Sand Run Mountain

Garden Update

2011-08-07T16:44:00.001-04:00

All in all another terrible year for my garden. While I eliminated most of the Gallant Soldier, its still there dropping seeds for next season. I failed to mention in my previous post that I planted lightly this year since I was taking a week long vacation with the family to Florida. I planted a dozen tomato plants, cucumbers and onions. Turns out the cucumbers were a complete bust, just as last year. The onions did OK, and the tomatoes aren't bad, but a far cry from the first two years of my garden.

I'm seriously considering raised beds next year so I can more readily improve the soil, hoping my heavy clay soil has been the problem. I really don't want the added expense, but unfortunately continuing on my current path isn't very productive.

Garden Update

2011-06-06T11:12:00.004-04:00

My garden has been in for about 2 1/2 weeks now, and the battle with the Gallant Soldier weed continues. Last years garden was dismal failure, due in part to the woeful state of my clay based soil which no cover crop, compost or amendment has yet to improve. The other issue last year was the invasion of Gallant Soldier. It came up quite literally as a carpet and I was never able to eridicate it completely. I put about a 12" layer of straw on top of it which helped some, but it eventually came up through it. I didn't even get enough cucumbers to justify canning any pickles and the tomatos were almost as bad, I made one batch of salsa. No green beans and my onions were pitiful.

This year I'm hoping for more success. I noticed the weeds starting to come up again and today, before they could set any seed, I laid down 50# biodegradable builders paper over the whole garden as best I could and covered that with about 12" of straw. I'll continue adding organic matter on top of the straw throughout the year and hopefully that will improve my soil for next year as well. Finding enough organic goodies will be the issue.

I also planted a Pink Reliance grape plant 2 years ago and trained it as suggested by a couple of books I've read. This is its third summer and I have quite a few bunches of grapes on the plant. I can only hope the birds don't get to them before I do.

2011 Vegetable Seeds

2011-03-23T12:22:00.005-04:00

Well I haven't posted on the blog in an exactly a year plus a day. So I guess I should update it. I started my tomato seeds on March 6th. They are growing well. They were repotted on the 18th and buried deeper in larger pots. I am growing Black Krim (doing the best), Sioux, Super Marzano Paste, Sweet Snack Cherry as well as Virginia Sweet which came free with my order from Tomato Growers Supply. I tried a new system this year. I bought the Burpee Ultimate Growing System. While the idea is solid the execution leaves a bit to be desired. The system is "self watering"; however the materials they use are cheap, flimsy plastic. Mine had hole in it when I bought it, apparently, but I didn't realize it until I had planted my seeds and added water. This of course made returning the damn thing a bit tricky. On the upside the coconut coir works much better than expected, as a matter of fact I purchased a block of the stuff at Home Depot that makes 8 quarts of planting medium. It holds moisture very well. While I was disappointed with the quality of materials used in the system, I wouldn't go so far as to not recommend it, but it only gets 2.5 out of 5 stars. For $20 the materials could have been much better.

Started Tomato and some flower seeds

2010-03-22T21:54:00.004-04:00

I started 4 varieties of tomato plant on March 13. I went with the peat pots this year as opposed to the newspaper pots because I got sick of transplanting them to larger pots last year. I started Pineapple, Box Car Willy, Sugar Snack, and Victoria Hybrid. They've germinated and are about an inch tall on average, but have not yet gotten their first true set of leaves.

Today I started a bunch of Marigolds and Johhny Jump Ups. I did use the newspaper pots for the Johhny Jump Ups, but the same peat pots I used for Tomatos for the Marigolds. I saved the seed from the Marigolds last year and have no idea what variety they were, but we were impressed by the size of the blooms.

Garden and Chicken Run Expansions!!!!

2010-03-01T16:15:00.002-05:00

After months of being holed up in the house, I took a "me" day today. Took the day off from work and dropped the kid off at the babysitter so I could work outside for a little while. Seemed perfectly logical considering the temperature has stayed above freezing for a few days in a row and the 1 foot of snow we had on the ground has diminished to about 2 inches in most places. I have been toying with the idea of a garden expansion for awhile, then we added 5 more pullets to our flock of 7, so the chicken run expansion seemed a good idea. So here's the plan....

The garden's original size was 25 feet by 40 feet. I am expanding the 25 foot dimension. I have decided exactly how far, but somewhere in the the 6 to 10 foot range, giving me somewhere in the neighborhood of 240 to 400 additional square feet, or put another way a 24% to 40% expansion. I started today by pulling the posts from the west side of the garden, and left it at that for now. Like I said I haven't definitely decided how much larger I want the garden. Decisions, decisions.

