Green Peas: a Seed-Starting Experiment

It's really still too early to plant peas outside.  But it's really not that long until time to plant, is it? I wondered if I could get a head start on my peas by starting them indoors this year.

I decided to go ahead and plant the pea seeds in individual biodegradable containers and save my plastic four-, six-, and nine-packs for other things.  I had a few peat pots that I bought at my favorite little local feed store, but after watching this video by Huw Richards, I decided to experiment with toilet paper rolls again.

I say "again " because I tried using toilet paper rolls to start tomatoes and peppers last year.  I would categorize that attempt as a moderate failure.  

The seeds I put in the pot sprouted and grew, but the process of getting the dirt in the rolls was ridiculous.  

I had cut the rolls in half, thinking I could get more containers that way.  I quickly discovered that it was almost impossible to fill the little half-rolls with soil.  I tried lining them with paper towel in the bottom.  It helped, but it was very awkward trying to hold the paper towel in the end while adding the soil (anything that requires good motor skills is hard for me, since I am notorious for dropping things).  I eventually ended up just setting the half-rolls in the cut-off milk jug and trying to cram the rolls full of the soil.  I'm pretty sure I ended spilling as much as I got in the containers. 

The cardboard soaks up water really quickly and as it gets saturated, the rolls may start to come apart at the seam.  What I hadn't realized was that by cutting the tubes in half, there was a lot less seam holding them together, and they were coming completely apart in just a couple of days. 

Then came the mold.  And when I say mold, I mean monster mold!  All of the cardboard tubes quickly developed a heavy layer that started on the outside, but then began spreading inwards to the soil.  I really think I was lucky that the half rolls held together long enough for me to get the seedlings set out in little grow pots.

I didn't think I'd ever try the rolls again, but watching the video made me think that my problem might have been that I kept the trays too wet.  Apparently there are lots of people out there who use them successfully, so I decided to give it one more try.

This time though, I decided to leave the rolls in one piece, and as I often do, I puzzled on it a good part of the night when I was supposed to be sleeping.  I came up with a plan that I hoped would work.

The supplies:  1) The cardboard toilet paper rolls (and a paper towel roll, that was cut into thirds);  2) a proper plastic tray to hold the rolls (milk jugs are too small and uneven on the bottom); and 3) a cardboard egg carton.

My "brilliant idea" was this...cut the "cups" out of the bottom of the egg carton, and stuff those down into the toilet paper rolls to create a "bottom" for each container.

Separate the egg "holders" into individual units.

Then stuff each one in a tube!

The completed "pots," ready for soil.

I was actually really pleased with how the egg carton bottoms worked.  I was able to pick up each tube and spoon the damp soil in and press it down into the tube to get a good fill.  I filled each tube to within about an inch from the top, and only spilled a little this time! (For the record, it's not very easy to cut the egg-holding part of a cardboard egg carton apart!)

Ready for planting!  I sprinkled about 1/8 teaspoon of the Plant Success Organics Mycorrhiza granules in each tube/peat pot.

After soaking the pea seeds in warm water for about 30 minutes, each pea was put into its own little pot and topped off with soil.

And finally, a label for each pot, just because I have a ton of popsicle sticks, and wanted to be able to keep up with where each plant is once set out in the ground.

I had the potting soil pretty damp...notice how the toilet paper rolls have already soaked up a lot of the water.  One of the tubes has already started to unravel a bit at the top.  I hope it will hold together and that the others don't do the same thing.

The finished trays were then set in the south window of the inside porch.  The porch is unheated, and still gets down in the low 40s at night when the outside temperature is in the 20s.  But they'll have good sunshine all day, and I hope to see the peas coming up within a week to 10 days.

I planted 18 toilet paper/paper towel tubes and 15 peat pots.  I'm guessing that the toilet paper tubes held two and a half times as much soil as the peat pots, and I was able to fit more of the the rolls into a smaller tray.  I really liked that...the tubes go vertical more than horizontal.  It will be interesting to see if having more soil, or making the roots grow deeper has any impact on the seedlings after they're put out in the garden.

And now, we wait.  

Update:  April 1, 2022

I set them all out in the garden and they all died or were eaten by rabbits.

Composting...for real this time

I started what I called a "compost bin" a long time ago.  That first bin was made from the old landscape timbers, stacked two layers high, with an old storm door fastened over the top of it.  Pretty much the only thing I put in it was vegetable scraps - things like lettuce, tomato and potato peels, ends off of the squash, etc.  When I got ready to put something in it, I'd just lift the door, dump the scraps in and lay the door back down.  It got very hot under the glass during the summer, so even though the pile wasn't dense enough to heat up on its own, the stuff in it did decompose pretty quickly.  It just didn't make very much compost because I really wasn't putting much in it.

When I moved the old recycling box out under the tree and turned it into a house for my little chickens, I put what little compost was under the old door out in the garden, and decided I would turn that spot into a raised bed instead.  I didn't have a compost bin for a while.  I don't remember for sure, but I must have just dumped my vegetable scraps over the fence for the cows?

But after my sweet little chickens all died/were killed, I decided that rather than tear down their little pen, I'd take the wire off the top and turn it into a new compost bin.  A friend from work had given me four old pallets, and I fastened those around the edges thinking I could just fill that up and use it as a passive compost bin.

What was left of my old compost bin, made from the little chicken coop. Three of the fours pallets have already been removed.

There were a couple of problems with that setup.  First, if I wanted to do anything with the compost (other than add stuff to the bin), I had to untie one of the pallets, and drag it out of the way.  Not that big of a deal, except the pen was under a small ash tree, so getting access to the panels turned out to be much harder than I thought.  Second, because I had left the wooden sides of the old chicken coop in place, I had a hard time getting my shovel down into the compost to "turn" it, so it seemed like the pile just always had a bunch of undecomposed "stuff" on top.  I sure wasn't getting much usable compost out of it!

I think my early mistakes with composting were a result of me just not knowing what I was doing.  It makes so much sense to me now, and should have been obvious to me all along:  If you want to make lots of compost, 1) you have to compost lots of stuff.  And if you want to make lots of good compost, you don't just need to add "lots of stuff."  2) You need to add lots of the right stuff.  And if you want to make lots of compost in a shorter amount of time, 3) you have to put some work into your bins, turning the pile every so often.  

