709-218-7927 The Landfall Garden House 60 Canon Bayley Road Bonavista, Newfoundland CANADA A0C 1B0 |
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Diary
Back to Diary_2024_08
Sunday, September 01, 2024
Rain early tomorrow morning, the first real test of the revamped rainwater trough. Today I must hose it down and clean out the pail.
I spent a half-hour sorting through bulbs dug from the southern part of the western bed of the driveway. I am still not clear on the difference between the tulips and the daffodils, but hope top resolve that next year by the use of my 4-foot plots.
In the meantime, here is a photo showing FOUR bulbs that have been generated by ONE bulb – a 400% ROI in anyone’s language.
I decided then to dig up ONE of the Iris plants. This plant sprang from ONE rhizome that I set out this spring. It comes up as a clump of soil, which I shake and then rinse out with water.
In the wheel barrow I separate FIVE rhizomes, a better ROI than daffodils. I planted out TEN rhizomes, so an average ROI of 300% should yield me thirty plants for next spring planting.
“After blooming is finished, cut flower stems down to their base to discourage rhizome rot, but do NOT trim the iris’ leaves. The plant’s foliage carries on with photosynthesis and generates energy for next year’s growth and flowers. Only prune off brown leaf tips, if desired.”
Monday, September 02, 2024
I have so far constructed six seed trays, each one-foot-square.
I have five beakers of tree seeds (peach, nectarine, pear and so on) and of course, for next year, a plan for sowing seeds for a solid month.
Thursday, September 05, 2024
So here are ten 12” seed trays, tacked together. “Tacked” because I have run out of wood screws of the correct size. I can stack twelve of them vertically, and maybe three stacks along the counter, so as good as forty trays.
I will need a strong plastic sheet below the stacks once they are filled with damp soil, but empty I can start allocating trays to seeds by (a) placing the seed containers (old DVD cases) within each tray and (b) labeling each tray with a plastic-tag.
That should make me better organized than the past five years; progress!
You see a small stack of cardboard, broken down from a large hot-water-heater carton, leaning against my deck.
You don’t feel my heart beating with the excitement of success.
There I was, minding my own business when Paul walks up the driveway “Chris! Can you use this?”. The answer is always Yes, so, yes, I have a bit more cardboard that in past years would have found its way to the tip.
Paul has been present when I have carted old cartons from David’s garage, and now he knows that I have a (second) use for old cartons.
I am excited because here is proof that I changed another resident’s mind about what might go into the tip, and what might not.
I have decided that the top of my driveway will hold a set of tubs to hold tree seedlings. My stock in the driveway is pretty well taken care of – it is in larger tubs than a little can.
These larger tubs (right on the corner of the driveway) have a shovel of rock/pebble/weed from the Propped Rack . Rain will settle this base (and the rain water will drip through and settle the other tubs in the stack.
Repotting a tree now is as easy as grabbing a tub, shoveling in the sieved soil, and working with a trowel, all in a single location. Hooray! I am better organized than ever.
The pile of grass clippings can be moved to compost bins today or tomorrow.
Here is the foot of the propped rack, not all the debris is removed, but enough for me to get back into shoveling onto the sieve.
Friday, September 06, 2024
Time (once again) to harvest rhubarb. I moved just four crowns in spring this year and am now harvesting them. So much for “wait until the third year”
This image shows the density of stalks partway through harvesting one crown.
This image shows the density of stalks partway through harvesting one crown.
This image shows the density of stalks partway through harvesting one crown.
The circle shows the denuded area after the stalks were harvested. Beyond the circle are my immature tomato plants; in the foreground are the dandelion-riddled potato plants.
My 25-litre pail of 14 pounds of stalks. Note the length of the stalks
The plastic tub weighs one pound, so here I have seven pounds of stalks.
Saturday, September 07, 2024
I carry on assembly of seed trays. Remember that this exercise has its roots in “making space in my shed” and to that end I arrived at a stage where I had a collection of short (four feet or less) pieces of 2x1 spruce timber. I had already collected the off cuts of pressed boards from David’s new garage.
Seed trays!
I use the circular saw to cut the 2x1 to 12” lengths, a standard length. I group the off cuts into fours and pin them together by hammering in two 2.5” #10 wood screws at each corner in a lapped or butt joint. Nothing fancy here.
I then saw the chipboard off cuts into 13” squares. Not exactly. If a piece is 14” then I leave it at 14”. This means that each base has an overlap on at least one side.
A 2.5” wood screw hammered in at each corner suffices.
This morning I reached 18 trays – one-third of my target for next spring In this photo you can see the slight overlap in the base which makes it easy to stack, and to lift up, each seed tray.
Sunday, September 08, 2024
Glass-house!
In the background is a ramp I made using just an ld compost bin panel. The ramp eases a wheelbarrow up and onto the raised bed.
In the foreground is a glass pane, one of eight, that were saved during the first phase of new windows. Laid against the south side (!) of the raised bed they would form a triangular glass house, 18” along the base and 12” up the raised bed plank.
A 12” square seed tray (with a 13” base yet) fits snugly within the confines.
A square piece of chipboard 18”x12” cut diagonally, would provide two triangular ends. In the spring I could drop about fifteen trays in there to catch the rays during the day; Gaps in the frames would allow excessive heat to dissipate.
Since the glass panes lean against the bed, bringing trays indoors when frost is threatening should be easy.
Worth thinking about …
I ran through most of a jar of #10 2” wood screws this weekend. How? Well, another 18 trays at 12 screws per tray is 216. Easy!
