March 29, 2009 First Thunderstorm

We had our first thunderstorm of the spring roll through this afternoon. I took the above picture a little less than an hour after it passed (click the thumbnail to see the larger version). It was a pretty good one!

Before it came through I spent an hour or so cleaning up all the rocks and weeds that I pull out of the garden. I also raked up and handpicked another big pile of rocks out of the west side of the plot. All the debris filled the giant wheelbarrow twice and I ended up dumping everything up by the compost heap. Amazingly the grass underneath the four piles were starting to die, but the ripped up sod was still alive and growing.

I decided to sowed some radishes, carrots, and more 'mixed green' lettuce. The ground was nice and moist which made things a little easier this time. Although the carrot and radish seeds were so tiny that it was it took some time to make sure that only one made into each hole. I only sowed about 10 radishes since I'm the only one that will eat them! I might put another square in in a a few weeks.

The trees are starting to bud, Spring will be in full bloom soon!

March 25, 2009 First Plantings

Planted the lettuce and onions today. I'm not sure how they'll do, but I'm gambling that it won't get too cold from now on. I read that they both can tolerate a light frost so I'm willing to chance it. I aslo sowed the peas today. I sowed a double row of about four feet (about 30 seeds).

I aslo found some spearmint growing in front of where I planted the peas. The beans are still a month or so away from planting so I'm going to leave it.

It's a good start! It suppose to rain for the next couple of days so I hope they get a good soaking first!

Kinda hard to see the red Leaf, but it's there...

Here's a close up of the Mesculn Green

March 24, 2009 Smarter Than the Average Deer

I'm smarter than the average deer. At least a little bit smarter I hope.

Since we moved, Stacey and I have enjoyed watching the herd of 12 deer come drink from the crick (or "creek" for those who ain't from 'round here) nearly every night. In addition to the herd there is a smaller group of 5 young ones that have come by from time to time and yesterday they got a little too bold. So I chased them away screaming like an idiot. But because I can't be on constant watch and Stacey isn't willing to take shifts guarding the garden with me (rightly so I think) I've been trying to decide what do about them. It's just a matter of time before they discover my garden and they stop being the cute furry things on the hill and become my nemesis... and I already have a nemesis: the stinkbugs. But hopefully I've left them behind- and for the records the stinkbugs won.

I want to strike preemptively on my potential new nemesi (I never tried to pluralize 'nemesis' before and the spell checker didn't help). I brought up the deer issue to my landlord today. Since he already has an electric fence going around half of the orchard, he suggested I just extend the fence around my garden plot. He has some damage to some of his fruit tees from the deer in the past and when I told him that there was a hoof print in the soil I just tilled he offered to help.

We pulled up a 300 foot wire from the field that was not being used, pounded in some stakes, and then hooked up the juice! I was asking a bunch of questions about how to do this properly and he simply responded that "it's not rocket science." Well he was right. As long as the wire has enough tension to be at 'deer level' and the electricity is flowing through it, it'll work. He had a piece of PVC pipe with a wire hook running through it to use as a handle to disconnect the fence at the one end. At some point I'll have to put another one in on the other end so he can get the tractor through. Our rig is a little bit crappy looking I'll admit but but I bet it's effective.

He also suggested that I bait the fence with delicious peanut butter covered aluminum foil to get the point across. So that's what I did. The evil side of me wishes I could take a picture when Bambi first gets a lick!

I hope this works.

March 22, 2009 A Lil' Soil Love

Today was too nice of a day not to be outside, and since I still have tons of work to do in the garden that's where I spent it. We took a trip to the Depot to get some vermiculite and peat moss (and flowers for the record).

Found out that they don't sell large bags of vermiculite, so I bought three little ones. I had no clue how much I'd need but it seemed like a good amount. Same for the Peat Moss. I ended up with two 3 cubic feet bags.

I didn't give a whole lot of thought as to HOW I was going to incorporate it into the soil, but I figured how hard could it be: Just sprinkle a little on the top and work it in right? Well Kinda.

Here is the plot before:

Now with a sprinkling of vermiculite:

Now with the peat moss:

For some reason at that point something didn't look right to me. I finished covering the whole plot with one bag of each. So I ran inside to grab my tape measure. It turns out that I only has about 30 feet tilled, and if I wanted to stick to my plan I needed to turn up another 10 feet or so. So I stood there and cursed a little, but then decided at least this time I can photograph what I did. Keep in mind for some reason I thought doing all this by hand was a good idea despite the roto-tiller that my landlord offered me. So here's what I did...


