October 6, 2008

finished and fenced

As I remember, the original conversation went like this: me “I was thinking about enlarging my garden for next year”, husband “Oh we can just move the fence over”, me “What about the stumps”, husband “Oh, we’ll just take them out”. Me “Great!”. It seemed so easy. So we started at it…… Now, several weeks later, with sore backs and blisters, a BIG pile of rocks and giant uprooted stumps, we are done. But its a beautiful fresh new plot of dirt. Definitely a cause for celebrating with a nice…

September 14, 2008

garden kiosk sign

We have a new little kiosk at our community garden, so I posted this informative sign. If you enlarge the photo, I think you can read it.

September 6, 2008

new message board for Belmont Victory Gardeners

I have opened a Yahoo Message Board for the use of the Belmont Vistory Garden members.The link is: Belmont Victory Gardens Message Board. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/belmont_victory_gardens/ You will need to sign up as a member to use this board. Lets see if this is a useful format.

July 20, 2008

grape arbor

My grape vines have lots of fruit now. Unfortunately, I don’t prune these, so we don’t get edible grapes. I think, because too many clusters form, none of them fully ripen before falling off. (Does this make sense?) I don’t tend them because don’t like the taste of them. The variety is Catawba. However, the birds love them, especially the cardinals. And the vines make a nice shaded area above the grill on my patio. From Johnson Nursery: The Catawba grape dates back to the early 1800’s being found along…

July 19, 2008

tomato supports

While I was searching the community gardens for ripe tomatoes, I took pictures of all the different methods of supporting tomato vines that are in use in the plots. We have 100+ active lots now and its a great source of gardening information. I think the best are the top photo. A traditional Italian design. (Its Gino’s garden.) Simple. The wood posts hold the metal pipe and strings wrap around the vines. This is what I would like to try next year. I always like the tepee structures too. The…

July 14, 2008

garden lock

Well, furry critters are one reason for the fence. There also seem to be snitches who can open my bar pull and use glass shards to cut off squashes. Oh well. These things are to be expected. Other gardeners here have lots of stories. I just thought I’d wait with the lock until I needed it. My sister noticed that two or three zucchinis disappeared yesterday, so I added a little pad lock to the gate. Just another aspect of community gardening.

June 7, 2008

I got mail!

I received my first mail in my new garden mailbox that my son made for me. I gave some seeds to Victoria and she returned the extras in my mailbox. I knew it would come in handy! garden structures garden gifts

June 5, 2008

new garden gate

I have a great new garden gate that my husband made. Now I don’t trip over the fence every time I try to get into the garden. I stepped on several plants this spring after I tripped on the fence. No more! The gate is made from pvc pipe. It rests on either or both of 2 copper pipes set in the ground. It pulls up and off completely. Or it can be set on one pipe or the other so it swings. A very cool design. The fence is…

April 24, 2008

mini hoop house

This morning I quickly assembled a little hoop house to protect my freshly transplanted seedlings. I used PVC pipes and covered them with a few layers of row cover. The seedlings are all in their pots/trays underneath. I made this hoop house to give the plants a little protection from the bright sun. It dries out the little pots so quickly. The breeze dries them out too. The 3 layers of fabric should let in about 70% of the sunlight and will hold in moisture. It’ll also keep the trays…

April 21, 2008

fence day 2

The fence is pretty much done. I need to add chicken wire at the bottom to the last two sides, fill in the dirt along the outside bottom, then move the rocks up against the fence to make more room for plants.garden structures

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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