Late afternoon I grabbed some more scrappy bits of 2x1 from David’s pile. These are short pieces with ragged ends; ideal for my purposes – a set of 12” sides to seed trays.
Into the shed and a little production line going where I mark of 12” lengths with a rule and try-square, and drop each piece at my feet.
Then pull out the chop saw and fill my hair full of sawdust. Those are the 12” lengths in the foreground, ends of scrap to be burned towards the door.
Eighteen sets of four sides each, so eighteen more seed trays maybe by the end of tomorrow.
That will take my total to thirty-six, two thirds of my goal of fifty.
I will clear the floor tomorrow morning; that is a job that I can do quietly before the neighbours wake up.
Monday, September 09, 2024
I shan’t say that the New! Improved!! Rainwater trough is a disaster, but I was disappointed this morning to find that the trough had settled out horizontally and some tacked sheets had wrenched free. And today we are expected top get 20-40mm of rain.
Once the wind and rain dies down, I shall fasten the sheets more securely to the trough and provide properly angled and heightened troughs to hold the trough firmly and on a decent slope.
The thought crosses my mind that I am using siding ripped from the Convenience Store in 2019, tacked together. I might be better off using a new sheet of chip board, hinged with T-hinges BEFORE being sliced. Lighter, without all the straps and braces joined on over the past five years.
If the trough is too heavy for me to carry, then the trough is too heavy.
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Thirty two seed trays stacked now (one is elsewhere waiting for measurements). Stacked indoors because I consider loading them indoors, germinating indoors, and setting outside only when danger of frost is well passed AND space is available in my lean-to greenhouse.
I know of one person who fancies having a dozen seed trays, so I plan on assembling another eighteen or so; fifty trays should certainly satisfy me,
Measurement: If I am to load these indoors, then I will need pails of sieved soil indoors. How many pails? I shall load one pail with soil and then use it to fill a tray; that will give me an idea of how many pails of sieved soil I should have close to the porch.
Remember that this seed-tray project started as a way to clear more space in the shed. I am achieving that goal quite nicely.
But now I think of deeper trays to hold, say, Iris bulbs and leaves while autumn draws over us. The bed can be freed for composting and roto-tilling while the roots are held safe in a bed of soil.
Later: One 7 Kg pail (salt beef!) loads 2.5 trays, so ten trays will take 28Kg of soil. Thirty trays will need 90 Kg of pails. This is dry-volume; I anticipate that the soil will pack down once moistened, so say more like five 7Kg pails for each ten trays. I need a lot of sieved soil.
There are still other uses for “seed-trays” – they hold a set of corned beef or tomato paste cans which themselves carry apple and pear cored. Citrus seeds, and so on.
Late afternoon I set up a fourth bin at the eastern end of the raised bed and dumped in eight barrows of grass.
Saturday, September 14, 2024
My upgraded rainwater trough collected a pail of water early this morning. It is a little cloudy. I shall let the water settle for 24 hours and then filter it for immediate use. I am pleased that this steel-lined trough works.
Over the next few weeks I shall see how well it does at reserving the light falls of rain.
I have ordered an extra sheet of OSB to build myself a lighter trough, which will be firmly hinged with metal hinges.
Thursday, September 26, 2024
I yanked weeds from the raised bed and tossed them into the nearest in-bed compost bin. The image above shows a potato-vine yanked by mistake, with a very small new potato in evidence.
People who “hill” their potatoes know what they are doing: I have circled three buds that have formed on the vine above gorund. These will not now develop into spuds.
In the centre of this image I have dumped a couple of shovels of soil atop a cluster of green-tinged potatoes. Perhaps within a month the green tinge (a warning of oxalic acid) will have disappeared.
More soil dumped on more above-ground potatoes.
I harvested about a quart of beetroot that seemed larg enough to boil and dice and bottle.
Across the street at least one of the pumpkin seeds germinated and was strong enoyhgh to throw up a flower.
A smart person would (a) re-mow these four strips and (b) rake out the mown grass to compost and then (c) rotary-hoe twice, about two weeks apart before the snow comes.
I have about a dozen stones each of plum, plum, plum, peach and nectarine.
My plan is to gather fifty or sixty paper coffee cups and plant a stone in each soil-filled cup.
I will set each of the five groups of cups within a tempoirary enclosure formed from the frame of a seed tray.
The groups will sit in one of the plots that will be my “stone-fruit nursery”
Friday, September 27, 2024
I came home and shifted the pile of grass from Tuesday, but when I went outside around 3pm Angela had dropped off her load, and while I was shifting that, Ross rolled up with another load. All socked away now. My four in-bed bins are full to the brim.
I mowed down the western side of the house with my new mower, mowed over the driveway-east bed ready for digging out bulbs tomorrow. I want to lift the last rhubarb (it’s what those shopping bags are for) and then I can till the western bed and the driveway beds, …
I pulled the eight strings that I have used to markthe four-foot plots; those strings are wound on cardboard ready for next year. I have a new aim each day, to move at least one (set of) thing out of the yard and into the house or shed. Saturday and Sunday are free, so that means too clearing the bench and the shed floor, perhapos sawing the new trough, and so on.
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Citrus nursery: I will plant citrus seeds in orange coffee-cups; cups with the base cut out for drainage. I can cluster almost a dozen such cups in a seed-tray frame, and seat the frames in a plot in thebraisedbed. Now my citrus seeds can germinate naturally, if they will, in its quanatined area.