I was 0 for 3 on my composting.

This isn't going to be a lesson on "greens" and "browns" or about how to compost in general.  There are lots of good articles online about that.  All you have to do is go to The Google and type in something like "greens and browns in composting" or "how to compost" and it will show you all kinds of articles.  I also won't list the many composting articles I've read this winter, or the YouTube videos I've watched.  But this one by Charles Dowding is one of the ones that got me going on my composting again.

Three Types of Heap, see how they work and the compost they make

Since I already had four old pallets, enough to build one bay, I decided why not give the three-bay system a try?

Dowding mentioned that he didn't put anything under their bays...they just set them up on top of the grass.  I decided against that though.  With the aggressive Bermuda grass that's in the yard.  I figured it might not be a very good idea to give that stuff easy access to my compost bays, so I started out with a layer of old tin underneath.  A potential drawback I can see from doing this is that it also cuts off access for things like earthworms that might migrate up into the bin.  So I'll have to see how this works out.  

The long-term plan is start with this single bay, then add two additional bays to the right, using those for my first and second decomposition bins.  This original bin with the tin under it will be my "final" bin where I store the finished compost.

Anyway, back to the project.  The back pallet was secured to one of the existing fenceposts and shimmed up where necessary so it was level and plumb (I have my daddy to thank for that...but that's another story unto itself!).  Because the ground sloped down a bit toward the fence, the side pallets had to also be shimmed up a bit on the east side, but when they were all tied together, I wasn't unhappy with how it turned out.

The first bay, ready for some greens and browns!  Yes, the pallet on the left is a little out of plumb...it needs a support post in the ground beside it to hold it straight.

The first layer that went in was a wheelbarrow load of the wonderful leaves that RAF helped me collect in the yard earlier in the winter. 

The second layer was a cart load of "green manure" that RAF helped me collect today from the field.  I had joked with him and with my dad about how there was so much out there that I should take my cart and gather it up.  My dad just laughed and said that's what his grandpa used to do...gather up the cow manure from the lot where he fed the cattle and put it in a pile to rot.  That's what he and Mamaw used to fertilize their garden.  They never bought chemical fertilizer, instead just using what nature provided for them.

A cart load of "green manure" for the new compost bin.

So if it worked for Papaw and Mamaw, why wouldn't it work for me?  And there are lots of compostable-material-producing friends out in the field....

Some of my compostable-material-producing friends.

(Just as a side note, it was sort of an interesting experience collecting the manure today.  It turned out to be much easier to shovel up than I had anticipated (because it was frozen!) and it turned out to be much heavier than I had anticipated!  RAF joked that if my dad went to sell any of the cattle, he needed to be sure to make them wait to poo until after they were weighed at the sale barn!)  

More compost friends...earthworms!

Another cart of leaves, another cart of frozen cow manure, and another cart of leaves brought the new bin up to about half-full.  

At that point, I took the top layer of compost off the old compost bin (again, much harder than it looked because it too, was frozen) and I tossed that on top of the leaves and poo.  This layer wasn't very thick, but it did have some more compost friends in it.

All that was left was temporarily attaching the last pallet to the front of the bin.  A couple of strings later, and the bin was at a stage where it is now a usable compost bay.

The last pallet in place.  All that was left was tying it in place so it wouldn't fall over.  (The "out of plumb" pallet on the left was pulled back straight when it was connected to the front pallet!)

I've already starting adding more "stuff" to the new bin...some rotted wood that blew out of the top of the old silver maple in the front yard, along with the coffee grounds and other vegetable scraps from the bucket I keep under the kitchen sink. 

I'm not at all sure how long that green manure will take to break down, and I'm sure I didn't add enough earthworms today to do much good.  I also need to buy a soil thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature in the bay, and get a pitch fork to use when turning the pile.  But I feel pretty hopeful that this project has put me on the right path to creating lots of good compost, something I really, really need if I'm going to keep my pledge to use a no-till approach to gardening.  

As I walked Mo around the yard this evening, I looked over at the mud-hole, where I had tossed all of the old vegetation I cleared out of the yard this past summer and fall, and told myself, "Next year, all of that will go in my compost bin."  

If it all works like I hope it will, it will be a very good thing.

Growing Onions

Because I have the gardening bug so bad, yesterday I decided to go ahead and try planting some of my onion seeds, with plans to set them out pretty early, protecting them from the cold if I have to. 

Last year, I ordered two varieties of onion seeds...Walla Walla and Yellow Sweet Spanish.  I had tried growing some of the Yellow Sweet Spanish last year, and they never did amount to much.  I supposed it was because I had set them out in the east garden, where the soil gets very hard and dry, and I hadn't done a very good job of keeping them watered.

Since that seed packet was already open, I planted about half of the remaining seeds in a pot and started thinking about where I could put the grow light when they sprouted.

It sounded like a good plan.  But I live in zone 7a in Arkansas, and anyone who knows anything about growing onions knows already what I've done wrong.... 

As a way to spend yesterday's rainy morning, I did some reading on the Homestead and Chill website.  The article on How to Grow Onions: from Seed or Sets to Harvest talked about "short day" and "long day" onions.  I had never heard of such a thing.  I always thought an onion was an onion was an onion.  Not so.  DeannaCat included a picture from an article on the Johnny's Selected Seeds website.  The Johnny's article did a good job explaining what the "day" designations of an onion variety mean:  Map & Key Features of Short-, Intermediate- & Long-Day Onions 

If I had spent a little bit of time learning about onions before I bought my seeds last year, I would have known that neither of the varieties I bought (both "long day" varieties) will ever amount to anything here in Arkansas.

I now understand that since we're south of the 35th parallel, I need to grow "short day" or "intermediate day" varieties.  An onion like Texas Yellow Sweet or Vidalia would be better suited for my garden than Yellow Sweet Spanish and Walla Walla.

So today, I started over on my onions.  I ordered some "short day" onion seeds from Eden Brothers...Texas Early Grano.  I'm not sure how long the seeds will take to get here, but I figure they'll still get here in plenty of time for me to get them started early like I had originally planned.  According to our planting calendar, onion seeds should be planted outdoors in mid-March, so I hope to have my little onions ready to go in the garden by that time.

