Garden thread.

[benevolance]

Glenn

I am pretty low tech...Not sure I can install a drip system....

took a few months...I did get the central heat and AC done.... not exactly my forte...Electricity and my mind just do not work well together....

Cutting logs...Building walls of stone....I guess that is more for me...

Old Stone Savage Armed......Just like in the Robert Frost Poem

that is one of the names my wife has for me.... old stone savage armed....I guess she sees me out there dragging old pieces of broken cement wall down by hand and thinks I am some kind of cave man...

Maybe I should try to be in the Geico commercials

[glenn-k]

If you can hook up a gas line on a car you can install a drip system.  

[MountainDon]

It's actually easier than a gas line. The 1/2" lines I work with just push and wiggle together, no clamps, the tubing goes inside the fittings (couplers, tees, rt. angles)

Just be sure to buy the correct size tubing and fittings. As fas as I know there are 1/2" and .71 in the large size. There's also 1/4 that has it's place.
I have some here that went into service in the mid to late 80's. In that time I had one fitting blow apart. Also a couple leaks that were self inflicted... pushed the root feeder probe right through the tubing. Twice!  

[benevolance]

well if it is a part on a old car I can fix or install it....Usually...I always need a caveat

Would be nice to get water to the other end of the property...

I bought a international 3514 loader tractor a while back...Once I get all the bugs out of it I might dig across the property and install some plastic PVC pipe under the ground to prevent freezing ( it is possible here though not likely)...

Would be killer to have water where the garden is at the other end of the yard...No more carrying the watering can over there.

Need to get the Injector Pump Rebuilt on the Perkins engine....Then I have to split the tractor in half and replace the clutch and do the back brakes.....

I only paid $200 for the tractor and the front end loader works perfect with no leaks...and it has a couple of almost new back tires on it....So I am okay with spending $1000 on it....going to cost $500 for the injector pump... :'(

Hoping to work smarter once I get the front end loader/ bucket working for me....

I will have an equipment trailer a 1 ton dump truck and my tractor all up and working... I will need more land to play on now though... :-/

they charge a fortune for water here where in SC...Good water quality...Very expensive

[fourx]

Last load I bought, the first for ten years, was $130 for 3,500 gals. Wow, $200 for a tractor, even with what you need to spend on it and the work involved is a great buy. If you need to get the water over any real distance, the 3/4 size would be a better option- almost as cheap and far less friction and flow restriction. I plumbed my whole house with it, except the hot water, and it stays pressurised to 40 psi.

[glenn-k]

Drip hose can go across the ground surface and freezing won't hurt it.  You could go a couple hundred feet with 1/2 inch or so and still drip irrigate an area about 1000 square feet or so - give or take a bit.  I just keep adding until pressure drops off too much.  

Then requires another line and timer.  If you could get the bigger line you could do a bit more with one line - or run a 34 hose most of the way - semi-permanent installation- and then switch to drip.  there are connectors and timers that go onto hose.  Put a "Y" with ball valves in it - a simple hose fitting and you can add another hose to the faucet --- or more "Y"'s for more hoses - or a manifold if you need more -- they make all this stuff so no problem.

[MountainDon]

Peter, here's a pix of the emitter, or dripper. The bottom end is inserted in a hole you punch in the 1/2" tube. it regulates output, 1/2, 1, 2 gal per hour depending on model.

You could just lay the tubes out in rows on top, then in the fall when you want to till everything roll them up and out of the way. Put them back next year.

Pete the cost of your delivered water is rather high, or so it seems. This got me to thinking about just what is my local water cost. And what is the cost around the country/world. So I started this topic

http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1178739408/0

[glenn-k]

There are also soaker hose drippers - for rows - mini-sprinklers and lots of others .  Get the pro at Home Depot to help you out with it.

[benevolance]

do not laugh too much...I have pestered those guys to death...Asking electrical and plumbing questions....Usually the person I ask has no idea and has to go get help....I try to stay patient and wait for an answer of some sort...

makes me mad when you have someone ask you if you need help and when you ask them a specific question they look at you like you are speaking latin and greek...

I did buy an amazing Do it yourself book at the home depot that was worth every penny...the size of the phone book full of color photos....I use it almost daily...Has flooring wiring plumbing tips...If you do it in building a house it is in there....

[glenn-k]

Once I asked a young fellow there about slate floor on a shower.  He was about 18.  Had worked with an old tile man since a kid.  Actually told me how to do great stuff.  Sometimes they have a good one.  The kid was great.

