Well extreme measures always beats extreme unction!
March on the Homestead
Love waking up to see any hint of sunshine on the horizon. Clear skys and 60's again today.
The temps dropped to 33 by 11:30 last night and I got nervous. Finally took a little kerosene lantern, turned down low, out to the GH at midnite, to see if that would help any. First thing this morning before sunrise, the GH temp was 44 and 58 under the tent. Should have done a better job of monitoring temps over the last few weeks, because now I don't know if it was the compost bin and tent that kept the temps up, or the lantern. I'd hate to lose any plants out there, but I'd be sick to lose the 70 or so tomato plants. Especially the two that are fixing to bloom.
My main focus today is going to be on planting out 40# of prepared potatoes, 15# of onion sets, 6 Peonies and 120 Gladiolas bulbs. Have to see where the day goes from there. I've been hearing the fish pond filter calling my name. That will probably be on the agenda too.
Later...
I am ready to plant my taters in the horse feed grow bags. Whaere should I sit the bags? (location wise)
Hey People !
Wow everyone is so busy.
msrobin wow that is a lot of spuds you got going on there.
i have a lot of seeds sprouting but if i transplant them i won't have enough room. My cold frame is in peices LOL and needs to be repaired. Waiting for the weather to give me a break so i can get out there
Jay how is the snow ? melting yet ?
we got a 1 " the other night. but its mostly gone.
bbl
Cajun, they need several hours of sunlight. Maybe group them together at the end of the garden for now. At some point, you will need to figure out how to support the filled bags, like a few stakes around the bags and a rope to hold them upright. When full, they would probably lean against each other fairly well, but I'm not certain. Could also line them up against a wall. Let me know what you decide. I'm doing mine today, too.
Sue, remind me later...as much trouble as you have with your cold frame, I've got an easier way. :)
msrobin yes i will remind you. Easy is my lifestyle LOL i beg for an easier way with this door .
i did try a zipper door but the zipper broke 3 times ! grrr. I do have tape to tape the back end on . I just need a door LOL
I would take a pic but my memory card is broken for the camera .
basically the door frame is two lenghts.
one 2x4 is 42 "H and the other is 38 "H so you either have to have a tall door or a really short door . yes my DH is not a carpenter by any means . *sigh* so i m waiting for a good day to get out there and remake the door frame and get the door back on.
I guess I'm confused about your cold frame. Do you have a pic posted on another thread that I could see? Sounds like you have more of a GH. I just use a low tunnel like the one is this picture. It takes 45 feet of flexible pvc pipe cut in 9' pieces. Each end of pipe goes over a 3' pc of 1/2 rebar pounded in the ground 1'. A standard roll of 20'x 25' plastic covers it, held closed on the ends by those plastic alligator clamps and rocks or logs around the bottom sides to hold the plastic down. It's easy enough to open the ends and use the clamps to hold the plastic (kind of rolled up) on the end hoops. You have to open it when the sun starts hitting it, cuz it heats up rapidly! This pic is from 2 years ago and is early summer. I attached that plastic netting fence to it, so I could grow beans up the netting, and lettuce and broccoli underneath. Which BTW worked great and I had them growing all summer.
OK, here's one idea for a temporary fix. Cut a board to go across the top of the door frame and screw it in place on either end. FInd a piece of plastic bigger (2 or 3 x maybe) than you doorway. Attach the plastic to the board on one side of the door and across the top using lathe or thin boards. This leaves the other side and the bottom hanging loose with extra plastic on the bottom and hopefully on the one side that extends out a ways, even to the corner of the GH. A large rock or log at that free corner of the plastic will hold it through all but the strongest winds. To hold the "door" open, roll it back and clamp the rolled part about midway with some kind of clamp.
I forgot you did the cattle panel hoophouse. I was going to, but decided I didn't want to mess with trying to build the end walls.
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Starting to get ugly around here...out of cigarettes, the van won't start and a thunderstorm is predicted for tonite. Gotta love country living! Gonna be a long night!
Here have one of my cigs.hehehehehe.Fresh Winston in the left, ice cold natural lite in the right.Hey Robin while your out fetching smokes.Could you round me up a jug of that kentucky [WHO SLAPPED SUE} Iprefer brand X
That might be an omen! Hopefully not too ugly a storm though.
