SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2017

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February 22nd, 2017

  • The weather has been very accommodating, last night I planted 16' of Swenson Swedish Snow Peas. The Parsley is still hanging in there. It's rained several times this week so keeping the soil moist has been easy.
 
February 24th, 2017

  • Got some time to work on my stump this weekend, this was a fail.




February 25th, 2017
  • Spent most of the day working on the irrigation. Last year I had a bunch of emitters for the air pots so I decided to just run a double loop drip line 40' and plug up all the holes in the main line with Goof Plugs, WRONG! Those goof plugs suck, they were leaking all over so I decided to cut out the line with all the holes and install a new piece of the 1/2" main hose. A bunch of the "T"s got busted during the winter so they had to be replaced. I fiddled with the inline filter for over an hour and eventually gave up and removed it. Installed my Timer and hose connections.


February 26th, 2017

  • This years Spring and Fall project will be this back hill. I started by taking out the Arborvitaes, and need to start pulling out the ivy.



 
  • My only concerns are digging out the two Bradford Pear stumps. Hopefully I can cut enough of the stump out to fit in the retaining wall behind the stumps, Gawd I hate these roots.


 

  • After the hill is cleaned up and the ivy is out, I will try digging out a bit, for the retaining wall. I have buckets and crates of rock that I will be taking to my brothers. I'll burn a lot of the red maple and arborvitae for the compost bin. Some will be partially burnt for Bio-Char. The thicker pieces of the Arborvitaes are cut for the chiminea as well as the larger cuts of the red maple. Some of the maple will be recycled into my Pots that I will be converting into Hugelkultur pots. I'm gonna trash all my 5 gallon buckets and stick with just the homer buckets, I'm sick and tired of mismatched buckets getting stuck together. I still have some hydroponic stuff to ditch and sort, a bunch of cap stones from the steps that were removed when building the upper hugelkultur beds, a bunch of lumber, PVC Pipe, firewood in recycle buckets for the smoker/pit, milk crates, a few 55 gallon drums and tarps that all need to be sorted out and/or trashed. I really need to de-clutter


 

  • The plan is to plant 6 or so Laurel Shrubs in the spring, start digging out to get ready for the retaining wall and build a retaining wall up on the hill in front of the existing retaining wall and plant some Laurel 30' wide as a back drop, the Arborvitaes were getting too sparse at the bottom and looked horrible. The space between the two retaining walls will be planted with Tiger Lilies.

  • Got all of my pepper seeds planted, then realized I will be out of room once I start the Tomatoes and Eggplants. I promised Mom and my brother some plants and it looks like its gonna be tight. I broadcast seeded and will transplant and thin into solo cups, Ill probably double up on the pepper plants in the solo cups to save room. After I got all cleaned up and went upstairs to chill a bit, I was looking over my notes and realized, Shoot! I forgot to plant the Corno Di Toro Giallo Peppers.
  • California Wonder
  • Anaheim
  • Corno Di Toro Giallo
  • Jalapeno
  • Ruby King
  • Tabasco
  • Poblano
  • Ghost Chili
  • Datil

 

 
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February 28th, 2017

  • I dug out all the Chocolate Mint and put in a three gallon pot to try and keep the mint at bay. I'll probably do the same with the spearmint.



  • Loaded up the truck with the stones from the back hill, I'll be taking these to my brothers house for his landscaping.



March 1st, 2017

  • I dropped off the rock at my brothers house and was checking out his hugelkultur bed that he put in late summer, after seeing mine he decided that the raised hugelkultur beds would look nicer than a fence between the two properties. When he moved here a few years back the fence was in bad shape and he decided to remove it. The beds give a good property line but keep the area open. He wants to see how well the bed does before committing to any more beds along the property line, I said, "just go for it"!



 
  • I have been slacking with my seedlings, checked them after dinner and the Rosemary had sprouted and were very leggy, I quickly got them under light, light timer is set for 18 hours. The fan is not set up on auto yet, I am still waiting for a timer from Amazon. Poor Rosemary!

 
March 2nd, 2017
  • Well it was inevitable and expected, the temp is dropping down to 15°F this weekend, I'll be disconnecting the irrigation line, draining and bring in the timer. Can you believe it was 70°F yesterday. This weekend I'll be planting some seeds and cleaning the back hill a bit so it won't be a total loss. It's really gonna piss me off if I loose my Rosemary after it lasted this long!
  • The Datil, Jalapeno and Ruby King peppers had begun sprouting, I'm impressed, it has only been 4 days. I'll give them another day or two before I move them out of the germination tray.