The chicken run expansion was more straight forward since I only had so much space to work with. The original chicken run was 15 feet by 20 feet or 300 square feet total. I am expanding the 20 foot dimension. The new dimensions will be 15 feet by 27 feet or 105 square feet more than I had before. At least initially the expansion will be separated by the original fencing which will give me 2 separate areas. The new pullets can be put into the new smaller area and hopefully when added to the flock will be integrated with minimal problems. I'm also hoping that once the new are living peaceably with the old I'll be able to put all the chickens into the newer run and get something green to grow in the original run, and rotate the chickens back and forth (at least spring through fall) growing grass and clover in one side while the chickens eat, scratch, and generally destroy the other. If that doesn't work out I'll remove the original fencing and just expand the run. The upside to that is I will be able to expand the chicken coop making more room for additional chickens. I can't keep up with egg orders as it is right now. I took 2 metal t-posts that I removed from the garden and put them into place. I also took the center wooden post I removed from the garden and used it for the corner post of the chicken run expansion.

I don't have any pictures yet since it wouldn't really look like anything has been done. I will post them in the future when everything is done.

Cabin Fever

2010-01-16T17:09:00.002-05:00

Getting pretty sick of the cold and wet weather. The only gardening I've been able to do is repotting New Guinea Impatiens I took cuttings from in the fall. Even though they're doing well and I should have more of them than I can actually use it doesn't occupy much of my time off.

On the up side I've gotten about 20 seed catalogs to go through and can start planning my garden this year, but it's still 2 months until I can even start the seeds so in the end it's just a big time waster. I wish global warming would hurry up and get here so I could start in February, but in the end I don't think that's gonna happen, what with Al Gore working as hard as he is. Considering he helped invent the internet, this shouldn't be much of a challenge for him.

God I'm bored......

New Compost Bins

2009-11-11T14:06:00.008-05:00

I just completed my new compost bins. The photo on the left shows the area they are located. n the background is my neighbor's small horse pasture and barn. Behind me was a Black Locust tree and a Hawthorn tree that I had to cut down to enable my tractor to get to and from the bins easily without hitting trees with my front end loader. I decided on a 3 bin system. The bin to the left will be for the newest pile, the center bin for half done compost and the third bin for finished compost. I wanted to do this as cheaply as possible so I decided to use posts cut from my property as well as making the walls from fairly straight limbs that I had laying around after the big wind storm of 2008. I needed 8 posts and found a 2 dead Black Locust trees about 6 inches in diameter, which yielded 5 posts, and I cut down a Hackberry also about 6 inches in diameter which gave the final 3 needed posts. I placed them 18 inches into the ground and packed the ever abundant clay around them to firm them up. Yes, I dug them by hand. Each bin is 6 feet in length, 5 feet wide, and 3 1/2 feet deep. It took many more limbs than I initially thought it would which meant I had to go looking for additional "wall" material, but in the end I'm happy with what I ended up with. I only placed a front wall on the newest pile bin. I may add them to all the bins in the future, but I needed to finish the first bin so I could fill it with all the Sugar Maples leaves lying around my property. The front wall is removable and I made it by building a wooden fram from .5 inch x 2 1/4 inch stock I had lying around in the shed. Then I cut about 5 willow shoots from around my pond and stapled and nailed them to the frame. The front wall rests on screw in hooks and the top is held in place by hooks andf eyelets. It weighs about 30 pounds and is easy to remove. I have the first bin abou 2/3 full with leaves, twigs, some kitchen scraps and finished compost. The photo on the bottom shows the completed bins, without the front wall, on the night I finished them (11-10-2009). All in all the project cost me about 30.00 the bulk of which went to 3 inch exterior screws and then the hooks for the front of the left bin. They took several weekends for me and my Dad to complete and totals maybe 30 man hours for the two of us.

This year in gardening

2009-09-20T23:25:00.004-04:00

Well the garden is out and the cover crop is in place and starting to come up. It wasn't a terrible year, but certainly not the best. We had some screwy weather this summer. In total I think we had less than 4 days above 90 degrees, which is unusual. On top of that we had an above average amount of rain. I'm assuming that's why the tomatoes didn't do as well as last year. The corn was a dissappointment. It grew fine, but the ears weren't as big as advertised. Next year I will not be planting corn. It takes up too much space for too little reward in my opinion. On the up side the cucumbers were outstanding. I canned approximately 50 quarts of pickles. I did get enough tomatoes to make 6 pints of chili base and and about 12 pints of salsa. The green beans did well, but I was disappointed in the variety, just didn't have a good taste.

