Veggie Eating Squirrel Relocation Program

So, yes, they are cute and fuzzy as they hop around your yard, but when the entire squirrel tribes from a square mile decide to feast at the local "buffet" of your garden, they aren't so cute anymore! This year these little tomato sucking, corn picking varmints have about made me crazy.

They took off my very first Cherokee Purple tomato that was destined to be ripe in a couple of days. They've taken both ripe and green tomatoes and left the remnants in the yard to taunt me. They've climbed right up the few stalks of corn that we planted in our raised bed garden, peeled the husk back and sat right there and ate their little bellies full.

I tried my brother-in-law's remedy of using peppermint essential oil sprays, old CD's on fishing line (makes for some interesting flashes of light in full sun), coffee grounds sprinkled around (I think this might come the closest to working) and rubber snakes; all to no avail. They just keep coming back for more.

Tired of being scorned and laughed at for all my efforts to keep them away, I stopped in the little surplus store that I'd noticed sold small live-trap cages and using the freshly eaten corn cob and a couple dabs of peanut butter, I baited up.

Though they may be smart about finding food, they surely aren't smart about not getting caught! The guy at the store readily admitted that he'd sold a bunch of these traps but didn't know if they really worked.

Well let me tell you Bob, they surely work.

Chris: 3 - Squirrels: 0

So now we have a new game at our house, the Squirrel Relocation Program. When caught, they have a new home at the local park.

Game on!

Park Release Video

Chris

3GT

The Year of the Tomato

Have you ever noticed that when all the right variables come together at just the right time, under just the right conditions, incredible things can happen? Well I believe that this is going to be one of those times.

Here are the variables as I see them:

1. After a really dry year last year, I learned my lesson and put in a drip system.
2. We started trying to be more conscientiousness and sustainable and started composting and amending the soil.
3. We put up the greenhouse which allowed us to start our tomatoes before the last frost of the winter.
4. The Atlanta summer has come in like a roaring lion!
5. At just the right times, we've gotten nice thunderstorms to add that little extra "umph" to our garden.

With all these lining up just right, I'm believing that we're going to have bumper crop of veggies, especially tomatoes. Just a feeling? I don't think so.

We're still a week away from summer and the plants are loaded down with green, pinkish, green and red striped, and full out red tomatoes.

The Mr. Stripy heirloom (pic at left) is making some very interesting and delicious looking striped tomatoes.

Our Big Boy tomato plant is so tall now that it has grown out of the top of the greenhouse and I'm resorting to tying the cage down so that the wind and rain doesn't topple the whole thing.

When we were on vacation last week in Seattle, I have to admit that I had black "dirt" envy. My son's garden looks like what mine would if I were to just use compost in my raised beds. But I must say that the blazing heat of the south surely makes good tomatoes.

The one Cherokee Purple plant is definitely in the running for the largest and darkest green tomatoes in the garden.

But the prize so far goes to the smallest of the lot. In less than a week of harvesting, we've already taken around 30 small but wonderfully flavored cherry red's off of a single bush and it is loaded with clumps of green fruit from top to bottom that have already proven to be great additions to salads.

I think my granddaughters tried these out before I did and were impressed.

I even have a couple of plants that have popped up in a flower pot in the front of the house. I thing they hitch-hiked from some of the dirt that I brought from the woods at the back of our lot.

I truly think this will be the Year of the Tomato!

All I can say is "bring it on".

Chris

3GT

DIY Greenhouse Construction Details - Part 2

As promised, here's the final part of the Greenhouse Construction Details. Below I'll describe how to put the door together, how to create some interesting door hinges, and the best part of all - how to make the PVC clips that hold everything together.

9. Doorway Frame.

To the doorway header, I attached 2 vertical PVC pipes from the ground to the header. Drive metal stakes into the ground directly under the header with several inches out of the ground and slide the PVC onto the metal stakes before attaching to the header with screws and nuts.

The width should match the width of your door. Additionally, attach a small PVC pipe between the end of the raised bed next to the door to each side of the door frame vertical PVC pipes with bolts (yes you'll have to drill through the metal stakes - that's why I like hollow ones here).

