Plans Have Changed ~

So we were putting together some costs for this weekends project of getting the beds together.

If we get the rototiller, that's $45 flat for the day. Then we have to buy top soil to mix in with the stuff that was rototilled... and that's about $6-$7 a bag. For three 5 x 10 beds, I'm thinking we are going to need a lot of bags. Or we can buy a ton of dirt for $45 that's been screened and mixed with a fertilizer, but with the rototilled dirt and a ton of dirt... that's way too much dirt for those beds... and I don't want a pile of dirt just laying around in my backyard. Out of the 4 kids, I'm sure 3 of them would try to bury the 4th one and that would just be all bad. This way I'm looking at $90 to get the beds ready.

So here's my though... why til at all? According to Bartholemew, the SFG God, we can use 6" of soil (of course, his special mix is what he recommends) in the beds and grow what we like without messing with the rototiller. So $45 for the ton of top-soil and then assemble the beds. I think one ton will do the trick and I can fill the beds 8 inches with that (if I did my gutinzas right --- goes-in-tas --- Beverly Hillbilly terminology for ya right there!) and I'll be done at half the cost and 3/4 less manual labor for Andy. I might help put the beds together, but you won't find me anywhere near the scene when he's got to wheelbarrow dirt from the truck to the backyard lol. I'll have some family emergency that I'll have to tend to, or sprain my ankle, or be in the middle of dying my hair or something... but I won't be out there!

According to my google calculations on tons to cubic feet to cubic yards... I'm going to need 0.33 ton of top-soil for each bed. Fancy that, I have 3 beds! So exactly a ton should fill my 5 x 10 beds 8" deep with top-soil. If not, I'll buy more. I still can't believe it's only $45 actually. I wonder if there's a catch in there somewhere that I don't know about.

So, that leaves me an extra $45 (from the rototiller that we aren't going to rent now) to get more garden stuff lol. Woo hoo! This next trip to Lowe's is already going to cost a fortune. We've got to buy a wheelbarrow, shovel, rake, sheers, a hose, and whatever other fancy gadgets I can find that I can't live without. Being that we just moved from an apt to a house, we don't already have this stuff. I'm probably going to get more peat pellets, but this time I'll just get the pellets b/c I already have the trays. Believe me, I've been looking on Craigslist for stuff too and I'm just not finding anything.

That reminds me... I need to call on that wheelbarrow I found yesterday!

More later...

Pics of my peats

Here's one of the 16-pellet trays that seems to be doing very well. It amazes me how much growth there is from one day to the next. That messy ole 72-pellet tray in the in the background... I hope it survives :(

There's my garlic sprout. There are 4 of them so far. I'm like a new mommy. I love this game!

Peat or Pete? That is the question...

Last night I put all three peat pellet trays on the stove, and the 72-pellet tray closest to the little fluorescent light on the back panel. No more moldly looking junk, but for Pete's sake, still no sprouting. The other little guys in the 16-pellet trays look healthy and growing right along. Their little sprouts moved toward the light overnight, like they were all raising their hands at a concert, it was cute.

So I rotated them and I'm waiting until the sun heats up the yard a little more before I move them closer to the slider door. I might even sneak them outside for a bit, especially that 72-pellet one to dry it up a little bit. I'm going to get that diluted peroxide spray bottle ready just in case...

ACK! I've Got the Peat Pellet Blues

Ok so I'm all excited this morning about my peat pellets! Growth was happening and I nearly peed my pants. I CAN grow stuff!

Well, this afternoon, I ran into my first gardening quirk and I'm only three days into this gardening thing. Not a fantastic beginning lol. Experiment I keep chanting... Experiment!

About 4ish I'm looking at the third peat pellet thingy (this one has 72 in it, but the others have much larger pellets and there are only 16 pellets to the tray) and there appears to be some white/grey mold stuff on the tops of my pellets. No growth on those, just moldy looking stuff. It's almost like a fuzz. I don't want FUZZ! I want healthy little green sprouts!

Being the google whore that I am, I searched and searched for what this could be. So far it boils down to this:

1) I've over-watered and kept the stupid dome on too long (it's only been like 3 days)

2) That white/grey stuff is actually germination

3) They were just crap to begin with and I should toss them out and start over!

I think what I'm going to do is take off the dome and put that tray in a warmer place. I don't have fluorescent lights in the house (might invest this weekend) so I'll have to stick this tray closer to the slider door to get more sunlight too.

Then if something doesn't sprout in the next day or so and that moldy looking stuff is still there, I read to spray with hydrogen peroxide diluted in water to kill it.

If that doesn't work, I'm going to toss this batch (salvage any that I can) and start over with the bigger peat pellets that I haven't had a problem with. This kind of pissed me off to say the least. The 16-pellet trays are doing wonderfully... why o why is this 72-pellet tray giving me the blues!?!?

I'll take a picture in the morning so I can monitor their progress. Hopefully I'll be able to save these little guys. Time for bed. I'll probably have nightmares about the peat pellet blues! :(

My first sprout sprout!

I'm so excited! I got up this morning and my Brussels sprout has sprouted. There are like four of them sprouting so far! I couldn't be more proud of my babies!

Andy is getting the rototiller this weekend, and we are expecting a freeze on Sunday. So that should help kill weeds before we get the garden all planted.

I talked to a friend in a chat room I visit too! She lives in Texas and gave me some good advise. Apparently she's been gardening for years and I didn't have a clue! It's great, I have a friend who gardens. All of my local friends just think I'm nutzo for doing this, but when I hand them veggies by the basket because I have too many, we'll see what they have to say then! HA!

I need to do more research on the shredded paper for mulch idea. She told me that as long as it has already decomposed that it would be okay for the garden. I'm going to see what I can find out about that with my trusty googling. (I'm such a google nerd!)

Anyway, just had to show off my sprout sprout! I've got seeds left over from almost everything I started indoors, so if my experiment fails and they don't do well this way, I'm still planning on planting a lot of things straight from seed into the garden.

Shredded paper for mulch

Wowza! Talk about a great idea... and cheap! Andy said he might be able to get us a couple big ole bags of shredded paper from his job so we can mulch the garden. I was worried about that, b/c everything I've read says in Oklahoma it's crucial to mulch and mulch good! I'll read up a little more and see if paper is really a good idea, but so far it's a GREAT one according to me. It's FREE!

Scarecrow!

Andy came up with a fun idea for the kids to enjoy as well. He wants to put a scarecrow in the garden. I think it's a great idea. We are going to hit the thrift stores this weekend and see if we can get him some clothes and all the essentials for creating him.

I've never really made a scarecrow, so I googled, lol. I'm a google fanatic! I have my list of supplies ready! We'll get all the stuff this weekend and next weekend when we have all the kids here, we'll put him together. I'm even thinking about sewing his face on instead of just using a marker. And I think I can get leaves from Nikki's flowerbed that I saw piled in there yesterday for the stuffing. Woo hoo! I'm excited. The kids will have a blast. I'll put up pictures when he's done.

Andy is supposed to get the rototiller on Friday evening and plow away Saturday. Then we'll put together the beds in the yard, put up the scarecrow and see what it looks like. I even mentioned to Andy about painting the beds before we put them in the garden. He was all gung-ho about it and told me to just get the paint and he'd do it! What a handyman he's turned out to be! I'm lovin' this! I just plan things and he puts it all together for me! What a fun game LOL!