Racoons =2; Cindi 16 POUNDS!

So the netting has worked just great!  No more critters getting our tomatoes.  While my harvest has been SO AWESOME in taste, I've not got as much produce as I've expected.  Considering I have over 30 tomato plants I really expected more.  But I must admit that the timing has been consistent.  Enough cherry for the salads (ok those that MAKE it to the house instead of just mysteriously disappearing before they make it inside - did I mention YUM!) & enough big tomatoes for sandwiches. 

Aren't they gorgeous!

I was hoping to be able to can some of these, maybe I'll get a lot more later, but probably not - just such a weird summer.  But the other good news is that I planted some from seeds (never done that before) & they came up & I have put them in the garden.  They are still small & haven't produced yet, but have high hopes that they will.  So, yippee next year - gonna try to do from seeds.  I now know which tomatoes we like best, since I put in so many different types & will be able to get those seeds.

Life....

Wow it's been 2 weeks since I've written.  Sorry, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging.. about life:)

While I've not been writing, I have been doing & taking pics.  It'll take a few posts to actually catch up, but that's ok I SHOULD be able to do a bit more posting this week.  Hey guys, it's a garden - it grows, slowly... so this isn't going to be the daily post anyway.  Although I do hope to post at least weekly.

So, there was the problem with the raccoon & mockingbird & the tomatoes... here's what we had done.

Amy & Oscar

Notice how it slopes on the right side & we had put in some pvc pipe to keep the tomatoes from being squished by the netting.

That didn't work out as well as we hoped.  The birds really appreciated the pvc pipe as it gave them a place to land while they pecked at the ripe tomatoes though...

 Here's what it looks like now.  We added some netting to the front, as well as putting in conduits on the front of the beds, thus keeping the netting from being directly on the plants.  This is working really well. YEA!

Amy & Oscar

Most beds though are not so close together & remember we only care about covering the ones with tomatoes.  Next year I will not be putting anything but tomatoes in the covered beds.  This year however Oscar (on the right) has a cantaloupe in the front & Amy (left) has beans...  Again - experiment!

For covering a single bed (we did 3 of those) we had to add the front conduit, then cover with the netting.  We did it 3 different ways (duh - wouldn't you?) the best way we found was to cut a length of  netting for the top, like so.  You can see that the netting doesn't have much over lap on the long ends of the bed, but the short ends have a lot of netting hanging.

We then cut another length & wrapped it completely around the bed.  We then stitched the 2 pieces together.

Julia w/netting - LOOK AT THE BAY TREE!

If you look on the left side you can see the stitching up toward the top, it's that way on 3 sides.  The reason you don't see any on this side is because we were able to stretch the TOP netting to one side (remember how we had all that extra length) & stitch up from the bed.  Thus the stitching here is right next to the conduit.  Sounds complicated, but works really well.  We have extra on the bottom, that we will be able to tent out (more pics in another post) so the plants don't grow through the netting.

So, how do we get into them.... Raise up the side & voila!

Julia

I used the long ka-bob sticks to hold the netting up - works like a champ!

New Plants for Pond

Just a quick post.  We have 2 ponds - a raised one, on the concrete & a traditional in the ground one.  We've had them for about 12 years & this winter it was time to redo the in-ground pond.  So we re-dug, re-lined & ... eventually it will have a new edging around it.  Right now it looks like what it is a pond that is 4/5th's of the way done.  We've learned, let the lining stretch out in the hot sun before we start to cut it & make it look good.  We've maybe learned not to do the rock work in the summer - THAT remains to be seen :)  I've got pics I will share when we finally get it looking good again.

In the meantime it's completely functional with bog plants, waterfall (small), fish & plants.  And it's covered with .... netting.  This time it's the black netting we used to use for the tomatoes.  Yep - birds again - this time BIG FISH EATING BIRDS!  Seems as if birds are my #1 problem doesn't it?

Anywho here are pics of the new pond plants we got.  We can't really do lilies in this one because of the black netting, but these are nice. 

