Tag: cardboard box

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Earth movers

Gram pretends to be a plant while all the plants are outside.
We stopped to visit Shackleton on the way to compost facility. He likes to smell car bumpers while on his leashed walkies. Cars have been places!
We were told we could self-load from this pile.
Paula and I self-loaded.
Thanks again to Dad for an excellent set of giant cardboards. We used all but two for this load of compost. Briar supervising.
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Raising the raised beds

The metal edging around the raised veggie beds is a bit of a tripping hazard, so we are going to gradually fill it in with dirt. I am also going to plant ground covers to slowly crowd out anything that needs weeding or mowing. Thank you Dad for the excellent supply of big cardboard pieces.
One corner of dirt. The dirt came from the Chef and Paula’s gate construction over behind the garage. It needed levelling. I have a bunch of baby Roman chamomile to plant here as ground cover.
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After work, garden times

Plant instructions said to let them readjust to the world before planting, so they are outside in indirect light to start.
Cilantro turning to coriander (the seed).
White currant tomato seeds saved from last year grew true to variety!!
Garlic harvest was very sparse. I guess the big February deep freeze got more than I thought.
Moon and stars watermelon leaf has such adorable “stars”! I can’t wait for the fruit.
Added more cardboard to my backyard Bermuda grass killing operation. Thank you Dad for this excellent giant cardboard!!
One area of Bermuda grass in the backyard seemed dead enough to reseed with buffalograss and curly mesquite grass.
A beautiful very smooth gray moth.
Maybe an Arctiid? I need to look it up.
My finger for scale.
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Wet plants need air circulation

It’s supposed to get into the 40s F tonight so we brought the tender plants in (peppers, ground cherries, tomatoes).

This requires covering to secure them from Cat Ideas. However, each tray has a good half inch plus of water in them and the soil is saturated from massive rain this afternoon and evening, and I don’t want any chances of mold.

Wes fixed up a second plant fan for me and I cut two holes in the box for one set. We opened two towel corners for the shelf tray.

The box covers the plants. The hole is for the air to move through the box. The empty oatmeal containers are to keep the cat from investigating the fan at the lower right corner of the towel. The metal bucket is to prevent the cat from moving the box.
The fan pushing air through the box.
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Babies growing up

Repotted about 2/3 of baby tomatos before it got dark.

Bigger pots mean not everyone fits in the cat-safe night area.

So we covered the other tray with a box and a heavy thing.
Supervisors have a meeting.
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Insulation for -12°F forecast overnight

That’s -24° Canadian.  Regular Winnipeg weather!

The Peruvian ground cherry I had been nursing along with towels and tubs and a hot water bottle every night succumbed to freezing last night (it was 3°F outside this morning around 7:30am). I have lots of babies in the plant window though.

Strawberries and oregano are under the tubs. There is some sedum along one wall and those poor little standing cypress along the back wall.
Foil and tissue under the regular foam cover, which is now covered by newspaper and cardboard, with a gallon jug of hot water sitting at the base.  We’ll change out for new water before bed.
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Spring planting! It’s going to freeze next week!

Paula and I were going to plant things tomorrow, but it’s looking quite chilly. It’s just gorgeous out right now. So we spent a half an hour or so and got two kinds of onions (yellow granex and white granex) from sets in the beds, two kinds of potatoes in containers (experimenting with burlap sacks, potting soil bag, and cardboard boxes to make hilling them easier to get more potatoes), and seeds of French breakfast radish, green wave mustard, and Oregon sugar pod II pea. The peas we already have a few little vines of but I figured another round wouldn’t hurt to replace some since they blanch and freeze well if we get a lot.

White granex onions with some moss curled parsley from last year.
Yellow granex bulb onions with some cabbage and chard from last year.
Paula had the excellent idea to show the Yukon gold potato (burlap sacks/top) and Kennebec white potato (box and plastic bag) with their planters. We’re having a big freeze forecast for next week, so I only used half of the seed potatoes in case these die. (Also, I ran out of containers for now.) I am putting potatoes in containers to make them easier to hill dirt around, and also because crop rotation when all you plant is Solanaceae is very challenging.
Briar says it was good sleepy sunshine to supervise in. She was pleased.