Taynors I had a plant shelter out of cattle panels and all I used for a door was a piece of cattle panel covered in more of the plant shelter plastic. I just propped it against the house and had a bar that spanned the door and hooked into S hooks on both sides. There is no engineering like the engineering us heifers can do when needed! lol If you tour this link http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/115015/ and scroll down to the fourth photo it shows that door.
sweet ! podster. GOod idea. MMM me thinks i m getting an idea.
yes the end of the cattle panels area pain. but i got lots of plastic and lots of tape !!! Muwahahahaha
yikes out of smokes and van down. Call the Guards we got ourselves an emergency !!! women and children first . !! oh msrobin i sure hope you can get your cigs soon. i used to be a smoker and i know how that can be.
thanks for the idea's everyone.
hopefully this week i can get out and get the door fixed somehow.
good night friends
Awesome, Podster!
I would love to stay and play, but I can't hardly keep my eyes open. Surprising how much can be done without smoke breaks. I worked most of the day, just didn't do anything that I had planned on doing.
Hello? Hello? Anyone in here?
Kind of dreary in my world. Overcast and rain, but everything is sure green.
yep, just doing my mule impressions in the nursery. LOL DW loves to make me work.
Breaks over, back to watering trees ... only about 400 more to go lol.
No rain here... windy though and everything has turned green overnight it seems. The pine pollen has me choked up terribly and I had so much to get done. I wore a surgical mask and ear bags all afternoon to keep me from being more miserable. I managed to level two of the waterbeds. This time with sand and it worked much more quickly. I potted up twenty of the tomatoes that I am passing on to friends. The rest will be potted directly into the waterbed pots. Hope to start on that tomorrow as there are no temps in the 30°s for a week. Also started more seeds, three different basils, small sugar pumpkins, a small vining tomato called sugar plum and some annual bloomers. Peas and the potato bed are doing fine.
Msrobin ~ how did you make those italics?
Taynors ~ does that mean you didn't fix the gh door today? LOL
Podster, here you go: http://davesgarden.com/faq/forums/#131
It started raining in the wee hours this morning and never stopped for more than 10-15 minutes at a time all day. Needless to say, I didn't get anything done outside. I did go the greenhouse though and potted up 2 dozen tomato plants from the solo cups to gal pots. Still have another couple of dozen to do.
The weather forecast looks great for the next week after a low of 38 tonight. The lows for the rest of the week are upper 40's to 50's and highs upper 60's to 80. WhooHoo! Good thing, because I'm running out of room in the greenhouse and the house. Yesterday I formed 3 more wide raised rows in the new garden, for a total of 5 so far. As soon as it dries out a bit, I can start planting the spring seeds and transplants.
Van never did start. I called a neighbor and asked if he could come spray starter fluid for me (I can't run fast enough to spray and start by myself). If it doesn't start tomorrow, guess I'll be calling a tow truck to take it to the shop.
I also asked him to run me up to the little store for cigarettes. Still planning on quitting, but without having my own ride, I just felt like I needed some here for security. However, I was pretty proud of how well I did for the 26 hours I was out, even though I slept 9 of those hours. lol The plan was that I would quit while Al was gone and I've only got a couple of weeks left to do so.
J, everything okay?
Thanks for that link let's see if I'm smart enough to figger it out...
Do you think you slept because of boredom, rain or lack of cigarettes? I found when I quit I had to change my routine totally. If I would normally enjoy a smoke at a certain time, I would get up and do something different. Seemed to work for me but it was not easy. Good luck...
My eyes are tearing and nose is running and my feet are probably smelling too. Blessed allergies! Off to bed.
Podster, sorry to hear about the allergies acting up. That sure makes gardening tough sometimes. I forgot to ask, how many waterbeds do you have? Looks like you got it figgered out. :)
Fantastic week ahead, forecast wise. Well, except for tonite, when they've already pushed off the 38 prediction from last night to tonight. Can't remember the source on tv, but I recently heard a comment made about "weathermen and politicians being the only 2 professions where they still have jobs inspite of being wrong so much of the time".
Hope everyone has a great day! I'm off to open the greenhouse and start making a plan for today.
Yep, no wind today but the pollen is still here.
Great news .... We saw the first hummer of the season yesterday the 28th. Last year the first one arrived on the 23rd.
L_K, cool! We always have a bunch of Hummingbirds that hang around here.
Had to come back to the house for a minute and wanted to check in. J, are you mad at us? Haven't heard from you here since Saturday night.
Got tons to do garden-wise this week. Have to get all my little projects a little further along before the weekend. Doesn't look like I've really done much, but the foundations are started, which is half the battle. Al can't always "see" where I'm going with an idea and he will be back home sometime over the weekend. :)
Rainy here today but the rest of the week looks really promising. My gardening buddy is back from Fla so I can get my beans, peas, corn and okra in soon. Broccoli is looking good. I feel great today thank the Lord.
Got 2 chicks hatched in the bator. 22 more to go.
Pod, hope you get to feeling better soon.
Robin, good luck with quitting. You can do it!
Cajun, :) I know I can. I quit 13 years ago for 3 years. Starting back up was THE stupidest thing I've ever done. It's encouraging, though, that I'm feeling so much better and breathing so much better after just a couple of days!
ok watched a show on tv, and i thought it would be helpful here,, how to stop animals from entering your garden,, or trash or compost,, the key to it all was to soak something in vinigar and then add chyanne peppers( spelling sorry) to it (Dried seasonning powdered ) and line the perimeter of your garden it will keep unwanted animals out of your garden
also heres another website i found that might be of help
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/26765/natural_ways_to_keep_animals_out_of.html
i am doing some more research and i will also post other ideas i come accross
If your have strawberries plants that get robbed by birds, get some driveway stones. Paint the stones red, and scatter them around your plants. The birds will get fed up with the hard "strawberries" and leave them alone by the time they are rip
Raccoons love to snick in and nipple on your corn. Next time your plant your seeds, plant squash around your corn plants. Raccoons don't like it at all. And to keep rabbits away, dust your plants with talcum powder.
Deer can be troublesome also. Try scattering hair around your garden. Human hair will work, but other animal hair may work better. And if your a real desperate to keep deer out, go to your local zoo and get some exotic animal dong. They will be glad to give you some! I also can across the tip of putting Christmas lights around your garden. But it may become the talk of town, lighting your garden. Maybe using porch party lights wouldn't look so odd.
And now for those insects. A mixture of 4 Tbsp dish soap in 1 gallon of water sprayed in your garden will keep aphids, spider mites, and other pests away. You could also spray leftover coffee where spider mites hang out. If you have a plant infected with spider mites, mix up 1/2 cup buttermilk, 4 cups wheat flour, and 5 gallons of water. Spray or pour onto plants. Mix some cayenne peppers with water in a blender. Spray the mixture in your garden to keep ants, spiders, caterpillars, and cabbage worms out
If you have insects bothering your perennials, mix up some black pepper and pre-sifted flour. Sprinkle it on and around your plants. Placing matches headfirst into the soil around your fern plants will keep worms off. Use 4 to 6, depending on the size of the fern.
Recycle old sandpaper disks in your garden to keep slugs off your plants. Cut them open to make a collar that can be slipped around your plant. Slugs won't cross over them. Also, to kill slugs and snails instantly sprinkle salt on them. The best time to find them out is at night.
And lastly, you do not want standing water around your home. This is where mosquitoes lay their eggs. Keep buckets, wagons and such upside down, or covered. If you can't get rid of the standing water, pour some dish soap in it. This will kill the eggs and larva
ok now this is a lil story i came across when i was selling kirby vaccuums in florida which i loved doing btw.. So i walked up to this door and on the path way up i noticed all kinds of plastic silverware in her garden just stuck in the ground forks knives and spoons, her whole garden was a glimmering sight of white. so as i knocked on her door my first question had nothing to do with selling vaccuums it was all about her garden, I asked her ma'am whats with the plastic ware all over your garden, and she began to tell me her story, she said well theres a truth to why i do it but i thought it would be a very fun joke for my neighbor, because her neighbor had asked her the same question, well she may have been in her late 70's but she had so much humor and personality, she told her neighbor that if you plant forks and spoons in your garden you will get knives, she continued to tell me that she noticed her neighbor had went out to his garden and planted some forks and spoons and so i looked over and low and behold there was a field of white all over his garden, she told me that in a week she went over there at night and took a whole bunch of knives and stuck them all over his garden,, I guess she was having some fun with him, because she said he ran over the next day saying it really worked lol the elderly can be so much fun, but she also said the real reason for doing it was it helps keep animals out of your garden,, just thought i would sare this with you,, it always gives me a lil chuckle when i think about it
Thanks for all the tips!
np caj,,, also how big of a town is inez ky,, is it eastern ky
Inez is about 600 people in eastern Ky but I don't live there anymore. I moved an hour and a half away to a small, rural community called Biggs. It's in Pike County which is also eastern Ky.
yeah i know where that is,, i used to go to boarding school in oneida, and i loved it
Cool ideas. Thanks.
np robin
Heh-Heh-Heh===================== Some things never change!Still craving tobacco GOOD It`s natural, .Just returned from missouri,after two trips.Back in Cleveland, for the ===hopefully last trip.Hello all, sorry to barge in.Hope all is well w/ the good people.
midnite so what u moving to misouri? u buy land out there or just visiting or plan on settleing with ppl in that area to do the homestead
I am checking out from someone elses twisted version of life.