Moving

Not no how, not no way. The main reasons I had chickens was for the meat and to play with genetics. Can't really do either of those here in a practical way.
 
Ridgerunner said:
I know I'll never eliminate the nut sedge but my hope is to cook the stuff in the top few inches of the soil before I fix the beds. Hopefully most of the nuts and seeds are in those top few inches. Even in fairly loose soil you don't pull the nuts out unless they are right at the surface, that stem breaks really easily. They have to be carefully dug out and even then I don't get them all. My hope is that I can sort of control it, but yeah, it will be a pain.

I feel like I'm now in position to make some progress. I did not get anything done out here Monday and Tuesday, a contractor was installing the hardware for my hurricane panels. I'm glad to get that done, I'm as prepared for hurricanes as I can be. I didn't get nearly as much done Wednesday as I'd hoped. I bought what was supposed to be a 10' x 100' roll of black 6 mil plastic but it was only about 70 feet long. I had to go back and get another which was about 100' long.

I have two frames built, which is all I'm doing for now. I still have some minor adjustments but the next big part is getting the various fillings that will go in here. Each frame will take about one cubic yard total of material. So I need the material for a 1:1:1 mixture of sand, loam, and compost. I've spoken to the extension agent and others and I think I know where to get most of it, I just haven't set delivery up yet. I won't get much done today. I need to fix a plumbing problem and then we are picking up the granddaughter after school to take her to her gymnastics class. Fixing old plumbing never goes well for me. It takes more trips to the hardware than it should as I always find things wrong as I get into it.

View attachment 28468

I'm going to use these two as my learning curve. We often advise newbies to start slow so I'll follow that advice. Eventually I plan to have a third bed on the top right and three more lined up with them further down. I'll have room for beds #7 and 8 horizontally across the bottom but those will be a little later.
Click to expand...

looking good there!

the more you can keep any of those nuts from getting energy from the sun the better as eventually they WILL run out of energy and give up. always keep a scraper or cutter handy so that when you see one you don't have any excuse for not getting as much of it out as you can.

the problem the longer haul with black plastic is that it gets holes through it and it will disintegrate if there is much sun exposure... i much prefer cardboard layers and wood chips on top as then when the cardboard has finished it's main task of smothering what's underneath it turns into worm food. if it has to be done more than once it's usually not that much more work than many other garden tasks...

picking up little pieces of black plastic, getting them out of the garden soil. that's not fun...
 
Ridgerunner said:
I know I'll never eliminate the nut sedge but my hope is to cook the stuff in the top few inches of the soil before I fix the beds. Hopefully most of the nuts and seeds are in those top few inches. Even in fairly loose soil you don't pull the nuts out unless they are right at the surface, that stem breaks really easily. They have to be carefully dug out and even then I don't get them all. My hope is that I can sort of control it, but yeah, it will be a pain.

I feel like I'm now in position to make some progress. I did not get anything done out here Monday and Tuesday, a contractor was installing the hardware for my hurricane panels. I'm glad to get that done, I'm as prepared for hurricanes as I can be. I didn't get nearly as much done Wednesday as I'd hoped. I bought what was supposed to be a 10' x 100' roll of black 6 mil plastic but it was only about 70 feet long. I had to go back and get another which was about 100' long.

I have two frames built, which is all I'm doing for now. I still have some minor adjustments but the next big part is getting the various fillings that will go in here. Each frame will take about one cubic yard total of material. So I need the material for a 1:1:1 mixture of sand, loam, and compost. I've spoken to the extension agent and others and I think I know where to get most of it, I just haven't set delivery up yet. I won't get much done today. I need to fix a plumbing problem and then we are picking up the granddaughter after school to take her to her gymnastics class. Fixing old plumbing never goes well for me. It takes more trips to the hardware than it should as I always find things wrong as I get into it.

View attachment 28468

I'm going to use these two as my learning curve. We often advise newbies to start slow so I'll follow that advice. Eventually I plan to have a third bed on the top right and three more lined up with them further down. I'll have room for beds #7 and 8 horizontally across the bottom but those will be a little later.
Click to expand...
I have nut sedge but did not know what it is called. I don't hate it the way you do. It is so easy to pull compared to any other weed.I pull it and feed it to my horse who seems to love it. It does go crazy this time of the year but it is an annual and the frost kills it.
 
catjac1975 said:
I have nut sedge but did not know what it is called. I don't hate it the way you do. It is so easy to pull compared to any other weed.I pull it and feed it to my horse who seems to love it. It does go crazy this time of the year but it is an annual and the frost kills it.
Click to expand...
In his climate, weeds laugh at frost!
 
@Ridgerunner , years ago someone in my neck of the woods came up with a neat plan for corner posts for his raised beds. He made a mould and made corner posts out of concrete. They had slots to fit the planks, his were quite decorate but they don't have to be fancy. This way if a plank rots you just slip it out and replace.
 
aftermidnight said:
@Ridgerunner , years ago someone in my neck of the woods came up with a neat plan for corner posts for his raised beds. He made a mould and made corner posts out of concrete. They had slots to fit the planks, his were quite decorate but they don't have to be fancy. This way if a plank rots you just slip it out and replace.
Click to expand...
Great idea !
 
I finally hit a milestone, I sowed some weeds and transplanted some plants today. I'm now back to where I'm doing things and making mistakes. It has been a long time coming. I still have a lot to do but I think it is manageable. I need to get about 3 cubic yards of wood chips to cover the landscaping cloth. I don't plan to mow or weed-eat between these beds. When those wood chips rot I'll use that as compost in these beds.

I have 8 beds, each 4' x 8' made out of treated 2x12's. I had a lot of concern about the nut sedge in places, in some spots it was ridiculously thick. I dug about 5" or more out of each of these beds and disposed of that dirt. I'm sure that will not get rid of all of it but hopefully it will make it manageable.

Then each bed is filled with about 12" of "garden soil". That took 10 cubic yards total. It is a mix of 40% compost, 40% fine sand, and 20% pine bark mulch fines. I spent a lot of time on the internet, on the phone, and driving around to talk to people and is the best I can find. I'd like to have had some loam mixed in with it because of the minerals in the clay but could not get that. One if my immediate tasks is to send a sample off for soils analysis to see if I need to amend it and how. I mainly want to see where the pH is and if there are trace minerals I need to add.
Overall.JPG

In this bed I transplanted cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and kale. I'm about a week and a half past the recommended last date to plant those here but though it was worth the risk. If I don't try I know they won't make it. I also sowed some seeds for Chard, mainly to see what happens. If I can get the chard to sprout and then keep it alive I probably won't get much until the weather breaks in February. but it should take off them. Yeah the weather usually breaks in the middle of February down here, it is a whole different gardening adventure.

Transplants.JPG


In this bed I transplanted some lettuce for my first time ever. I've always started it from seed. Red romaine and red sails. I've never given it his type of room, but it is what was recommended. It will be interested to see what happens. I also sowed seeds for radishes, beets, and turnips. I'm looking for greens more than bulbs from the beets and turnips.

Seeded.JPG


That's where I stand this afternoon. My next immediate step is to get those plants mulched. I'll wait until after Halloween to get the wood chips as I don't want them on my driveway Halloween night where I'd have to park my cars on the street.
 
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