[PEG688]

Lil update ,

Starts are lookin good , spinach , lettuce , radishs , onions , strawberrys  all coming along as well.








Even flowers ,

[MountainDon]

Cool cultivator, PEG.

[glenn kangiser]

Looks great PEG.  I planted a bunch of stuff in ours today too.  Bought more stuff to improve the drip system also.  Reset the pump to do about 800 gallons per day.  Hope to take better care and get more out of it this year.  Little birds have been nipping off quite a few of the things I planted last week but maybe more plants will keep them occupied for a while.

I planted corn with an antique corn planter today also.  Plugged it with clay toward the end but I think most of it all worked OK.

Similar to the planter on the left but a little more complex.

[PEG688]

 Little birds have been nipping off quite a few of the things I planted last week but maybe more plants will keep them occupied for a while.

We have a sentry on duty 8-) , a motion sensored sprinkler ,  it's behind the cultivator , can't see it in the photo's .Once things get growing I'll share with the birds and wabbits , but for now they do neither of us any long term good wiping out a row of something in a night.

[glenn kangiser]

I had one of those to keep the deer out of the garden a few years ago.  Came home one night and the deer were sleeping under it - my car scared them off. :-/

[PEG688]

Ya I remember that now   we went over that last year  , but birds arn't deer , I don't have deer issues here, you still feedin bambi's or are they feedin you??

Just think if your corn grows those coon yer feedin are gonna really like you     

[glenn kangiser]

The coons are slowly thinning out -  

7 foot high deer fence keeps bambi away - most of the time.  With the new black plastic it doesn't look so much like a prison.

[PEG688]

The coons are slowly thinning out -  

Lead poisoning??  

[glenn kangiser]

You could say that.   :-/

They are cute but in reading about them they are considered an infestation.  There is no way of stopping them- they can climb straight up wood walls - open things - move things dump things etc.

I had a hole in the chicken pen to get eggs from - they pulled a roosting chicken out through it at night and killed her.  So it has come down to them or us and they haven't learned to shoot yet.  They have learned to run though. :-?

[glenn kangiser]

PEG, I look at letting Bambi live as a way of keeping the meat fresh.

[PEG688]

Ya it's cheaper to keep it on the hoof than in the freezer Just about any critter if theres to many can become a problem , fuzzy lil gray squirrels can do a lot of damage to a house , just like Mr. Rockie Racoon.

Coons can become agressive and can carry some bad JU JU , so thinning is required . Farmers used to call us to hunt thier corn fields , a few hounds chase in um around would sort of break up the party some what.    

[Daddymem]

We got growth in our cold weather crop bin:

That's spinach, kale and mesclun left to right.  
Our soil lacks loam so much that we got granite growing.

That's Lillies, Hostas, Bridal's veil, well cover (hey how did that get there), Mayflower and sundry perrenial thinnings just transplanted from our old yard and Mom and Dad's yard.
Around here Memorial Day weekend is the start of the planting season so I set up our Lasagna beds to cook for a week before planting.  

Got info up on our blog on how we did it as well as some more pictures.
I'm crossing my fingers that this works or we'll have a cruddy vegetable season again.  I miss gardening. :'(

[glenn kangiser]

Looks great, Daddymem.  How about the kids - have they got plants in there too?

Now you got me wondering -- I can't remember if I planted any spaghetti this year or not.  I think I have a couple coming up from seed but they may have crossed with something else. :-/

[fourx]

Crossed with an oyster ( salsify) plant, Glenn,  they could produce a marinara bush, maybe...or bolognase bush if it was a beefsteak tomato

The soil in the pics on the blog looks tough and limey, Daddymem. Have you tried much without the raised beds? What will go in for the summer crop?
I noticed mentioned on there also that you just lost a long-time canine friend, that's a tough situation by any standards, most of all for the kids I guess.

[Daddymem]

No lime here, it is all loose beach sand.  The topsoil that was stripped off was a very thin layer with a lot of sand in it.  The stripped topsoil will be used for our teensy lawn area to go in this fall.  We plan on beans, squash, corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, carrots, and sunflowers.  Neither the boy nor the girl expresses and interest in the garden yet.
The kids seem to be ok with the loss of Bear, probably better than we are doing.  It has been a long time coming, we never expected to make the move with her.  It seems like years now we've been saying she wouldn't make the winter-but she did.  Her pet cat misses her too-yeah she had her own pet, a kitten we got from a shelter that took to her like she was her mother.  Slightly feral-mostly nutty.