Itty, Bitty, Greenhouse

 

Trying something new with the yahoos.  We will all be making an itty, bitty greenhouse.  I have no idea if it will work or not but we will try.  If only the weather would work with us.  Today it is overcast, with some rain, lots of wind, and cold.

OH THAT MURPH!

 We (Mark and I) have said since last year that we can not make any more raised beds. Murph (since last year) has said that we needed raised beds in the Pumpkin Patch and the corn area.  It kills him that every year we have to add dirt because lots of it has washed away.

A few weeks ago I get a pic from Murph.  He had some crates that his company is just going to throw away and he just knew that we could use them as raised beds with a little tweaking.

So over the weekend, we (Murph mostly) made something close to 16 raised beds from recycled wood.  The man is crazy!  When he gets something in his mind it drives him crazy until it happens.

We did need to purchase some wood to be used as braces on the inside of the boxes so they would hold up better.

The first bed is complete.

This is all that I am allowed to lift until further notice.

Like a well-oiled machine.

And yes it is gardening season.  Murph has his shirt off.

Like clockwork, these turn into...

...these. 

 We stacked them just because we could.  But when they eventually go into the garden they will only be two boards high.

We are still working on the configuration.  But I think it will look close to this.  I'm dreaming of taking the two in the middle out and replacing them with a meal bed to be planted in strawberries.

The bird's nest view.

We are going to love it and we don't know it yet.

There is still lots of work to do...till up everything, level everything, get rid of the ugly lettering, fill the boxes according to Hugelkultur gardening, fill with good soil, and then finally plant.  And my favorite part and Murph's worst nightmare..zhuzhing!

WE COULD NEVER DO IT WITHOUT HIM!

 THAT'S FOR SURE!

Planting Strawberries

 

While I was cleaning out the beds, Mark picked up some good mushroom compost and cow manure.

The green that you see are strawberries that I missed in the fall.  So hopefully they will bear fruit this go round.  I planted 29 Honeoye strawberries. (I did it before heading to CEI for cataract surgery).

This bed has 27 AV Valley strawberries.

I can hardly wait to taste the sweetness.  I think we will have enough to share because I still have at least one other kind to plant.  We just need to figure out where the best spot will be.

A Little More Work

 

Some little varmint keeps trying to get to the potatoes!  I keep checking to see if they got anything.  So far so good!

The garden fairy got me a new bumblebee/bird watering station.  It is so cute!  I love it and love the little hands that delivered it!

We have been shredding every piece of paper that we have around the place.  The yahoos love feeding the GOAT.  And this is what we are using it for..the Secret Murph pathway to the raised bed gardens.  So Wammyville send us all your junk mail and newspapers.  We still have some ground to cover.

Planting and Trimming

 

I braved the pollen elements today because it was just too pretty to stay in and Murph came to help.  We planted 24 seed potatoes of various varieties.

Then we set our sights on massacring (trimming) all the trimmable bushes.

Sometime before it gets too hot I will be taking out the last of the split-rail fencing.  We trimmed the scarlet honeysuckle back to the ground.  Praying it will eventually come back because the birds like to hide in it and the hummers love the blooms.

Today's job in the yard is to pack as much of the trimmings in the truck so we can take them to Bzak to be turned into mulch.

Gardening With Murph

 I really can't begin to tell you what all Mark and Murph did on this day.  I was so far under the covers that I thought I would never be able to hold my head up ever again.

Murph sent me pictures so I would know what going on.  I know that he worked himself into a sweat.  He threw the straw that we are using for the weed barrier this year because we had it left over from the Wammyville October Pumpkin Patch fun.  He also added some good stuff and dirt to each of the raised beds.  That man loves a good garden project.  And we are so very, very thankful for him!

Onions planted.

We are off to a good start.

I Can Smell The Fresh Dirt

 

The ground just needs to be a little bit warmer and we are ready to plant onions.

It Is Amazing

 

Hopefully, we will be growing some big white pumpkins.

This is crazy...a little potato vine growing in the kitchen.  Just for sun to see how tall it will grow.

These are actually the potatoes we will be putting in a raised bed pretty soon if the weather ever decides it is spring.

I see lots of mashed potatoes, fried potatoes...any kind of potatoes in my future.

Leaf Work

 We were lazy last fall.  We should have cleaned up the leaves before the weather got bad but we didn't. Valuable lesson learned.

This is a crazy amount of leaves that came from one stinkin' oak tree.

The dogs love it.  A new place for them to play.

The bushes and grasses are all trimmed.  The climbing hydrangea was neatly trimmed and the flower bed was cleaned out.

Here We Go

 We took a slight detour from yard clean-up to a little trimming of the Sand Cherry bushed in the big raised bed garden.

We are feeling the itch.  We have a basic sketch of what we think we'd like to do this year.  Nothing is set in stone until Murph is in on the plan.

Let the gardening begin.  But first, we still need to clean up what we didn't finish before winter and till and get more dirt and inoculate the soil (Muroh's favorite) and.....