My germination method

Jason and Melisa, Lucky Seven - welcome , and thanks for following the blog!

Ever get tired on waiting for planted seeds to sprout? I did too, until I found this germination method in a gardening book a couple of years ago. As most of you know, tomato and pepper seeds generally take around 10-15 days to sprout from soil they are planted in, and if the seeds aren't viable - you've just lost 2 weeks of time before you realize it. The method I use accomplishes this task in 3-5 days, which is alot better.

In the photo below, you can see stacks of plastic containers that electrical tape comes in. These are what I use for germinating seeds, and the fact that it has a lid is a big help. What I do, is line the inside/bottom of each container with a piece of paper towel that is cut to fit, place seeds on it - then drip water on to the piece of paper towel until it is completely saturated. You can use alot of different things to drip with, but I always use a toothpick. Then, the lid is put on each one and I check them daily for any germination.

Photo below - here's what you're looking for - radicles protruding from each tiny seed. When they get to this stage (which is usually 3 days), they need to be planted in moist seed starting mix very quick. I gently pluck them from the paper towel with a pair of tweezers, taking extra care to not break the radicle (seed root) as it is removed. If left for more than a day or two once this stage is achieved, the tiny seed radicle is much more difficult to remove without damaging it. You can enlarge the photo for a better view, and see that the radicle will penetrate the wet paper towel, then grow along the underside.If not starting many seeds, you can even cut the portion of paper towel out with a pair of scissors, then plant the section of towel with seed included.

Once placed into moistened seed starting mix, place the lights as close to the soil surface as possible, and leave them on until all seedlings have emerged. This can between 1 and 5 days, depending on what kind of vegetable you're growing. Once they are all up, run the lights for 16 hours/day. From the time these were placed onto the wet paper towel for the current propagation cycle, my seedlings emerged from the seed starting mix in 5 days. That's really good, and the most effective way that I know of. You should try it!

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

More on wintersowing

Mode73 - welcome, and thanks for following the blog!

Wintersowing sure is a fun way to propagate things. Gosh, i've saved so many 2 liter drink bottles - that I have literally ran out of shelf space in the little playhouse for housing them. Of course, everytime I see an empty container of some kind these days, it makes me wonder if I can sow something in it. Gosh, I almost stopped the truck the other day, because of an empty 2 liter drink bottle laying in the road. Yeah, it's pretty bad. Hehe..

Anyway, while browsing through items at a local wholesale merchandise store the other day, I ran across these clear lids that are commonly used as tops to a cold cut snack tray of some kind. At 25 cents each, I had to snag a few. In the photo below, you can see that 2 of them were fastened at the edges by foil tape, which gives me a total height of 7" to plant in. Clear packing tape will be used to seal off the remaining cracks. I also drilled a few drain holes in the bottom, and cut out the top portion.

Photo below - A third piece with holes drilled into it is placed on top, creating the finished product. At 16" in diameter and 7" deep, this is a pretty big container for wintersowing. It only cost 75 cents, and this thing is ready for lots of flowers of some kind. Woohoo!

Photo below - here's the containers that Austin sowed with spinach and collards a while back. There's sprouts in the bottle already, but nothing in the other container. I think it's really cool how the condensation forms on the inside. Now if I could find a bottle that was as big as my truck, i'd have a pretty good greenhouse. heh.

Photo below - To get the maximum sun exposure, the coldframes were shifted around a little bit. A permanent home will need to be found for them later, because I really don't like the current location. Since the property is sloped, something will need to be built for them to rest on. Always building, ya know!

We did some babysitting the other day for one of my wife's friends, and I let the little 6 year old girl wintersow some flowers in a couple of 2 liter bottles. She really enjoyed playing in the "dirt", and I told her I would bring the plants by when they start growing. Man, I can't wait to see her face when those things sprout. :-)

In closing, i'd like to say that I really appreciate the people that take time out of their day to read about what is going on around here. I'm the only person on the property that cares anything about gardening, and this blog is my way of sharing my experience with others that have the same passion as I.

