Rain Barrel 2.0

Greetings, readers! I know it's been a while (it's summer, can you blame me?), but this post is a particularly exciting one. As you know, Mr. Growbot and I currently garden at our former residence (read the whole story here. ). When we actually lived there, we had built a rain barrel for the garden, but sold it when we moved away. Had we known that we would be back weekly spending time in our garden with our great friends Chad and Beth, we would not have sold it, but thus is life. Here is what the old barrel looked like:

It was very basic. The gutter went through a hole we sawed out in the top to get the rain water in (no filter involved), and I used a watering can to get the water from the faucet on the bottom. The only over-flow system that we had was that we left one of the bung holes open in the top, so that when it got full, it basically just flowed over the brim. It was a very slow process to fill up the watering can and was really a bit of a nuisance having to wait for so long. But no more of that... 

Introducing Rain Barrel 2.0! That's Mr. Growbot in the photo and he's the engineer behind this amazing new spectacle. Here are some of the awesome details of the new barrel:

For the new barrel, we used the existing bung hole in the top to put the gutter in, instead of sawing out a new one. In the existing hole, Mr. Growbot affixed what they call an "atrium grate" (code for leaf-keeper-outer)  in which the gutter fit perfectly. That means no little gaps for mosquitoes to crawl through.

In addition, we have an overflow pipe attached to the side so that any overflow will have somewhere to go, instead of having standing water on the top of the barrel. This was also a mosquito preventative measure. And now the best part....

It has a handy-dandy hand pump! Now instead of having to wait for water to trickle out of the faucet, this bad boy will push out a gallon of water in 4 pumps. And, once again, instead of drilling another hole in the top of the barrel, we used the other bung hole to affix the pump, thus no mosquitoes! And of course, we had to have the old standby...

But now the faucet is just for draining purposes, not for having to water the garden. It's like an accessory to our our giant watering outfit :)

Our garden simply cannot wait for the next big rain (and we're pretty excited too)!


Until next time.


-Mrs. Growbot

Less Growing, More Bot-ing

It's been a crazy but good couple of weeks for the Growbots. The photo above is the only one from the garden, because, well, I haven't been in the garden much lately. But clearly, the garden lives on. We've now had the pleasure of receiving two harvests of broccoli and will probably be seeing more in the near future. I've been terribly busy so I haven't seen the garden in about a week and a half, but Mr. Growbot did have the pleasure of seeing it yesterday and gave me a full report. Apparently the plants that we thought were pumpkins are actually yellow crookneck squash (not that I have a problem with that, yum!), the tomatoes are thriving, and Mr. Growbot tasted a sugar snap pea pod and gave his full approval. Hopefully I'll get back in there soon and have more to share.

In other semi-related garden news, Mr. Growbot and I picked 10 pounds of strawberries last week. Let me tell you, 10 pounds of strawberries is more than you can imagine. I've so far made 24 half pints of jam and a strawberry rhubarb pie and have barely made a dent in the pile. The rest had to be put in the freezer and will be processed into more goodies soon. I plan on making "sundae in a jar" which is strawberries, raspberries, and chocolate liquer and is used mainly as an ice cream topper. I also am going to try and branch out and make some more savory creations like strawberry, mint, and black pepper jam and maybe strawberry balsamic jam.

 
My little Growbot brother graduated from high school this past weekend. In celebration, I made him a cake shaped like a rainbow trout for his party. My brother is an avid fisherman, so I thought the cake would be perfect. Per his request, the cake was funfetti (it was a 9x13 that I carved into the fish shape) with funfetti icing, and I made marshmallow fondant and hand painted it. Overall, I believe it was a success. My brother ate the face, always the tastiest part of the fish :)

In addition to all of my general busy-ness lately, I've been experimenting a lot with shutter speed on my camera. Chad and Beth had a fun summer party last weekend and one of their guests was a fire hooper, meaning he literally hula-hooped in a hoop with flames one it. This was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at leaving my shutter open for an extended amount of time and seeing what would happen. The photo at the top was normal speed, or 1/80 of a second. In the next couple, I had the shutter open for 3 seconds. In the last one I had the shutter open for 6 seconds. The photos turned out really interesting, and I learned a lot about shutter speed and exposure. It left me thirsty for more, so....