 



March 3rd, 2017
  • The Tiger Lilies seem to like their new spot, there are a few stragglers in various parts of the front yard, I'll be digging them up and transplanting them with these guys. I may tear out the Azalea plant.
 
March 4th 2017

  • My timer came in so I hooked up the oscillating fan to the timer, the timer is set to turn on for twenty minutes, three times a day. OK now onto more pressing problems, the temperature is supposed to go down in the low teens and I needed to come up with a way to keep my Rosemary alive. I figured I would try this fluorescent light, it puts out a little bit of heat. We will see what happens. I cover the Rosemary at night and uncover during the day.







March 5th, 2017
  • I guess the warm snap we had in February got these guys going, this is my first year with Asparagus (first Harvest year), and I'm a bit worried about then coming up too soon, this weekend was down to about 15°F and next week it's supposed to get in the teens again.


 
  • All the peppers pretty much sprouted with the exception of the Ghost Chili. The Corno Di Torro Giallo, California Wonder and the Poblano took a full week to germinate. The Datil, Tobasco, Jalapeno, Anaheim and Ruby King were 4-5 days to germinate. These guys were removed from the Heated, domed germination tray and placed in a tray closer to the light. The light is set to 18 hours and the fan is set to go on for twenty minutes, three times a day.

  • Anaheim

 


 

  • Ruby King


  • Jalapeno


  • Datil


  • Tabasco



 

  • Planted , Amandas Unknown Farm Eggplant, Basil, Black Beauty Eggplant, Black Vernissage Tomato, Brandywine Red Tomato, Celebrity Tomato, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Fengyuan Eggplant, Indigo Blue Berries Tomato, Matts Wild Cherry Tomato, Parsley, Patio Princess Tomato Determinate, Rosemary and Sprite Tomato Determinate. A mix of potting soil and perlite is used for the potting mix. The potting mix is packed in the planters then tamped down lightly and watered until water comes out of the bottom. Seeds are planted 3 to a cell, then topped with a thin layer of potting soil and misted with a spray bottle. Heat mat is set to 80°F, and the dome installed. These will be watered from the bottom.


 

  • The broccoli started to come up, hopefully the low temps wont kill the seedlings.



 
Looking good, All your starts look healthy, When is your last freeze ?

I need to get the rest of my garden planted, Onions, arugula, lettuce and spinach are really coming along

Gary
 
 
Looking good, All your starts look healthy, When is your last freeze ?

I need to get the rest of my garden planted, Onions, arugula, lettuce and spinach are really coming along

Gary
April 14th
 
March 7th, 2017
 

Still working on clearing out the back for the new fence, I need to dig in 6 posts and every other hole location is where an Arborvitae was planted, so Ill be busting my stones digging out more roots. I plan on saving a lot of the top soil for when I build the retaining wall in front, the soil looks pretty healthy!
 

  • What a mess!!


March 8th, 2017 am
 

  • I cant believe the Marigolds came up already, these were planted Sunday night, it's been less than three days. I'll probably be dividing them this weekend.
 



 

Clearing out my Spam folder this morning I noticed an e-mail from Spring Hill Nurseries confirming that my Japanese Stewartia will be delivered March 9th-11th, that means that I will be working on the stump the rest of the week and the back hill will have to wait.
 
 
Clearing out my Spam folder this morning I noticed an e-mail from Spring Hill Nurseries confirming that my Japanese Stewartia will be delivered March 9th-11th, that means that I will be working on the stump the rest of the week and the back hill will have to wait.

March 8th, 2017

Well when I got home today, the tree was here, I think they shipped too soon, Looks like I will be doing the front yard tomorrow.



March 9th, 2017

With the early arrival of the tree, I had to knock this out ASAP, thank goodness the weather was nice. I didn't get the whole stump out but got a good bit of it out to plant the new tree. I actually would have kept going if I didn't have a slight mishap with the Sawzall, after I got hurt I said Bullshit, if the tree dies it dies, at this point I was beyond frustrated!



 





 
  • I also started the fence today, picked up six 8' 4"x4" PT posts earlier this week. The bottoms are coated with roofing muck.






