I figure a few more years of amending like this and that garden plot will go nuts.. Also considering buying some scoops of horse manure.

Anyway.. While my daughter occupied my sons attention I spent time making the cleanout door for the coop. Best darn idea I’d ever had.. Worked flawlessly.

Picture from outside. Still have yet to get the coop windows done, thus the plastic.

Picture from inside. The bottom is level with the floor, allowing all shavings to be easily scooped up from outside and the inside swept clean.

And to start out, two bales of fresh pine shavings down.. Need at least two more though before the week is up.

Now, everything out in the garden plot and ready to till under.. Have a conglomeration of 10 bales of straw, a large pile of compost and the 10 bales of pine shavings FULL of chicken poo..

If only I had three times this much stuff… Ah well.. Building good soil takes time.

Also time for the birds to migrate again.. They’ve been frequenting the tree tops and sleeping in our arborvitae at night.

Also spent some time working on the shade garden area.. I’m hoping to get that done so I don’t have to worry about anything more than general upkeep.. Cardboard has been down for ages and Donovan and I spent time scooping and spreading mulch.

On the down side, I managed to sprain my ankle while taking some furniture pads out of the chicken coop storage.. Happens from time to time.

Tons of work to do still and I’m hoping it all works out. The chicken litter has been sitting for six months in the coop as a deep litter method. The only moisture it gets is ambient and any water that is spilled from the waterer. Know they say to let it age so that it’s not too much nitrogen. Plan on letting it simmer in the ground after tilling for at least a week as well.

Since we had a southern blight issue last year with our tomatoes (Thanks Lowes & Walmart!), we’re moving the toms to the BACK of the lot. I’ve got some soil issues with the back part, so I ‘ll be using the chicken litter all back there.

I’m also planning on beta testing a new method of supporting tomatoes this year as I’m SICK of stakes. We’ve got 4 cattle panels standing by that I’ll be setting up as a “fence” of sorts along the row. The tomatoes will be trained up into it for support. Think I should have got more panels though.

Also this year I’m testing out a green mulch on at least two rows, instead of straw.. Though I love the straw since it gets tilled in.. I thought I’d try a green mulch too.. I’ve got a bag of inoculated red clover standing by that I’ll be seeding in the rows when we plant. The rest of the rows will be straw.

We’re also cutting back just a bit this year on how much we do, so the rows will be a bit wider through the garden. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to fit the bigger tiller down the center of the rows.. Though I’ve got to sleeve it’s in tank fuel line.. Got a hair line crack and once fuel gets down to half tank or so it dies… PITA.

For those who have not seen the canning room:
http://gardentenders.com/topics/457 (scroll)

Or what is inside:
http://gardentenders.com/members/DarkWolf/blog/1197

The new room measures around 14’ by 9’. My plan is to anchor studs to the wall sideways at 24” OC and to attach KV standards to those. Once those are in place I’ll be putting up shelving on KV #180 12” brackets, which I have 90 of them laying around doing nothing. The shelves will be 14” deep, so there will be a slight overhang past the bracket ends.

This is a basic mockup of what I have planned.

It’s a dated one with studs on the long wall at 32” OC.. I’ve changed that plan to help make sure I don’t overload the brackets.

My weight calculations are as follows and are theoretical at best:

• 120 quart jars per shelf on the long wall.
• 3# weight per jar over estimation.
• 360# total weight per shelf on the long (14’) wall….
• 7 shelves total.
• 2520# total weight across all 7 shelves, loaded down with 840 quart sized jars.
• @ 16” OC, that’s 230# per 2×4 of shearing force.
• @ 24” OC, that’s 280# per 2×4 of shearing force.
• @ 32” OC, that’s 360# per 2×4 of shearing force.
• Brackets are KV 180 12”, rated at 180#(?) per pair.
• At 9 brackets per shelf on 24” OC, that’s 40# weight per bracket load, not counting shelf weight.
• Estimating 2# per foot on shelf weight, the shelf will weigh 28#.
• That makes 44# of weight per bracket, shelf included, at 24” OC studs.

Now…. I don’t EVER think we’ll have 120 quart jars jammed from right to left on a single shelf run. That’s unlikely at best.. Though we DO have around 200-300 quarts of stuff? Rough guess.. It’s been a while since I took tally.

Regardless, will be a bit of work to get it all done.. I’d like to clean up the walls before installing the 2×4 studs and get any iffy spots sealed up so I don’t have to worry about moisture seeping. Really, it’s fairly dry in there besides the DRIP from the ceiling near the inside wall. The top slab does NOT have a grade high enough to shed water well. I’ll be washing, etching and painting it this spring.

Well, was out tending the coop this morning, which I do every morning, and there to the side of the waterer was an egg..

Hmmmmm.. I didn’t expect any eggs just yet!

Seems the red sex-link really DO become active layers much sooner than anyone else does.

Needless to say I’ll be building the nest box today.

So I thought I’d take a moment to not only snap pictures of what all I have, but to also take a tally.

This is an INCOMPLETE TALLY since it only counts the shelves and wall. It does not count the 10 dozen or so half pint jelly jars full of stuff that I did not count in yet.

So… Lets begin shall we?