I guess this is "Stupid Mistake #1 for 2022."  I'm sure there will be lots more of them to come.

January 2022 Gardening Journal

Saturday, January 29, 2022

After a cold start this winter day turned out to be very nice.  So nice, in fact, that I couldn't resist the temptation to plant some seeds!

I planted Early Frosty green peas; Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts; Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage; and broccoli seeds I saved from the plant that went to seed in the garden last year (I'm pretty sure the plant was the variety called Waltham 29).   The peas are in the south window out on the inside porch, but the others are in the living room sitting in plastic containers on the Dish receiver.  The electronic equipment makes a good "heating mat" so long as I don't spill any water!

I am a bit worried about my onions and leeks.  After what seemed like such a promising start, they look weak and spindly to me.  But then they are in the Allium family, so maybe they're supposed to look spindly? 

The blueberry bed got another dusting of Sulphur this afternoon.  I'll need to weigh the bag now to see how much I've put out altogether, but I bet it's close to 1 lb.  That's getting very close to what I calculated the bed would need. 

And finally, RAF helped me add four more cartloads of cow poo and three cartloads of leaves to the new compost bin.  I was surprised how much it had settled since Tuesday, but with today's additions, it's almost full - filled to about three and a half feet high.  I need to get my thermometer ordered so I can keep an eye on the temperature.  I sure hope the stuff gets hot enough to kill any grass and weed seeds that I've added.  I suspect there have been quite a few where I've scooped up poo mixed with uneaten hay.  Wouldn't that be horrible, to add smartweed seeds onto my beautiful raised rows!!!  I also decided today that I really need a manure fork.  The poo is easy to scoop up from the field with a flat shovel, but a shovel just isn't going to work to turn the pile.  

Unfortunately, I've not had any luck finding any pallets for the additional compost bays.  There's someone in town who apparently goes around and loads up all of the discarded pallets from the local businesses.  I may end up having to find something else to build those bays from.  What a shame that would be. 

 

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

RAF helped me put two more loads of cow poo and leaves in the new compost bin yesterday during my lunch break.  It's now about two-thirds full, and I plan to add enough this weekend to fill it up.  If it doesn't work out, I'll have a lot of poo to undo.  

He also helped me get a measurement on the west fence this evening to see how much wire I will need to buy.  Rough measurement was 168 feet.  I've pretty much decided to go with this wire:

Bekaert  Solidlock High Tensile Fixed Knot Fence, 14 ga., 165 ft., 170645

Now that I know approximately how long that stretch of fence will be, I'll need to get a measurement on the south fence.  I think that two rolls are going to be enough though. 

After tossing and turning for a few nights thinking about the fence, I've decided to just make a "parts list," figure up how much it's going to cost, and just buy everything and get it built.   This is one project that I don't want to see get half-finished and left undone.  

 

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Little sister said the low last night was 11 degrees...it's been a cold week!

The sun was out today though, and when I took Mo around the yard this afternoon, I decided that I would go ahead and start to put some of my spring garden plan into action.

Although it's still too early to plant the green peas, I've got the panels ready to go.  They'll go in the row where the tomatoes were last year, so hopefully between the cover crop of vetch and the green peas, the dirt in that row will be "refreshed" a bit before I plant the cucumbers there in late April or early May.  

I expect I'll plant the peas in early February unless the forecast is calling for another Arctic vortex like we had last year. The target date I have in mind is February 12...three weeks from today.  The lettuce and radishes might get planted in the raised bed on that same day.  I'll have to double-check the planting calendar to make sure.  But I'm so excited!  Spring is not too far away!

Since there wasn't much else I could work on outside, I really wasted some time this afternoon playing around in PhotoShop, transferring my paper garden plan into a digital version.  My thinking is that I'll have a blank "template" with my little crop symbols at the top, and each year I can plan out the garden using that template.  By looking back and my past garden plans, I can help ensure that I rotate my crops in a smart way.  Seems like I always tend to plant things in the same spot every year, and I need to get away from doing that. 

My homemade digital garden planner.

I told RAF that when I was drawing out my garden plan on paper, it made me think of the old "Pig in the Garden" game that we had when we were kids.  He didn't know what I was talking about, but Daughter #1 did!  My digital planner is even MORE like the old game.  I just hope I can get my fence put up in time so my garden doesn't turn into a real live version of "Deer/Groundhog/Rabbit/Neighbor's Cow in the Garden!" 

The onions and leeks have really taken off growing this week although I'm a bit worried that the air in here it too dry, because the tips of the leaves are brown.  I'll have to keep an eye on that and if they get worse, find another home for them until time to set them outside.  The onions are going to end up in the raised bed where the "purple circles" are.  The leeks will go in the strawberry bed, which I plan to put in around the cellar.  I have to get those beds built before the strawberries ship in April, but really need them ready for the leeks by early March.  Wow...that's only about six weeks away!

 

One-week old onion (left) and leek seedlings.

 

Monday, January 17, 2022

I could hardly believe it when I started seeing what looked like onion and leek sprouts on Saturday evening.  But sure enough, the little seeds are already coming up!  I've put the old fluorescent grow light right on the tops of the pots for now, but they're going to need a better setup in a few days.  Germination on the onions looks really good, but I'm still waiting to see how many of the leeks come up.  I'm very happy with these seeds from Eden Brothers!

I spent wasted some more time this weekend looking at deer fence ideas, and found one I really like.

How to Make a Modern Deer Fence for your Garden by Sunny Side Design

I've started sketching out plans on paper to see how much it might cost to build this across the north end of the west yard, and to see how much the rest of the fence is going to cost.  I just have to keep telling myself that little Mo and all the good garden produce we'll have are worth it! 

 

Saturday, January 15, 2022

The seeds from Eden Brothers came last week and when I opened the package I thought, "This isn't my order!  I ordered onion seeds!"  LOL  Me and my tired ol' brain!  We forgot that we also ordered American Flag Leeks, Sweet Banana Peppers, and Poblano Peppers!  Why it was almost like Christmas!

