spring garden
Return to Discussionsfall is gone for must of us, mid winter is passing, it's about time to be planning spring garden activities. Of course it varies greatly from Florida to Canada. In Florida it's already starting time for some things. In Canada it's like to be awhile yet. I'm inbetween with about 6 months frost free season, and more than that in season for the hardier plants. but still thinking about it and making plans how I can be ready to go at it efficiently soon as possible. only 5-6 weeks till I can start some early things.
Still a bit cold here too. Just barely above freezing today. But I managed to haul 5 pickup loads of firewood out from back where I split it and stacked it (working nude) some time back. Tomorrow I attack the skid steer injection pump rebuild project. Need to get it running. Then I guess I have to hit the road again for a short time, make some more money, (the nasty stuff) Before going at the garden prep.
skid steer runs but won't drive now. seems like hydraulic airlock or something. Anyway, otherwise I have a lineup of jobs waiting on me. First the truck driving for 2-3 weeks. Then a truck box with a thermo-king on it to get mounted on my old logging trailer and gotten running. Then I need a vehicle to pull it. 2 options there, the one ton chevy 4x4 or the nissan pathfinder 4x4. The ton truck has a 454 engine and gets 12 mpg highway. (ready to go other than front diff needing to be tore down and resealed and the locking device fixed) the nissan a 3 liter and gets 14-18 mpg supposedly. Since my load won't generally be heavy I think the pathfinder would do it OK. But right now it's in the form of two pathfinders. One with dead engine and good body, (auto transmission) the other with a good engine, blown clutch presumably, and stripped down junk body. So I need to combine the two into one good pathfinder, hopefully with the manual transmission, provided it is just the clutch and not a broken transmission. I think when I get back from trucking I will do a dual duty thing. When the weather is good work on garden preparations, when it aint or it's too muddy work on the mechanical stuff. And try to start getting some stuff planted by middle of March or thereabout. Things that can handle starting in chilly weather. And then as I can get it done there's the band sawmill to get maintained and fixed up to run. Been there done that for 25 years with a similar bandmill. So I have plenty of experience with them. And that's my alternative job to fill in when selling produce isn't happening. Custom sawmilling. I don't mind it for awhile, but it gets boring long term. Gardening it seems never gets boring. Since I love to eat fresh, and enjoy the innovation of experimenting with fertility and different varieties and types of food plants, of which there seems to be an endless selection.
Well its lasted longer than id hoped it would. This driving thing. For me its like sitting in a waiting room with very little to do for weeks on end. Pretty difficult to deal with, not my kind of work. Way too much mentally idle time to review all my projects over and over and get terribly frustrated i cant be doing anything toward them. Oh the money im making will help, but that comes to seem almost irrelevant. Its time to start spring plants and get the dirt stirred. Missing in action all winter has put me way behind on some of what i planned on garden prep. So it will be more limited what i can start growing than id hoped for.
Hi everyone 11C is the high temp here - more regular sun now. We just moved in last August and the back of our property slopes down in a kind of amphitheatre arrangement. There is currently no veg garden, but there is a flower garden heather , exotic grasses mostly. We plan on converting it into a terraced vegetable garden with step access. We will be putting tomatoes in this year in cedar planter boxes plus some garlic i in the fall.
Were putting a metal roof on our chicken coop to collect rainwater for irrigation since it gets dry here during the summer months.
We live on Gabriola Island in beautiful British Columbia
Hi everyone 11C is the high temp here - more regular sun now. We just moved in last August and the back of our property slopes down in a kind of amphitheatre arrangement. There is currently no veg garden, but there is a flower garden heather , exotic grasses mostly. We plan on converting it into a terraced vegetable garden with step access. We will be putting tomatoes in this year in cedar planter boxes plus some garlic i in the fall.
Were putting a metal roof on our chicken coop to collect rainwater for irrigation since it gets dry here during the summer months.
We live on Gabriola Island in beautiful British Columbia