Compost gardening

This past weekend was a maintenance day in the garden so we weeded and things. One thing we did get done as well was this compost garden experiment. We built these beds using chicken wire and a few wheel barrows full of 3/4 done compost. We are going to try our pumpkins, squash & melons in the bins and have them grow up on to the fence. When the fruit forms we will cradle them in nylons. The squash beetle is our enemy when it comes to these plants, so we also purchased a hand vacuum stick to suck them up, which I will then put into a blender with peppers and other bugs to spray on the leaves of our plants. Hopefully they do not like hot sauce and cannibalism.

It's time to garden!

This weekend we started to garden once again. Yeah! It was so nice to get outside. We are replacing all the rock with wood. I made two new beds this weekend as well. Each bed takes a full day to dig and sift through the rock, glass shards, nails and whatever else comes up. Mostly rocks. After sifting the dirt out we add sand, soil, compost. The bed on the left had potatoes put in already. Saint Patrick's day is when you are suppose to put them in but I looked at the weather until then and saw it was going to be in the 60's.
The bed closest here has had the rock removed and the wood put around it. The chives and shallots are doing well already.
This is what our soil starts like. This is also why it takes a day to dig a 2" x 8' hole 16" deep and remove all that foreign matter. The rocks we are saving and I will show you what we are doing with them after it is done. People go to the store and buy landscaping rocks around here. The ground is nothing but rocks here. (I know I am missing something.)
I have been wanting to build a better compost bin for a while now. This week I also got this done. The font above is the old base board moldings from the house. They slide right in and out so it is easy now to remove or flip the compost.
This is the back of the bin. About every five days I will go out and put all the compost in the other side with the bags of leaves in it. Then five days latter flip it again. I can make pretty good dirt in two months this way. It is a 48" x 48" x 48" pile so it gets pretty hot. A lot of people might say this is a lot of work but I say work is going to an office every day. This is fun and it doesn't cost anything. Plus we get dirt for the garden and my wife is happy.

Harvey for Breakfast

Harvey finally became full grown this morning and we invited him for breakfast. Along with eggs, home made salsa from the garden and home made biscuits. I must say I haven't tasted watermelon like this ever from a store.

I flipped the compost yesterday and then put it all back in to cook some more.
Our red peppers are starting to come in.

Just a whole bunch of things!

Well first of all, we spent most of the weekend painting the house, which there is plenty left to do. We did get the first coat of paint of the front door and installed a dark brown door handle that matches the brown trim and deck. A door handle can make all the difference in the world. The front door always seemed kind of cheap, but it was the handle that was cheap. Now when the door closes it has that nice solid feeling.
Harvey the Watermelon continues to grow about an inch a day. This picture is two days old, so he looks totally different than this picture here.
Harvey also has several siblings, here is one. You know it's always the first child that gets all the press.
A couple of shots of the garden on August 2nd. (how did it get to be August?)
The melon covers pulled back to allow the bees to do their thing.

Here is the enemy of our garden Sleeping with another enemy of our garden.

Here is the enemy of our garden wishing they were paying more attention to that tall skinny guy with the camera.

We have dozens of peppers, all types and sizes. The bell peppers you see here are from seeds my wife saved last year. A lot of things in the garden come from those seeds she saved last year. The bulk of our garden next year will be from seeds she saved this year. My wife is not only a seed eater but a seed saver too! She's kind of "seedy" but I like "seedy."

This is one of the favorite parts of the garden for me. The compost pile. I can put everything in here and there are millions of hungry critters just waiting to turn it into rich soil for us. Last Spring I put all the old sensitive tax papers, banking statements and such in this box. It works better than a shredder. Two months later we were feeding it to our garden. I think Harvey the watermelon could do our taxes after all that financial information went into the melon patch.

Our table has never been without cut flowers. My wife makes everything so beautiful.

Last but not least, in the kitchen this morning these three cabaleros were thinking of making salsa out of this lone tomato. I didn't want to get involved. I hope the tomato came out of it ok.