Rebuilding the Compost Bin - Part 2

Over the last several days, my husband has rebuilt the compost bin with most of the work being done today.  Some of the wood from the old compost bin was re-usable, but while the old bin only had cedar 4x4 posts, this one is mostly made of cedar and a lot of it from our own property. After the old bin was taken down, the concrete pad was swept clean so that rebuilding could begin.

First, my husband put up the corner posts and tied them together at the tops and bottom

Then he was able to start attaching the sides.

All of the posts and the bottom boards are of cedar this time so the bin should last at least another 20 years.

Then strips were added to the front centre post and the back wall so that divider boards could be put in place.  Boards can be slid into place at the front or removed as needed.

While this was being done, the power went out on our island.  Luckily, my husband collects, re-furbishes and uses antique hand tools, so while he screwed the boards in place with a portable drill, he was able to cut the boards with one of his collectible handsaws!  And so was able to finish the compost bin.

Then finally, I pitched the unfinished compost in the right hand bin, putting the least composted on the bottom and topping with mostly finished compost.  It's filled with red wiggler and ordinary earthworms.  It won't take long to become gold!  Tomorrow I'll put the screened compost in the left hand bin ready to add in the garden when needed.  I'll certainly pay attention to the back of the new bin just in case those sneaky cedar trees decide to try their luck again!

More April Seeding - Carrots, Beets & Swiss Chard

Work on the compost bin proceeds and my husband may even have it finished today.  Really good news for all the compost currently sitting on the ground!

Today it was time to seed some more vegetables.  First up were carrots.  I seeded these at the end of the garlic bed.  Four varieties were chosen - Scarlet Nantes, Royal Chantenay, Little Fingers and Jeanette.  I seed my carrots in wide bands.

Carrot seeds

I try to space the seeds out, but they're small and finicky.  And since they're small, I cover them with with a seeding mixture.  This shows up well with a lighter colour so I know that what comes up here should be carrot seeds.  A dear friend thins her carrots by transplanting the tiny seedlings that are too thick, and I will probably do this once they're up.  Root vegetables don't like being transplanted and I know it will set them back, but my friend has had great success doing this, and I hate to waste seedlings!

Covered with seeding mixture

Once the seeds were covered, they got a good watering and were left to germinate.  Carrots take a good while to germinate - as much as 2 to 3 weeks - so patience is needed.

Next up are beets and Swiss chard.  Seeds from these plants are actually clusters of 2 or more seeds, so once they sprout, they'll require thinning.  Since the seeds are large, it's easy to space them out.  Swiss chard transplants well, but beets not so much.  I may give it a try though!  I only grow a small row of beets as I'm the only one in the house who likes them.  These will be destined to be pickled beets - which I love!

I seeded these in the bed that will eventually have some beans.  Currently it has 3 Lacinato kale plants at one end and lettuces at the other. The row of Swiss chard is sideways in the photo above as the beans will be planted at the side against the bean support structure.  Again, I covered the seeds with seeding mixture.  These larger seeds don't really need it, but it nicely marks out where the vegetables should be coming up.

We have a couple of cool, showery days ahead and then warm, sunny weather.  Perfect timing for planting.

April Chores

Today my husband got going on building the compost bin and I got some transplanting chores done.  More on the compost bin when it's complete!

As I said in a previous post, our house is on the market.  There was an initial flurry of activity and showings resulted in offers 4:3.  Unfortunately, all of the deals collapsed and things are currently pretty quiet.  It seems that we will probably be staying here.  Time to get going on the garden!

Transplanted tomatoes

I started off today's chores with transplanting some of the tomato seedlings into larger pots.  6 of the Health Kick tomatoes were moved to bigger homes as well as the mixed up Gold Nugget and Sweet Million tomatoes.  Those two varieties are starting to make their identities known!

Then on to the outside transplanting.  I've been wanting to get the Copra onions in the ground but had to wait until the irrigation pond pumps were up and running.  Then of course, life got in the way with family lunches and appointments.  Today is warm but cloudy - a perfect day for transplanting.  The final 3 Lacinato kale plants found a home and I tucked 91 onion seedlings into one of the raised beds.

Onions planted

The Copra seedlings were a little larger than I usually allow them to get, but a thorough watering of the pot allowed me to gently tease them apart.  I marked out 13 rows on the bed and watered it well.  7 onions went into each row including one little guy with a not very strong root system.  We'll see how he gets on.  The rest of the seedlings were pretty robust and I firmed them into the wet soil.