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

Heating up the compost pile (hopefully)

Wendy - welcome, and thanks for following the blog!

Even though I have a pretty good handle on the current composting cycle, the piles just aren't heating up to an acceptable level. This is mostly because of the rough winter we've experienced here, but also due to lack of microbial activity. The best decompostion rate happens when there is a healthy supply of microbes in the pile, which feed off of sugars and carbohydrates, mostly. Afterall, the microbes are the ones that do all of the hard work for you, and they need a constant supply of food to survive. Well, these foods that I speak of can be provided by adding dry dog food and dry mollases to the piles. Since alot of dry dog food had previously been added a while back, it was time to get the other ingredient from the farmer's cooperative.

Photo below - here's a 50 lb. bag of dry molasses, which came at a price of $13. Even though I thought the packaging was rather corny (heh), it was the contents that I was after. This entire bag was put into the piles where the compost turner is located, because it needed to be incorporated into the mixture pretty well (and I certainly didn't want to do it manually - as would be needed in the old bins!)

Photo below - here's a handful for reference, and really had a strong molasses smell to it. Oh...Jude was having a fit for this stuff, but of course I didn't give her any. The little stinker wants everything that I am holding!

This has been one of the coldest winters that I can remember, and certainly not ideal conditions for composting. I had initially intended on having a finished product for the garden by mid-April, but that's just not gonna happen. Lacking the ability to turn the piles for a couple of months because of my back problems, things just didn't happen as needed. Mid-May is more feasible, which of course will be too late for the initial planting of some things, regretfully. But ya know what? I'm gonna make enough compost this year to already have surplus for next year's garden, and will be able to compost throughout the warmest months from now on. No big deal! And now that the compost turner is up and running, things will be much easier in the future.

In other news, I just began making my sweet potato slips for the summer garden, and hopefully will have some nice ones ready sometime in early May.
Also, most of the germinated tomato seeds have been put into soil inside the propagation systems, and i'm still waiting for a few more to do their thing. As best I can figure, a little over 320 have already been placed under the lights, and the others will join them sometime within the next 24 hours.
Oh, and the 8ft lighting system is generating pretty good heat inside the enclosed space, which is a very good thing right now. Fans are cycling as intended, and the temperatures are being maintained according to my program parameters. I'm really enjoying the new setup......

Take care, and happy composting

EG

My perlite order finally came in

Since the soil in the self-watering containers stayed too wet last year, i've decided to add more perlite to the homemade mixture. There are lots of differing opinions on the internet about what the best soil mixture for swc's might be, and it seems like everyone is searching for the correct combination. Well, here's my theory on it - whether it be right or wrong. We all know that roots sitting in waterlogged soil will eventually begin to rot, because most fine - textured soils have what is called a perched water table. That is - even though water drains out of it, a portion of the soil will remain completely saturated. This phenomenon happens from the bottom up, and is not a desirable thing to have when using containers for growing tomatoes in. With the addition of enough perlite to a soil mixture ( which increases drainage ), a perched water table can effectively be lowered - even completely eliminated if desired. Here's a photo of my 2 big bags for amending with. My local farmer's cooperative orders anything I need, and they just plain rock!. Yay! Along with the wicking basket orifice reduction, this tomato growing season should be much better than last year.

Photo below - Here's a few buckets of saved soil from the swc's used last year, which were left out in the sun for a couple of days to dry out a bit. This particular mixture is 7 parts peat moss, 2 parts vermiculite, and 1 part perlite. It does well for most veggies, but pretty bad for growing tomatoes in a humid climate. I plan on altering it to a combination that is 6 parts peat, 3 parts perlite, and 1 part vermiculite. That should work much better, and hopefully keep my tomatoes from cracking when hot weather arrives.

Photo below - Even though previous attempts at growing potatoes have not been successful, i'll be trying them again this year - but in containers this time around. Most of the soil for these came from the saved swc soil, as I wanted to remove some of it from the 5 gallon buckets anyway to allow room for altering it. I laid down some leftover roof shingles from a few years back, then sat the pots on top of them. This keeps weeds from growing up into them later. It seems that me and ribbit had the same idea with potatoes this year....hehe.

