Garden Projects 3 - 2010

cold out there today - re-did the rock wall that abuts where i dug out - and then finished the stone bird bath - better half came home and saw what i was doing - only commit was she thought is was on a chain gang hammering away:)

she kinda liked it.

Last year we recovered the rest of our overgrown veggie garden and I have a pretty size able collection of old canes, saplings, and weeds to get rid of. Even though I've done something like this before, I've never attempted to actually use it with purpose and even raked up the leftovers that I should have been turning into the soil. I ran across this article in the vegetable gardening forum and wanted to share it here. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx
I'm planning to use this in my new tomato area this year. Ric

Did you ever see the old movie, "I am a fugitive from a chain gang"? I guess that's you, Bill. Glad DW likes it. You and Victor are too funny.

Go Ric!

they would arrest us if we set a fire in the yard like that here

Same here, Allison. But let us know how it works for you, Ric. That was very interesting to read.

I would love to be your wife, Bill, to be surprised daily by wonderful garden additions. Before I even went in the house I'd have to wander around to see what popped up.

not sure i've seen that one harper.
thx jan

Our son did an explosive biochar here about 6 years ago...he was refinishing an old house, decided to burn old flooring in what had been my veggie garden, no burning permit, he threw on what he thought was kerosene, but was actually mixed with gasoline, KABOOM----all the windows rattled in the house, what a fireball! The fire chief lived just up the road, but no one came to investigate...thankfully! That fire smoldered forever.

i have those biochar areas all over here - after the lumber company took away the 70 white pines they left all the branches and any part of the tree that was not board worthy - had 4 big fires going at once each day and moved around based on where i was working - branches and crap in some places was 8' high - so i find the remains all the time while digging - everything grows great in those areas and it is why i always add wood ash to the compost and top soil while planting.

still went out in the cold today and worked - in the afternoon decided to go hiking in the woods in search of hickory saplings and i was in luck - have enough now to build a couple trellis's for clems on order so that is what i will be doing while it is raining monday and tuesday - also found a couple cool large rocks like the one in the garden bed at the top of thread - worked up a pretty good sweat carrying those to the road.

Bill I do always add my wood ashes to my compost and any soil I'm amending, I just never realized how beneficial the charcoal was. Duh, LOL Ric

could you just add the natural wood charcoal to the soil?

Why not? I have some wood ashes in the fireplace, just enough for the peonies.

Charcoal will take a while to break down. Whats wrong with us?
Northeast Gardening 72 posts - we came in 4th.

Everyone Sleeping?

here is a trellis i made today for a couple clematis - under estimated how much wood i needed - have to out and get some more hickory now

Perfect...you're going to have some happy clems!

thx robin - just back from the woods and have enough hickory to build the second one for the other clem - and i learned a lesson - there is another in the background of the picture - you will notice i did not have the inside pieces tall enough to keep the clem growing up to the top - need to do something about that other one.

Ya know wha, sometimes its nice to let the clems climb as high as the trellis and let them droop over like weeping willows.

i agree frank as i have a nice cobalt blue top on the other one that i would not want covered - still there is too much space open at the top so i have to do something about it.

Is there no end to your imaginative projects out of natural things all around you, Bill? I love that trellis! I must sound like a broken record when I comment on your creations. I really do love the things you've made! How do you think that kind of trellis would work for tomatoes? This year I'm going to have to find something creative to do with my tomatoes. My veggie garden just doesn't get enough sun for them, and Hank thinks there's nowhere in the yard that gets enough sun for them. I've got to come up with some solution because I MUST have my fresh 'maters this summer! If anyone knows someone in our area in NH who would cut down some pretty big trees for free if they could keep the wood, let me know!! LOL I don't think I'll have sun for my garden until we remove some big white pines and maples and a biggo oak tree. That's not likely going to happen on our budget! So, time to think of some creative ways around this! Great job, Bill!!

thx louise - you should look up some local lumber companies - there are many who will come in and cut down the trees and take them away for free - they leave a mess behind that you have a bonfire with.

Really? We'll check into it when we get up there. Thanks, Bill.

Wish my son lived closer, Louise....he just cut down 5 pines shading out the first row of blueberry bushes on the farm...plus he uses the wood for his outdoor furnace. You can grow your matoes in large pots & move them around to catch the sun...when one of my uncles got too old to dig up a garden, his patio held a few pots of tomatoes....always looked better than mine!

DonnieBrook - I would think that in NH there should be no end of folks to take down your trees. You may try advertising in local papers or Craigs List. I know over here in Maine there's always someone willing to do that. Just make sure they know what they're doing. You wouldn't want trees on your house, garage or car.