Snow Flake Lily

 This is one of my favorites.  DH says it looks like a weed & grows like one! Nonsense!  It has small lily type leaves & those cute little daisy's - they close & open with the sun.  In a month or so this will be very pretty.  The size of leaves & flowers don't get bigger they just cover more area.  Also, yes that out of focus orange blob at the bottom of the pic is one of the 24 gold fish we have in there.
 

Mosaic

This is DH's favorite.  It's pretty too, but no flowers.  Sorry for the pine needles in there but didn't take the time to get them out of the netting, which you can see & yep - there's no way to get a pic easily without getting in the liner & stones right now.

Mosaic

This is a close up of the plant - nice but no flowers... ;)

The water is green - don't ask!  But that should clear up soon on it's own with a lot of help from our bog plants.  Good news is that since the water isn't clear our fish are harder to see for those darn birds!

Good & Bad

First the good - remember my dead bay tree... it's back!  How totally cool is that?  I was just being lazy in that I didn't pull it out & buy another but now... 

Look at all those new leaves!

And it has them ALL THE WAY DOWN!

The green netting - still holding!

Yes, small but OURS! The ones the raccoon got were about 5-6 oz - this 1 oz....

 Ok for the bad - here's what my acorn squash in Robin was like :(

The acorn squash is on the left side

Obviously rotten...

So I ripped that out & put a summer squash there because the summer squash in Rick now looks like this!

It WAS OK.... just last week got a squash!

Continuing on our "bad tour" this is Meg's spaghetti squash - all are dead except the one on the right.  Not enough water?  Too much DE (there were TONS of ants)- not enough fertilizer???  The pumpkin on the other side of Meg looks the same - dead, & no new leaves.

Got 1 rotten SMALL spaghetti squash out of here :(

 YIKES!  What am I doing wrong?  Sigh - these are experiments - next year will be better.... repeat!  These are experiments - next year will be better.... repeat!

We have done some changes - we have upped the amount of water the plants are getting & I had been doing algae foliar feeding weekly.  Then everything went light green, we changed to something with HIGH nitrogen & that seemed to help.  We have now fed them twice with a 24/8/16 fertilizer & I took pics of before & after.  Really we didn't need the pics - ALL the plants have now taken off & growing & looking soooo much better.  So, was it the lack of water - lack of correct feeding??? Both??  Who knows, who cares - grow baby grow!

SUPER Mockingbird!! Or NOT!

So.... the green netting #2 looks ok & works great for BIRDS.  We think we have bigger problems.  The other morning the ONE tomato that was almost ready to pick was GONE!  GONE!  GONE!  Oh wait - what's that by the pool?

Looks like it would have been good.

Hmmm... something got in & CARRIED a 5 oz big tomato to our pool, & ate HALF of it.  OK guys if this is a bird - I'm never going outside again!  I know the mockingbird was picking on the cherry tomatoes in Kate - I saw him & I know from the past that they will peck at the larger ones, but NOPE they just don't carry them 10 feet away.

So it's most like a raccoon that's getting in there & that is a whole different problem!  Darn!

So went out & put more rocks on the netting & sewed up the back - no more wooden sticks.

Next day - well I'd show you the almost red tomato he got - but... can't find it!  Gone from Amy completely!

I'm now thinking DEF-CON 4 (electrical fencing with razor wire)!  DH (thinking that HE is going to have to be the one to actually DO the work) is thinking there might be another thing or two that we can do before that. 

This is our bait - not red enough to pick YET

So we made some more wire stakes from clothes hangers, put a lot of those to hold down the netting.  Today there is another almost red tomato (see the pic above) .... no, I'm not gonna stay up tonight with a flash light & a ...a... a.. "stick" to see if he shows up.  Let's just see how this goes.

Green Netting #2

The green netting has worked so well around Kate keeping the mockingbird from getting all my ripe tomatoes that it's time to cover some of the other beds.

So, we sewed some together & covered two of the beds. 

This covers Amy & Oscar

As seen from the front

Yep - not too pretty.  Oscar, the one you see in front, has tomatoes in the back & middle rows & cukes & squash in the frontmost row.  We put that pvc pipe on the right front side to keep the netting from coming in & laying/smashing the tomato plant.  Need to keep it covered, yet not let the plant grow thru the net, not an easy thing to do.