...introducing ghost Fancy Pants! I created this photo by leaving the shutter open for 10 seconds. Fancy stood there for about 4 or 5 seconds before walking out of the shot, thus leaving what appears to be a ghostly image of a cat. Interesting and a bit creepy, just how I like it.


No cats were harmed in the making of this blog ;)


Until next time.


-Mrs. Growbot

Snake in a Compost Pile!

 It doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Snakes on a Plane, but I'm pretty sure it was more entertaining. Yes, that's right- we found a snake in the compost pile. Did I scream? Sure did. Was it dangerous? Nope, not at all. I emailed my snake-expert brother the photos and he has informed me that it is merely a rat snake. A snake that likes to eat rats and moles, but has no interest in humans. Beth-the-Brave kindly moved him elsewhere and we have not seen him since.

In other garden news- we now have protective plastic walls around the beds which seems to be keeping all the animals out (rat snakes included).

Here's the newest bed that we've planted. This bed is composed of Roma tomatoes, various sweet and hot peppers, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, and edamame (aka soy beans). I'm particularly excited about the cucumbers because they are a pickling variety, so later this summer I will get to try my hand at a new method of preservation. I'm also looking forward to the edamame. I figure that they'll probably grow and appear like normal bush beans, but cooking them will be different for sure. Just a light steaming and some salt- delicious. Also, some tomato knowledge for you novices out there- Roma tomatoes are what we call "determinate". Determinate basically means that instead of growing up and needing a trellis, these types of tomatoes will grow horizontally and sprawl. Determinate tomatoes also tend to bear all of their fruit at once instead of over the course of the season. While these characteristics may seem to be cons, the pro is most certainly the fruit that they bear. Roma tomatoes are great for sauces both in texture and in flavor.

We also planted the rest of the herbs in the herb bed, including the Lemon Thyme pictured above. With a very pleasant fragrance and lovely variegated leaves, I think it's an awesome little plant. 

Here's a quick glance at the flower bed that we planted. Beth and I started everything from seed, so there's not much to see now, but I'm guessing that in a few weeks it will be thriving. Also, check out the clematis in the background. Mr. Growbot and I planted it in 2008 and it has really just blossomed into a handsome floral vine.

And now the mulch icing on the garden cake (gardening jokes never get old!). Beth and I dug up the yard behind the garage and started a new trellising bed yesterday. While I love the ease and maintenance of the raised beds, some things just need more space and more trellis than the raised beds can provide. In this ground bed we have planted butternut squash, mini watermelons, cantaloupe, honeydew, galia melons (see link for explanation), and what we believe to be pumpkins. The supposed pumpkins were volunteers that started from seeds in the compost pile and had really started to get quite large in the raised beds. Also, here's a bit of info about our trellis. It's made from electrical conduit and a very sturdy nylon net. We pounded 2 foot rebar one foot into the ground and put the trellis onto the remaining foot. This is the same kind of trellis I have used with the tomatoes and will hopefully prove to be just as strong. And now something not related to gardening...

Which of these things is not like the other? Fancy Pants has a tendency to hang out in the dryer when it's open, so Mr. Growbot caught a quick photo before kicking her out. I just thought it was funny. Good thing we didn't try to fold her :)

Until next time.

-Mrs. Growbot

The Beginning of Summer Planting

 

At last, full-blown garden time is here! Temps are staying up in the 50s at night and all is well in the land of garden. Since the last time I posted, we have actually put some of my precious seedlings in the beds. Below are some tomatoes: Beefsteak, and Heirloom varieties Green Zebra, Brandywine, and Marvel Stripe.

And also an entire herb bed: There will be rosemary, lavender, chives, thyme, lemon thyme, cilantro, parsley, sage, oregano, dill, and basil.
 