I'll also be putting some perlite in the main garden bed, which should help the squash get the much needed drainage that it likes to have. The current mixture of "mel's mix" isn't ideal for squash, and they are stressed each time a heavy rain is experienced. As I found out last year on GW, that's why squash is planted in hills - to promote good drainage.

The weekend was very productive for me, and I even built a swc from the 16 gallon red bucket that was sitting at the edge of the property. It'll be used to grow honeydew melons in - 'cause we love those things! It's very likely that only 1 plant will be put in it, because I want to give the roots plenty of soil to grow in. If you've never tried the "cool green" variety, you're in for a real treat! No pumpkins this year, as they just take up way too much room (although the squashbugs that they attract can be quite entertaining for me, hehe) You know how I love beheading squashbugs!.....

In other news, things are happening so fast around here, I can't blog about them fast enough! My tomato seeds have germinated in 3 days (at least 400 of them), and they'll go into soil tomorrow after work. I started around 500, just in case some didn't make it. If any of you are interested in my quick germination method, i'll be glad to post about it.

I'd also like to thank Shawn and his wife from Trussville, Alabama for following the blog.

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

No more twisting

Thanks to input from some of my readers, I have found a solution to the twisting problem that was encountered with the compost turner. Here's a video of it! BTW...I'll be posting about something everyday this week......

Recent progress around the property

Mat, chili369, and RubyZ - welcome to my blog, and thanks for following!

Well, I know you're probably sick of hearing about my newest propagation setup, but I just had to give you an update on it. The old light was ripped out, and a couple of 8 ft. long t8 fixtures replaced it. In the picture below, you can see that four bulbs are burning, and that they are different colors, too.
The reason for the different bulbs, is so that the seedlings will be subjected to multiple colors from the spectrum. It's got to do with reds and blues mostly, which can't be seen by the naked eye. These bulbs are 4100k and 6500k, for reference....

Photo below - here's the funny part.....I took 2 brand new light fixtures, and cut them in half with a reciprocating saw. Yeah.....I had to, because they wouldn't fit into the enclosed space. However, once the 2 halves were inside the space, they were put back together with some sheet metal strips and metal screws. Kinda crazy, but works just as good. That's pretty messed up. Maybe i'll add some duct tape too! Ha! It was either do this, or remove a wall stud from the shed....

Photo below - here's a shot of my temperature trending chart with 12 hours of data on it. The numbers along the bottom are a little bit misleading, but each small line represents 30 minutes. So, with that said, there are 24 increments within a 12 hour period....Maybe that makes sense. I'm also only keeping up with a temperature range of between 30 and 80 degrees ( 1 decimal place is implied ), to get the best resolution possible. I'll have to clear the information each evening by pressing the "clear" button on the screen, which will start the trending over again. No biggie....Once the propagation cycle gets started, you'll be able to see some definitive fluctuations between the four temperature measurements.

Now for other things going on around here.....Remember my scrap lumber pile? Well, it's gotten pretty small since making the 2 coldframes a while back. Knowing me, though - it will likely never get any smaller than this, because i'm sure there will be leftovers from future projects. The huge flowerbed for my wife should yield some scrap from the landscaping timbers being used ( which will be used to extend the earthtainer area ), and the new wall for my parent's carport should produce some too. Since I tackle at least 1 large construction project every 3 months, there's always something new for the pile. Sheesh....

Photo below - I also cleaned the only remaining earthtainer from last year's use. Here's the way it looked the weekend before - as the top 2" of soil was frozen solid. I propped it up with the fill pipe, then scooped out as much as I could with my hands. It was much warmer this weekend, allowing me to get the rest. Jude loves it when I perform this task, because I toss any unwanted roots, sticks, etc. into the air - that's just something else to catch for her...

