spring arrives and things run amuck
VegBed#11 4’x16’=64ft^2
One of the “first” real days of spring yesterday (Mon April 30th 2018)… warm temperatures, no rain, wow.
The greenhouse: outside the eavestrough was siliconed to help it stop leaking; the tin flashing was screwed down on both sides where the wind was flapping it; the tin flashing on top was un-buckled and an overlaying support was moved to prevent a future buckling. One of the vent windows was stuck and will require repositioning it up a little bit.
Inside the plastic vapour barrier that replaced the remi cloth along the top panels, was shortened a bit and rearranged to allow any leaks that do get in are channeled off to the side.
200lbs of play sand was moved from storage to out around back, along with its sandbox turtle… in preparation to be put together… somewhere.
We went through the earth from the two cold frames that were decommissioned and sifted/deweeded it and started to fill the newly built raised Veg Bed #11. We are awaiting delivery of 8yds of earth… any day now!
Veg Bed #11 was inspired by fellow HSGeo member Bob’s. Most of our other 10 beds were built with garden ties, obstensibly 3.5″x5″ x8′ mini ties… only over the years, they keep getting smaller… and in addition, when we relocated VegBed #1 last year, we discovered most of it had rotted away. So no more garden ties! We priced out a new raised bed with garden ties vs 2″x6″. Our recent realization that we needed more depth led us to use three coarses of 2×6, giving us 16.5″ of raised bed. The older garden tie models were generally 10-12″. The price comparison for 4’x16′ of bed? gardenties @7*5*5= $175 and 2″x6″ $7*5*3=105. We hope that they last as long (15 years) but only time will tell. In addition, we added a coarse of weedcloth to the vertical insides in the hope that the earth will not be in actual contact with the wood and that the wood might last longer.
Raking of flower beds continues. The plastic cart/bin holds a lot of cubic and works the best. Now as well, we have the wheelbarrel back with its new inner tube. The utility wagon also has a new inner tube.. along with a new tire as well. Now we just need to get the tractor tire fixed and we may be able to tow things!
Mosquitos are out, a little. So we put up a screen tent on the deck itself, as the hanging netting we tried last year did not do so well. The deck was rearranged, redecorated and is functional.
Water lines were hooked up to a point. Some of the manifolds did not survive the winter and need replacing. Deer fencing was put up to protect some of the flower beds. They keep coming by to eat things, so I guess we have good testing gardens.
All in all, far more things to do then the time available to do them. Constant reprioritization does seem to work. Projects are moving ahead.