We had to bring the netting around Amy in the back & used wooden ka-bob skewer sticks to weave in & out out the netting - like below.  We also used them to stake the netting to the ground.

wooden stake holding it closed

Amy, being the 2nd bed works a lot better.  She has tomatoes in all 3 rows, but because the netting goes straight across at the top, there is no pressure on her tomatoes.

So, there Mockingbird - let's see you get those!

Horizontal Stabilizers

When the garden beds are only 6-8" deep & are on concrete or have a weed barrier underneath, you really don't have enough depth to put up tomato cages.  We have had SO much WIND this spring - & then the one day we had 3/4" rain I went out & found many of our tomato plants laying on the ground.  Not good.  In the short term I just put in a bamboo pole to help support them.

We knew as they grew taller (those that were not next to the north side netting) would need some support help.  One thing I DID think through was to plant only DETERMINATE plants (those that grow only so tall & then stop - most of our tomatoes should stop at 4' tall) in the non-netting part.

So we've been experimenting.  First we created another metal structure.  These we put at the short end of the beds & yes mounted them the same way we did the vertical netting bars. 

This is about 2' wide

The first thing I tried was something called chicken netting... not what you're thinking - this is made out of plastic & while it's ok to be cut with scissors it was very time consuming.  Anywho this is what the first try looked like.

Added chicken netting - attached using tie wraps

This shows the hexagonal spacing - had to cut this by scissors

Plant went through it fine (for now)

You can see that the plant goes through it ok, but I really think as the plant would grow I'd have to do more cutting / removal of the "netting" & then next year - well what are the chances that the next plant would want to grow RIGHT THERE! :)


So DH & I discussed it & he asked why I didn't just use the white netting that we were using for the vertical net.  I told him that I couldn't think of a good way for it to be tied off on the long sides.... he wasn't sure it would need to be supported on all 4 sides.  After all we're just trying to keep the plant from falling over.

ALSO the netting is wider by 1 square than I needed for the vertical netting.  So when I was putting up all those nets, I was just cutting off this LONG net only 1 square wide.  Nope, didn't toss it as I figured the netting material is so nice that I might be able to use it again.  AH HA!

Same plant with netting used on vertical side

This is better pic - showing it going down the whole bed.  I left the bamboo stakes in for now until the netting can support them.

Here is a double row.

So, that is what it looks like.  It's using something we already bought & can be scooted to match where the plants are actually growing.  I can just put up one or two rows, whichever I need.  Too cool!

Did you notice all those wonderful looking green tomatoes!  YUM!  Won't be too long before they start to red up & YES.... I will have another feud with the mockingbirds.  So, stay tuned friends & we'll have pics of how we think we can put the green screening over these beds.  We're trying a few different ideas out now as I write this.  More experimentation - aren't you glad we're doing all this work?

Dirt, Drips & Netting

One of the cool things about square foot gardening for me was that gardening was put into a context that I could understand.  I don't have any friends that have vegetable gardens, so I can't go over & look & ask questions.  But, most of the things I've learned in my life I've learned from books.

The things that I love about Square Foot Gardening are:

• since you are planting in a square & presumably remember roughly WHERE you planted it - then anything else is a weed.  VERY cool for me!
• I love the idea of the netting & vertical gardening.  Can't wait to see what all my nets look like full of melons & tomatoes (yep - I'm an optimist!)
• My old beds have 1 type of soil (rose soil), then some of my new beds have mostly rose soil & some Mel's Mix Soil & my last 5 beds have 100% Mel's Mix.  It's interesting to see & feel the difference.  I LOVE the Mel's Mix & I suspect that will be our soil of choice in the future.
• I like how each bed is it's own experiment.  I can plant the same things in different beds, in different sides of the yard & see what, if any, differences there are.
• Lastly I can easily see how easy it will be to pull up one thing & replace it with another & not have to wait until the whole bed is ready.  I could have done it before - just never thought about it.