Tomato cages provide protection for the seedlings

The final step was laying tomato cages over the seedlings.  This prevents neighbourhood cats (which just might include our own!) from digging and uprooting the little plants.

Onion seedling

By the time the tomatoes need their cages, the onions will be well established and not need protection.

Apple blossoms

Spring is certainly roaring on with a vengeance.  All the apple trees are bursting into blossom and the mason bees are working hard at pollinating the flowers.  As long as the weather holds, it looks like we might have a good apple crop!

Rebuilding the Compost Bin - Part One

In my last post, I bewailed the fact that the cedar trees had been invading my garden.  Then yesterday, I discovered they had gotten into the compost bin as well!  We had carefully built the compost bin on a concrete slab raised up from the ground so that the cedar roots couldn't get in.  We built this compost bin about 15 years ago and it has served us well.  It was constructed entirely out of cedar planks and posts which came from trees taken down on our property.

Rotting cedar boards which have let in the cedar roots.

The boards at the bottom of the bin were starting to rot but I hadn't realized that the bottom board on the back had popped out, spilling compost out the back and providing an avenue for the cedar trees to make their way into my compost!  From the size of the roots I chopped off, they had been in for a couple of years.

First on the agenda was removing the compost.  The bin is a 2-section compost box.  I first removed and sifted from the right-hand side which contained my finished compost.  And it was full of roots.  I got a whole wheel barrow full of cedar roots from this section.

Cedar roots!

Then I mostly emptied the left-hand section which was compost in the making.  The material which was the least broken down was piled on the grass.  That which was partially composted went on a tarp next to it.  When the compost bin has been rebuilt, the roughest material will go on the bottom of one side followed by the most broken down on the top.  This side was well-populated with worms, both the normal earthworms and red wigglers, and the cedar roots had only just started to creep in.  Notably, the side filled with roots had hardly any worms at all.

When most of the material was removed, my husband was free to deconstruct the bin.

Deconstruction of the compost bin

Some of the boards can be re-used, but posts and some planks will need replacing.  Luckily we have the materials on hand.  Stay tuned for Part Two!

Invasive Cedar Roots!

One of the reasons for gardening in concrete raised beds is that we have nearby cedar trees.  They are thirsty trees and the roots are continually seeking out moisture and nutrients.  Before we put our compost bin on a concrete base, the cedar roots were in there immediately!  Concrete raised beds with concrete bottoms and drainage hoses solved out gardening problems.  Well, at least we thought so!

Unfortunately,  the cedar trees managed to find tiny cracks in the bases of two beds.  This means that each year before planting, I have to dig out the areas of the beds they've managed to broach and cut out the roots.  They do manage to re-establish themselves, but at least I've minimized the damage.

Today I tackled the first bed.  This one grew a super tomato crop last year and this year I'll be planting onions in it.  The roots are all coming up the one side of the bed, so I dig all the soil away from that side and expose the roots.

Soil pulled from the side of the bed to expose the roots

Once the roots are visible, I cut them off with a knife.  Then I can shovel all the soil back in place and the bed is ready for another year.

Sneaky cedar roots creeping in!

A pile of cedar roots removed from the raised bed

In the next day or so, I'll do the second bed.  This is the last one we built, but the cedar roots got into it right away.  It's been a very wet winter so far, but when I turned over some of the soil a couple of weeks ago, it was quite dry underneath the top - that's the cedar roots!

And now on a happy note!  A number of years ago, I brought home some camas lily seeds.  I scattered them on the rocky hillside below the garden plateau.  The first year I saw a few brave green spikes but forgot all about them.  I've never seen flowers yet, but this year there are lots of camas lily leaves.  Maybe this will be the year we see flowers.

Camas Lily leaves

This hillside is wild and we just cut down the weeds and grass when it gets too high.  It never gets watered.  But there are the camas lilies just below the top!

In Transition

I haven't written in a while - partly because life has kept us busy - but mostly because we have decided that it was time to move.  After dealing with my Father's estate my husband and I realized we didn't want to leave our children with the problems associated with sorting out and selling a property that required ferry trips.  We would also like to downsize the amount of land we have to upkeep.  Moving seemed like the obvious answer.  And we wanted to make the move while we were still healthy and strong enough to organize our own move.

