Self Sustaining Garden Under Way with SeedForSecurity

Our SeedForSecurity vegetables have REALLY started growing fast, faster than expected. Just a few weeks ago, I blogged about planting pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers and beans. These seeds are already reaching for the sun and are above soil level.

As I've mentioned, the pumpkins that were planted in the front yard for Halloween harvesting are coming along nicely. A few raised mounds have taken a beating from passers-by (aka toddlers) and I've lost a little in the process. When I arrived home this morning from my night shift, I found the same pesky cat pooping in my pumpkin patch that had required me to bird net my raised box gardens in the backyard. Oh, he's really climbing to the top of my list. Keep you're fertilizer to yourself pal! It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't paw at the ground like he's trying to cover up his big, heaping pile. He's pawing right were my struggling seedlings are blooming. Grrr.

The Jacob's Cattle Beans and French Horticulture Beans which replaced the uncooperative carrots are producing nicely in our raised box gardens.

I took pictures of all the veggies starting to bloom and am still thankful we found a good seed supplier (SeedForSecurity).  Here's the pics (click on pics to enlarge them to full size):

Dirt mounds containing watermelon seedlings

Mostly bean seedlings, one lonely carrot on the left



Row of cucumbers looking good (planted 2.5 rows)




Squash making a "run" for it



Indian Corn outgrowing my bird net cage




 

Beans Replace Carrots in Our Raised Box Gardens

Jacob's Cattle Beans from SeedsforSecurity.com

After planting some new seeds on Saturday, wifey and I decided to re-plant some things in our raised box gardens. Each box is 3'x3' accomodating a good 5-6 rows of seed. Two of our boxes were filled with carrots and for reasons uncertain, we have ONE sprout in each box. Our seeds sat just under the soil surface for over a month before I covered them with bird net. I suspect either faulty seeds, scavengers (birds,cats), toddlers (who thought the gardens were sandboxes) or improper watering techniques...or all the above.

Regardless, after checking our growing chart, we planted bean seeds in both boxes and were careful not to distrurb our lonely little carrot sprouts. I didn't see any budding carrot seeds while planting the beans. One raised box got French Horticulture Beans and the other box got Jacob's Cattle Beans. 90% of our seeds come from Seeds for Security. We've learned that seeds bought on sale at dollar stores don't do as well as our Seeds for Security heirlooms. Like the carrots for example. I wanted to try purple carrots and the only place I found seed was online. Turns out they came from Sweden?

I managed to make it to Home Depot to buy trim, finishing nails, and some epoxy/putty to fill in the cracks on my wall niche project. I ran out of time before I could actually use the items though. So I tucked the supplies away, in the garage, out of reach from the little ones. I'm looking forward to finishing the project and seeing how much stuff the shelving will hold.

I was graced with a visit by a carpenter in our ward. He was adding a walk-in pantry to a home across the street and needed to borrow my razor knife. I coaxed him in far enough to see my handy work. It was painful to see him stammer for words to describe my first carpentry project but I was still proud just the same. He admitted that most of my inaccuracies could be covered with trim and I was happy to hear it.  The way I see it, with six daughters, I would rather learn how to do this stuff now on my house than to booger up my girls' houses when they need help. I have to admit, coming from the medical field, this building stuff is kinda fun too.

Mystery plant in the potato garden.

I found something growing in the potato garden although I'm not too sure it's a potato. It is growing right up next to the sprinkler head and looks to be the only thing growing among the store bought potatoes that I cut up and planted.

Now I just have to figure out when its time to harvest everything.

Netted Gardens for Pesky Pooping Cats

Can you see the bird net covering the garden?

Busy weekend with Easter and chores. Finished quite a few odd jobs. Our three raised-box gardens and block wall garden got framed and covered with bird net.

For the raised beds, I went to home depot and bought some wooden stakes (about $7) and bird netting (about $20). I simply drove the stakes into the corners and used my trusty staple gun to secure three sides. I hammered a few nails into the fourth side and slide the netting on and off the nails for easy access.

I had originally planned on building a pvc frame around the raised beds. I changed my mind and used the pvc on the block wall garden. I just draped the bird netting over the pipe and used stepping stones to secure the net.

Bird net here too. That's corn growing on the left.

This will hopefully keep the neighbor's cat from pooping and clawing in my garden. Yes, manure is fertilizer but he's also clawing up my seeds. Pesky cat. Neighbors that garden have also warned me to net my stuff to stop birds from picking at it.

So, for the most part, my gardens are covered. I still have a stretch of garden along my south wall but everything sewn into that was just put straight into the ground. No boxes built, no bags of manure hauled. We just ground-weasel'd it and planted seeds. I don't feel as obligated to protect that one, as dumb as that logic seems.

A friend from church told me he went to the local Starbucks and picked up a bag of used coffee grounds. Once mixed into his garden, he has had no more cat problems. That's next on my list.