I did get a new toy about a month ago. A new John Deere 2305 with a front end loader and 54" mid-mount mower deck. I love it. Probably more tractor than I actually need, but who cares it's just plain fun.

First Eggs

2009-07-23T00:52:00.003-04:00

Got my first egg earlier this week, and have collected at least one egg each day since July 15th with the exception of the 17th. Right now they are small, with each weighing about 1 1/2 ounces. I've been told they will increase in size to about 3-4 ounces in time. I certainly hope this is true. The roosters are driving my wife nuts with their constant "badgering" of the hens, and I don't know how much longer she will put up with it. They may not be among us much longer, if she has anything to say about it. I have to admit it was much more than I expected.

Been Awhile

2009-07-09T22:41:00.003-04:00

Definately been awhile since I posted anything. My blog hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire with hits, which in all likelyhood is why I haven't been doing it. I have a lot going on right now, but that's just an excuse. So here is what I've been doing for the last couple of months.

Most importantly the chickens have grown into respectable Buff Orpingtons and are getting big. I ordered 10, requesting one rooster and nine pullets. I read somewhere that the success rate of sexing chicks is roughly 90%. Well it holds true, turns out I have two roosters and 8 pullets. One of the pullets met an early demise so now I only have seven pullets and two roosters. They are doing well and I am anxiously awaiting my first eggs which should arrive sometime around the end of this month with any luck.

The garden is going well. Tomato plants are setting fruit, but it should still be a couple of weeks before any are ripe enough for picking. Green beans have completely covered their poles and have blooms, but as of yet no pods. Onions and garlic were a disappointment, but this is the first time I've grown them so I didn't expect much. The corn has been a bit of a trial this year. My first planting didn't germinate well at all. I don't know if it was a problem with the seed, but of the approximately 180-200 seeds I planted only about 10 came up. I replanted after buying new seed of the same type and all have germinated, and are about two feet tall, so I'm a bit behind. Pickling cucumbers have exceeded my expectations. In the last five days i have produced 9 quarts of pickles. Four bread and butter and five kosher dill. I use a package mix because it so much easier than doing it from scratch. My Ball canner was a solid purchase last year. I use Mrs. Wages pickling mixes and am quite happy with it. It's much easier.

Almost Time for Gardening

2009-04-06T20:45:00.004-04:00

I'm getting the itch to get my garden going. I've started several tomatoes indoors, including Better Boy, Delicious, and Cherokee Purple. The first two are hybrids I've had laying around for a several years, and was actually quite surprised when they germinated. The Cherokee Purple is a Heirloom tomato that I'm pretty "excited" about. It is said to be one of the best tasting tomatoes around. I only hope it produces well enough to justify planting it in my garden. I planted Old German tomatoes last year and wasn't impressed with the number of fruits I harvested, and it too was an heirloom. Same story with the Brandywine. So it would seem my experience with the heirlooms is less than perfect, but I'll keep trying.

I've also started yellow onion sets inside. I read about this in some magazine. I guess it will give me onions a couple of weeks earlier than most folks, but it won't be long until I can plant more in the garden, so actually I'm only gaining about a 4 week head start on those.

I'll also be growing about 100 row feet of corn, a bi color variety called Ambrosia, which I don't know much about but came recommended from my local feed store/nursery. Also can't wait for the pickling cucumbers, as they were a huge hit last year even though it was my first attempt at pickling. I hope to get more green beans from my heirloom pole beans than I got from my bush beans last year. A new addition this year is red garlic which I've never grown, as well as 3 grape plants, Thompson Seedless (2), and Pink Reliance (1). We'll see what else I can come up with between now and Mother's Day, which is the recommended planting date here in Cincinnati.

Would love to hear from everybody about what they're planting!!!!!!!!!!

Chickens are here

2009-02-22T23:13:00.004-05:00

I finally picked up my first chickens on Wednesday February 11. After much consideration I settled on 10 Buff Orpingtons, 9 pullets and 1 cockerel. I've always thought they were beautiful birds, and it seems they do well in my climate, not to mention they are supposed to be friendly and social. They also lay a respectable number of medium to large brown eggs.

Currently they are housed in my office in a 50 gallon stock tank awaiting the day they can occupy their brand new chicken coop. They are growing very quickly and have more than doubled in size in just 2 weeks. Their wing and tail feathers have started developing giving them a gangly appearance, somewhat uncoordinated. I'm most amazed by the size of their feet - roughly the size of a quarter.

This far it's a pretty educational and exciting process.