I planted the leek and onion seeds one evening and have them sitting by RAF's TV receiver thingy (no idea what they're called...sound processors?).  I didn't set them on it, because I didn't want to take a chance that any dirt might fall into the electronics.  But that thing gives off lots of heat, and by putting the pots right beside it, I suspect it works almost as well as a heating mat.  

The "long day onions" I planted back on January 1 had started to come up, although I must say I'm pretty disappointed with their germination rate.  They're now under the little old grow light, also in the living room.  It's too cold out on the inside porch for them right now.

And speaking of cold....

It's snowing! 

I lazed around in bed this morning, listening to the sound of the rain dripping off the roof onto the window air conditioner (that's a great sound for "sleeping," by the way!).  But RAF was up early, and said the temperature when he got up was in the 40s.  By the time I took little Mo around the yard, the ran was changing over to what looked like little white Styrofoam balls and the temperature had dropped to 39 degrees.  Within 30 minutes, the little white balls had changed over to small snowflakes, then to big snowflakes that look like feathers.  Absolutely beautiful!

 

Light dusting of snow on the garden at 10:21 am.

Garden is almost covered just over 30 minutes later.

 

Snow tapered off a bit, so not a huge difference between 11 am and noon. 
But the temperature has dropped to 32 degrees, so whatever else falls will not melt quite so fast as it did at first.

I have put on another pot of pinto beans, because snowy days just seem like a good day to have a bowl of hot beans with cornbread.  I say "another pot" because I started one yesterday, and if it hadn't been for RAF, I might have burned the house down cooking them! 

After they had soaked for an hour and been rinsed, I had put them back on to cook, only I put the burner on high to get them started, then left the room intending to set a timer on my phone.  But me and my tired ol' brain promptly forgot all about them until I heard RAF yelling. 

Although the kitchen was full of smoke, and my favorite cooking pot was charred in the bottom, the beans weren't burned above that bottom layer, so there would have still be a little more time before they'd have burned completely up, and I hope I would have remembered them (or at least discovered them) before that happened.  But yikes!  I can't be doing stuff like that!

"Stupid Mistake #2 for 2022" -- or maybe this was "Dangerous Mistake #1 for 2022" instead....

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

I got my soil sample results back yesterday, and as expected, the pH of the little blueberry plot was quite a bit too high for blueberries to do well, since they require an acidic soil with a pH of 4.5 to 4.8.  

The report recommended applying elemental sulfur at a rate of 750 lbs./acre.  So doing the math....

According to The Google, there are 43560 square feet in 1 acre.  My blueberry plot is about 5 feet x 15 feet, or 75 square feet. That means it is 0.00172 of an acre.

At the application rate the suggested, that would be 0.00172 * 750, or 1.29 lbs.   Since I bought a 5lb bag of sulfur, I should have plenty.  LOL

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Another dreary cold day, so I thought I'd spend some more time researching fence materials and reading about how to build a fence.

I think I've decided to go with 2x4 woven wire on the part of the yard where the current barbed wire fence is and either put up some of the mesh deer fence or more barbed wire strands above that.  My dad said just stretch the woven wire up over the barbed wire.  I can do that on the south run of fence because it has good metal corner posts and braces.  But the west fence is another story.  The corner post at the very north end rotted off years ago, and the fence is basically just hanging on the T-posts.  (Thankfully, the cows haven't figured that out.)  Since I'll need to set new posts on the north end of the new yard fence anyway, I think I'll just take that barbed wire down, re-stretch it, and put the woven wire over that.

I've built barbed wire fence before, but have never worked with woven wire.  The wire I was looking at on Lowes.com comes in 100' rolls, and my fences will be longer than that.  So can you splice the wire?  I think so.  Will it need wooden support posts set at intervals along the way? 

I asked The Google:

See what the first search result was?  A post called "How to Install a Woven-Wire Fence" on diydiva.net.  I read that post, and it was so funny and authentic that I spent a good two hours reading other posts on the site.  I got lots of good chuckles out of her experiences at renovation and especially at some of the pictures she posted of work on her old farm house.  I laughed to myself at lots of her posts and thought, "Yep, been there, done that," and "Yep, I have some electrical wire sticking out like that," and "Yep, I have some projects that I started 10 years ago that still aren't finished."  

Sadly, she hasn't posted anything since May 2021.  I can't help but wonder in this day and age if she died from or was disabled by Covid-19, or if she just got burned out.  I hope she is just burned out.  I hope she is spending time working on her farm and taking care of herself.

1/15/2022 update: I got an email from Flickr about new posts made by people I follow, so I popped over there to see what I had missed.  I haven't looked at Flickr in a long, long, long time.  But as I was scrolling through all the pictures I had missed, I saw one that I recognized from the diydiva.net website.  It turns out that I've been following "Kit S" for some time now and didn't even remember!  I don't know when or why I followed her, but maybe that's why The Google put her post at the top of my search results?  I'm glad it did though, and glad I was following her.  She has some great albums on Flickr and I think I'll enjoy looking through them.  :)

Saturday, January 8, 2022

This year has started out with some pretty cold weather.  Earlier today we had drizzle and with the temperature hovering around freezing I wondered if we might have some ice on the elevated surfaces.

Since it's been too cold to do anything outside, I've had lots of time to think about the springtime garden, specifically how we're going to keep the critters from eating it all up.  I've pretty much decided we're just going to have to put up a fence of some sort.

A fence will really serve two purposes.  First, it should help keep the deer, rabbits, racoons (and that groundhog!) out of the garden.  But second, it will also give little Mo a place to run.  He doesn't get to go outside unless he's on his leash or on a chain because I'm terrified he'll end up getting shot by the neighbors, or will chase a rabbit or cat out into the road and get run over by one of the idiot drivers who come flying down our narrow little county road to "jump the hill" below us.  The only time he gets to run is when we go walking out in the field.  We haven't done very much of that lately (deer season, ticks, etc.).  He's starting to get quite fat.  

So what kind of fence?  

From everything I've read so far, for a fence to really be "deer-proof" it has to be at least 8' tall, go all the way to the ground so they can't crawl under, and be made in such a way that they can't wiggle through.  Some websites suggest you can use a shorter fence if you set a second fence a few feet inside of the first one.  The thought is that deer have bad depth perception, so they get confused by that second fence and aren't sure how far away it is.  Others think that the deer don't want to get themselves in a spot where they might be trapped. 

