One month ago.

It has been a months since the last post.  Here is the "skinny" on the garden:  The garden was doing very well, until we went on vacation.  I tried in vain to revive the plants but they were too far gone.  We were able to harvest  several tomatoes, two green peppers and two meals of broccoli.  The watermelons are a lost cause, unfortunately.  Perhaps I will have a watering system with at timer hooked to the rain barrels next year!

We have decided to expand our garden area this fall.  We will be removing some perennials along the southwest side of the house to make room.  We are looking forward to having more area for plants.  We'll see how it pans out!

Harvest

Not a whole lot going on here on Cedar Street.  The garden is doing very well and we have been collecting crops for a week or two now.  The topsy-turvy tomato has produced some very delicious fruit and has another 15 or 20 green orbs hanging from the vines.

The pepper plants are progressing very slowly and it would be nice if some of the peppers would be ready along with the tomatoes.  Alas, they are not cooperating and we will have to enjoy our peppers separately from the tomatoes.

We have harvested enough broccoli for one meal.  This was the result of four plants.  I'm not so sure we will plant broccoli again as they take up a lot of space and the yield seems low.  They have grown well, but we don't have the space to grow enough broccoli to meet our needs.

The watermelon plants are growing like crazy, and if I could eliminate the chipmunks, we could have a bunch of watermelon.  We have two watermelon that are softball sized, and several more that are marble sized.  The chipmunks seem to like the marble sized fruit as the fruit vanish quite frequently.  We'll find a new spot for the watermelon next year and work on removing the varmints. 

The live trap I have for the chipmunks has failed, as they have escaped multiple times.  The trap specifically lists that it effective for trapping the little furry buggers, but they seem to sneak out through the cracks.  Their bellies were full of sunflower seeds for a little while, however my charitable attitude for the chipmunks has expired.  Perhaps that's why the watermelon have been disappearing.  Spiteful little buggers, I must say.

The rain barrels have been working as designed.  We have been in a bit of a dry spell again and I'm going to have to break into the second drum soon.  I have been using six to ten gallons of water daily to maintain the broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon and five flower boxes.  A third and fourth barrel may be in the works for next year, pending an appropriate location suitable to the house and downspouts.  We plan to expand the garden area next year and I feel the current water collection activities will be inadequate without increased capacity.  I haven't been watering the remaining flower gardens as the plants have passed through their bloom due to the exceptionally high temperatures this spring and summer. 

Heather and I went to the garden that is funded by our church to help harvest some of the crops on Thursday.  The garden is hosted by one of the church's farmers, the Eppler's, just down the street from the church.  During our conversation with Ms. Eppler, she explained that because of the heat this spring a lot of the plants grew very quickly but did not pollinate when they normally would, so some of the harvesting is a little more challenging due to plant size.  I volunteered to pick various squash, a decision I regretted soon after I dove in with my shorts and short-sleeved shirt.  Relief came in the form of a shower several hours later, but I survived.  Not really much of a sacrifice in the scheme of things.  Heather's brother, Chris, and his wife came up with the idea of the church having a garden to help people in need around the area. It seems to be working well. The church purchased the plants and some people have taken the plants home to tend, other plants were put on the farm. Chris's garden is doing well and he has taken several car-loads of vegetables to local people in need. It's a great idea and a few extra plants go a long ways to helping those in a less fortunate situation.

Five weeks of Silence

     It has been a little over a month since I last posted anything about items in my blog.  It has been an interesting four weeks or five to say the least.  We saw almost no measurable rain during June.  The rain barrels had enough water to last just over three weeks with no rain before they were emptied.  Earlier this week we received several days of rain so the barrels are full again and the ground is not so parched.  I will have to admit that I had to break out the hose and use the city water to maintain the flowers while the rain barrels were empty.  It was above 95 degrees each day for the last week of June and the plants would not have faired very well without the water.  I guess the solution is more rain barrels!

     The topsy-turvy is performing perfectly.  There are nearly two dozen tomatoes on the plant and some of them just started to turn red yesterday.  From our four watermellon plants we have lots of flowers and two small watermellon on the vine.  The sweet pepper plants have almost forty flowers on four plants so we anticipated having plenty of peppers.  The brocolli florets have just started to form.  The brocolli plants are enormous and we are looking forward to seeing the finished results.      

Topsy Turvy update

While I was watering the tomato plant today I was astounded by the amount of growth that I noticed.  The longest extended branch on the plant has grown almost 8 inches in three days.  There are numerous new leaves, flowers and branches coming off the bottom of the plant.  The weather has been hot, humid and sunny with afternoon thunderstorms.  Day 38 is on the top and Day 41 on the bottom.  The tomato was planted on April 24th so we should have some tomatoes ready between July 10th and July 31 with any luck. So far this planter has been phenomenal but we will see what happens went the tomatoes start to hang. 

Storms and the aftermath

We had some nasty storms yesterday.  Monsoon like rain (3.2 inches reported by a local spotter) and great big hail stones.  The plants around the house took a beating, but it appears as most came out just a little beat up, not destroyed.