 
  • I got 4 of the posts in today. A few of the post holes were exactly where the arborvitae stumps were so I had to dig them out, I used a sawzall to help remove the stumps. Each hole was dug a bit deeper than 24" then the post were set in place and temporarily secured to the fence using copper wire. The holes were then filled with Marble Chips and topped with a bit of soil, then adjusted.



 
  • Removing the stumps wasn't too bad, and once I got down about 10" or so I was past the roots and although the soil was pretty much clay, digging with a shovel, a post hole digger and a bum hand wasn't too bad. OH! I didn't mention the hand incident, well I had a little accident with the Sawzall removing the stump out front. After a bit of tape and a rag and 4 advil, I was back in action.
 


This weekend is shot due to the weather and the next two weekends will be shot due to Birthdays, Parties and a weekend canoe trip. I can at least finish removing the stuff from the hill and maybe burn the rest of the arborvitaes and red maple tree if the 100MPH winds would ever stop.
 

March 11th-12th, 2017

Well, this weekend was shot so I played in my workshop.

 



 

The plants are all doing well, I had more rosemary pop, a Fengyuan Eggplant sprout, the parsley came up and a couple more ghost chili's The only thing I have been having trouble with are my California wonder seeds, nothing has germinated yet. Nothing from the Gerbera Daisy yet either.
 



I expanded my growing space a bit. By topping off the solo cups I can get 18 per tray comfortably so I went from 60 to 72 on the grow table.
 


 



Then looking around the workshop I found another spot to expand to another 36. Armed with a plan, it was off to Home Depot.

I need to stay out of Home Depot or more specifically the seed area, I stopped over HD to pick up a few timers for my expanded grow area and picked up a packet of Box Car Willie Tomato Seeds and Abe Lincoln Tomato Seeds.


When I got home, I hooked these shop lights up to a timer, set for 18 hours and put a fan on the work bench that is set to go on for twenty minutes three times a day. I grabbed a board I had laying around, put in some eye bolts, popped 4 anchors in the ceiling and popped in some eye bolts and used Heavy Gauge copper wire for the supports, I'll change these out with light duty chain when I get a chance, but for now it was what I had and I wasn't going back out again.
 

These are 6000k LED light that I originally bought for the grow table but due to the type of bulb, I couldn't use them on the grow table, electrical stuff I wont go into right now.

This works out great, it is just the right height to work under it without bumping my head, it does block a little light from the work shop table but not too much.
 

Right now I have a few Jalapeno, Poblano and Marigold plants up there as a control, I will be checking them every day to see if the lights and area are adequate.
 

This brings me from 60 plants to 108 plants.
 



March 16th, 2017
  • Still not able to get outside, everything is under 6" of snow and ice!
  • It has been 5 days and the 36+ plants are doing well under the new grow area, so I think it is safe to say that the heat, air flow and and lighting under these lights are adequate.


 
Dang Buddy !!!  You got it going on Wow.   I did enlarge my garden this year, and got everything planted Yesterday, As usual I still ran out of room.

Your's is looking good and gunna be beautiful

Gary
 
 
Dang Buddy !!!  You got it going on Wow.   I did enlarge my garden this year, and got everything planted Yesterday, As usual I still ran out of room.

Your's is looking good and gunna be beautiful

Gary
I was just over there checking things out, looking good, hey how come you don't have any leeks?
biggrin.gif
 
March 17th-19th, 2017
  • This week was a bust and I'm pretty sure I lost all my seedlings in the Hugel Beds, I may replant this week.



  • I'm still trying to save my Rosemary plant, I started this from seed last year.

 
  • And if the weather wasn't enough for me to worry about, now I have this to worry about!

 
  • Started thinning and dividing the plants.




 
  • The plants in the Blue Solo Cups will go to a fellow garden enthusiast, the Yellow solo cups go to my brother and the rest are mine. 50% or less will be used in my garden, some will go in my parents garden and the remainder will either find a new home, find a nook in my yard or be tossed.



 
  • I started fertilizing the plants this week and they seem to be doing OK. I still have some Abe Lincoln Tomato seedlings and Boxcar Willie Tomato Seedlings that need to be re-potted next week, they wee a tad too small to be messing with.


  • The fan and lighting seem to be adequate. I have been keeping the garage at about 78°F.


  • I usually don't recycle my potting mix but was running low so I sterilized some potting mix for my Marigold plants.



 
  • I have been putting these Marigolds everywhere, here are a few on a morning sun windowsill in the basement bathroom, hopefully it will be enough light and not too drafty. Now I just have to figure out how to keep the wife from dropping and closing the blinds!


