Covered Bridges, Mills, and Garden Plan.

First let say that i am not happy with the way this spring has sprung so far. I know we need the rain here but forty degrees?!? Really? Looks we will be back on a warming trend and not a moment too soon! I need to get things started outside soon before my wife kills me for littering the house with seed plats and containers. Which btw....

A view of most of the plants/flowers i have going on. 

This has the maters, cukes, peppers and give-aways shown.

I did a lot of transplanting to these peat pots over the last week.

This has the forgetmenots, nasturtium, and other assorted flowers. 

I hope they turn out as good as I hope.

I also have to say that the oregano, chives, cilantro, basil are not shown due to room. I also have some more flowers to get going but may direct- plant them. It's funny when I think about it. I never used to like gardening at all up until a few years ago and then really got into it last year. I came home last week and my wife says to me "Really, more seeds?" Now I could have a girlfriend, be a gambler or whatever but now seeds are my passion. I could have a lot worse habits!

I travel some for my job and yesterday I had some free time between jobsites and meetings so I did some exploring via gps and found...

Bunker Hill Covered Bridge. One of only two known remaining in NC.

View from the other side. 

Plaque. Originally built with no nails, just with wooden pegs.

I find it fascinating the engineering knowhow of that era.

And i also found Murray's Mill.

Sadly the information center was not open. You can tell by the water cascading down the amount of rain this area has had recently. 

Well hopefully a lot of planting this weekend and building as well. Still have to finish the forth bed. Update Sunday evening, maybe sooner if I get off my butt.

And as The WOF would say, "Quit bothering me boy!"

Updates and Other WOFs

Well I finally did it. I mowed the grass this weekend. Saturday to be exact as it was in the low 80s and the yard really needed it. I also spent a lot of time doing some flower transplanting.

Transplanted Forget Me Nots, two varieties and no, I can not remember the types. Is this an oxymoron? Also did Four O'Clocks, planted Oregano, and something else that escapes me at the moment. 

A shot of the onion bulbs. Excuse the tubing as I haven't had time to get everything sorted yet.

A shot of the cabbage and lettuce plants. Don't seem to be doing much, are they? Didn't think so.

Here's a few pictures of the flowers we got really cheap from Lowes. I tried a setting on my phone that let me do this type of photo. It is called Cartoon. 

 And the normal shot.

Hopefully I can get a lot done this weekend. I need to get the water lines done, get new pressure reduced as someone broke the old one, and get the new bed built. Depends on yard sales too as I like going to those. As always love to here from someone and their fun in the garden, golf, WOFs, whatever. Leaving you on notice, Ginny says "Stay Away From My Carrots!"

Garden Update.

Well, as if when i say I'm going to stay on top of things, I get even more busy. I did take some photos of the seed plats this morning and a few of the garden bed yesterday. It was beautiful this past weekend then turns ugly cold Monday and today. But 80s this weekend.
View of the cabbage and lettuce plants. Doing OK I guess but could look better.

View of the Onion bulbs I planted, red and yellow. They're doing pretty good.

These are several views of the plats per say. Got tomatoes, cukes, eggplant, oregano, even a bunch of flowers to try this year. 

Always makes me wonder why more people don't go through the process of growing your own. So much cheaper than store- bought and tastes better too. I have more flowers and herbs growing in buckets out in the garage under lights as well. Hopefully this weekend will be as goos as they say it is and I'll get a lot done. Adding onto the bed and I even have to consider mowing the grass if you can believe it. 

Busy Times are Here.

Wow. It has been busy around here in this family. I am completely buried at work, wife is too, and oldest just started on golf team again this year. First tourney was yesterday and I missed it.
On the garden front, not much has changed. STILL haven't built the cold frame and from now on I don't think i will. I instead will plan on covering part of one of the beds with clear plastic and use it that way. Which brings up another interesting observation I found this morning.

Yes, I put my lettuce and cabbage in the ground this past weekend and we got hammered with rain Monday night. They don't look too good so i need to work on them to get them up again. Hope I can or it'll be seeds this weekend. 

I have started some flower seeds and eggplant, which I forgot. Otherwise the transplants are looking pretty good right now. 

The cukes and tomatoes will be moving to a bigger area soon by the looks of things. The bottom picture shows some lavender and Shasta Daisies that I did on a whim. I definitely need more lights and a better way to arrange things. Looking for an old metal shelf that I can put casters on to use as my light stand. The ones in the seed books are way over priced.
Hitting yard sales this weekend for some good containers as I'm going to need a few with all of the crazy stuff my wife and I are going to do this year. We need to move to a place with a bigger yard!

Seed Update and Weather!

First, finally some good weather. 70s this past weekend although it is cooler today. Really looking forward to spring.

Lettuce and cabbage with some dill thrown in. I've kinda slowed them a bit as I still haven't built a cold frame yet. Hopefully this weekend.

A view of the pepper, tomato and cuke plants. Cukes are really coming up as are most of the tomatoes. Disappointed in the peppers but hopefully they'll come up soon. 

A close-up.

Planted carrots and red and yellow onion bulbs that I forgot I bought this year. I'll post a layout of the gardens this year soon. Also started some flowers to see how they will turn out. 

Seed status and sickness.

Following are the status of the seeds under growth.

This shows the cabbage and 3 types of lettuce. Also have onions going and on a whim started some dill and lavender on the right side. Give them another week or two and move to the cold frame.

Here you see my tomato plants (40 types and cukes (2) types going along. Might have started a little early on them but I can transplant into some bigger plats that I have. 

Now,  don't know the name of what I've had but when your nose runs off of your face and you're achy and head feels like exploding. Flu or cold, but I normally don't get sick. Starting to feel better so try work tomorrow. 

Happy valetines day all.

Beds from last year.

These are images from the garden beds last year. I have two in an L shape and one by itself. Keep in mind there's limited space in our yard.

This is the lower L taken on April 12th. 

This is the lower L on May 18th. You can see the upper L at the top of the picture.

This is the same L layout on June 24th. My squash outgrew the upper right.

This is the upper bed on April 9th. 

Same bed on May 18th. 

Same bed on June 24th. Mostly Tomato plants. 

 

Upper L, another view of those squash plants. 

I used a micro irrigation system to water everything run through piping I buried under the ground. It took a while to set up but once I got it up and running, worked like a dream. My plan this year is to extend the lower L bed by about 4 feet, build another one 3 feet by 13 feet next to the fence near the upper bed and continue to use pots and whatever I can find. My second planting last year I grew tomato plants to maturity out of small buckets I picked up at the dollar store for a buck each. I also want to add a timer to the watering system so I won't forget to turn it off in the morning. Again. 

Speaking of which, here's some peppers I grew in a small pot.

Made ten gallons of laundry detergent so we're good to go for a while on that too. Counting down the days!