10. PVC Door.

Construct the door out of PVC using elbow joints at the corners and two Tee joints to create a horizontal support in the center of the door. Make sure that this exactly matches the PVC opening created in the previous step. On the right side of the door, I added two couplings making the right side having 4 smaller pieces of PVC pipe. The right side construction from top to bottom is 90 degree elbow, PVC pipe, coupling, PVC pipe, Tee joint, PVC pipe, coupling, PVC pipe, and 90 degree elbow. This seems to be a lot of work but there is a method to my madness as you'll see. I suggest that you put this together WITHOUT glue!

11. Door hinge.

This part was a bit tricky, but the concept is that we will use a 1 inch coupling and let the 3/4 inch coupling fall down into them; holding the weight of the door and forming a hinge. Place the door against the PVC opening (created in step 9 above) and make a mark on the PVC door frame opening (step 9) at about 1/2 inch or so above the bottom of each coupling on the right side of the door.

Drill a hole in the bottom of one side of the 1 inch couplings (just below the ridge) and through the door opening at your marks. With some work, you can wiggle the 7/16 inch bolt and washer at an angle through the hole on the 1 inch coupling, leaving the bolt head on the inside of the coupling. You may have to bore the hole a little larger in order to get this to work. Insert the bolt through the hole in the PVC door frame opening and tighten the nut down on the inside. Do this for both 1 inch couplings.

12. Attaching the door. Take apart the PVC from below the coupling on the right side of the door, lift the door and slide the 3/4 inch couplings into the upper side of the 1 inch couplings and reattach the PVC to the 3/4 inch couplings. If you've done everything right, the door's 3/4 inch couplings should be mounted inside the 1 inch coupling hinges and should swing free; though you may have to lift the door a bit before opening. Check to see that the door lines up with the PVC opening created in step 9.

13. Side Wall attachments. Add a length of PVC pipe along the ground at the back of the two raised beds. You may want to drill a hole in the middle of the pipe to be able to drive in a "hold-down" stake in the middle of the pipe. This will hold the plastic securely against the ground.

14. Attaching the plastic. The trick to this is to have some help and do it on a windless day! Open the plastic sheeting and lay it out on the ground with the long side parallel with the arch of the greenhouse.

Before you put the plastic on, inspect your work and make sure there are no sharp edges or bolts protruding from the structure that could snag or tear the plastic. Carefully take the plastic and begin to slide it onto the structure. I made the edge of the plastic just overlap the front corner arch of the greenhouse.

Leave enough on the back side to cover it completely and remove the excess by cutting along the ground. Keep the excess in as large a single piece as you can. When done with this step you should have enough plastic to cover the front side (and door) with the excess cut off. Begin to attach using PVC clips on the outside edges every 8 - 12 inches. If you can, keep the back side and top in a single piece of plastic. It may take some creative folding and re-trimming from the inside to remove the excess.

15. Cover the Front Side. Use the excess plastic to cover the front side (omitting the door for now). Unclip the clips along the front edge arch and tuck the front side plastic under the top plastic and re-clip, cutting out a hole for the door PVC frame but leaving 6 inches or so overlapping to be able to secure with clips.

16. Cover the PVC door with plastic, clipping it as you go to give you a tight fitting door. Leave approximately 6 inches of plastic on each side of the door for this.

At this point everything should be covered in plastic. In order to secure the sides at the bottom of the raised beds, I took 1" x 2" strips and ran them along the short ends of the raised beds and along the doorway header, screwing these in place. I clipped down the bottom of the back side between the beds with clips to the PVC running along the ground on the front an back.

17. Side roll-ups. Attach the ends of the plastic on each side of the arch between two 1" x 2" boards screwed together. If you've left some overlap on each end, you want the side roll-up boards to be just above the ground and parallel to the bottom of the raised bed. Cut the plastic along the back arch of the greenhouse to just above the horizontal support 1 x 4's (step 4). Attach the plastic from the back side, along this cut, back to the outer back arch with clips spaced 12 - 14 inches apart.

To raise the sides of your greenhouse for ventilation, detach the clips on each side of the arch up to the horizontal support (step 4). Beginning at the bottom of each side, roll the sides up along the arch until you go just above the horizontal support. Insert the two pegged shelf supports in the holes drilled in the horizontal support and unroll the plastic until it rests on the support.