Regardless of what we decide to build, it will need some type of woven wire around at least the bottom part so Mo can't get out, and the smaller critters can't get in.  

I haven't actually taken the tape measure to the yard, but just looking at it on this image from Google Earth, I'm estimating that I'm going to need 450' to 500' of fence if I want to enclose the area outlined in orange.  I could probably knock 100' off of that if I move the fence back to the end of the house, but I was really thinking I should put the  American Hazelnut (Corylus americana) trees/shrubs I've ordered inside the fence too.  I think the deer REALLY like them.  I would actually like to make that back yard a little naturalized wooded area with the hazelnuts, dogwoods, red buds and flowers, but I'll just have to see where that goes.

Map legend:  Orange = proposed new fence.  Purple = north fence boundary if I don't have enough money to do the back yard.  Pink = probably a better place to run a deer fence, since the lawnmower can go out the little door to the fence yard, or out the big door for the rest of the year.  Yellow = spot where the blueberry patch will be.  Green = asparagus bed.  White = storm cellar.  Map from Google Earth.

And as I fret over what kind of fence I need to build and what kind I can afford, I've started thinking I might like to make the north piece of fence more of a "privacy" fence.  I always feel like the neighbors across the road are "watching me" when I'm out piddling around in the flowerbed or taking pictures of insects on the flowers.  It sure would be nice to be able to work out there without feeling self-conscious! 

Of course there's no way I can afford a real privacy fence, but I might be able to accomplish the same thing by building a fence out of old pallets.  RAF probably thinks that's a bad idea, but I think, done right, it might be a perfect solution for that fence line.  I might be able to get the pallets for free at some business that wants rid of them, and that would just leave me needing to buy anchor posts for the ends and where the gate will be. (Because of course, it has to have a gate!  Otherwise how will the propane delivery man get to our tank?!) 

 

Saturday, January 1, 2022

Thanks to the rain last night, the neighbors didn't shoot off fireworks this year, opting to fire a few shots from a loud gun of some sort instead.  Poor Mo...the new year always starts out as a stressful experience for him.  I fear the fireworks will come tonight.

The rain is a wonderful way to start off the new year.  We've had about 2 1/2" of slow steady rain over the past 24 hours.  It's the kind of rain that soaks in, and was very much needed. 

I am thankful because, as my brother-in-law said, now the ponds are full again. 

Happy New Year indeed! 

A welcome rain to start 2022.

Christmas Break Projects - 2021

Christmas Eve...it sure doesn't feel like it.  Temperature outside is about 68 degrees right now, and it's sunny and windy.   But the warm weather has given me a chance to work on a few projects that I needed to get wrapped up.  

Project #1 - Fix the roof on Zelda Scissorhands' house. 

Zelda's "house" started out years ago as my recycling bin.  It was made out of treated plywood, with the intention that it would sit outside, giving me a place to put my recycling until I could haul it to the recycling center.  The initial build had a single lift-up top that I, in my brilliance, decided to cover with some asphalt shingles.  I happily shingled the entire thing.  But when I tried to lift the top to put in my first bag of tin and plastic, I shocked and dismayed when I discovered that I could NOT lift the roof!  (I should have know that, since I couldn't pick up a bundle of shingles either!)  So off the shingles came, and the roof was cut into two sections.  I put the shingles back on, and although it was tough, I was able to lift the half-roofs.

But I had not counted on mice.  In just a matter of days, they had discovered the bin, and yee-haw!!!  All kinds of plastic things to chew on!  What a disaster.  The bin was full of plastic shards, the bags had holes in them, and everything had mouse poop in  it.  Sadly, I concluded that my brilliant recycling bin idea was just not going to work.

So I decided I would turn it into a house for the outside cats.  I cut a hole in the front, and put some hay in it.  I tried to entice them into their new house by putting their food dish in there.  No good.  They simply refused to live in it.

Since the recycling/cat box with a roof wasn't going to hold my recycling, and since the cats wouldn't use it for their house, it was just in the way where I had put it.  RAF helped me move it out under the old pecan tree, and there it sat.

A year or so later, I decided to get some laying hens.  The cat hole was covered up, a new larger hole was cut on the other side, and the recycling/cat box was converted into a little hen house.  It actually worked pretty well for that.  I took the shingles off, screwed down one of the roof sections, but left the other half so that I could lift it during the summer to let the breeze blow through.  I fixed a wire screen to cover that half, and added a roost/nest box for them on that end.  My two little Bantam chickens (Russell Crow, the rooster, and Dorothy the hen) along with the two Rhode Island Red hens, Rhodie and Louise, all seemed quite happy.  It was so sweet to go out late in the evening to close their roof and see them all sleeping together on their roost.

Then came the terrible summer day when I got home from work and found Louise dead and Rhodie dying of heat stroke.  I didn't realize they couldn't get enough airflow through their outside pen and by the time I figured out what was wrong, it was too late to save them.  And it wasn't much longer until there was another terrible day, when the neighbor's dogs broke into the pen.  By following the trail of feathers, it looked like Russell Crow put up a valiant fight.  But little Dorothy was no where to be found.  I supposed the dogs had gotten her too.  A couple of days later when I started to clean the hay out of their nest, I found little Dorothy.  She had been fatally wounded, and had taken shelter under her roost, and that's where she died.  I guess that was a place where she felt safe.  

Once again the box was empty.  

Zelda Scissorhands had lived in our bathroom for about two years.  I had put her in there to recuperate from yet another sinus infection.  She never acted like she wanted out, always seeming content to curl up by the heater in the winter or just stretch out on the floor in the summer.  She had a litter box, food, and water, so what more could a cat ask for?  She's just weird.

But in fall 2019, for whatever reason, she decided she was done with being a house cat.  I had opened the bathroom window for her one day and she jumped out, and refused to come back in the house again.  As the weather got colder, I was worried about her, so decided to see if she would sleep in the old recycling/cat/chicken box.  I put fresh straw on the chicken roost, lifted the lid and set her gently down on the straw.  She made it back to the carport before I even got around the building.  Try again.  Same result.  But after a few cold nights, she did decide to sleep in there, and now it's her house.