Stump Removal

2009-01-08T20:23:00.004-05:00

In September of this year we had a hellacious wind storm. I think I referenced it in an earlier post, but we had 70+ MPH winds. As a result we lost several trees. After cutting them up I was left with the stumps dotting my yard. I researched stump removal but wasn't entirely on board with using chemicals to slowly degrade the stump over a long period of time. I wasn't worried about contaminating the ground necessarily, but because most of the water from the property around these stumps drains into my pond. I understand the chemicals are largely made up of nitrogen, which when entering a pond can cause significant algae blooms. I also wasn't going to pay someone to grind out the stumps, and leaving them to rot on their own would mean years of adventurous grass cutting. That left burning.

I had burned a large cherry stump last year and was pleased with the results; however it took 6 burns, a large amount of my firewood, and 3 weeks of off days to complete. I needed a more efficient method of burning the stumps out. I did some online research. I chose to sacrifice one of my 55 gallon steel burn barrels. I cut the bottom out (the top was already removed), and was left with what basically amounted to a chimney. This is placed over the stump and a fire is built inside. I was amazed at how differently the barrel burned with the bottom removed. It acted as a furnace, and 90% of them stump was gone in 2 burns in 1 day. I have a surface root to get out next and then back fill, no more stump. I used no accelerant like diesel or kerosene, just wood. I was very impressed. I also used about 1/10th the wood as I did last year.

Count the Birds!!!!!

2008-12-30T01:11:00.003-05:00

This is just something else I'm into (can't have too many hobbies), but coming up in February is the Great Backyard Bird Count. It's easy to participate, doesn't take much time, and is a worthwhile endeavor.
Essentially for a 4 day period (February 13-16, 2009) they ask folks to go outside, or just sit at a window and count the birds you see. Go to the website linked above and get started. You DO NOT NEED TO BE A BIRD EXPERT TO PARTICIPATE.

Winter and Sourdough Bread

2008-12-16T15:56:00.003-05:00

I've come to the conclusion that I hate winter. I can't find one positive quality. To be honest I enjoy one good snow a year at that's it, I'm ready for Spring. In my opinion a good snow qualifies as 2" or more. What's to like. Nothing grows. The fish don't bite very well. The only thing to look forward to is Christmas, but that's mostly headache anyway.

That being said, I do find more time to sit in the house around the fireplace, and I definately read more. I also found a good sourdough bread recipe that actually worked out well. That was this week's accomplishment, three loaves of bread. That's it. I've been sick and am suffering from a bit of cabin fever I suppose.

The Chicken Coop

2008-12-10T11:29:00.012-05:00

In October 2008, I built my chicken coop. It was quite the project and took multiple weekends for my Dad and I to complete, but I think the end result was worth the effort. The picture to the left shows the finished product (mostly anyway). The only items still to be completed is the gutter and rain barrel, I'll be waiting for a warmer weekend to complete those additions. The chicken run is located next to my vegetable garden, eventually there will be an access door cut into the fence so I can let the chickens enter the garden area for an hour or so to eat bugs and fallen vegetables and deposit their fertilizer, again a project for a warmer weekend. I apologize for the quality of the photos, but it was getting dark when I took these.

The coop itself I designed basically from scratch; however I did use ideas found on BackyardChickens.com and several books. The overall dimensions are 5'x8', with a lean to style roof. I hope to house 10 Buff Orpintons or a like number of Barred Plymouth Rocks. It has a human sized door and of course a chicken door. A 2'x2' slider window was installed above the chicken door to allow light to enter. Unfortunately the coop faces west for the most part because the layout worked better that way. An additional window may be needed on the south side of the building for additional light as the west facing window lets in marginal light, at best, during the day. The nest boxes are built into the north facing wall and are accessible from the outside. There are 3 nest boxes in all each one approximately 14"x14"x15"deep. The structure's roof is shingled along with the nest box "dormer". The entire roof over the nest boxes lifts up using a "piano" hinge. When collecting eggs I use a small chain attached to the roof structure to hold it open. The entire building is insulated using R-13 fiberglass insulation, and all interior seams are caulked to avoid any drafts. Ventilation may be an issue in the summer. Most of the wind in my area comes from the west in the summer. The roof rafters are exposed to the open air on the east and west sides creating air flow between them. While most of the roof is insulated 2 of the "channels" created by the rafters were left uninsulated and I placed closable heating vents in the ceiling. When air comes through and the vents are open air comes into the coop, and at a pretty good rate with even the slightest bit of wind. In the winter they are closed to keep heat in.

The chicken run is fenced in but not covered since I don't seem to have a predator problem with my ducks, which generally range freely on my pond. The yard is 15'x20', and is sloped. I haven't devised a scheme to deal with inevitable loss of vegetation in the run. I don't have the space to partition the run into 2 different yards allowing grass to grow on one side while the chickens tear the other side to shreds.

