Backflow Prevention

[01-Feb-2010] Spent most of the weekend putting in the proper backflow prevention valve. This involved digging out the line from the water meter cutting it putting the valve in and running a line from it to the sprinkler valves on the side of the house. Then waiting for it to dry, testing, fixing, drying again. Rewired the TV equipment so the UPS doesnt interfere with the radio while waiting for it to dry. Planted the potatoes. Mulched the front apple trees. Relocated the fern so its further from the door, it was annoying in summer. Relocated the bottlebrush so it gets more sun.

More yard work

[25-Jan-2010] Havent done anything since last week first because of torrential rains then sinus trouble making it impossible to do anything productive. Tied up and mulched the blackberries. Ripped out the Kiowa blackberries (again). They are not worth the trouble to much trailing along the ground. Relocated the irrigation connection at the south end of the blueberries and one of the blueberries further west more inline with the rest of the bed. Retensioned the grape trellis.

Day 3 and 4

[16-Jan-2010] Day 3 Finished shifting the gravel and putting in the new mulched path from the patio to the yard. Day 4 Fixed the leaning rain barrel tower. Used the car jack to raise the low corner, then dug a new post hole beside it to below the depth of the existing post. Filled the hole with concrete, including below the existing post. Sunk a new post in the hole, deeper than the original, and bolted to the the current one. Cleaned the mildew off the house. The East side is yellow again. Planted Lettuce and broccoli.

Day 1 and 2

[13-Jan-2010] Day 1 Finished rebuilding the 50 gallon drum composter with 4x4 posts and a fence pole. Installed the proper radiant shield for the thermometer. Setup Internet camera (service will be intermittent till I get the power fixed in the library). Day 2 Watched Pine trees being removed. Tilled remaining vegetable beds. Planted peas. Set out onions. Moved about half the remaining gravel. Cooked Brisket.

Bed Relocation
[02-Jan-2010] Im relocating some of the beds this winter so they are all the same size and easier to walk around. Finished the new strawberry bed, and got both the strawberry beds planted today. Cleaned out the herb bed some. Potatoes and Onions have been ordered but wont ship for a week or so.

Very late freeze

[28-Dec-2009] The first freeze (still no frost however) was very late this year, mid December. The only thing im keeping over the winter is 2 Datils in pots, the Pink Lemon tree on the wagon. Planted nothing for the fall/winter. Cut down the Bananas this weekend. Started relocating the beds so there is more room between them and they are laid out in nice order. Once that is done will plant the strawberries. Then the potatoes. Updated the plant maps.

Not a cherry tomato
[01-Jul-2009] I checked the tag again after I picked it. This is labeled as a cherry tomato. Its a little big for one. Yes thats a quarter.

Freeze Threat
[08-Apr-2009] They said is was going to freeze last night. Spent well over an hour covering everything. Induvidual styrofoam cups over seedlings, and pine straw over that to keep them from blowing away, blankets over the larger stuff. It only went down to 33 and everything seems to have survived, even the stupid pineapple (which i didnt cover).

Rain Barrel Tower

[30-Mar-2009] Spent all weekend, when it wasnt raining building a tower for the 3 rain barrels that arrived late sunday afternoon. The barrels need to be washed and Im waiting on 2 in Buttress threaded parts to finish them and install them in the tower. They are in the background of some of the pictures. Bought the remaining parts to set them up and move the gutter over at lunch monday. The north post is really a 16 ft post, with a 10ft metal pole and the anemometer on top. That puts it 22 ft high, well above the top of the house. Of course thats also a foot too low for offical reporting. There are also a few pictures of the drainage in action. It really wasnt enough rain to matter but at least you can see where the water flows now.

Death to the Pineapple

[15-Mar-2009] Dug the new irrigation lines, laid the pipe and connected a real sprinkler timer and valves for the garden. Attached it to the existing line to the apples and blueberries. Still need to fill in the trenches. Built a bed for the Mara des Bois strawberries which should be here this week sometime. Planted some flowers in the flowerbed. Sentenced the no-productive pineapple to death. Dumped it out of the pot, kicked it a few times and dropped it in a hole on the flower bed. Didnt bother to pack it in good. It left a thorn in my thumb that is still there hours later. The Tangerine didnt die in the last freeze maybe next year. Im thinking of putting it in the ground to ensure death next winter. The pink lemon is next if it doesnt fruit this year. I think the Irzu apple is dead. The Rev. Morgan seeds to ave buds, but no leaves. Planted the corn, and some tomatoes directly in garden. Bulbs in the flower beds are just starting to surface. Took yearly photos but they are too far out need to retake them. Took a lot of photos of the other plants. Cut the boards for the pantry selves. Need to get the stud finder back. Got the outlet in there on Thursday and mounted the weather monitor.

Natrual Bridge 2009, Blackberry Trellis, Weather Station

[11-Mar-2009] A warm spring day. They have cleared some of the brush on the Union approach and it looked like the Union was forming lines a bit closer to the confederates than they normally do. The wounded guy was interesting but he just wouldnt die and kept moving around. After the reenactment finally finished putting up the new blackberry trellis on the peak of the berm between the houses. Mounted the rain guage and temperature sensors from the weather station to it. Still need to get wire vises and tighten the wires some. There is enough room to lengthen the trellis in both directions another 15 feet (its 15 feet between the posts now) over the years and to put in a second trellis downhill before it gets to close to where the major drainage flow would be in a bad storm. Right now there are only two blackberry bushes, the Choctaw and one from Mr. Huggins. I should get new shoots from them and will fill in as needed. The current trellis should hold 5 plants before i need to expand it.