 I found something interesting as I was surveying the rain and hail from under the protection of the deck; water was flying out of the rain barrel where the hose from the downspout inserts.  This should not be happening as the water should have enough back pressure from sitting down inside the rain barrel to stop the flow and send it back down the downspout.  So today I made a trip to the hardware store and returned with some adapters and a longer piece of hose.  I just finished assembling the pieces and tested the finished product with the garden hose.  I think we're back in business. 

Tomato Plant update

The plants are doing well.  The tomato plant is growing and has a few flowers on it.  The Black Lace has also done very well this year.  I don't remember the black lace having flowers last year, but it certainly does this year.  It needs to be trimmed as the driveway, house and other flowers are crowded by the black lace growth. 

The rain barrels are performing flawlessly and we have yet to have a need for water that can't be met by the stored rainwater.  I can't take all the credit; I do have someone that helps water the plants!  You can see her picture below!

Some Updates

It's been a few days since I've made any updates; most of my projects are between the start and upkeep portions.  I took a few pictures today of the projects and plantings just to keep it interesting.  Our flowers bloomed quite early because of the early warm temperatures, so that may lead to some time between the next series of blooms.  We patiently await!

The topsy turvy tomato is showing some signs of new growth.  When it stays above 70 degrees every day I believe this plant is going to really take off.  Notice the new growth is bright green.

Heather planted the flowers in the flower box and they have turned out very well.  The monkey flowers seem to be doing the best.  Aebi made a "grass head" at school and he has taken up residence in one of the planter boxes.  I removed him from the box so you could see his face! 

As for the rest of the yard and flower gardens, things are going well.  There is plenty of water (thanks to the rain barrels) for those plants that require more water than the sky has provided.

Leaky

Because I was at work yesterday the flowers didn't get any TLC from me so today was the day.  I found a small dripping leak around the spigot of one of the barrels so it was repair time.  We watered the plants and flowers, including the hanging basket and the topsy turvy planter.  The trees and shrubs in the flowerbeds were given extra water as I'm sure the flowers and plants steal quite a bit of water from the surface.  It is supposed to be dry tonight so I will seal the leak and wait for the next rain.  Wish me luck.

Topsy Turvy

The rain barrels are a complete success!  According to The Weather Channel we received 0.58" rainfall yesterday.  Both barrels are full and ready to dispense fresh rainwater for our flowers and our newly planted tomato plant.  I made some changes to the height of each barrel to accommodate watering cans and pails under the spigots.  In the picture you can see that the barrel on the left is lower than the one on the right.  The barrel on the left is full to the top and will be drawn off of first.  The barrel on the right is also full to within about an inch of the top of the barrel.  I will forecast that we will be able to keep our barrels full of fresh water throughout the summer.  Keep your fingers crossed!

We purchased a Topsy Turvy Planter just to try it out.  We followed the instructions and Saturday we hung the planter where it would receive the appropriate amount of sunshine.  We are excited to see how it works!  Hopefully it won't get the insects and other pests because it is off the ground.  I'm sure we'll have plenty of tomatoes to share!

Assembly not included

Well, I finished the rain barrel assembly during Olivia's nap time today.  Had some things that did not go as planned, but nothing to stop the project.  Here are the pictures.  I guess we'll find out during the upcoming rainy weekend if the project was a success.

Mulching

Last night was the night to do the mulching in the flower gardens.  JJ let us borrow his truck and we picked up a yard of mulch and dropped it in the driveway.  While we were at the greenhouse picking up the mulch we picked out some flowers for the flower boxes on the deck.  After bedtime (for the children) we went to work placing a fresh batch of mulch over the flower gardens (in the dark, I might add).  I can't take any credit for planting the flowers as Heather did all the work. 

The parts for the rain barrels arrived via Fed-Ex yesterday so my project during naptime(s) today will be to assemble the parts and put the rain barrels into action.  Check back to see the finished product!

The Rain Barrel Project

So by now many of you that spend any time around me have heard me "carrying on" about being Eco-friendly and energy frugal. I've decided to start a rain barrel project to, for the lack of better words, put my money where my mouth is. I would have much preferred to start with photovoltaic solar panels, but I didn't have $40,000 for the project.

We have a vast area of flower gardens in our yards and paying to water them was high on my list of things not to do. The cost of the project will be quickly offset on the savings in our water bill this summer.

So I started with some 55 gallon barrels that were "reclaimed" from other uses (like collecting dust) and cruised the Internet for the parts and ideas that I needed to get the project rolling. I found my most useful information here.

After reviewing that site I followed some of the links and found that most of the products for rain barrels were from outside the US. I decided on the Garden Water Saver for my project. I wanted to be able to collect water without having to worry about when the barrels were full and where the overflow water was going.

Painting the barrels was next. One coat of paint wasn't enough to cover the blue so today's project was a second (and hopefully final) coat of paint. Hopefully the parts arrive today, but it's a long way from Richmond, BC, Canada to Elizabethtown, PA.