 
 
  • Today was a melancholy day, I retired my old faithful Remington saw and replaced with a new Makita, the Remington has been a great saw and don't owe me anything after 10 years of service, I feel like I lost an old friend!
 
March 21st, 2017
  • How do you know you have a gardening problem? When your running late for work and decide to do some gardening!
  • The snow and ice is almost gone so I checked my beds, all the peas that sprouted have rotted, same with the broccoli, no sign of the spinach, bush beans and lettuces. I replanted the peas and the broccoli. This weekend is shot, I will be on a canoe camping trip on the Delaware river, we will be heading out very early Friday morning but I will be home fairly early Sunday so I may be able to do some planting then.

 

 
  • My new cups came in and I have been transplanting into the new cups. These cups are awesome, nice and sturdy and can be run through the dishwasher. The taller ones are 20 oz. cups and fit 18 to a tray and the smaller ones are 10 oz. cups and fit 21 to a tray, I am still debating on getting all 20 oz. cups. I like that they are taller and slightly narrower than the red solo cups.




  • If I get more 20 oz. cups, I'll probably use the 10 oz cups for my pepper starts then pot up to 20 oz.

 
March 23rd, 2017


Replanted some Bush Beans,
,this morning before work,


no, no, not those Bush Beans.

 After work I planted a row of the sugar snap peas in the Hugel bed.






 

March 24th - 26th, 2017
 

Canoeing the Delaware River, see ya in a couple days.



 

March 27th, 2016
 

I was re-potting some plants today and had a little mishap, I was adjusting the height of the shelf and spilled a whole tray of plants, there were some casualties but I managed to save most of them but time will tell. I really need to be more careful. The trays should be removed before adjusting, not sure what the hell I was thinking. I will be stopping at Home Depot tomorrow to pick up some supplies to install a more secure system.

March 28th, 2016

  • These tomato plants still have about three weeks to go before planting, they literally exploded in a week, I started my plants several weeks later this year but may need to start another week or two later.


 

  • The eggplants and some of the peppers are spot on for timing but I may plant them a week later as well.



  • A few of the tomato plants have what appears to be "sun scald", these plants were touching the light. I'll be hardening these off in a week or two so I turned off the heat in the garage so the garage is a bit cooler and I am going to cut back on the fertilizer and watering.

 



  • I setup a more secure adjustable/hanging system.

 
Cool. Love the Video. Looks like a lot of Fun

Gary
 
April 2nd, 2017

Woohoo!, its finally dry enough to get moving on the fence.

  • got my mulch "5 for $10"


April  4th, 2017
 
  • Still working on the fence.

 

 
April 5th, 2017
  • I figured it was time for the plants to either "sink or swim". Sink or Swim dammit, these guys will get late afternoon sun.
 
April  5th-12th, 2017

I installed a new Pond filter and UV about 4 days ago, and it is now just starting to clear up, I ordered another filter that I will be installing this weekend. Now I need to do something with those wires!
 



 

I started work on the Koi pond, cleaned the filters, skimmed the bottom, fired up the Wendy Filter, had to do a quick repair job on the upper veggie filter, as it was leaking pretty good. Got the other veggie filter going and put in the Terracotta pots for my peppers.
 
I am still digging out the back hill. I have been digging out this hill for the last few weeks and taking the dirt to my Brothers house, he has a low spot in his yard that pools pretty good after a heavy rain so we have been dumping it in the low spot.

  • After work I decided to stop by Home Depot and pick up some 6x6x10 footers, lets just say that I wont do that again!

 


 



Woohoo! the fence is finished, now it's time to concentrate on the retaining wall.

 



 
  • Planted most of my veggies. (L-R)
  •  Matts Wild Cherry
  •  Ruby King
  •  Corno Di Toro Giallo
  •  Anaheim
  •  Poblano
  •  Black Beauty


 

This year I planted the Eggplants and peppers on a slight angle and spread them out a bit more.

Left Bed (L-R)


  • California Wonder - California Wonder

  • Black Beauty Eggplant - Black Beauty Eggplant

  • Black Beauty Eggplant - Black Beauty Eggplant

  • Brandywine Red
  • Abe Lincoln
Right Bed (L-R)

6 plants across may be a bit tight, we will see!