1. After measuring out the area, I used a spade to edge out the area I was digging up. This was the easy part.

2. I then dug lines from left to right creating 2 foot strips of sod. I tried jamming the shovel as far under the grass and prying it loose. Also not too hard.

3. I then flipped each 2 foot sod strip over. Mostly by hand, but I used a shovel for the stubborn ones. Some of those weed roots go deep!

4. I shook as much dirt off as possible and pile up the grass on the side. I'll toss all the grass and weeds I ripped up and throw it on the compost pile, but I'll save that for another day.










While I was at it I decided I'd dig down a little and loosen up some of the soil. I was thinking that this might be a better way to incorporate the vermiculite and peat moss.







I dug down about a foot on and piled up the dirt on one side. This took FOREVER! There were so many rocks on this side of the plot. If you look close you can see the beginnings of the rock pile between the piles of grass.


I had gotten this far I thought I'd try putting in the boarders. My landlord has a big pile of old fence posts that he offered me.

I first put then in the trench I dug, but it seem to take up too much room. Instead I placed them on the edge and piled up the dirt to edge of the posts. I'm not sure if they're secure enough, but it was good enough for now. I then repeated the process on the other side.

Anyone have any better way to do this? I figured I could dig another more shallow trench and drop it in, but I'll worry about that if the post rolls away.

Well after battling the rocks and finishing up the west side of the plot, I went back and worked in the vermiculite and peat moss inot the soil using a rake. I wasn't able to work it in too deep, so I'll have to go out there with a shovel some time soon and dig it by hand. ....Or just get the roto-tiller!

Well despite the rocks and getting a little more carried away today that I was planning, it was a good day in the dirt. Here's the finished product:

March 21, 2009 First Pictures

Here is a photo of the orchard from today. I hope to take a photo from this spot every couple of days throughout the season.

Things are warming up and I still have some work to do to prep the site. My landlord has offered up the fence posts in the foreground there to use as a boarder for the garden. I think I'm going to take him up on that offer just to keep the shape of the row and hopefully keep some of the grass and weeds out.






I have only tilled 40 feet of the allotted 75 foot row. I might attempt to get another 10 feet to help space out some of the plants better but there's not much rush to do this now. My meager Spring crops will have plenty of space as it currently stands. I plan on putting in some radishes, peas, and carrots in addition to the onions and lettuce I have started. The last frost for West Chester is April 17th So I have another week or so to get everything ready. Things will soon start moving quick!

Garden Plan

This is the basic plan of what I'll be growing this year. Each block is a square foot, and the spacing is based on the "Square Foot Garden" book I bought last year. The bottom portion is the overall plan of a 40' x 4' row. (It's divided into two rows on paper, but it'll be one long one)

In the past I've gotten most of my plants from a farmer's market on Chestnut Steet that runs from May through December. They have a great selection of tomatoes, peppers, and lots of other varieties all from local growers. Most of what's on the plan I can find there, but I will likely modify this when I see what's actually available.

I have started some plants from seed this year. I used a small cardboard box covered with plastic wrap to create a cheap (crappy) sun box. On March 1st I started 25 heads of lettuce - 10 Mesculn, 10 "Merlot" Red Leaf, and 5 "Great Lakes 118" Crisphead which looks like is just gold old green leaf lettuce. I also started 12 "Evergreen Long White Bunching' onions.

The seeds I started three weeks ago all look pretty good. The lettuce definitely looks like it needs to get into the ground soon. The onions seem content to be in the dixie cups for another week or so. This weekend is suppose to have some night time lows of 29 deg so I plan to wait until Monday or Tuesday to get them in the ground. I'll use the extra couple of days to harden them off outside for a few hours a day.

First Day of Spring

Over the winter I moved to a converted barn on a 15 acre piece of land in outside of the Borough of West Chester, PA. The view is great, the apartment is great, and what was even more exciting was all the land that could be used to grow vegetables!

For the last two years I've lived in a tiny third floor apartment in the borough that had a small flat roof off a covered porch. On that roof I played around with growing herbs and vegetables and had a very mixed success. It wasn't easy. Hauling up bags of dirt and pots, filling a watering can from the bathtub, and a giant Ash tree that shaded out what little sun made it to the back of my house. Somethings did OK, but the conditions were a little less than ideal... that has now changed.

My goal with this blog is to keep a record of what and when I did things this year for myself in hopes that next year I can get even better yields. I'll try to update it as often as I can with pictures and progress reports. I'm not expecting anyone but friends and family to ever see this, but anyone out there on the Internets happens to read this then please send me advice or tricks that a novice like myself might find useful. Spring is here and it's time to start getting busy!