of until I went to order the new soil. The new stuff is more of a traditional planting mix composed of a lot of compost and cow manure. I'm not opposed to it, I had just hoped for more of the same. Herodotus was right again. Things will always change.


One interesting fact that I had to deal with this time around was the volume that was delivered to the yard. The bed are roughly 4' x 12' x 1', or 48 cubic feet each or a total of 144 cubic feet, more or less. I ordered four yards of soil. In past orders, I certainly needed to supplement the soil delivered with compost to get the volume in the beds sufficient. Four yards should be roughly 108 cubic feet. So, what I don't quite understand is how I had more soil delivered than would fit in the three beds. I've never filled the beds completely to the top before. This time we filled the beds to the top and still had a little left over. The soil is much lighter than the cotton dust soil, so maybe it just expanded a bit and will eventually settle. I'm not sure.


I'm mostly just glad to get this done.

Various Preparations

I've completed several tasks over the past several days. Lumping into a preparation category makes sense to me.

After cleaning up the garden, I had a faily large pile of cleared material -- grass from between the beds that was fully dead and tomato vines. There was also a small accumulation of kitchen compost. My experience is that it all just does better if I shred it first before trying to start it off truly composting. I bought a used chipper shredder, a Murray (the company has since been sold to someone who ended the line). For the past several seasons (I don't remember when I bought it), I would struggle to get the engine started. If a small engine isn't used regularly, it is just plain hard to start. But I've learned and verified that a little spot of some starting fluid makes it so much easier. I take off the air filter and spray it right into the carburetor it starts right up. I'm happy to do that. I was able to end up with a little less than half a yard of compost. It will grow smaller, but the raw materials are out of the way. My goal this year is to process leaves right away. Having the first batch of composting materials processed and having a method for starting the machine is a good start.

My second task has been to weed the onions and garlic. The weeds are small, but I realized that if I let them grow unchallenged, they would take over. It is a bit laborious to pull them; they are small and my fingers get very dirty. I tried the disturb them with a chop stick method. It didn't work. The roots of the weeds seemed to adapt and reattach to the soil. Pulling and casting them out of the bed is the only thing that works. (Sort of like getting rid of other problems in life if you want to use the analogy.)

It has finally become cold. Last night was the first frost we had. It was 27F when I woke up and had been down to 26F. I want to get the brassicas covered. I also covered the onions and garlic after I took this photo. I've left the strawberries uncovered for now. I want grasses to die so I can clean out the beds.



The last task was to finish the last new raised bed box. I was frustrated with the last spike in the last corner. Things weren't together like I wanted them. I finally figured out how to bend one of the side boards so that I could align it. I had to drill a new hole through the bottom board. I am now ready for top soil that I hope will come in a couple of weeks.