Monochrome Garden Textures

Here are a few monochrome textures I collected in my garden mid-May.

Hosta

Hosta

Hosta

Hosta

Hosta

Oregano - Origanum vulgare

Hosta

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Built Another Potato Tower

Quite a bit of leaves remained after adding them to my square foot plot and filling up my potato tower.  I decided I like potatoes and another tower was in order.  I purchased a 50'/15m roll of 3'/.9m wide fencing. The fencing has 3"/76mm x 2"/50mm rectangular openings, as did the previous fencing used to build the first tower. This fencing differs in a few ways. The wire is a smaller gauge. It almosts feels soft, much easier to bend. The long side of the 2" x 3" openings changed orientation 90º so that the 3"/76mm dimension went from horizontal to vertical. 


I am guessing the gauge of the wire decreased to keep the price of the fencing low. I have no idea why the orientation rotated 90º. In any event, I constructed another tower using the same 64"/1.6m length of fencing. I cut the extra rectangle in order to attach both ends of the fencing to each other. I cut another wire coat hanger and made 5"/127mm staples to pin down the towers to the soil.


I changed the cloth used to surround the tower. I used all the remaining landscaping fabric on the first tower. I scrounged in my garage for something to use. I found a black single bed sheet in my rag pile. Bed sheets are saved to be reused before selling to the rag shop or entering the trash stream. (I am the son of parents that lived through the Great Depression. We save rags, aluminum, copper, screws, nails and lumber of sizable usable lengths. Our family has been recycling our whole lives. We are no strangers to the rag/scrap shop.)


I draped the sheet around the tower and overlapped where the ends of the fencing were joined. One edge of the sheet touched the ground and the remaining cloth flows over the top of the tower. I then placed 6"/15cm of leaves in the bottom of the tower. I didn't have any store bought potato seeds, so I opened my pantry to  scrounge for a suitable replacement.


I found a few sprouted Russet potatoes that were living under a large sweet white onion. They was easy to spot. The sprouts were a sickly white 6"/15cm and reaching around the Oso Sweet onion from both sides as though hugging the Oso in a lyonnaised sort of way, straining towards what little light entered the pantry.

I took the sprouting potatoes to the tower. This time instead of cutting the wire at the 6" level, I cut the sheet and bent the wire of one rectangle and squeezed in on potato leaving the 6" sprouts out in the sunlight. I did this again for the other potatoes. I expected to return to Lowe's to purchase more All Blue and Yukon Gold potato seeds to fill the rest of the tower. (I later discovered at Lowe's that the blue were dried and smelled bad and no gold remained. I purchased a bag of Russets.) The potatoes were planted Mon., May14.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Make Wire Supports For Your Garden

There are times when plants in your garden will need support. This post will show you how to make wire plant supports from readily available wire fencing.

The snow peas in my plot will soon need support. These supports were made for snow peas and can be used for other plants. The idea is that the plant will grew through the top of the support. The wire cube will provide the needed support.

There remained a piece of wire fencing from the no dig potato cage blogged about earlier. The rectangles in the fencing measure 2"(50mm) x 3"(76mm). The roll of fencing is 36"(91cm) wide.

Cut the fencing from one end so that there is 12"(38cm) of closed rectangles by the width of the roll, 36"(91cm).

Cut the wire midway into the next rectangle.

There will be 2"(50mm) of extra wire on each side.

Cut as many 3'(91cm) x 1'(38cm) pieces as supports needed.

A 12"(38cm) length of wood is needed to fold the wire sides. 

Source:onlinetoolsupply.com 

Use the wood block as a metal brake is used to bend sheet metal.

Bend both sides of the support that there are three sides of a cube measuring 12"(38cm) on each side.

Next, place the supports over each square planted with peas.

I turned the supports that I may easily reach in them from one side of the plot. With all the Norway Maples in my yard I need to clear out maple seeds constantly. Weeding will be possible, too.

 This corner support I turned 90º because it felt right.

I will update when the peas grow above the wire supports.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

May Blossoms

The tulips, crocus, muscari, snow drops, dwarf iris have finished blooming. Here are a few photographs taken within the last few days of currently blooming perennials.

allium

Same allium days later

Oriental Poppies planted by the road. Waiting for the DEA to swoop in

Rescued in NJ from the bulldozer at a Lowe's building site. Not sure, I think they are  Spiderwort

 Salvia officinalis ("common sage"). Wintered over to flower.

 Salvia officinalis ("common sage")

 Salvia officinalis ("common sage")

Hardy Geranium:Wargrave Pink

 Iris

Clematis

Clematis

Honeysuckle:Alabama Crimson. No hummingbirds seen, yet.

Sambucus Black Lace

Lettuce

I planted lettuce seeds on May 2nd.  

By May 9th lots of sprouts were visible.


The night temperatures have not dipped lower than 50ºF/10ºC since April 31.  The day temperatures have risen as high as 80ºF/26ºC on May 4 and have averaged 60ºF/15ºC in May. Rain totals 0.75"/2cm for the 7 day period and I watered the plot once.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Spud Sprout

The first potato sprout has emerged from the tower.  I can almost taste the spuds, now.


©Damyon T. Verbo -all rights reserved

Slugs In My Square Foot Garden

To recap, in my square foot garden plot this year I mixed shredded and partially composted autumn leaves into last years soil that was amended with sand, and peat moss. I mounded that mixture above the level of the lawn to create this years square foot 4'(1.2m) x 4'(1.2m) plot.

14/"/20 hanger bolt

My time lapse camera was removed from the window mount so I could place it into my plot. In order to do that I drilled a fiberglass dowel to accept a 1/4"/20 hanger bolt. That is a lag screw on one end and a threaded machine screw on the other. The lag screw goes into the dowel and the machine screw is where the camera screws into the tripod mount. Then the dowel was driven into the soil at the edge of the plot and the camera screwed onto the dowel. 

What was captured was surprising.

I have since moved the camera to a mount about 20" above the plot pointed straight down. In this video the soil wasn't as moist as the above video. I also didn't see as many slugs, either.


Nonetheless, I will be placing a slug trap out in the near future. I planted some lettuce and expect that slugs will be there when the dinner bell rings.


As bait I purchased some inexpensive beer for the trap. It came in a 40oz(1.2l) bottle. 40oz is a popular size with the crowd wanting an inexpensive buzz. You see it wasn't just beer but beer fortified with extra malt liquor to bring the alcohol content to 8.1%. The slugs should get drunk faster.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved