We Have Wings!

Yesterday the lumber was cut and fitted for the Upside Down Garden expansion project. The new, two wings. The lumber was cut and notched, the corners were trimmed, final fitting was checked and braces were cut and fitted. The entire thing was installed, one on each end of the frame.

Installation in Mid-Afternoon 5/24/2008

A Closer Look At The Brace

The new extensions had the screw eyes installed, were painted and then, left to dry overnight.

Complete Project, built and ready to go, 5/25/2008

This view gives just the perspective of one end of the garden. The two "window" boxes are planted with Hyacinth beans (in the left side box) and nasturtiums (in the right side box) Both have germinated and I hope when I take photo's again during the coming week you will be able to see the growth. We strung the sides of the upside down garden with twine to help support these climbers. This side closest to the house, seen from the deck and the bedroom window first thing in the morning, has the "pretties". The other side was planted, just today with "Kentucky Wonder" Pole beans.

The Upside Down Garden Now supports 10 "Planters"

And, the sides will act as trellis for others plantings. You may wonder why I have the window boxes up on cinder blocks and, why I have a fence around the square foot gardens. The fact is, I try to think about lawn maintenance and the ease of care, The plastic boxes take a beating from the grass string trimmer in the hands of some operators, putting things up on blocks means no need to worry about damage and no need to be "extra careful" around the gardens. It also means, I don't need to worry as much about my little dog (he's a boy) "adding" to the garden (those window boxes are a might short without the risers).

I have gotten quite a bit done in the SFG as well, including quite a bit of planting. We have one more SFG bed to weed.

Square Foot Garden 5/25/2008

We will likely put that on the top of the list for tomorrow. I hope to have things well in hand by the end of this holiday weekend!

The two front SFG Frames are covered in plastic mulch, topped with wood chips. (I have only mulched those square feet that have been planted) This plastic mulch is this years experiment. Lots of folks swear by it and I am hoping it will conserve water resources but, I am very concerned about the solar heat gain from the plastic being too much for the plants and their roots. I am taking a wait and see approach, if it looks like things are not coming along nicely I can always, easily tear up the plastic and return to the original plan of mulching in the hottest season, with wood chips. We have plenty on hand.

I will go into further explanation about the milk jugs that line my frames soon. They are also a "testing system" I think they are working well on the conventional "New Square Foot Garden Frames" I'm not sure how well they work with the plastic mulched frames. Time will tell.

There is always something going on in the garden. I hope you'll stop by again.