Love the trellis, Bill!

thx harper - finished the second one today

Bill - very nice design, and it appears quite sturdy - could be useful for a number of things, including tomatoes. No hickory here, but we do have plenty of vine maple. Well that might prove awkward as VM tends to be assymetrical. I'll have to think on that one...
I do have a question for you regarding your experience with rocks. Did you ever get "stuck", as in you couldn't find the right rock for the part of the wall you were working on? If so, how did you overcome this?
I understand that more rocks may provide a greater number to choose from - for the correct shape/size.
But I have to purchase rocks, and am limited to how many I can bring home at a time, and then deal with staging each one for its best use.
I started building a long retaining wall last summer, hurt my wrist badly in September & am just now back to playing agin. I scaled back on the height - it would just be too much for my wrist, since I'm doing this by myself. So, it has become a one-level retaining wall, and I'v tried to get each rock to "lock into" its neighbour. Sort of creating the puzzle as I go. In any case, sometimes it just doesn't "feel" right and it's getting frustrating...I'd appreciate any insight you might have...

katye that happens all the time - you just can't find the right rock to fit - usually it is after i have been at it for a while - i usually just walk away and come back the next day and find a rock that i "thought" i had tried every way possible miraculously now fits into place, can't tell you how many times that has happened - other times i get the one that fits the closest and break some others until i find one that fits the missing spot - also what does not looks like "fits" to us goes unnoticed by everyone else because we are trying to be too perfect.

when i look at the wall i did last fall behind the day lily bed i did not have many big rocks/boulders only enough for the back side so i was using smalled ones for the front side with the thought i would raise the dirt level and it would be hidden from view - now i have decided to leave the ground at the same level because the finished product ended up very tight with intricate rock placement.

also i may have an advantage here because of all the smaller sized rocks i have piled high from all the digging of beds i do here so there is always something to help overcome the problem spot - i usually save the thinner long rocks to use for sticking into an embankment or width of the wall as well as triangle shaped rocks that help a lot too - flat rocks and white quartz are saved for the top and where they can be seen.

Bill, I know the walk away feeling, I've been ready to quit numerous time and just gave it a rest. You come back and voila, it works. I have a theory about that, I think the rock elves come out at night to help us. LOL Ric

i thought is was the empty beer bottles:)

actually i find it takes 2 hours to finish a beer when i am playing with rocks.

Marilyn - I grew 2 tomatoes in pots here this winter and they did fine - except they had to be watered every day or they'd dry out too much. Our patio is mostly shade, so I jokingly (but maybe not so much) told Hank that I was going to put the tomatoes in a wheelbarrow so I could move them around the meadow. Cutting down some trees next to the garden would help more than the tomatoes. The green beans and broccoli do fine in the amount of shade the garden gets. Peppers do ok but they take forever to ripen. Potatoes and tomatoes and onions don't do as well as they would if there were more sun. We're noodling it.

Frank - you have encouraged me to check out some possible takers. Our biggest concern is having too much slash to clean up. We will have our hands full this summer with 2 young puppies that still need watching, plus building a fenced area and re-screening our porch for them. I may not even get to doing a garden for one year. But the thought of not having fresh veggies available for the picking doesn't sit well with me. Our puppies get fresh raw veggies as their treats and as part of their diet, so I'll have to do green beans and carrots at the very least. LOL I'm almost embarrassed to admit that the pups got all the green beans from the 4 pots I kept going all winter. We got none. :) It was nice to be able to pick them while they were still small and tender. Spoiled? well, maybe a teensy bit.....LOL

Louise, Brian cuts our tree's down himself and we do the clean up too......you might be able to persued him to cut it down, but not haul it back to Maine!! We have enough of our own, but you could sell it it and it could help pay for the porch or fence. ^_^

You're too much, Celeste! Do you remember how high and how many trees were there along our stone wall by the road?! I wouldn't dream of putting Brian through that!! I think it will take someone in the business with the right equipment that has a use for the wood. Thank you so much, though, for the thought!! I'd rather sit and visit with you and Brian when you're here!!! LOL

If you only knew what he has put my nerves thru....LOL. He dropped a tree inbetween 2 flower beds without hurting a thing. I was impressed!

did he use ropes? i always guide my trees by getting a rope up into it and tying off to another tree in the direction it want it to go just to be sure.

louise i think you should be able to find some time to plant a garden - those girls can not be 24/7:)

Yes Bill, sometimes he use's a rope.

Jim uses his tractor sometimes when dropping a tree.

Deadwood can be the most dangerous to cut, they jump, dance, spin, and yes, shout! I always rope those suckers. The worst part is finding the Cajones to get a rope into a dead tree. LOL Ric

no thanks!!!

i just tie a heavy stick to the rope and throw it up as high as i can and tie it off.

climbed a tree to hang a bat house this spring that was pretty hairy - when i look at it from the ground it does not look that high and i think to myself - wimp!

DH and Friend use block and tackle to tie off trees to our truck via a come-a-long to land them where they should go. I am always impressed with the math they use to get the angles right. They used a big ladder to get the rope up high enough on this one in the collage. It still had plenty of strength to lean against with the ladder, but my DH did clear under it, before he climbed up, so if he had to bail out he wouldn't land on big dead branches under it. They took down 3 trees last Feb. I hated to see them go, but they had all died and were raining down dead limbs in every storm.

We had a huge tree in Vt that needed to come down and it cost us 500.00 dollars plus the wood, to have felled professionally about 10 years ago, as it was along the road and very close to our house. There was no way to take it down ourselves. The tree guys used a big bucket truck and lowered everything with ropes. They came with a huge chipper attached to the back of a log truck. They then hauled away the big stuff as part of their payment. It's mate was across the road and leaning away from everything, but we were too cheap to have it done at the same time. Nature this winter saved us at least another 500.00 bucks when she dropped that tree in a perfect spot. We did the clean up. Patti