Making PVC Clips - The Secret to Success!

There is at least one company who makes the clips for attaching the plastic to the PVC, but I, being a DIY-er, decided that it wouldn't be too difficult to make my on. So, I'm going to let you in on the secret to successfully holding the plastic covering in place. Here's how I did it.

1. Start with thin-walled PVC. This is critical! You will have to be able to bend open the clip to get it around what the clip is being attached to; so, thick-walled PVC that you used for the arch ribs will not work! Don't waste your time trying it.

2. Mark PVC for Cuts.

Take a length of PVC (I did an 8 ft. section at a time) and remove a section of the PVC down the length of the pipe resulting in a remaining pipe that looks like the letter "C".

The best way that I found to get a consistently usable cut when using 3/4 inch PVC was to take a 1 x 2 board and hold the "1 x" edge against the side of the pipe length-wise.

Using a pencil, mark the edge of the PVC pipe along both sides of the the "1 inch" edge of the board. This small section is what you will take out of the pipe. The part that you have left will look like the letter "C" and is what holds everything securely together.

3. Cut and remove unneeded section. To cut along this line safely, I used the Dremel Multi-Max tool that cuts through wood and other materials like a osculating saw. You're going to have a bunch of PVC residue, so be ready to clean up the mess.

4. Cut into Pieces. Once this section is removed, cut the PVC into small 3 inch sections. You're ready to attach these to the existing ribs to hold down your plastic! And like I said, they held under 4 inches of snow.

If you don't get everything clipped down, the wind can catch a corner just right and pop these off, but their easy enough to get on and off. Additionally, if you're not careful with putting these on and taking them off, they can make small holes in the plastic sheeting. I experimented with trimming the corners of some at 45 degree angles, but it proved to be fairly labor intensive and I didn't want to take the extra time.

If you make the sides of the "C" clips too far apart, they will not keep the plastic sheeting on and if you make them too close together, they will rip holes in the sheeting and will be hard to remove. Do a few trial runs to get yours the way you like them.

During the summer, I take all the plastic off and remove the horizontal support 1 x 4 on the back side to be able to walk through the entire structure. I remove the door from the hinges (remember it wasn't glued?) and I clip all of the clips to the door and door cross supports and store this in the garage.

There you have it... that's how I constructed my greenhouse. I may add another post about passive heating options later.

Enjoy your greenhouse!

Chris

3GT

DIY Greenhouse Construction Details

I've had some requests for a follow up on my previous blog on "DIY Greenhouse Over Raised Bed Garden" so I'm going to share some of my secrets in building a greenhouse that will stand up under some fairly extreme weather conditions.

Here in Georgia, we joke about the weather saying, "if you don't like the weather, give it a day and it will change". Literally this past week we went from highs of the 60's to in the 90's. The swings are that extreme. This past winter we had a 4-5 inch snow, under which my little greenhouse held up just fine; though, when I was able I went out and cleared some of the snow from the top. This spring, we've had storms with high winds (gusts up to 50 mph) and with the sides down, we did just fine. If you leave the sides up, it can act like a sail and get some real rattling going on.

The basis of my design was to create a Qunoset-type structure that would distribute the weight as evenly as possible along all of six 3/4 inch white PVC that you can get from any hardware store. These were fit upon metal stakes that were driven just inside the edge of the raise bed and were attached to the bed itself for stability with "U" brackets. I got the metal stakes from an old tent that had long since deteriorated, so the were of no cost. My best guess is that I have around $120 in materials I had to purchase.

Here's a link to a more technical article by the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service on Hobby Greenhouse Construction listing the various types and additional info on their pro's and con's; but for details on how I constructed mine, keep reading!

Parts list - to the best of my recollection:

• 14 - 8ft long 3/4 pvc pipes - schedule 80 (thick wall) - for ribs
• 4 - 8 ft long 3/4 pvc pipes - schedule 40 (thin wall) - for clips
• 12 - "U" brackets to hold the ribs in place
• 12 - 3/4 couplings
• 4 - 3/4 elbow fittings (for door)
• 4 - 3/4 "tee" fitting (for door)
• 2 - 1" couplings (for door hinge)
• 10 - 3" machine bolts with nuts and washers to match (7/16 in )
• PVC glue
• Plastic sheeting (10'x20' )
• 12 metal stakes
• Various other screws and things I had around the house.

