Compost Confidential

The Bed is Ready to Plant! - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

If you want to watch this video in better HD quality, click here. In this video you can see that the hard work is paying off. I finally have a garden bed to finally sow my seeds and seedlings. And I’m still at only $7.00 spent at the time this video was shot. But since this was three weeks ago, I’ve purchased twine and two large tomato plants. So if you read my last post, you know I’m fourteen bucks and change into my budget with at least two months to go.

The ongoing battle is with the clouds and rain. As I write this, it occurs to me that I should have been tracking the total rainfall onto my garden. But I haven’t. All I know is that it’s been a lot! From the two plus inches I collected overnight in this video, to the numerous times I’ve poured out an inch or more from my rain gauge. Even as I type this post on Memorial Day, it is raining outside and the five-day forecast is just more of the same.

On a more upbeat note, at least I’m saving money and time on the watering and the plants are coming along fairly well, all things considered. In the next video, I’ll show you the plants going into the bed as well as the bamboo I harvested to make my pole bean tee pee and critter fence.

Current Expense Count:

Seed starting Mix: 2 bags….$7.00
Twine for bamboo………....$2.27
Two tomato plants…………$5.28

Total……………………….$14.55
Available…………......……$10.45

See you back here in a few days.
JL

p.s. Although this video features my using all the wood from the torn down barn,  a friend told me about an even better free source of wood the next day. Unfortunately I didn't have my video camera with me when she told me about the source. Since it was close by, I went straight over and nabbed a few (discarded) pices of long boards from their scrap pile. This wood is also very old and untreated. The company (Tobacco Pine) salvages choice wood from old tobacco barns and converts it into hardwood flooring, etc. So the long pices you see in the front of the bed are from there. I still used the old barn wood for the sides.

Garden Bed Finally Taking Shape - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

It’s finally beginning to look a lot like a garden, or at least the makings of one. Now that that I’ve cleaned the slate, it’s time to roll up my sleeves and get down to the business of creating that twenty-five dollar victory garden I’ve been talking and writing so much about.

This video as usual provides the highs and lows (opportunities as I like to call them) of those unanticipated challenges. But that’s what I like about this series so much. Unlike most television shows that don’t let you see the “problems”, I’m making lemonade out of lemons. This time, the barely-used tiller decides to quit working, as you’ll see. But all in all, my garden will be better for it as I described in this video.

In real-time, it’s raining…again. The garden is almost completely planted. I’m saving a few patches to stage some plants to extend the harvest. But, that may not be a problem if we don’t get a bunch of sun in here soon to dry things out and give these plants a chance to photosynthesize. They’ve been planted now for two weeks and they look the same as they did in containers inside.

I’m catching up on my video backlog so I’d say by middle of next week, you’ll be watching episodes in real-time. I’m still encouraged but certainly frustrated with this very unusual and challenging weather we’re having.

Current Expense Count:

Seed starting Mix: 2 bags….$7.00
Twine for bamboo………....$2.27
Two tomato plants…………$5.28

Total……………………….$14.55
Available…………......……$10.45

Reality Bites - A Hard Hit to the Budget - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

It’s no secret, gardeners are optimists. But I have to tell you, if I’ve ever been challenged on that one personally, it’s right about now. Seriously, since the day I planted my seedlings and seeds into this garden (over two weeks ago), we’ve seen the sun only twice. The rest of the days have provided various levels of rain, dropping as much as three inches in less than an hour.

Conditions have been so wet and gloomy; nothing has a chance to spring into action as it would if basking in the sun, photosynthesizing their little hearts out. Take the above picture for example. I made a very hard decision today. In light of the pitiful growing conditions and my need to get some plants to produce food soon, I tapped into my budget by another five dollars. I purchased two very large tomato plants that literally dwarf my pitiful little seedlings I started indoors six weeks ago. If you look closely, just in front of the massive black plastic containers, you can barely see my little plants.

At the rate they’re growing (or not) I might have a tomato or two before the first frost in October! You can also see in this picture the plight of my cucumbers in the foreground. They’re on the yellow side; a good indication of too much water. In fact, you don’t have to look very hard to see how saturated the soil is from the incessant rain. At some point I hope it stops long enough so I can get “Goliath 1 and Goliath 2” in the ground. I feel sorry for little “David”. But since I’m a gardener and therefore an optimist, I’m expecting big things out of little David.

I’ll keep you posted and post another video within two days from now.

Joe vs. Nandina dumbasstica - My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

Episode 5: Joe vs. Nandina dumbasstica - My Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden Challenge from Joe Lamp'l on Vimeo.

The video posted with this blog entry chronicled a period spanning about eight days, finally wrapping up two weeks ago. It chronicles my battle with what I thought was a benign row of Nandina domestica, or as I prefer to say “dumbasstica”. I’ve removed and transplanted my share of these plants in the past, but I just don’t remember them ever being so stubborn to get out of the ground. This video will serve as a perpetual reminder to the contrary!

Now, fast forward to real time.  The garden has progressed to the point that I’ve added the free compost from our local recycling center, built a physical barrier around the bed from free wood harvested from a demolished barn and cut down lots of bamboo to build the supports for my pole beans and a small critter fence around the perimeter.

All the seedlings are planted along with most of the seeds. Unfortunately, just as the garden was ready to plant, we’ve received over six inches of rain. It’s beat down the seedlings and turned the soil into soup. But so far, it’s really the only setback. But right now, I’m already at least a week behind so every day counts. I shared my discouragement with a friend and she reminded me that it was a great opportunity to remind others that gardening is full of surprises and we’re never really totally in control. The best we can do is manage our circumstances and play the hand we’re dealt the best way possible.

Wow, how right she was. This garden challenge is all about encouraging people that they can do it, even when the only thing they have to spend is time and even when things don’t always go as planned. I’m really excited about my garden and can’t wait to show you more videos soon to share the progress. Thanks for following along. The best is yet to come.
JL

Should I be Building an Ark Instead of a Garden? – My Quest for the Twenty-five Dollar Victory Garden

I never thought as a gardener I’d be saying this but I am SO sick of the rain!!! Just as I placed my soil into my new garden spot, down came the rain. In fact, the first night, three-inches fell on my exposed, bare soil. I hadn’t even had a chance to contain it yet with raised sides. I was convinced I’d come out the next morning to a total washout. But much to my surprise, the garden bed had faired pretty well. That was five days ago. Since then, it’s been off and on (mostly on) rain since then for a total of over five inches.

I’ve worked non-stop to install the boards for the sides to retain the soil, created small brick pathways within the bed, and even harvested bamboo for a small fence and for the supports for my pole beans. I’ve planted seedlings that I’ve been growing indoors over the last six weeks and even managed to sow a few seeds. But for most of this time, I’ve either been working in the rain, or working in mud, neither once I’d consider to be very fun. Unfortunately, I really do feel behind schedule right now so the pressure to move on is adding to the frustration. I’m leaving Wednesday for a few days and I really wanted to have everything planted or sown by then so I could feel good about being away. But Mother Nature has other plans. I hear the forecast is for more of the same for the rest of the week!

I promise to have a few videos up by Friday since I won’t be working in my garden! I’ve got quite a backlog at this point that simply needs to be edited to catch you up to speed on where we are in the process. By the way, the picture above was shot about an hour before this posting. This is a sneak peak at the corner of my new garden but I’m not showing you any more of it at this point since I have a few more reveals to bring  you in the upcoming videos first.

Lastly, I had to spend $2.27 today for some twine to lash my bamboo poles together and I may use it to reinforce the bamboo fence as well. This brings my total expenses so far to $9.27.

You can expect a couple more videos by the end of this week.
JL