Lastly, all of the mix for the earthtainers will be used again this year after amending with perlite - to increase drainage and lower the perched water table. It'll also be heated to about 150-160 degrees in an iron pot, which is just a precaution to eliminate any diseases that might be present. I'd certainly hate for my tomatoes to get hit with a soil-borne disease of some kind, that would be a bummer! Although I haven't found a pot yet, one will show up eventually.

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

Presenting the Heirloom Tomatoes of 2010

DaBeardedOne and Thomas Vitti - thanks for following the blog!

Prior to 2009, my tomato growing experiences had only been about the same old boring varieties each year - as most of the big box stores only carry disease resistant cultivars like Better Boy, Big Boy, Better Beef, and Roma. So, I just got into line with all the other "gardeners" to purchase transplants, then planted them in my happy little garden. Well, most people don't know (including myself until 2008) that there are over 10,000 varieties available, but they must be grown from seed - by the gardener himself/herself.

So, I wanted to have "other options" from previous years, and decided to build a couple of grow light systems to propagate my own plants with from seed. They worked pretty good!

Anyway, last year I grew heirloom tomatoes for the very first time, and ended up growing a pretty decent crop by year's end. These varieties were Opalka, Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, and Cherokee Purple. Only 1 stood out as something that would be included in my garden for years to come, because it was the best tasting tomato I could have ever imagined.
Cherokee Purple (pictured below) - This thing is awesome, with it's sweet, complex flavors. You have gotta try this one, for sure!

And now, I will be growing several new varieties for the upcoming tomato growing season - A couple of which that are extremely rare. It's gonna be interesting seeing which one gets the "2010 Tomato MVP Award" in my 2010 garden, and I anxiously await the time to begin the propagation period for them. Yay! Here's the new additions for this years' garden. Let the salivating begin!!!!

Neves Azorean Red (aka NAR) - This is supposed to be one really awesome tasting tomato. Only 1 plant will be grown in the garden, mainly because I just don't have room for more.

Kellogg's Breakfast - since Granny gave this one high marks last year, I just had to give it a try. Again, only 1 plant will be grown in my garden, just for testing purposes.

Green Giant - I hope it's good, as I don't know anyone within my clique of online gardening friends that has tried it. Since most of the plants will be grown for the public, i'm hoping it will be a hit - especially because of the green color.

Amana Orange - another colorful variety that hopefully will catch the eye of my customers. This baby is supposed to get pretty dang big.....

Carol Chyko's Big Paste - Rather than having to wait on the little roma tomatoes (what seemed like 1,000) to collectively give me enough fruit to make sauce with, I'm gonna give this one a try. Working with the small size of Opalka and Roma caused me to spend countless hours of prepping for sauce, and I'm not doing that again! Sheesh......

Black Cherry - After reading rave reviews about this little fella, I have to try it. My hopes are that it will have the taste of a miniature version of Cherokee Purple, but only time will tell. I reckon at least 4 of these babies will be planted in swp's constructed from cat litter buckets. I hope that will give me enough leftovers to hand out to friends and family.

BTW - no harvest total for me this year, as it took too much time to weigh everything, and also got on everyone's nerves. That's ok, the deeper garden (and twice the amount of tomato plants) will easily surpass the 400 lb. mark from 2009. A total of 24 plants is gonna produce alot of tomatoes, I bet!

I'll also try "Stupice" for the first time, from seeds that Trudi shared with me recently. If I can find room for them, i'd like to grow "Giant Oxheart" and another tomato that Gary Isben gave to me a while back. It's supposed to be a big white tomato from Australia.....

Anyway, i'll start germinating seeds tomorrow. Yay!!!

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

Pruning Muscadine Grape vines

If you have muscadine grapes, then you know it's mandatory to prune them heavily each year. I know people that don't ever prune, and they're plants would be healthier, and also produce more fruit if they did so. It's really easy to do, and doesn't take alot of time, either. The best time to prune in my zone is February, although some people prune during the warm months. However, doing this in warm weather presents an opportunity for diseases to invade - which we certainly don't want. Anyway, I pruned mine the other day, and decided to shoot some photos of everything. I have 1 muscadine vine that is about 15-20 feet long, and also 2 scuppernong vines that are about 10 ft.