Half a good weekend

[02-Mar-2009] Had a todo list for this weekend but only got to work Saturday. Sunday's weather was horrible, freezing cold with a constant strong wind so nothing for done. Saturday did move all the strawberries to the strawberry bed, built and planted the potato tires, built an herb bed against the house and moved most the herbs to it. I did start digging to upgrade the irrigation, enough to find a leak underground at the corner of the vegetable beds. Started beans indoors. Fixed the garden plot pages so i can plan, and change a cell more than once a day. The carrots finally sprouted a week late, just as I was about to plant over them. Im not happy with the Broccoli or lettuce this year but its got at least two weeks to fix itself before it gets replaced with summer crops, probably longer. I am beginning to wonder where my tomato seeds are. There were ordered on the 19th and should be here. The weather station didnt arrive either but tracking say it should be here today. Once it is up I will be able to put weather data from the house online. It went to freezing last night, left 2 datils, 2 cilantro and 2 marigolds in the cold frame as an experiment. They appear to have survived but the temp inside fell to the same as outside so im not confidant for tonights predicted 25. I may cover the whole frame with pine straw. The African Blue basil did survive under straw and an upside down cup so hopefully it will make it tonight too. Tonight the Tangerine dies (maybe).

Seeds Sprouting
[23-Feb-2009] Some of the early seedling have sprouted, a basil purple basil and all 4 cilantro. The datil test in the paper towel yielded 10 sprouts which I transferred to peat pots. Since that method worked i may do a lot more seed tests to see if a lot of the older stuff i have is still good. For instance none of the carrot planted have sprouted yet.

This weekend

[22-Feb-2009] Got the lawn mowed, well really the pine straw and leaves picked up with the bagger for use as mulch and the really tall rye grass cut down. Built new cold frame near the house. Filled in the old one since the glass broke last winter. Still need to cover the old area with gravel. Easily got some old tires for more potato bins. Mulched the blueberries, strawberries and other beds with plants in them. Built new wire cages around the strawberries to keep the birds out. They cover the whole bed now and are smaller so they are easier to move around. Planted the Alaska peas. Fixed the leaking irrigation but need to get 1 more hose piece to get it to work. Sentenced the Tangerine to death. The last of the two tangerines is produced this year fell off unripe while i was moving it Friday. Didnt really like the flavor anyway and if it doesnt produce enough to eat its not worth dealing with. A few pictures

Garden Notes

[17-Feb-2009] Between the rain and Olustee didnt do anything this weekend on the garden. Peas are breaking the soil, potatoes have made no progress outside, the ones still in the box are continuing to sprout. None of the other seedlings have sprouted. It continues to frost every few days (Mon night, predicted wed/thurs) so stuff is going in and out. Lawn mower was fixed. Bought wire for the cage over the rest of the strawberries. Update plant maps and database with planters and former blackberry beds.

Plants Database

[13-Feb-2009] Over the last week I have signifigantly updated the plants database and forms to go with them. Now instead of having to update the plant maps manually its just a point and click to change whats planted in a cell and when it was planted. The maps from now on will be real time, and at some point ill add a historical pick the date feature to the pages and get rid of the year by year menus.

Started Plantings
[09-Feb-2009] Put the carrots, peas and potatoes in the ground this weekend. Cleared the area for the corn. Cleared out the overflow bed. Updated all the maps. Staked the rest of the apples, added some extra sprinklers to the ones way out in the yard, I dont think they are getting enough water. Bought the grass catcher for the lawn mower (which wont start). Fertilized all the trees and bananas.

Everything survived

[05-Feb-2009] Last weekend when it went below freezing I covered the Grapefruit and the Orange as usual but walked right by the potted banana, datil pepper and aloe forgetting to take them inside. The banana turned black, the datil dropped almost all its leaves. Its been almost a week and it clear that they arnt dead. The banana has new green growth and a few leaves survived on the pepper. The aloe was fine the whole time. Last night it went down to 16 (they say 14 at the airport but it didnt go that low at my house). Looks like everything outside made it ok through that too and so should tonight also.

Wintertime in the garden

[04-Feb-2009] I havnt been updating on what Ive done since the drainage but then I havnt done much either. I did rebuild the blackberry trellis. Moved it over a few feet to put the orange tree in by the door. Ripped out all the blackberries except one of the ones from Mr. Higgins. Kept the Choctaw in a 14in pot. Also left the grape. This is probably its last year it was pretty sickly last year near the end of fall. Last weekend built 4 potato cages. They are half the height of last years. The potatoes are here and sitting in the sunlight inside. If its reasonable warm this weekend I will plant them. Decided part of my corn problem was not enough of it for pollination so Im going to put in a lot more this year. The whole area east of the potatoes will be corn (about 18ft x 5ft). I plan on doing at least 2 separate crops one early and one starting in July if possible. Ive got all the soil for the area already just have to till it. Also last weekend got fertilizer for the bananas and veggies, and pruned the grapes and apples. Staked down 2 apple trees. Still need to do the other 2 big ones. The apples further out really arnt doing well. They are still sticks with leaves. I think they need more water out there. Maybe this year i can run the real irrigation system to them. Will plan the rest of the spring crop in the next few days and update the maps.