Garden Progress

 The garden has been progressing very well. All of our plants that we started from seeds are flourishing except the peas and the spinach. The seed packets that we used were expired and from what I have been told, those two plants are very sensitive as seeds. We have so many more plants than we did last year and the rain barrels are really struggling to keep up. The Topsy-Turvy plants, the hanging baskets and the flower boxes are really the most sensitive to the lack of rain so those require daily watering. We did receive some rain last night, but only enough to fill one barrel. Pictures of the garden and plants are posted below for your viewing pleasure!

 

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.      

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.

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.