Photo below - shoots that come off of the top of the main vine like this one are ideal, but you'll get only a few that actually grow this way. You wanna prune to about 3 buds, as new growth will emerge and produce a full canopy later. Boy, these things fill out pretty quick!

Photo below - while at it, any girdling caused by tendrils wrapping themselves around the shoots should be addressed also. Man, those little dudes can sure do some damage! I try my best to remove them during the growing season, too - but always miss a couple. Here's one that I missed....

Photo below - It's quite normal for new cuts to "bleed" afterward, and shouldn't concern you at all. This "bleeding" will continue for a couple of weeks, after pruning.

Photo below - here's a section of one vine that has been finished. Looks kinda "nekkid", don't it? Well....this is what it's supposed to look like afterward.

With all of that said, all of the fruit trees were pruned too, but required much less work and time. If the weather cooperates, we should be covered up with fruit this year. In reality, it needs to stay cold for at least another 2-3 weeks, then everything can be allowed to bloom. The plums will be first, and already show signs of breaking dormancy. If you'll remember, a freak warm spell in January of 2009 caused them to bloom too early, and there were no plums later. :-(  I sure hope this year is different! I want plum jelly! All I need is some favorable weather and a visit from my bee friends, and it'll happen. Gosh, i'd love to have my own hive like stefaneener does!

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

A video of the turner in action

Lou - welcome to the blog, and thanks for following!

Well, here's a little video of the turner in action.

The compost turner in place

This is definitely the sickest thing i've ever constructed on the property. Ha! The pulley system worked out great, easily allowing me to lift the entire thing with some relatively minimal downward force on the rope. However, i'll still attach a counterweight of some kind onto the rope end, which will make even less effort needed to move it. Some minor alterations will be made to the pulley systems sometime this week, because of 2 problems:

1. Because of the orientation of the pulleys, I can't raise/lower it while standing in front of the bins. It can only be moved from the side, which keeps me from positioning the contraption where I want along the length of the beam. I'll likely use a torch to heat the metal at the top, then bend it 90 degrees to the left. The ol' "flame wrench" comes in handy sometimes, and that's how I roll. heh.

2. Because the two pulley systems are connected by rope, the possibility of the entire thing twisting up when the auger digs into the pile is very high. I knew this would be a problem, as it was even considered when I first started designing it. But, it's just a small problem - and all problems have an answer. A person just has to find it. A couple of ideas are already taking shape, and i'll just have to see what is available for the fix. It'll all work out - I promise! Looks like another trip to Lowes is in order....

Photo below - The auger as it's connected to the output shaft of the gearbox. Due to the unwanted excessive length of the complete assembly, I opted to shorten the extension drastically. Even with that said, this thing is still too long. Crap.....However, I may remove the top 12" of the pallets that essentially make up the center bin, which would allow the auger to move freely along the entire length of the pallet bins system. Hmmmm...That will probably happen, knowing myself like I do.

Photo below - here's a pretty good closeup of the bracket that was made to attach to the motor feet, and also to the gearbox. Some last minute alterations in the backyard left the flat metal on the bottom pulley section bent pretty bad, but it's not the end of the world. Getting this thing to hang plumb was pretty interesting - let me tell ya...It didn't help matters that I welded the thing together upside down, either - then had to grind the weld off and start again. OOPS! Hehe...I was in a hurry...

Once these 2 alterations have been made, i'll give it a test run in the center compost pile. I'm sure it's gonna require a little bit of final tweaking to get it right, but that's just an ordinary thing for me to do. I'm a tweaker!
I'll try it out this weekend, weather permitting of course. Gosh, I know what all of you must be thinking..."this guy's completely out of his mind", but I just had to try and make this composting task easier.

Take care, and happy composting!