  • Ruby King Red Pepper - Ruby King Red Pepper

  • Cherokee Purple
  • Cherokee Purple

  • Brandywine Red

  • Black Vernissage

  • Black Vernissage


 

Long Hugelkultur bed (L-R)


  •  Indigo Blue Berries Tomato 24"

  •  Abe Lincoln 24"

  •  Abe Lincoln 24"

  •  Corno Di Toro Giallo 18"

  •  Corno Di Toro Giallo 18"

  •  Cherokee purple 24"

  •  California Wonder 18"

  •  Anaheim 18"

  •  Black Beauty 20"

  •  Black Beauty 20"

  •  Jalapeno 18"

  •  Jalapeno 18"

  •  Poblano 18"

  •  Poblano 18"

  •  Box Car Willie 24"

  •  Box Car Willie 24"

  •  Brandywine red 24"

  •  Brandywine red 24"

  •  Ruby King 18"

  •  Ruby King 18"

  •  Oregano Cover crop

  •  Basil

  •  Parsley

  •  Marigold


 



 

  • Patio Princess


 

  • Sprite determinate. Old filter earmarked for the trash, I'm just waiting a week or two to make sure my new filter doesn't suck!

  • Jalapeno in the larger Vertical Tower (Top). I had strawberries in this vertical tower last year and was half hoping they would not winter over and I would plant other things in them, oh well, all the strawberries came back.


  • Tabasco in the smaller Vertical Tower (Top), gotta have Tabasco for my hot sauce!!! I'll be dumping miscellaneous herbs and pepper plants in here.



 

I just can't wait until all the veggie plants are in, my wildflowers arrive and are planted, everything is mulched, the retaining wall and fence are done, all the digging and dirt hauling is done, the ponds are finished, then I can put all my tools away, cleanup and enjoy the gardening. I took on a lot this year but I'm hoping it all pays off and I don't burn out by July!!

 
  • My Peas are starting to come up.


  • Last year I transplanted some Phlox and it has done really well. All this Phlox came from one small plant by the Koi Pond. It just blows my mind that one of the plants is white and they all came from the same plant.


  • Donor plant


 

  • My artistic Daughter is making me some Rock Labels for my Herb Garden.

 


 


 


  • My one Raspberry plant is doing well and for some odd reason, my shepherd loves eating this plant. Note the Dumb Ass turtle to the left, God knows how long he's been stuck there. I still need to childproof the yard a little better.



 

  • This morning I got up early and put in some Marigolds, checked on the plants and pond and YES, done some more digging!!!

 



 

After work I picked up some 4x4's for the supports, 4 foot rebar, stone (chipped marble), for the posts and 10" Timberlock screws. I laid the first three pieces of the retaining wall. I used my new AWESOME chainsaw to make the cut. The first row needs to be leveled but I will wait till Saturday after we pick up the remaining 6x6s, this way my brother can help me.

I got some more digging to do and I gave up on removing the stumps, natures gonna have to take care of them.




April 13th-16th, 2017


 

Today the other pond filter came in and I got that installed, I just didn't plug in the UV so it's just a canister filter at the moment.
 


I ran a 1/2" irrigation line from the raised bed under the retaining wall. I plan on running an emitter line to water the plants in front of the fence, I just need to order as few more parts.
 
  • I dug the hose in a good bit and covered the hose with some pavers, just in case I'm digging around and forgot about the line being there, Yeah, I sometimes do that!  And yes, I did some more digging.

 
  • I called my brother for assistance on the rest of the project, The game plan was to meet at Home Depot at 8 am, pick up the wood and install the retaining wall. We got the wood home safely and moved it into the back yard, boy was it heavy.



 
  • After the four posts were in we tamped everything real good secured to the fence and removed the support that was kicking the wall back.

  • Laura was painting the playhouse, when she finished, she ran out and grabbed a few hoagies and we stopped for lunch.

  •  I tweaked my Compost bin, It was undersized, last years garden waste filled it up and then some.

 
  • Mulched the back and put in some plants.

 




All the turtles are up and about.
 

 


 I am having issues with the newest rescue, I keep separating them, he may have to go!

 





Finally a chance to relax.
 
 
Wow, You really have that looking nice  I like the Painted Rock Idea,   Makes my Garden look like Crap

Gary
 
SQWIB, your garden and landscape is absolutely beautiful.     I know you have put in a ton (or 100s of tons) work on them and you have done an outstanding job.   Congratulations and thank you for sharing your pictures.      Cherokee Purple tomatoes are one of my favorites.
 
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