So finally the point of the story.  The house needed a new roof to keep it from leaking water in at the middle.  I had just put a board over the center seam, and it kept most of the rain out, but the center part of the box still got wet if it rained very hard.  RAF helped me cut some old tin we had saved from his roll-off roof observatory, and I think it will work out quite well.  My confession...on the first attempt, I put the tin on horizontally.  Dumb mistake.  The horizontal tin acted just like a funnel to direct water right into her house, and her basket and pillow were complete soaked at the first rain.  So RAF helped me switch it around, and I think this time, it will keep her dry.

I couldn't find her today, but thought I'd put her dried out basket and pillow back in the house.  I lifted the lid and there she was, just as snug as she could be on the bed of hay.  I think it must have been 90 degrees in there, but she acted like she was really enjoying her warm bed.  

She comes out in the mornings to be fed, and usually sleeps somewhere out in the sun during the day.  But she goes back to her house at night.  I think the old recycling/cat/chicken/cat box is being put to good use, and I'm glad.

Project #2 - Repair the bluebird box.

A few years ago, RAF and I replaced some old boards that made up the posts on our front porch.  I built bluebird boxes out of the old boards.  One was put out in the field on a fence post, and it was used every year until last year, when one of the boards had finally rotted enough that the house twisted and fell off the post.

I fetched the box back home one evening and discovered that it was really in decent shape other than that one side.  

I found some scrap wood in the shop and replaced the missing bottom and the rotted out side.  I then added a perch...I think it was a piece of hardware I had saved from the swing set the girls had when they were little!  A new board down the back, some wire and hay string to fasten it to the fence post, and there it is, ready for its new occupants. 

I hope they don't think it looks too "trashy" - it is rather rustic looking, isn't it.  

You can see where I split the left bottom part of the front when I was screwing down the new side, and I didn't get things lined up quite right so the bottom is a bit crooked.  But it sure beats the birdhouse that was on the post!  That one was just a hollowed out log with a top and bottom on it, and it had started to rot and come apart.  I don't think the bluebirds nested in it last year.  

A little gray tree frog had taken up residence there the last I knew.

Now that the bluebirds have a more proper house, the old log house has been moved down into one of the flowerbeds, near where I plan to put my frog pond.  There it can be a proper frog house.  

I kind of like it there, really, barbed wire, rotted roof, and all.  

Project #3 - Get the new blueberry bed ready

In the picture of Zelda's house above, notice the area at the base of the house where the grass has been cleaned out.  That's where I plan to put the three blueberry bushes I've ordered from Nourse Farms.  I'm not sure if the soil is acidic enough for the blueberry plants so I am taking advantage of the free soil testing offered by the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

 

I got my sample dropped off at the extension office on Wednesday, and because they're closed for the holiday, won't get any results back until after the first of the year.  But the blueberries aren't expected to ship until late April, so that will give me time to do a bit more work on the bed before it's needed. 

Project #4 - Plant daffodil bulbs

Several years ago, I got the bright idea to plant some of the daffodil bulbs that I had separated in the flowerbed on the east side of the house.  They did great there, but the problem with daffodils in a flowerbed like that is that you can't plant annuals between them when you put them so close together, and you have to leave them alone until they die down in the summer, otherwise they will eventually stop blooming.  So that meant the flowerbed was just daffodil leaves for over half of the growing season, and I just didn't like it.

I dug up about half of the bulbs last summer and had never decided where to put them.  They should have been planted in the fall - some of them were already starting to put out leaves - but maybe it's not so late that they won't bloom this year.  I ended up planting them out by the mailbox in a spot where the lawnmower can't go.  That patch of ground was being overgrown with Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) so that had to be cleaned out as much as possible before the bulbs could be planted.  I got most of it, but just like the Bermuda grass, honeysuckle is something you have to just keep after if you ever want to control it.  I'm not real good at "keeping after stuff" like that, so it may very well turn out to be another gardening mistake to have put them there.

Oh...and of course I dug up another toad while cleaning out the honeysuckles.  Thankfully, this one didn't appear to have suffered any injury so I hope it's ok.  I dug a little hole and "planted" it back in the ground near the fence post.  

December 2021 Gardening Journal

Thursday, December 30, 2021

While doing a bit of reading about Mycorrhizae and raised beds on the Homestead and Chill website, DeannaCat mentioned the term "Hügelkultur" in one of her posts.  As I read about it, I was reminded of the "Keyhole Garden" concept that I read about, and actually tried, several years ago.  My keyhole garden was pretty much a disaster...it was built out of a section of the girls old swimming pool, so it didn't have a notch for me to access the center compost ring.  I also used bagged "topsoil" from the local feed store, and it was a hard-packed unproductive mess.  But I digress.  

I don't have enough soil to fill my new raised bed, so am thinking about creating a semi-Hugelkultur bed there instead.  I don't intend to mound it up high like the pictures on the web, but do plan to dig the soil out, fill the bottom of the bed with sticks, cover that with a good thick layer of the leaves RAF helped me rake up, then put the soil back.    

Bottom layer: Sticks.	Middle layer: Leaves!
Top layer:  Candy dirt.	I didn't have enough sticks for the entire bed, so I just put some of my old cornstalks (wrapped in bean vines) in the bottom of the bed.

The bed ended up with the dirt mounded up in the middle, but it will settle as the sticks and leaves rot.  The bed should stay pretty full though, as I'll keep adding compost and mulch to the top every year at planting time.

The finished bed.

Mo was so good and patient with me while I worked on the bed, that I had to reward him with a walk around the field. On the way back, we saw a sundog in the southwest. Rain is on the way for New Year's Eve, with severe storms possible.  The cold front will bring in by much colder weather for the first day of 2022.

Sundog

 

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Today was a cloudy, rainy day, so not much opportunity to work outside.  But being inside just gave me more time to think about the garden, and I ended up ordering some Plant Success Organics Granular, which contains Mycorrhizae, bacteria, Tricoderma and an all-purpose fertilizer.  

I first learned about Mycorrhizae in "The Benefits of Using Mycorrhizae in the Garden" post on the Homestead and Chill website.  When I placed my order, I used code DEANNACAT as mentioned in the post and got my 15% discount.  Discounts are always nice!

