It's been a busy couple of weeks as we prepare for the onset of Utah's prime growing season. With a trip scheduled for the end of April, we had to work extra hard to make sure our plans were on track.
To combat a constant water issue in the back corner of the garden, I finally got around to tying into one of the sections of our yard sprinklers. This took a bit of pre-planning, performing an inventory of sprinkler supplies we had on hand, acquisition of new parts, and a whole lot of digging. I'd been wanting t extend the sprinklers out to the back of the garden for years, but there was always the concern of hitting one of the lines with the tiller.
Since we got our backyard chickens, three lovely ladies who love to peck and scratch their way through the soil, tilling isn't so much of a concern. What is a concern, though, is keeping the ladies out of the garden unless it's time to prepare for winter or is they're on supervised visitation. It turns out they love a vine ripened tomato just as much as we do! So that was another project that had to be finished before we left on our trip. I'd bought some fencing a few years earlier, hoping to make tomato cages, but it hadn't held up to the original intended purpose. Turns out that it was perfect for a perimeter fence around the garden with enough left over to put up some fencing inside for cucumbers or beans.
Installing the gate was an interesting challenge. Neither Tara nor myself had ever done that before. Even so, we seemed to do a good job of it. Measure twice, check the level, all that sort of stuff. Works like a champ and looks pretty good too.
I really need to import the pictures off my camera and upload a few. Maybe I'll do that for my next post as a bit of an update. Certainly as the fence is bare now, but will be overflowing with edibles as the year progresses. Tara's peas are already popping out of the ground and looking for something to wrap their little green tendrils around.
We've got one hoop house and a green house up right now, so we've got more vegetation actively growing than we normally would. The general rule of thumb is that anything other than cold-hardy plants should be held off until atleast mother's day, if not a week longer. The weather here in Utah has been so sporadic these past few years though, you can't really even trust that assumption. We've lost too many good plants to start taking chances. There's nothing more disheartening to a gardener than to walk outside and see your babies withered or frost-burnt.
Trying something new this year as well: ginger. I just bought a healthy looking rhyzome from the store and put it in a pot with some potting soil. I have four healthy plants popping up, each were easy to separate from the old root structure, and a fifth is getting ready to pop up. They were originally hanging out in my tub, I guess they liked the humidity from the shower. Now I've got them moved out to the green house and I hope to get them in the ground in the next few weeks once the weather is a bit more stable. If I'm lucky, I might be able to get at least one to bloom. I hear the flowers are amazing. Either way, I'm a huge fan of ginger.
I know I've given your the rough and dirty on a lot here, but I'll try to do my best to update you on these projects and more in the next couple of days. If I'm super savvy, I might just come back to this post and put in links to the updates so you can follow the topics you're particularly interested in.
Farewell and good gardening to ya!
To combat a constant water issue in the back corner of the garden, I finally got around to tying into one of the sections of our yard sprinklers. This took a bit of pre-planning, performing an inventory of sprinkler supplies we had on hand, acquisition of new parts, and a whole lot of digging. I'd been wanting t extend the sprinklers out to the back of the garden for years, but there was always the concern of hitting one of the lines with the tiller.
Since we got our backyard chickens, three lovely ladies who love to peck and scratch their way through the soil, tilling isn't so much of a concern. What is a concern, though, is keeping the ladies out of the garden unless it's time to prepare for winter or is they're on supervised visitation. It turns out they love a vine ripened tomato just as much as we do! So that was another project that had to be finished before we left on our trip. I'd bought some fencing a few years earlier, hoping to make tomato cages, but it hadn't held up to the original intended purpose. Turns out that it was perfect for a perimeter fence around the garden with enough left over to put up some fencing inside for cucumbers or beans.
Installing the gate was an interesting challenge. Neither Tara nor myself had ever done that before. Even so, we seemed to do a good job of it. Measure twice, check the level, all that sort of stuff. Works like a champ and looks pretty good too.
I really need to import the pictures off my camera and upload a few. Maybe I'll do that for my next post as a bit of an update. Certainly as the fence is bare now, but will be overflowing with edibles as the year progresses. Tara's peas are already popping out of the ground and looking for something to wrap their little green tendrils around.
We've got one hoop house and a green house up right now, so we've got more vegetation actively growing than we normally would. The general rule of thumb is that anything other than cold-hardy plants should be held off until atleast mother's day, if not a week longer. The weather here in Utah has been so sporadic these past few years though, you can't really even trust that assumption. We've lost too many good plants to start taking chances. There's nothing more disheartening to a gardener than to walk outside and see your babies withered or frost-burnt.
Trying something new this year as well: ginger. I just bought a healthy looking rhyzome from the store and put it in a pot with some potting soil. I have four healthy plants popping up, each were easy to separate from the old root structure, and a fifth is getting ready to pop up. They were originally hanging out in my tub, I guess they liked the humidity from the shower. Now I've got them moved out to the green house and I hope to get them in the ground in the next few weeks once the weather is a bit more stable. If I'm lucky, I might be able to get at least one to bloom. I hear the flowers are amazing. Either way, I'm a huge fan of ginger.
I know I've given your the rough and dirty on a lot here, but I'll try to do my best to update you on these projects and more in the next couple of days. If I'm super savvy, I might just come back to this post and put in links to the updates so you can follow the topics you're particularly interested in.
Farewell and good gardening to ya!