With regards to the above list, the important thing to note is that the greenhouse ribs are made from the thick walled PVC and the clips are from the thin walled PVC. Don't get them backwards - you greenhouse won't be as sturdy and you'll rip your fingernails off trying to open the clips wide enough to stay on the ribs!

To start off, I'

ve taken a picture (see below) at an intermediate stage of completion and added some numerical reference points (in yellow) that will help me guide you along in the parts of construction that I'm talking about.

Notice my end-of-season tomato plants above that lasted into late November or so because they were in the greenhouse!

Construction Steps

1. Build PVC Ribs.

I joined two 8 ft sections of pvc together with PVC glue and a 3/4 in coupling to make each of the six ribs. Once the glue dried, I drilled a hole large enough for the machine bolt (you may want to wait for this step until #5 below).

2. Install Metal Rib Posts.

Drove the metal posts at the edge of the bed, at evenly spaced intervals, with about 4 inches of the post remaining above the top of the raised bed's side. I then attached the "U" bracket around the metal post and screwed it into the inside of the raise bed a few inches from the top. Evenly space these along the outside of each raised bed lining them up with the other bed so the ribs will be evenly spaced.

2.5 Secure PVC Ribs (not numbered on the picture)

Placed the 16' PVC rib over the top of one post and bend it down and place it over the top of the corresponding post on the other raised bed. Do this for all 6 ribs.

3. Vertical Stabilizers.

On each inside corner of the both raised beds (total of 4), place a vertical support from the ground to the top of the rib. Mark a line along the top of the rib and cut the support at an angle along this line. Drill a hole through each vertical support and through the outer rib and insert a machine bolt with a washer and nut. Take care to cover any point/edges of the wood with Duct tape in order to protect the plastic covering.

4. Horizontal Stabilizers.

About 3 feet up on each side of the arches, attach a horizontal stabilizer using a 1" x 4" board cut flush with the outer rib arches. Attach these by drilling holes through each rib and board, connecting them with 7/16" bolts and nuts the the head of the bolt on the outside of the rib.

4.5 Build removable shelves for rolling up the sides (not numbered on the diagram).

Cut 2 small blocks out of 1 x 4 wood, bore two holes in the center (a single side block on each side) of the horizontal supports.

Drill two matching holes in the edge of each 1 x 4

block and insert and glue the dowel pegs into the blocks. Cut the dowels/pegs off so that 1 1/2 inches protrude from the blocks. Insert these removable "ledges" to be used to hold up the rolled up sides of the greenhouse for air circulation. (see pic at right)

5. Top Rib Connector.

Make sure that the holes you drilled in the center of the rib coupling is going up and down for the bolt (or wait until after you've installed the ribs to do this step. Attach a 1x4 horizontal stabilizer along the center of the top of the ribs using bolts, nuts and washers. (see picture at left)

6. Horizontal to Vertical Connector.

About 1/2 way up the vertical support in #3 above, attach the horizontal stabilizer to the vertical supports using another piece of 1" x 4" in board (total of 4). The end attached to the vertical support will be square and the end attached to the horizontal stabilizer will be cut at an angle (see pic at right). Initially cut this board too long and mark the angle to cut using the inside of the horizontal stabilizer as your guide. Connect using wood screws. You may want to pre-drill holes here to keep the 1" x 4" boards from splitting.

7. On the back side, the side without the door, I added a horizontal support 1/2 way up (about 3 feet) between the two vertical stabilizers to help tie the two sides together more. I take this one down in the summer when the cover is off so I can walk through from side to side.

8. Similarly, on the side where the door goes (facing my house), I put a horizontal support between the two vertical supports at about 6 feet off the ground. This will become the "header" for the door support and will give me something to attach the side plastic to.

At this point, I realize that this entry has gotten very large. So, I'm going to save the best part for the last episode of the Greenhouse construction post.

Chris

3GT

Compost Tea Anyone?

