Summer garden project for my wife

[82Caddy 851]

My wife and I bought a house and a year ago this time.  She's wanted a garden even since she was little and we finally had the space to put one in.  I've been working on this project all summer and completely forgot all about the gardening section on this forum.

We'll start last fall, with this photo:



It's a panoramic and shows the area on the far right that will eventually turn into a garden.  Since we moved in so late in the year, we weren't sure what would have sun.  It turns out this space has a good 7-8 hours of sun a day in the summer.

Clearing all the extra crap that the previous owners tossed over there.  Had to bust out the old 8N that my dad and I rebuilt last summer.  He uses that on his hobby farm.



I did this in phases over the summer.  I started with the fence.









Fence was stained, chicken wire was installed and that's how it sat for quite a while.  I was trying to do this on a budget since we didn't need it done right now.  Turns out waiting was a good thing.  

Leveling things out to get them closer to where they needed to be.



Found a you haul and you can have as much as you want for the rock that is around all of the beds and the perimeter of the garden fence.  Did that in the July heat to the tune of 4 loads of rock...



Garden beds taking shape:





The beds are made from cedar boards.  I added bracing so they wouldn't bow when filled with dirt.



I ended up adding a board across the top to sit on when weeding/picking whatever is planted.

I talked to the neighbor who installed the sprinkler system at this house and we added automatic watering to the garden beds.  Each bed has eight 1/4in lines that can be ran whenever within each bed for the plants that are there.

Now that the garden is ready for the spring planting season, my mom and a few others are asking for garden beds to built.  It only took me all summer to get this garden built.

So that was my summer garden building project.  Now lets just hope it'll produce some goodies next summer

Edited October 19, 2015 by 82Caddy
spelling.

[AMC RULES 37,127]

Looks like you've...    
just started a new business. 

[Ed Kennell 38,021]

Beautiful,  I'm sure Mrs. Caddy  will spend a lot of quality time there.

[Terry M-(Moderator) 2,175]

That Looks Very Nice!!   I 've also thought about a fence(like you have) around my garden to keep the free-loading critters out...

[JC 1965 1,530]

Very nice indeed.    

[DennisThornton 4,769]

I like it!  Got any deer in the woods behind it?

[82Caddy 851]

I like it!  Got any deer in the woods behind it?

Yep, there are lots of deer but they seem to stay on the back side of the house away from the road.  The property backs up to a State Game Reserve so it's a pretty safe place for the deer/turkeys/other wild game to hang out.

Thanks everyone, I think it's going to work out great for what we need/want it to.

[Pullstart 62,782]

Nice work!  I put up a 4' fence around our 60x40 garden this year and ran pole beans down one side of the fencing.  The deer stayed away until it was my day for pickin' and there wasn't any pickin' to do.  I'll be sure to add the flying whirly gigs and a scarecrow 'fore too long so I can have some beans for dinner too.

[82Caddy 851]

I'm not sure what the plan is to try and keep the deer out.  There might be one I just don't know about it yet.

 

On the lines of the garden, I have been building a few owl houses to put up in the hopes that we can get a few of the owls to eat the rodents (mice/moles etc) that have been free range living around the house.  I'm tired of a couple moles wrecking the yard with their tunnels.

[953 nut 55,051]

         If you build a dog house next to the garden your dog will provide all the protection your garden needs. Haveahart makes a motion detector sprinkler that will do the job if the puppy is an insider at night, check it out.

 

 

 

http://www.havahart.com/spray-away-motion-activated-sprinkler

[82Caddy 851]

That's a good idea but do these look like outside dogs?

 

[953 nut 55,051]

1 hour ago, 82Caddy said:

do these look like outside dogs?

OK, sprinkler it is.  

[82Caddy 851]

Yeah, they aren't outside unattended.  Not that they wonder or anything but we do live fairly close to a road and I'd rather not deal with potential issues from that.

 

They both do go waterfowl hunting so it's not like they're just couch potatoes...all the time...

 

[82Caddy 851]

On 12/5/2015 at 7:16 PM, 953 nut said:

OK, sprinkler it is.  