DRIP LINES
 We are big on using drip lines.  Currently Houston is in the midst of a drought.  I know that using my drippers will allow me to water my garden with LOTS less gallons than had I done it by hand.  Also the water gets right to the base of the plant, which is better too.

I found a really good place  online for drip lines & assorted drip stuff.  They sell drip "spaghetti" lines that already have the drippers with predetermined spacing. 12" or 6" apart.  We got the 12" & can see (NOW) that we'd have been better off getting the 6" apart one.  So, this weekend we'll add more drip line to compensate.  But, doing it from scratch - get the 6".

Something else we decided to do is to put shut off valves on each bed.  That way when we are changing out the plants, or there is nothing there, etc. we don't have to water that particular bed.

I just twist the green knob & I can control the water to each bed.

NETTING
Because of my reading I was able to get lots of ideas from several different sources.  I don't always remember where I read what, when I do I will give credit.  This book has a lot of good information & I know that his beds have interchangible stuff. 

And it's important to us to be able to easily change out aspects of the beds without major work.  As much as possible we try to think first, thus making less work later on.  But, as in most things, there are a few ideas that pop up later.  Here is how we did our "tinker toy" netting.

We got 10' electrical conduit at Home Depot.  They are hollow & bendable, with a tool you get there too, you'll also need a cutter for them.  Then DH cuts each pole into two 5' lengths.  He then takes another pole & cuts it to the length he needs.  He'll then bend each end of that pole, & he uses this for the top of the structure. We use connectors that you also get at Home Depot to connect them, just a few twists of a screwdriver & you're done!

This show the connector... ok not a great pic

To connect these to the garden beds he creates several 5" lengths of the conduit, then using metal brackets, yep from Home Depot, he screws these into the bed.  This picture shows you what it looks like.  Attach another connector & this neatly allows you to connect the netting poles to the bed.  How cool is that!

Now we can take the netting structure on & off easily!

To connect the netting to the poles we got small plastic tie wraps, put that through the pole & netting, pull tight & snip off!  There's a neat tool for that too.

We made each of our nets 4' wide so they are going to be interchangeable.  We got the netting from Burpee.  Hopefully it will last a few years.

Just a few things

Took a quick tour this morning.  Gave everyone a nice soak with the hose to help soak in the fertilizer.  & overall things are looking better.  It sure seems that some plants that started out galloping are definitely at a walk now, suspect that the early heat did that.  This week the temps have been more normal, so maybe they can start growing again after this short rest.

I have planted watermelon in 2 different spots, twice now... nothing!  Not sure if seeds were bad or someone ate them, so got new seeds & started them indoors today.  I WANT WATERMELON!

One thing about this garden is I AM learning a LOT!  I've been taking lots of pictures, even if you don't see them here.  It helps me to see that - yes that spaghetti squash was looking great - then ... not sure what happened.  So I try a few things, talk to folks & when it actually either gets better or dies.  That's when I'll share the story.  Otherwise I'm afraid all you'll read is - whaaaaa my plants are goofy & dying!

Not all is awful - the tomatoes seem to be doing really well. & we're getting some squash & zucchini - not nearly as much as advertised tho.

Rosemary, basil, chives, ..?.. & parsley

My herbs are doing ok.  My chives went to seed & I was ok with that as I was planning on trying to use them to grow more.   Meanwhile I had planted some MONTHS ago & they are still in the seedling house.  They are about 6" tall right now, so I'm feeling ok about them.  Hopefully I'll be brave enough to bring them out soon.  These chives will be gone within 2 weeks (used in cooking).

Here are my kitchen herbs.

Not bad.  The new rosemary, left front is coming along as is the parsley in center.  The lavender on right - we'll see as I've not had much luck with them in past.  The dill & fennel are ok - but then I don't have any cucumbers right now either.  The center plants are stevia... that seems to have started flowering on my - so gonna cut it back & toss them in with peppermint tea.  Ahh that's good stuff.

It wasn't EVEN RED!

OK, so I've fallen a bit behind in the garden....  I haven't covered the other beds which have tomatoes from the birds, mainly because they are mostly still green....

