Friday Favorite: My New Tool Holder
I don’t know when I first saw a tool holder made from D handle tools. We have Liberty Tool right in town, I stop frequently to check their stock of old garden tools. When I stopped Wednesday they had just what I needed, two D-handle shovels.
This project couldn’t be quicker or easier (or cheaper for only $10). My cross piece is an old broken shovel handle. Now I have a convenient spot to keep all my garden tools during the gardening season.
How do you keep your tools organized?
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Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three
I finally decided to take the plunge and get a soil test. Since my gardens grow well, and I don’t have any issues, I’ve never really gotten around to getting a soil test. As I purchased a few soil amendments last week, I decided to get a few tests done of different garden areas.
I decided to test three different areas. Test plot #1 is the half of the main garden that I have been improving for the past 5 years. Test plot #2 is the half of the main garden that has been fallow. It’s received its first mulch of compost this year, the past four years it has been fallow under a batch of wood chips. Even with these minimal efforts, the soil is much better on that side than it was 5 years ago. The half that I have actively worked on improving is much better than this half. The third test plot is the potager. This garden is actually not native soil, it was a truck load of topsoil the previous owners had laid down on a hillside where they wanted to add a garden.
I’m getting comprehensive tests for all three areas. I haven’t decided yet if I want to pay the extra $ to get the particle size testing for each plot. Overall, it’s very inexpensive, each comprehensive test is only $22 (particle size testing is an additional $20 per test plot). Stay tuned, I’ll make sure to share the results.
Have you had your garden soil tested?
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Wham, Bam, Hedge
Last week, we went to our local hardware store to grab a few items for a project. As usual, I wanted to “just look through the plants to see what they had”. All the boxwood was 50% off, which means the small ones were only $4.50 each. Even though I take box cuttings myself, they take a long time and a decent amount of labor to get to the place that these inexpensive plants are. We went home and I thought about where I’ve been planning box hedges and figured up how many I would need. Then I deliberated some more. I’m not a big spender, in general I will save money rather than spend it, do without rather than have. I have been this way since I was a small child. Mr Chiots finally convinced me to just buy the plants and have the hedge planted and growing out.
It will cut 2-3 years off of the time needed for the garden to reach completion. So we loaded up our car with loads of box…. This hedge consists of ‘Green Mountain’ box, one that will grow about 3-5 feet high and 2-3 feet wide. It will be perfect for this hedge, which I want to be between 3-4 feet high and about 2 feet wide. The following day, we scraped up the sod in the area in front of the main garden. It will be layered heavy with compost, lines strung, and the plants lined up. I’m thinking we will space them 18″-24″ apart.
This process gave me an instant 5 feet of extra space at the front of the garden. Behind the new hedge there will be a 5 foot bed that will house tall blooming annuals each year. In front of the hedge there will be space for low growing annuals like allysum. Overall, it’s going to be a lot of work to get this all planted, but it will be wonderful in a few years time.
What big projects do you have going on in the garden?
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GRRRRR…..
One of our most annoying garden pests are porcupines. Sounds strange, but it’s true. This summer they found my lettuce patch just as the butterheads were forming beautiful heads. They eat a lot of apples out of our trees, generally taking a bite out of one and throwing it down to get another.
They also love pumpkins and squash. I find bites taken out of my squash around this time of year, it’s frustrating to be sure.
Thankfully, they only gnaw on a few, which often heal up. But there are some that won’t, they eat a little too much. These will be thrown in to the chickens. Overall, I don’t have too many pest issues. The ones that I have can often be taken care of with an electric fence.
What’s your biggest garden pest?
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Garden Fails
Every year there are failures in the garden. I believe that failure is often one of the best ways to learn, it’s seems easier at times to figure out what works and what doesn’t when we have failures. This year one of my giant failures is in my ornamental cabbage crop. I seeded them in July, moved them outside in mid-August, then they were found by the caterpillars.
I had big dreams of pots of ornamental kale beside my front door until well into December, this is what they look like.
I don’t use any kind of pest control, even “organic” varieties. Often even those (like Slug-O) have consequences down the line. I’m thinking that I need to attract more wrens and birds to my garden. Perhaps a few guinea fowl will do the trick as well, they are fantastic at controlling squash bugs and cabbage worms. My dreams of giant drifts of ornamental kale are gone, but I’ve now learned that there’s just too much pressure at the current moment to try it. Perhaps I’ll just put one of my many pumpkins in the terra cotta pots by my front door. In the future, I may try ornamental kale again, but keep it under an insect barrier until it’s quite large. I may try seeding it a little earlier so it’s larger and more robust. I may just use my time to read a book instead though, sometimes it’s just easier to let dreams go.
What pest issues are you having this time of year? Are there any garden dreams you’ve had to let go of?