EG

More propagation improvements

The other day I mentioned that the propagation systems had been completely finished, and I would like now to show you the finished product. This first picture is of the main screen of the operator interface panel, which shows 4 completely different temperature values since all 4 zones have now been completed. I also made the numerical font size a little bigger.

Photo below - I also used a piece of white marking board to create a door for the long shelf propagation system. Since it was very lightweight and had good light reflecting qualities on the side that was white, I just had to try it. Some small, bent nails are used to keep the bottom and sides in contact with the surface of the shelf, because it's very flimsy - which causes it to bow outward. To open the door, I just rotate each bent nail 180 degrees, then lift the door up. Once up, 2 more nails are used to keep it from falling back down. Very low tech stuff for this construction. I wish everything was this simple!

Photo below - I wanted to show you a closeup pic of one of the homemade temperature sensors. This is type J thermocouple wire, which will sense temperature at the point at which the 2 wires (which are comprised of 2 different metals) are connected. This is the millivolt signal that is sent back to the thermocouple input module of the PLC, and is representative of the temperature value that it is exposed to.

Since these were kinda difficult to see in the video the other day, I wanted to give you a better view of the cellpacks in place. Also, notice that the fluorescent bulb on the far side isn't burning. Due to pretty cold temperatures in the shed right now it takes several minutes to turn on, and is starting to get on my nerves a bit. I don't like it when my stuff doesn't work right, and this light is coming out! It'll be replaced with a couple of t8 fixtures that have electronic ballasts in them, because they have no problems starting under pretty cold conditions. Chalk one up for trial and error, because I wasted alot of time on this light. :-( If indoors, it would have have worked just fine......

I also changed the temperature setpoints for each zone in my plc program, because I found out that a range of 70-75 degrees was actually a little bit too high. 60-65 is more like it, and helps promote a stockier plant stem. In less than 3 weeks, we'll be starting seeds with the wet paper towel method  - which is the quickest way for germination to happen, in my opinion.
The temperature trending is working also, and gives me historical measurements every 30 minutes, over a 24 hour period. This will provide valuable information for seeing what goes on inside the systems while I am away. I'll probably go out to the shed each morning before work, just to see if any problems were experienced throughout the night. This is gonna be pretty fun!

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

More components for the compost turner

kalena michele  and hortist - thanks for following the blog!

Saturday was all about assembling some things for the compost turner project. The first thing on the agenda was to secure the I-beam to the 6x6 posts with some 5" long, 5/16" lag bolts. A couple of these things on each end made it very rigid, and now it won't be able to fall off. I still might add some corner brackets, just as a precaution. I like things to be really strong, especially with teenagers running all over the place.

Now for the pulleys. As you can imagine, I have several friends that are in similar maintenance management positions as I, at various industrial plants in the area. Well, it just so happens that one of them works for a company that makes lawnmower pulleys. So, I spent a few hours at the plant cutting, grinding, welding, and assembling the pulley systems that will be used for raising/lowering the motor/gearbox and auger. It's good to have friends!

Photo below - here's the top section connected to the trolley. A 3/8" nylon rope (which has a load strength of 278 lbs.) will be intertwined through all 4 pulleys to gain mechanical leverage, as discussed in a previous post. Since the entire contraption will weigh around 100 lbs., this will be more than strong enough to hold it.

Photo below - I also took the opportunity to mix an 80 lb. bag of quickrete for each posthole, then fill each to the brim. These were some really deep holes! It's the first time that i've ever been able to get an entire 80 lb. bag of mix into a posthole. At 2 feet deep, though - you can imagine why it took so much.

Photo below - remember the extension I mentioned a while back? Well here it is. A machinist at my friend Truitt's electrical motor repair shop did the machining for me, and it will work perfect. However, I think it will need to be shortened, based on my measurements after getting the first pulley system into place. This entire compost turning contraption is gonna be a little bit longer than anticipated. No biggie, i'll just make a few adjustments, and things will work out in the end.