Compost

2008-12-09T08:54:00.008-05:00

Alright I fell for the whole compost thing when I bought my first house in 2000. I had a very small vegetable garden, perhaps 3'x15'. Just enough to grow a tomato plant and maybe some green beans. I also purchased a wire compost bin, and I diligently placed grass clippings and fallen leaves into it, hoping for an organic miracle. It didn't happen. Five years later I never so much as got one shovel full of dark, rich compost. It just never seemed to break down to the point where it was useable.

When my wife and I got married in 2005 we had one too many houses for two people, so we sold the superfluous home, which just so happened to be mine. It was fine by me, I had plenty of ideas for a new larger garden and set to work taming an unruly hillside next to the patio. It was still small, maybe 10'x15', but now I could grow a couple tomato plants, more green beans, and a pepper plant, along with cilantro and basil. I had even more plant material and grass clippings so I set forth with creating another compost pile or two (as it turned out). After researching the web I learned I may have been less diligent than necessary in turning the pile in my first attempt, quite possibly leading to my failure. I was determined to make compost this time and turned that damn thing, on average, every third day or so. The new planting season arrived in the spring of 2006 and after 12 months of decomposing my compost pile looked better than my first, but not like the stuff Paul James turns out every third show. I used it anyway and the plants did in fact seem to grow better.

When we moved to our current house I had dreams of a large garden (at least for me). This would require a fence to keep out the large number of deer, rabbits, dogs. I also wanted chickens at some point in the future so i fenced in an area adjacent to the garden to house them. In all the garden is 25'x40', and the chicken run is 15'x20', all told this garden was roughly the same square footage as my first house, 1300 sq. ft. I didn't have a garden in 2007, there was just too much to do in the new place to justify the effort. That didn't stop me from trying the compost thing again, and come spring 2008 it was nowhere near ready. Again it likely was not turned near enough.

This year we had one helluva windstorm for the Cincinnati area. Seventy mph winds, something we get every 60 years or so. I lost more trees and limbs than could possibly be counted, so I actually bought a woodchipper, thinking it would be a wise investment considering another wind storm might be coming my way in 2068, at which time I will be 94 years old. I had more carbon material than I could have dreamed of and started two more piles. They heated up nicely the first 5 weeks or so, then the weather turned colder and heating was pretty much done. I add nitrogen materials, and they decompose, but no heat and the wood chips still look like wood chips, but its only been three months, so there is still hope. I turn about every three days or so. I should probably mention I do not have traditional compost bins yet, but by next year they should be ready. I think I will try covering them with a tarp to keep out excess moisture and retain any heat they generate, and hope for the best.

My First Blog Posting

2008-12-08T23:36:00.009-05:00

Welcome to my first blog posting. This is a new experience for me so bear with me while I work out the bugs. It's been awhile since I've written anything much less mindless ramblings to the masses posted on the Internet.

I guess I should start with why I'm doing this in the first place. I have many interests and I suppose I wanted a place to organize them in a format anyone could read. Makes sense doesn't it? As i said in the page description my family and I have recently moved to a more rural setting. My wife and I were raised, and lived, until our mid 30's in either city neighborhoods, or suburbs. It has always been a dream of mine to live and raise my family in the country, and shortly after my son was born we took that step.

Please understand that my definition of country may vary slightly from yours, so here is mine. I live, for the most part, in the woods. I have a long gravel driveway that steadily meanders its way up a large hill. I have one neighbor within sight of my home. For the most part my water comes from rain collected by my gutters and dumped into a large concrete hole under my back porch. Having said that I still want the grocery store to be as close as possible without disturbing my delusions of being isolated in the wilderness of southwestern Ohio. To be honest I am perfectly willing to be more removed from the hustle and bustle of city life, but my wife and I both work the government and my wife's employer believes it's their managerial right to dictate where we live until she retires. Don't get me started on that.

Aside from my own selfish reasons for living here I also want my children to experience things that one can't get living in a condo or rowhouse, or a suburban neighborhood for that matter. I can literally walk out of my house and be in a deer hunting stand in 5 minutes. Can't do that in the city. If I walk out the other side of the house there's the chicken coop, albeit currently empty. Try that in the suburbs and count the days until a local zoning official knocks on your door and if that doesn't scare you into removing the egg factory, the ensuing lawsuit likely will. You get my meaning.

So right here and now I have the best of both worlds. I can sit on my deck with a fire in the chiminea, and look for satellites or the space station passing overhead (yes you can see them out here) without the fire department showing up. On the other hand if we are in the mood to go Great American Ballpark and take in a Cincinnati Reds game we can do that too. Who could ask for anything more.