God Made Dirt, and Dirt Don’t Hurt

Finally we have dirt, or compost and top soil to be precise, but we have it. Now our garden can go ahead with out further delay. We will be putting our plants in the ground on the first of April, our friend Andy (and hopefully his wife Leah) will be coming down to help us move our 140 plants into their new home. This first picture is of our raised bed (s) I calculated (with my advanced maths) that it is about 190(ish) square feet. It took 2 and a quarter tons (4.5 thousand pounds) of compost and about a ton of top soil to fill it out. I spent about 4 days filling it up (it would have taken one or two if I didn’t have to go to work), and now it is satisfyingly full.



This next picture is where we will be planting our watermelons, cantaloupe, pumpkins, and possibly our artichokes. I gave it a layer of compost to amend the soil, and in hopes that it would kill the grass and weeds. But to my astonishment grass and weeds like nutrients too, and they quickly sprouted up through the compost. So we decided to cover them up with plastic and cardboard boxes in hopes that this will kill them (our thoughts were that it would block the light and get too hot for them). We will see how well it works next week.



This final picture is of where I will be planting my 40 sunflowers. I’m hoping that the fence will provide some support (and I can tie them to the fence if necessary), and be a wind break as well.



And the news you all have been so patiently waiting for…I finally bought a pottery wheel!! It should be here early next week, and I can get started throwing some new stuff. But more on that later…

It’s Still Alive….!!! (Botanical Experiment Part II)

As you can see from the picture our seedlings have really taken off (they all most seem to have life of their own). I’m really excited about growing our own food, and trying our hand at preserving what we don’t eat. These little guys (and gals) will get transplanted to larger planters early next week (I will post pictures of the process because I know how everyone likes to see pictures (visual aids are great)). We still don’t have a garden full of dirt, but we have some leads on where we might get some (hopefully it will pan out because we plan to plant the plants on or near the 1st of April (and it would be nice to have some where to plant them)).
In other news we are headed to the opening of Momentum tonight to see all the art (I’m going mostly so I can eat some really good Pho (a Vietnamese delicacy in soup form)). Also, I’m hopeful that we will sell at least one of our motorbikes this month (mostly because the weather is starting to get really nice, which makes for good riding), and I can buy a pottery wheel so all of you can read something other than just about our plants (although I know how exciting it is). I also acquired a biscuit joiner, so you might have some wood working to look forward to as well as pottery (hopefully before the end of summer I will turn out some wood work (I just need to acquire a couple other tools, such as a router and bits to go with it)). I think that is enough parentheses for one day ( I have been told I use to many (I was also told that parentheses inside of parentheses are a bad way to write (so I wanted to try for a third parentheses inside of the other two to see how it will go over with my critic (my wife, oh that was one more than I thought I would do)))).

It’s Alive….!!!

So we finally planted our seeds this past weekend (even with our garden unfilled/finished). We thought we would go ahead because if we waited until the garden was finished all of our plants would be way behind on the growing curve. Here is a list of plants that we are planning on growing in (and around) our garden:


Oregano
Basil
Cilantro
Sage
Tomato (heirloom)
Zucchini
Cucumber (heirloom)
Squash
Sweet Peas
Green Beans
Bell Pepper (heirloom)
Serrano
Cayenne
Jalapeño (heirloom)
Green Onions (heirloom)
Leek
Carrots (heirloom)
Butter Crunch Lettuce (heirloom)
Brussels Sprouts
Cauliflower
Pumpkin
Watermelon
Corn
Potato (Purple)
Spring Mix/Mesclun Mix
Sunflower
Sweet Onion
Garlic
Sweet Potato
Blue Berries
Black Berries
Raspberries
Strawberries
Grapes

The heirloom seeds we got for free from a man named Ray who does Youtube videos about gardening (go and check him out he's pretty amusing and informing).


Here are a couple of pictures of our seeds in their little seed flats,







as you can see some of them have all ready sprouted. I am not sure which ones sprouted (we have a diagram but I didn’t have it with me), but quite a few did. We are growing the seedlings at my mother –in-law’s house because we don’t have the space or the sunlight in our house. So she graciously allowed us to grow them there (which I appreciate a lot!).

So we are still having problems getting soil for our garden, but it is coming together slowly. We got some soil from my mother-in-law, and some from one of my sisters-in-law. We will also go and pick up some more manure from our friends farm (ranch?) so we are getting there it is just taking more time than I thought it would.

On another note we joined an Etsy “Team” called Baha’is on Etsy, you all should go check it out. There are a lot of talented people from all over the country in that group (team?).

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like a Garden

So last Sunday Keturah went to a friend’s farm and picked up a truck load of manure for our garden (the truck (Shaniqua) was so loaded down it scared both of us). Although this was a lot of manure for the truck, the garden just seemed to absorb it. When I was done unloading it the level of the garden only grew by about an inch (I thought it would be a lot more). Seeing this I decide that a few more truck loads of compost (which would be free through the city) would help to fill it up. So I pack up and head over to the city compost center only to find out that they are completely out of compost, and won’t have any more until spring. I was devastated; I was really hoping to get the garden almost completely filled that Monday (I even bought a new wheel barrow for the job). The next day I wake up to find my garden completely filled


.... with snow.
This is what it looked like before (sans manure).

(Some of you might recognize the flywheel from a certain failed treadle wheel in the foreground.)

Flash forward to yesterday and I find out my in-laws know a man who has been letting people dump dirt on his property for the last ten years, and we can go and pick up as much as we want. It won’t be as good as the compost, but at least we can fill up the garden (and then amend it with compost and other sources of nutrients later). I’m excited to go and shovel a lot of dirt and some more manure (and then plant some plants (which reminds me that I need to get my seedlings started this week or next)). I’m now just waiting for all of this snow to melt, and a day off so that I can go and shovel some stuff.