I'm still gonna try to have it completely operational on Valentine's Day, which gives me a few more days to put something together for hanging the motor and gearbox. As can be expected, it'll take some pretty good thinking as well. Without a doubt - this is the most complex backyard project to date, especially since every aspect of it requires some very creative thinking, and also lots of hard manual labor. Whew! I'm tired!

Take care, and happy composting!

EG

Propagation systems are sitting on go.......

No pictures today - as I only had time to shoot the 2 videos last weekend, and have been extremely busy ever since. The evenings after work have been filled with continuous work on the 3 different propagation systems, so they will be ready for the upcoming tomato seedling propagation cycle. After much wiring, programming and tinkering - they are all finally ready for use. Whew.....
Of course all of the functions ( lights, ventilation, trend charts ) will be controlled automatically by the programmable logic control unit, and my seedling capacity will be around 400 plants. Woohoo! Bring it on!

I think that much capacity will do just fine for a few years, but will have room for doubling that number if more is needed later.

As others post rough drafts of their garden plantings this year, I'll just refrain from doing likewise until around March. The reason is that Austin hasn't planned out his part yet, so the drawing isn't finished. I'll try to get him moving on it soon, but can tell you that a garden is probably the last thing on his mind right now ( age 14 ).

In other news, the compost turner is waiting for the pulley system components to be put together, and also the extension between the output shaft of the gearbox and the 10" diameter auger. As you can guess, these items are dependent on other people's efforts, and haven't been completed yet. However, the vertical 6x6 posts will be concreted on Saturday, so I still have some more things to get done before they are needed anyway. In all likelihood, it will get it's inaugural trial run on Valentine's Day. At least that's what i'm planning on.

Things in the coldframes are popping up like crazy, and I hope to be harvesting some lettuce in about 4 more weeks. These little coldframes will get quite a workout next winter, because I intend on having lettuce and carrots throughout all of the cold months. Surely two little coldframes of stuff won't be too much trouble to take care of.....

Oh, I almost forgot! I ordered a couple of 4 cu. ft. bags of perlite that need to be picked up on Saturday morning, too - which will be used to enhance the soil mixture for my swp's/swc's, and also amend the garden beds. Most people don't like perlite in their garden, but I want better drainage than I currently have. It'll be mixed into the current fill ingredients - then 6-8" of compost on top of that . This should provide good drainage at the bottom part of the mix, and also keep it from floating to the top when it is watered.

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

More shelves in the playhouse, and turning on a few things

jaxmomsanurse - welcome, and thanks for following the blog!

Like the previous video, this one also has something on the lens. Anyway,this one shows things currently happening in the playhouse and shed. I actually turn a few fans and lights on for ya, too. Sorry for the obviously uncontrollable movement with the camera at times....




On Monday, I had a special visitor from Auburn University. Maggie Lawrence is an extension communications specialist who assists with tv and radio news within News and Public Affairs, provides Alabama broadcast stations with electronic news releases, satellite interviews, etc; and is also the host of a weekly public radio show/blog in Troy, Alabama, called Backyard Wisdom . This show (and site) is sponsored by the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station. She also writes for the Newsline communications section on the ACES website. Hey! Maybe she can help me get my own TV show....That would be something. Hehe....
Anyway, we spent at least an hour discussing the various things I have constructed to make my gardening experience better, and lots of photos were taken along the way, too. I'm not sure what all will arise from the interview, but understand that she'll likely return in the spring to see the garden in all it's glory. That would be great, because not many people that share the same gardening enthusiasm as I visit the property. I'll be sure to post links to any articles that are written about "The crazy gardener in Franklin County, Alabama", as i'm sure they would be of interest to my readers. I can only imagine what she might have thought as she made the 250 mile drive back to the Auburn University - maybe something like "Now that's something you don't see everyday!". Haha. It was a very good day for "Our Engineered Garden", and I met a new gardening friend.

Take care, and happy gardening!

EG

A video of a cold morning

Well, I shot this video yesterday morning of most everything around the garden area, and hope you like it. I didn't notice until after upload that I had something on my camera lens. OOPS! That'll have to be cleaned before next time.