But there was one that we just noticed & it was a nice orangy color - see...

Gee - what's wrong with it???

Now I'm not naming names BUT .... I have my suspects.  Darn MOCKINGBIRDS!

At least it looks as if he had a nice meal.

I know what we're doing this weekend.

Bay Tree

Been busy with other things lately.  I cook from scratch most days - geez that takes up some time! :)  But I really enjoy it.  Today we woke up to fresh homemade bread (yeah bread machine) & then I made homemade vegetable soup - using a zucchini & a squash from the garden, along with my normal frozen veggies.  Then I made Ranch dressing.  I don't have any red bell peppers yet, but have some from last year that I dehydrated & work great.

Recognize this?

It probably doesn't look like what you'd get in the grocery store does it?  But that's my red onion.  Looks a bit weird but tasted fine.  The jar it's next to is an empty 32oz jelly jar - impressive huh?

One thing that totally flopped a few weeks ago is my bay tree.  This thing was 6' tall, gorgeous & in a REALLY small pot.  So, I did something I think I should have done 2 years ago... I transplanted it into a bigger pot & cut it in half & put that also in a bigger pot.  So much for doing a good deed....

Not a trick of lighting - all the leaves turned brown.... This was bottom half

This was the top half

I would have taken pictures today, but it was just too depressing... the bottom half of the plant - was a stick! :(  There are a few leaves on the top half still, but I think I need to just get another plant & put it in the big pot to start with... But will check with my friendly wonderfully informative local nursery folks!  They are really good & if you live locally I highly recommend them. 

 

Just a few things

Took a quick tour this morning.  Gave everyone a nice soak with the hose to help soak in the fertilizer.  Overall things are looking better.  It seems some plants that started out galloping are definitely at a walk now, suspect that the early heat did that.  This week the temps have been more normal, so maybe they can start growing again after this short rest.

I have planted watermelon in 2 different spots, twice now... nothing!  Not sure if seeds were bad or someone ate them, so got new seeds & started them indoors today.  I WANT WATERMELON!  Also many of my melons are just.... small leaves, doing nothing.  I have to remember IT'S an experiment this year & my learning curve is pretty high on those.  So below are a lot of pics of beds that I hadn't really been showing you much of - just to give a clue as to how they look right now & hopefully in a month - they will be big & green!

Jenny 5/6 - Cantaloupe, pumpkin, watermelon, & zucchini....

Harry 5/6 - Spag squash, Cantaloupe, eggplants, watermelons & tomatoes...

Peter 5/6  The cukes in the back row are sure small, but so are the zucchini &squash :(

Amy 5/6 beans looking a bit better, tomatoes near in front of them aren't much better - other side of tomatoes doing ok

Oscar - Cantaloupe & squash in front, not doing well.  Will I ever get cantaloupes???  Tomatoes doing ok.

Herbs - going ok

Julia - 5/6 - Beans on left recovering - sugar snap peas in front ugh & black eyed peas on right doing pretty well.  The tomatoes & peppers are slow.

Chimney - lettuce - we'll see....

Rachel - my hardest hit beans :(  Doing some experiment here - will fill you in next month with how it went.  Tomatoes, ok.

Not bad herbs here

Robin has a nice acorn squash going

Mint in the bog growing nicely!

If you look closely you can see 6 purple lilies!  This will be cleaned out soon

Robin - still struggling - cantaloupe, melon & pumpkin in back - bush cuke on left front, zucchini in center & acorn squash on right.  Looks better than my new beds, but this is a bed that's 4 years old.

Rick - our star - same age as Robin.  Only difference really is he got 1 bag Mel's mix & 1 bag turkey manure this year - Those are some HAPPY plants!  They are all big & deep green & yep you've been seeing the zucchini & squash from here.  There are onions & scallions on the right....

So that's what they look like right now.  The best thing my "inspector" Cleco got to inspect this week didn't come from my garden, but from my daughter.  I thought I'd share the wonderful roses she sent me for Mother's Day.  My photo really doesn't do them justice.