From my thread below, just wanted to let you know that particular bed is growing like crazy with red and green chard, lettuce, radishes, arugula and broccoli. Half was planted by seed. Besides inserting the core, I added all new garden compost and amendments.
The rest of the garden is winding down pretty fast. I have removed plants from half the beds and refilled all five beds with new compost and soil amendments.
We also cleared out the native wild flower garden area. I will be relocating some poor soil to that area so will seed with buckwheat right away add organic matter into the soil over winter.
The beds that are exposed will be planted with peas and oats as a crop cover to prevent the soil from going sterile over the winter. All of these will die during any freezes put will be left alone until several weeks before Spring planting at which time I will turn them over.
The intent is to keep organic material in the soil at all times. Nitrogen and other minerals will leach through the soil if left barren and that's an expensive alternative. The cover crops are nitrogen fixing, or nitro retaining plants that will take up the nitrogen from the soil and then it will be returned when the plants are turned over and compost down before Spring planting.
It's fun getting to learn all this stuff. If you were raised on a farm it's old hat.
I converted my composting area into a Zen-like garden area with some decorative plants and a wooden walkway. Fun using my dual-compound miter saw mounted on a folding utility trailer (for you guys - woo-woo!)
I also built a redwood bench for the area and purchased two half-wine barrels to set it on.
BIG MISTAKE - I tested a can of expensive and specialized spray paint on Saturday before I suited up to paint just because it was difficult to tell which way the nozzle was going to spray. I was sure I had it right - wrong! It sprayed towards me and immediately affected my nervous system. I got extremely dizzy and was walking in circles around the barrels (funny now - not so then) unable to talk to my wife who was not far away. I finally sat down and she detected something was wrong. My hands were shaking and my heart pounding. I was drenched in sweat almost immediately. It didn't help that the sun was glaring and it was very hot.
We did all the emergency treatments listed on the can and I had to lay for about an hour as some symptoms persisted. Was scary!
Anyway my wife said she was not going to get cheated out of growing old together. Nice thought.
Kids who spray paint in paper bags then inhale sometimes die. Fortunately I recovered in a few hours.
Still need to paint those barrels though. I have all the equipment to wear next time. Lesson learned. Like using a table saw, you don't 'experiment' with it first. Hey guys, have you ever heard of a SawStop table saw? The blade will screech to a halt in nano-seconds if your skin touches it and won't even nick you. Drooling for one. |