Coral bark maple and King Edward currant

This has not been an easy decision.  We are very happy here.  It's a private, secure oasis in a busy world that is increasingly unsafe.  We put our property on the market with the thought that it might take some time to sell - and that would be fine with us.  Therefore, the garden must go on.

Our priorities for a move will sound strange to many people.  My husband needs somewhere for his woodworking tools - somewhere big!  I need a level, sun-filled yard for my vegetables with no near-by cedar trees.  Oh, yes!  And a house!

I have already started a number of seeds under lights in the house - Copra onions and Bandit leeks - and they have been moved out to the unheated potting shed to join lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson, Drunken Woman and Red Sails, Kale - Improved Siberian and Lacinato, and Santee sprouting broccoli.  I also started my tomato and pepper seeds.

In the tomato line this year I'm growing my Health Kick plus a variety of cherry tomatoes - Yellow Pear is new at my house but comes with high recommendations,  Principe Borghese, Sweet Millions and Gold Nugget.  Unfortunately, in my haste to get the tomatoes planted, I double planted the Sweet Millions and Gold Nugget seeds!  However, once they get growing I know I won't have any trouble telling them apart.

Starting transplanting

Today the tomato seedlings were getting leggy enough that it was time to get them out to the potting shed.  Tomato seeds need heat to germinate, but once they're up, they can take cooler environments.

Plant tomato seedlings deep - almost up to the seed leaves

As always, when transplanting tomatoes, I plant them deep.  That gets rid of the legginess and provides more rooting area which makes for a stronger plant.  I put a small amount of potting mixture in the bottom of the containers and then insert the seedling as far into it as I can so that just a small length of stem is above the soil.

Transplanting finished the seedlings can enjoy a sunny spring day

Transplants finished, everyone gets a good watering with 20-20-20 dissolved in the water.  Later this afternoon when the potting shed is no longer in the sun, I'll put a plastic cap over the tomato seedlings.  This year, with a possible move in mind, I've put all my seedlings in 6-pack planters.  This takes up less space and I can easily transplant again into larger pots if necessary.  Spring gets going into high gear once again!

Garlic Planting 2015

I started this blog in September 2012 with planting garlic.  The purpose of the blog was to provide myself with a diary of work in my garden.  I had tried many methods of keeping track and all had failed.  This was my last resort to log garden activities - successes and failures - and I started with garlic.  Three years and one month later, I'm planting garlic again.  I'll save the retrospective for another post and just get on with the garlic!

This year, the garlic is being planted in the bed that previously was home to onions - NOT an ideal decision on my part, but this bed was good and rich.  The onion crop was outstanding.  This bed is the only one that is totally free of planting and was going to be topped with good old SeaSoil, so we'll just see how we get along!

First the bed was turned over and raked.  I got the bulbs ready having saved the best bulbs from this year's harvest.

I set the bulbs beside where their rows would be.  This year I planned to have double rows of each variety and since I don't think I really grew enough last year, I have 8 bulbs to plant.  Hopefully that will be enough. In the picture above, from the top are Leningrad, Czech, Spanish Roja, Porcelain and an unknown variety I've been growing for years.

I carefully peeled back the papers and gently pried out the cloves, setting them in place and then pushing them into the ground just up to the top of the clove.

Finally, a wheelbarrow load of SeaSoil was raked over the top and the whole planting left to soak up the winter rain.  Garlic doesn't like competition from weeds so it's important to give it a good mulch.  This year's planting takes up just over half of one concrete raised bed.  In a few weeks I may find the first brave green spikes thrusting up through the mulch.

A few cloves were determinedly stuck together and these were brought into the house for consumption.  In spite of the poor garlic year in which many people bemoaned the poor garlic harvest, Leningrad and Porcelain have produced magnificent cloves.

Garlic taken care of, a quick look around the garden showed that the Brussels Sprouts are finally starting to form.  Whether or not they'll be ready in time for Christmas - who knows!

Bright Lights Swiss Chard is delighted that the cooler weather is here and looks just as beautiful as it tastes.

The heritage Italian beans had been harvested and brought into the potting shed to start drying.  Today I brought them into the house to finish.  It won't take long to complete the dehydration and then I'll shell them and store them away for planting next year.