Thoughts from Starlight Cascade

In the wisdom of food security: you can never have enough veg gardens!
Hence our purchase of 16 yards of triple mix garden dirt on the weekend and the dumping thereof in our driveway.

Up to now we had 4 veg beds (1,2,3,4a,4b,4c) of approx 850 ft^2.

On Saturday we added 4d, two sections of approx 3’x20′ or another 120ft^2 . Veg 4D is outside the deer fence and will be used for companion flowers and cucumbers this year. This put us at 970 ft^2.

On Sunday we started work on Veg5a, a two year plan. This one is approx 15’x29′ or 470 ft^2 and will be used for potatoes this year.
We attempted to dig out and turn over the sod, but this is all 1-4″ of peat moss with fractured limestone rock and it did not dig out at all.
So instead, we attempted to kill off the grass/peat by covering it with tarps for the last two weeks. That did not work out too well, the grass just a little yellow and definitely not dead yet.
This will bring us up to 1440 ft^2

So down went some brown wrapping paper, about 3′ wide followed by load after load of dirt, moved from the front to the back. We are aiming for about 6″ deep and then will add some more garden compost and sheep manure, all mixed up. Potatoes will be going in shortly… in the next week or two. Again these are heritage types and we will keep good records to see which adapt to the micro climate/environment that we have here.
The 2nd part of the two year plan is Veg 5b, which is approx another 500 ft^2.

April is off to a horrible start, with the lowest rainfall amount (25mm) since we’ve moved in. and did I mention the black flies biting? THey are pretty bad.

We went to a book launch in Tamworth on Tuesday March 30th for
“All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook” by Cam Mather. He gave a good talk on the book and put in some highlights about root cellars, another topic near and dear to us.
The more we look at the large scale commercial/retail food industry, the more disgusted we get with it. Over the years the amount of our yard devoted to veg gardening has gone from 0 to 800 square feet.
The problem of course is storing the harvest over the fall, winter and into spring. Having a 20 year old house with no cold room and no way to add one on, we have attempted various places in the house (closed off bedrooms, shed, garage, etc) but none have worked well.
Invariably it is too hot and too dry in the winter.
To our amazement, Cam’s recommended storage environment is 5 degrees C at 90% relative humidity (RH)! Our best was normally 14 deg C an 30% in the winter in the house.
So.. time to draw up plans to build an insulated root cellar out of wood, and put it in the (insulated) garage. That should keep it cooler than house room temperatures and yet not let it freeze (maybe a small heater will be needed). The cooler temps will also give us a higher RH and we can alway add in buckets of water to boot.
IT will need ventilation (maybe a small powered muffin fan at the top to remove hotter air, and a controllable cool air intake near the bottom, and maybe a circulation fan inside.
IT must be mouse proof, have ventilated shelving and places to hang more. We’ll see how it goes when construction starts late this summer.

For years we have been working on building a reliable water system for the gardens. We have only one external non-water-softened tap and a very large property. Buying better quality hoses has helped a lot as has replacing all of the washers every year. In addition we just installed a Lee Valley 30psi pressure regulator ($15) and backflow preventer ($5) at the head end of the system.

Backflow Preventer:
If water pressure is suddenly lost (as may happen during a power outage), water in the irrigation lines may be drawn back into the house drinking-water supply, assuming the two are connected. A backflow preventer stops this from happening. It is especially important to have one if your emitters are touching the ground (soil bacteria can be pulled in).

The pressure regulator itself may be more useful for drip irrigation systems (which we don’t have) so that they don’t blow the drip fittings off, but it may also be of use to save our hoses from blowing as well (we have had several blow out over the years).

We use brass 2 way and 4 way manifolds as the plastic ones are plain junk and the zinc ones are not much better, especially with very hard water (200+). The water hoses are normally medium-heavy duty 50′ (16m) and at each junction there is normally a two way splitter, allowing “local” water access. The longest run is almost 300′ (100m) and water pressure does not seem to suffer much (especially now with the better hoses).

Water is now available on demand in the greenhouse, and let me tell you, that is much appreciated!