 

Monday, December 27, 2021

As if I don't already have enough unfinished projects - I decided to start another one.

The garden was already pretty close to the concrete block well house, but it seemed like last year it got really close...apparently when I was tilling, I kept scooting over until there was only about 12" of "yard" left.  What does that mean?  That's just 12" of grass that has to be cut with the string trimmer, and it was just a source of more Bermuda grass to creep, creep, creep into the garden.

So I got the brilliant idea to just get rid of that strip of grass, and cover it with wood chips like my walking rows.  Problem was when I chopped the grass out, it made me take another look at the grass on the east side of the well house, and I decided that spot was just trouble to mow too, and it would make a nice spot for some raised beds.

If that area was going to be of any use, the Bermuda grass and the Dallas grass would have to go. So I started digging.

 

Shovels full of sod broken apart, ready to be sifted through.

It's always interesting to dig in the yard because the house has been there since 1880, and the yard has lots of "old junk" that has been discarded or lost over the years.  I like to watch "The Curse of Oak Island" on History Channel, so RAF got me a metal detector for Christmas a few years ago.  Of course if I was going to dig, I needed to be sure to scan the dirt for any old coins.  And I did find three pennies.  Two were the more modern design, but one was a 1940 wheat penny.  I thought it was pretty cool!

 

1940 Lincoln Penny, stamped at the San Francisco mint.

Reverse side of the 1940 penny.

I also dug up three big rocks; assorted bits of plastic; discovered the severed end of a plastic conduit that probably used to carry an electric wire to the old cellar; lots of millipedes; some ground beetles; and even a small black widow spider. I am happy to report that I didn't dig up a single toad.  Yay! 

I stopped digging when I got about half way, because with a chance of rain in the forecast, I needed to be sure to sift though all of the clumps of grass before they got wet.  I spent this afternoon doing that, picking up each clump, shaking the dirt out.  It's really such beautiful dirt!  My mom calls it "candy dirt," because it's so dark and rich looking.

Last step will be to screw together some old boards I had saved to make the sides for the raised bed.  I got the boards cut today, and started screwing them together, but there's a bit of damage on the ends of the long boards, so I'll have to screw some blocks in the corners to hold things together.  But I think it's going to look Ok, and I'm excited to give it a try this spring for lettuce and radishes. 

 

Partially assembled raised bed.

 

Sunday, December 26, 2021

The warm weather has me thinking about spring.  I wondered if any of the seeds I planted last fall had sprouted, so decided today to inspect the flowerbed-to-hide-the-ugly-stump.  Here's some of what's growing there now.

Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum)	Goldenrod (Solidago sp.)
Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)	Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum ×superbum)
Dill (Anethum graveolens) seedling	Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) seedlings
Unknown	Unknown
Burweed (Soliva sp.)	Possibly Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum)
Possibly meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris)

I'll have to keep an eye on the "unknowns" to see what they turn out to be. The one with the elongated leaves reminds me of butterfly milkweed, but I wouldn't expect those seeds to have sprouted already. They're in the spot where the Mexican Hat seeds were planted, but I don't think that's what it is. No telling!

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Planted three of the redring milkweed seeds outside last week, along with some of the common dittany seeds.  We've finally had some good soaking rain this week, and weather is forecast to turn much colder by tomorrow so I hope they get at least some "cold moist stratification" if that's what they have to have in order to sprout.  I also planted a few of the precious milkweed seeds in peat pots, and set them outside up against the corner of the front porch...just in case the ones planted directly in the ground get washed away.

Milkweed seeds: direct sowing.	Common Dittany seeds: direct sowing.	Milkweed seeds: sown in peat pots.

RAF also helped me rake leaves last week...THANK YOU RAF...you saved lots of aches in my back!  LOL  There are quite a few leaves left under the big red oak in the yard and we'll probably work on cleaning those up next week.  But we've gotten most of them. 

 

Three loads of leaves just hanging out in the east garden waiting for spring.

For now, they're just piled in the gardens with a fence panel laid over them to keep them from blowing away.  We filled the bed of the pickup with one load, but then decided it was just easier to rake them up onto a big piece of plastic and drag them over to the garden.  I'd estimate that altogether, we've raked up about five pickup loads, so I feel like I'm keeping my promise to take advantage of these free mulch/compost materials. 

I had previously raked up the leaves under the pecan tree and used those to cover some of the "walking rows" at the west end of the garden.  I didn't want to use them as mulch because I had read that pecan leaves, like black walnut leaves, contain juglone, which can be harmful to other plants.  However, after doing some more research, most websites indicate that pecan leaves aren't likely to hurt anything, so I guess they would have been fine as mulch.  We'll see.

 

Pecan leaves on the outside walking row in the big garden.

The green stuff growing in the row there is my hairy vetch cover crop, with some red deadnettle mixed in.  It looks like it's survived the deer and should take off growing in the spring when the weather warms.  

 

 

Saturday, December 11, 2021

It's a very sad morning for lots of people.  Warm ( and lately, really hot) days in December are often followed by bad storms, and yesterday there was a doozy.  A tornado touched down in Arkansas and apparently stayed on the ground for about 250 miles, traveling through four states.  They don't know how many people were killed, but estimates are bad...70 to 100 in Kentucky alone.  

I don't really remember ever hearing of "Dixie Alley" growing up, but we always knew that if it was unseasonably warm in the winter, we might end up having to run to the storm cellar during the night.  I don't remember that happening very often.  But the thing I find really sad is that this kind of severe weather outbreak is becoming the norm rather than the exception.  As our global temperatures warm, the weather patterns won't be those that we grew up with.

A 2018 study found in the U.S. an overall eastward shift of tornado frequency and impacts – toward Dixie Alley. The study found relatively-lower tornado frequency and impacts in parts of the traditional Tornado Alley, especially areas from north-central Texas toward the Houston, Texas area, and relatively-higher tornado frequency and impacts in parts of the Mid-South, especially eastern Arkansas, the greater Memphis, Tennessee area and northern Mississippi... (source: Dixie Alley, Wikipedia; accessed 12/11/2021) 

And it's not just tornados that are going to be a threat.  There will be storms with intense rain and flooding, or areas where there is no rain at all for long stretches of time.  We're sort of in that category at the moment.  While a little squall line did blow through here last night, we hardly got enough rain to drip off the house.  We've had very little rain this fall, even though the summer projections were for wetter than average conditions.  If we don't get some catch-up rain in January/February, we may be in a world of hurt come summer 2022.