 

The neighbor own/installs sprinklers for a living and built/owned our home before we purchased it.  He showed/taught me how to connect things to the sprinkler control system and added another control valve so the garden area is on it's own time schedule for watering.  Each plant will have it's own emitter so it should cut down on the weeds as well as the amount of wasted water.  At least that's the thought process behind it.

[WNYPCRepair 1,914]

1 hour ago, 82Caddy said:

 

The neighbor own/installs sprinklers for a living and built/owned our home before we purchased it.  He showed/taught me how to connect things to the sprinkler control system and added another control valve so the garden area is on it's own time schedule for watering.  Each plant will have it's own emitter so it should cut down on the weeds as well as the amount of wasted water.  At least that's the thought process behind it.

Are you setting it up as a drip watering system? 

I finally found out (90% sure anyway) that the critter tunneling into my garden and eating my tomatoes was a shrew, possibly a vole. I have to dihg up my dirt and put hardware cloth under all the garden beds so they can't tunnel under.

[82Caddy 851]

4 minutes ago, WNYPCRepair said:

Are you setting it up as a drip watering system?

 

Yes, it's designed as a modified drip system.  1/4in lines with mini sprayers/emitters at the end of each line where the plant is

 

4 minutes ago, WNYPCRepair said:

I finally found out (90% sure anyway) that the critter tunneling into my garden and eating my tomatoes was a shrew, possibly a vole. I have to dihg up my dirt and put hardware cloth under all the garden beds so they can't tunnel under.

 

The bottoms of the garden beds are covered in two layers of chicken wire for this exact reason.  They're attached to the bottoms of the boards and have an additional board across the short part (hold chicken wire and strengthen the sides so they didn't bow when filled with dirt)  and then another down the center of each bed on the bottom as well.  Is it over done, probably but that's how things tend to happen at my house.

[953 nut 55,051]

1 hour ago, WNYPCRepair said:

put hardware cloth under all the garden beds so they can't tunnel under.

We had to do the same thing with our roses, voles would eat the roots off during the winter, come spring we had nothing but a dead stump,

[82Caddy 851]

Added a trellis over the weekend for the peas to grow on.

 

 

Potatoes and peas are all planted outside.

 

Tomato, peppers, spinach, and lettuce were started in the house a few months ago.

 

So far we haven't had to run the sprinkler system, but we did test it out for fun.  Should work out great  

[WHX?? 48,759]

Started up my sprinler system for a test run for the season this past weekend it was so nice out. Be careful might get some frost yet tho. I can't count the times I got anxious and put the peppers in too early and they froze out.  My pump & controls are in the small garden shed you see. Real PTA if that pump freezes & breaks ...ask me how I know!

[953 nut 55,051]

3 hours ago, 82Caddy said:

trellis over the weekend for the peas to grow on

You may want a bit higher trellis, I run a pipe six feet above the peas with twine for them to climb and by the end of summer they have gone over the top.

[82Caddy 851]

 

2 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

You may want a bit higher trellis, I run a pipe six feet above the peas with twine for them to climb and by the end of summer they have gone over the top.

 

That's what she asked for so that's what was built.  I tried to suggest we make it twice as tall (I had all the materials on hand) but she wanted none of that.  Guess we'll find out in a few months who was more correct on this instance.

[953 nut 55,051]

3 hours ago, 82Caddy said:

we'll find out in a few months who was more correct on this instance.

Just remember, it will be your fault! Not sure how that happens, just know I NEVER say "I told you so".  

[82Caddy 851]

Well, we have out first visitor attempting to get into the garden.  So far so good and hasn't got in.  

 

 

 I'd have no problem with him staying around if the house wasn't mostly cedar siding and plenty of other things for him to get into and destroy.  Going to try and live trap him for relocation before more aggressive options.

[WNYPCRepair 1,914]

On December 4, 2015 at 10:17 PM, 82Caddy said:

 

 

I love the look on his face, LOL.

 

 

 

As for the groundhog, a .22 pellet rifle should do the trick. He will eventually tunnel in

 

Edited June 6, 2016 by WNYPCRepair

[82Caddy 851]

Ellie was mad I took the bird from her and made her sit by it.  That's what the look is for.

 

I'm going to give it the ole "college try" and if I can catch the groundhog with the live trap great, if not, he'll get the .22 rifle or the .40 glock.  It all depends what I have handy at the moment.