Tomato Juice: 18 quarts

Cherry Tomato Pickles: 20 pints

Bread & Butter Pickles: 4 quarts

Basil Tomatoes: 24 quarts

Chili – No beans, meat: 6 quarts, 1 pint

Canned Pears: 12 quarts

Apple Sauce: 51 quarts

Apple Pie: 9 quarts

Persimmon Juice: 11 quarts

Strawberry Raspberry: 1 pint

Orange Marmalade: 4 pints

Chocolate Mint: 4 half pints, 1 pint

Mint: 5 half pints, 2 pints

Persimmon: 3 half pints, 3 pints

Blueberry: 6 pints

Pear Jam: 7 half pints

Fig: 1 half pint, 3 pints

Pear Jelly: 7 half pints

Lemon Jelly: 5 half pints

Blueberry Persimmon: 3 half pints, 3 pints

Apple Butter: 3 pints

Black Cherry: 4 half pints

Apple Jelly: 1 half pint, 4 pints

Strawberry Jam: 8 half pints

Mixed Berry Jam: 2 half pints, 5 pints

Blueberry Pomegranate: 1 half pint, 4 pints

Blackberry: 2 half pints, 4 pints

—————————————————————————
And the totals are…

Quarts: 135——33.75 gallons
Pints: 64————8 gallons
Half Pints: 53—- 3.3125 gallons

... Again this does not count some odd 10 dozen half pint jellies in storage on the low shelf. Those are already on the wall full, so they’re stored low till needed.

All together, that’s 45 gallons of canned “stuff”... or aprox 51 gallons if you estimate in those I had not counted..

I think we canned alot of stuff… Don’t you?

Now.. As for the pole beans.. We’ve got a two rows that are around 16-20’ long which needed support so this is what I came up with. I’m sure you recall my past post about my plan. Since they’re sending tendrils out all over now I needed to get it done..

The tripods are held together with bolts and washers, and the 1-1/2” PVC is just slip jointed together. In the center I have a 2” T with a 1-1/2” reducer at the bottom for the center support, sporting a 1-1/2” T at the bottom to keep it from sinking into the dirt.

The only worry I have is that the center slip joint will fail and fall apart, allowing the support to collapse.. But really, it’s a tight fit.. Those who use PVC pipe knows how tight it is.. So.. I’m hoping it will not be a problem.

At the end of the season it can be loosened up and folded for storage out of the way.

As for the throw away seedlings.. That friend who has the Daylily farm? Well these are some seedlings he was tossing last year which he did not want, nor felt was worthy of registering.. I dunno about you, but those are some pretty “trash” flowers.. ;)

I’m wondering about doing a line at the back of the property with 20+ plants, contained in a dual wire setup and topping each second year cane to a certain height to keep it in order.

I’ll be making a trellis with a dual wire top out of landscape timbers sunk into the ground.. Water never stands in that area, as it’s sloped, so should last long enough to suit me.

The garden along the walk is popping left and right. In a few days I figure there will be color the whole way down.

So going to love breaking up this sidewalk and putting in something more flowing down through here.

It’s almost like we were meant to be here.. This is what is across the road in the ditch.. Runs for a good way either direction and almost in conjunction with our property line.

The dog run is still looking jam packed.. I think before the end of the year I’m going to layer more cardboard down and mulch it in prep for expanding it next season.

The shade garden still needs finished up.. I’m going to top dress it with some better dirt and then mulch directly over that. I don’t want to risk the mulch holding down some of the delicate plants so just using a thinner layer.

On the other side where the wild grape vine was, I THINK I killed it all off… Nothing like doing a total kill via Roundup.. Hated to do it, but was at my wits end. Cardboarding it and mulching as well.

Now… As for the garden…

The compost pile garden is doing nice it seems.. Lots of Tomatoes around the bottom and some Cushaw growing out the top. It’s all good.. I’ll be rebuilding the compost bins into a three bin setup with landscape timbers and wire.

Speaking of compost.. Here’s one of the best additions to it, by far.. Or at least, what comes out of it.. The chickens are doing really well. Just wish I could get their run done.. This weekend I start on that.

The raised beds… Are… Well.. They suck… This is one of the better ones, but the grass has pushed up into it. I’m going to decommission them at the end of the season and do them over again.

The blackberry bush [10’x10’] is PACKED full of berries.. Going to be a huge harvest of those..

As for the main garden plot, it’s doing really good.. I’ve got more grass piled up and cooking so that I can mulch the Tomatoes with it and have plans to bring in 10 50# bales of straw to mulch down between the rows.

Soon as it dries out from the rain I’ll be tilling between the rest of the rows to knock the grass down so I can mulch.

So far the best Tomato plants are Better Boy, Better Bush [cherry] and Better Bush Improved [large] as far as looks go. They’re sooooooo green.. Really dark.. And full of tomatoes.

The corn is even doing well this year… So far..

Anyway, here they be.

St. Johns Wart

Cone Flower

Nandina

Thought that I’d take a moment to post a few pictures from around the yard though.. They’re a couple days old, but it hasn’t changed that much yet.. ;)

This is one of the many blooming right now. It’s off to the side of the house, where we spend mostly all our outside time.

The back of the dog run as it looks now. It’s bursting with blooms at this point.

That flower I’m not 100% sure on what it is. It’s a mass of daisy like blooms and is TALL.

Speedwell, by far my fave back there, just because the bees like it so. If I expand that flower bed later, there will be some shorter Veronica tossed in front, for sure.

One of the many Asiatics which we moved from a bed we were shutting down over to the back in this bed. They’d been in the ground a week or so and are strong as ever.

Said bees.. Happily scampering about the bloom. The only one they like BETTER than the speedwell is that St. Johns Wart… Hmm.. I wonder.. Does honey made with St. Johns Wart make you more mellow then clover honey?

Yes yes… Bumble Bees don’t make honey.. Regardless, the others come too.. This is one of those “8×10” photos which I’ll surely be retouching and having printed for around the house..