So on that depressing note, on to today's gardening update.  

For whatever reason, there were lots of plants that I knew of in the wild that just didn't make any seeds this past summer.  I have had my heart set on growing a Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variegata) ever since I first happened across one blooming in the Barber field a few years ago.  I have collected seeds in the past, but have never had any luck getting a single one to sprout.  This year, I didn't find even one seed pod on any of the six or so plants.  (Another thing I worry about...climate change/habitat loss = fewer insects = doom for milkweed with its specialized pollination mechanism.)

I wondered if there were seeds available online and after several searches, found some seeds for sale on Etsy, from McDermottSeeds. I cringed at the thought of paying $18.00 for 15 seeds, but that's just how badly I want one in my yard!  So I bought them.  I must say McDermottSeeds was great to deal with.  The seeds shipped quickly, and there were actually 18 in the envelope instead of just 15.  

The seeds seemed smaller than I remembered my locally harvested seeds  being.  If I do manage to get some to sprout, it will be interesting to see if these plants with a Bryan, Texas phenotype will survive here.  We're quite a bit farther north, so the winters will be colder and the summers probably not quite so hot.  I just hope introducing these plants into my area doesn't cause any problems with our local population.  

But I'm really getting ahead of myself.  I have to get one to grow before I can worry about disrupting the local population!

I wrapped six seeds in a paper towel, put them in a zipper sandwich bag with some damp potting soil, then added them to my bag of seeds that I'm cold-moist stratifying in the refrigerator.  Those will be put outside in peat pots next spring when the weather starts to warm.  I'm also going to try direct sowing a few seeds in the spot where I intend to start my shade garden, and try starting a few others in pots outside.  Fingers crossed!

Redring milkweed plants growing in the Carey woods.  Photo was taken on May 29, 2016.  I've not been able to find these again.  I'm afraid they have been smothered out by trees downed during the severe storm that blew through here on April 30, 2019.

Another wild plant I absolutely love is Common Dittany (Cunila origanoides).  There are several of these dainty little plants growing on the side of the road running through the Barber woods, and earlier in the fall, I tied one of my organza seed-saving bags around a branch that looked like it was past peak bloom - the flowers were faded, so I hoped they would already be pollinated anyway!   

Common Dittany in bloom.  Photo taken September 21, 2014.

 

I'm not sure what the seeds look like...are they they little spiky things that break off the plant, or are they inside the little spiky thing?   

 

 

 

It's hard to know how to start these and I haven't had much luck finding information on that topic. I did find this on the Plants for a Future website:

Seed - sow spring in a cold frame. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. (Source: Cunila organoides, Plants for a Future; accessed 12/11/2021) 

I think I'll try the spring sowing at they suggest, with some cold-moist stratified, some cold stratified, and some with no stratification and see what, if anything, works.  I may also try just direct-sowing some outside right now because in nature, they don't live in a greenhouse through their first winter!  I'll post an update on both of these seed-starting projects next spring, if I'm still around!  One never knows, right?.

 

Sunday, December 5, 2021

It's unseasonably warm for December...when I was walking yesterday with my younger sister, she said the National Weather Service reported a high of 80 degrees in Harrison, Arkansas the day before.  The warm weather is messing with the plants.  There were actually blooms on some of the wild blueberries.  And last weekend when I walked down to the creek, I noticed that the Northern Spicebush had flower buds too.  I suspect if I had gone back this week, it might have been blooming too.  It's a very sad thing to see.

But apparently the warm weather hasn't interrupted the toad hibernation.  I decided to move a few more Purple Coneflower plants yesterday, and hit another toad with the shovel!  I don't think I killed this one, but it was pushed down hard enough by the shovel that its tongue was sticking out.  I didn't realize there were so many toads around...I mean surely I'm not just so "lucky" that I picked the exact spot where our only three toads decided to hibernate!  I suppose I'll just need to wait until spring to do any more digging...give the toads a chance to wake up and come back up out of the ground.  I can hardly bear the thought that I've killed some of them.

Anglepod Milkvine (left) and Maypop (right)

On my walk last weekend, I collected a few more seeds.  First was a seed pod from Anglepod Milkviine (Matelea gonocarpos or Gonolobus suberosus, depending on which classification you choose to follow).  That vine seems to be doing really well.  I lost count of how many open or empty seedpods I passed by on my walk.  

I also collected some dried maypops, fruits from the Purple Passion Flower (Passiflora incarnata).  I think the anglepod will fit in nicely at the flowerbed-to-hide-the-ugly-stump, and the Passion Flower will work well in the "purple" themed bed.  I must say that when I cracked open the maypops, I loved the smell of the fruit.  It reminded me very much of the smell of green seedless grapes, only better! (The picture shows a green maypop, but the ones the seeds came from were dry and brown.)

I'm not sure how much success I'll have starting the maypop seeds because according to The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

Propagate by seed or cuttings. When sown immediately or stored, seed germination is low. Direct sowing outdoors is recommended. 6-8 in. stem cuttings should be taken early in the season. Once passion flower is established, numerous suckers will appear

I put some seeds from each in a bag with moist potting soil in the refrigerator. The rest I'll just plant directly in the flower bed.  But if the maypops don't sprout, I will probably just take some cuttings from the ones that grow in the lower part of the field.  It's interesting that while most of the vines have purple flowers, there are quite a few in the fields around the house that are white.  

I also collected more berries from a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) and berries from a Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) - both are growing right on the bank of the creek and I worry that it's only a matter of time before floodwaters wash them away.  I squished open all of the berries and fermented them in water for about a week, then cleaned the husks and pulp away and put the seeds in moist potting soil in the refrigerator.  The plan is to plant them in peat pots in April and just see what happens.  

This beautiful flowering dogwood tree grows right on the bank of the creek, leaning sharply downstream because of the force of past floods.  Interestingly, it is the only dogwood tree I've seen this year that produced any fruits.