Not only that, but we have mesuculun and sweet peas sprouts everywhere and our first official head of broccoli has popped up as well. 

We also put the tomato trellis back up, but this time we attached the two trellises at the top for more stability. I can hardly wait until that entire bed is filled with lush, blooming tomato plants! In the background of this photo, you can also the beginning of a new rain barrel. When we moved out last year, I sold my old rain barrel not knowing that the new renters (Beth and Chad) would use it. Luckily, I have another plastic barrel, so we're going to make a new and improved one. That's one great thing about starting the garden completely over- I've learned a lot and can now apply it to the new garden and the new rain barrel.  

 In other not-so-happy news, we've had some pests digging up a couple of our squares. First we tried putting plastic forks in the beds as a deterrent (don't ask, I read it on a forum), but that proved to be nothing for our varmint friends. Beth has since put up a barrier of plastic sheeting wrapped around pvc pipe around all of the beds, and that seems to be doing the trick.

Last thing. I was recently talking to Mr. Growbot about how much I enjoy looking at photos of the garden from past years. It really helps me remember what things I grew each year, and how different growing methods worked out. So I'm going to start posting older photos as a comparison to this year. It should prove interesting. I'm starting out this theme with some vintage (ha!) 2008 photos. These were taken on May 7th of that year, so just about a week from now.

That was the first year I had done a big garden and I definitely learned a lot from it. As you can see, I tried to plant more than just tomatoes in the tomato bed- big mistake. By the end of the summer, both the squash and the watermelon that I had tried to plant  were pretty much choked out. Also, all of the little protective water bottle domes proved to be pretty pointless. They got knocked over by the wind all the time, and nothing seemed to be bothering the beds anyway. I had started broccoli from seed that year and they were certainly not the size of the ones we started from plants this year. I also had started my lettuce from seed, and it did great! That was the first thing I got to eat from my very first garden.

Until Next Time...

-Mrs. Growbot

Spring Has Sprung!

Finally, after months of one of the harshest winters I can remember, spring is full blown in the south eastern United States. Tulips are blooming, trees are green, and allergies are flaring- at least where we are! We went back home last weekend and enjoyed a lovely Easter dinner with my family and got to see many long, lost friends. We also got to see my not-so-little brother go to his senior prom. And now we're back and ready to garden! The weather here has been awesome lately (I'm blogging from the front porch), so it's a great time to get outside and do some spring chores.

The seedlings have been doing okay. The peppers and herbs are looking great, but the tomatoes are lacking the strength I hoped they would have by now. We may still try and plant them, but we may also have to buy some plants to supplement my home grown seedlings. Gardening is certainly one big experiment most of the time, so sometimes you just have to accept defeat and move on to the next plant.

The plants that Beth and I put in the garden 2 weeks ago are looking great! The broccoli plants are thriving, and most of the seeds we planted have sprouted and are on their way. Our compost is looking good and doing it's thing too. Funny thing about home-made compost (and store bought for that matter), no matter how much you turn it, some things just don't decompose. For example, last year I didn't turn it much over the winter, and come summer I had full blown tomato plants growing in my compost pile from some tomatoes from the year before. This year, even with Beth turning it more frequently, we managed to get two pumpkin plants growing in our garden beds from undecomposed seeds. I think we'll let them go for now and see what happens. We may be adding another vegetable to our collection this summer!

Beth also cleaned out the flower bed that I had planted for the last 2 years (thanks Beth!). We planted some onion starters on the ends of the bed, and once it's past the freeze date for area, we will be planting flowers in the middle. The flower bed is actually one of my favorite parts of the garden. Mr. Growbot and I had planted it on a whim the first year we did a garden and it provided so much beauty to the backyard, not to mention that the birds and the bees loved it and we had freshly cut flowers most of the summer. It was certainly a rewarding surprise.

It may be a couple of weeks until I post again because of some upcoming weekend plans, but the frost-free date for our area is coming up quickly, so the next post should be a big one. Looking forward to it!

-Mrs. Growbot