Phase three of my composting adventure is to take some of that luscious compost from my compost tumbler and turn it into "compost tea" that I can water my veggies and flowers with.

After reading several articles about composting and the benefits of using compost tea, I took an old t-shirt (didn't have the recommended cheese cloth), tied up about a shovel full of my compost and dropped it into a clean 5 gallon bucket.

Like good and bad cholesterol, there is good and bad bacteria that can live in compost... and in compost tea. If you want to read more about these aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and why you need one and not the other, check out this site.

I didn't set mine up exactly like they specify here, but I'm going to try this method before going to the more messy method of dumping the compost directly into the bucket and filtering afterwards.

Yum... Compost Tea anyone?

3GT

Chris

Don't Put Your Hand In The Bag!

It's fairly cheesy, I have to admit, but it is a catchy slogan!

Have you heard their commercials? "We're number 1 in the number 2 business". The cow on the purple bag and all... very catchy.

If you haven't seen it yet, I'm talking about the organic compost with cow manure called Moo-nure. Even before I had heard the commercials, I'd purchased several bags of this to work into my garden this year, since my compost wasn't ready in the early spring.

I had about a half of a bag of moo-nure sitting open between my two raised beds, just waiting for me to re-work the soil for my bell pepper plants that a friend gave me. With my 4 year old grand daughter in tow, I proceeded to empty the soil from one of last year's smart pots and was having her "help" me.

We got the soil into the wheel barrow and I explained that we were going to add the "cow poo" to the soil to help the plants to grow. I reached down and grabbed the bag of moo-nure and dumped the remainder of what hadn't been used on to of the soil already in the wheel barrow.

I'm a big guy from the south and don't get startled easily but when all of the contents came out of the bag, I really didn't expect a 14 inch long snake to come out! Sorry, no pics... my daughter, who attempted a pic later, had taken the memory card out of her camera. Just to be clear... I'd seen the snake around the garden the week before. It was NOT packaged in the bag!

The 4 year old thought it was pretty cool, went and got sister, mom and grandmom (who, by the way HATES snakes). After my daughter came out (who, by the way LIKES snakes), we agreed that it wasn't poisonous and, much to my wife's chagrin, picked up the snake and promptly threw it up into the woods behind my house.

Moral of this story, don't put your hand in an opened bag of cow poo ... or something like that.

3GT

Chris

Compost Is Ready

I hope you found my first post on my DIY tumbler composting helpful.

Today, I took the PVC door of my greenhouse apart (so that no more PVC's were killed in the process) and by adding a bit of vinyl hardware cloth, built a sifter to sift the smaller particles of compost from my compost tumbler.

I used the PVC clips that I'd made to hold the hardware cloth on the PVC. I was amazed at how well they work and the whole sifter took me less than 30 minutes to assemble. It fits nicely on the top of my wheel barrow and by turning it so the mesh on the bottom, the PVC forms a nice edge that keeps the compost from escaping off the sides.

I was truly amazed at easily my 55 gallon compost tumbler turned out some really nice compost. If ever I had any doubts, they are totally gone now.

I sifted out the smaller pieces and set aside the larger ones for continued composting.

Tomorrow, I may try to run them through my chipper/shredder (that I got a deal on at a yard sale) before I put them back into the tumbler with a whole new batch of green and brown material to kick start the process.

I took a shovel full or so of the compost and wrapped it up in an old tee-shirt and put it in a 5 gallon bucket of water to start a batch of compost tea (pics to come with my next compost post).

Large material that didn't make the sifting.

After all sifting was done, about 1/2 of my LARGE wheel barrow was filled with nice compost. I had enough to fill two empty manure bags that I'd held on to for just such an occasion.

I'd have to say that it was definitely worth the wait.

Going to use some of this nice stuff to fortify some soil for two white grape vines that I'm ready to plant and to side dress some tomatoes.

Don't think I've ever seen soil this black in Georgia!

Planting The Generations

I guess when you get right down to it, I'd say that my wife and I have both come from a long history of farmers; not that I've ever put much though into it.

I recall my grandfather planting large fields of strawberries, corn, peanuts and the like. I wish that he was still around so I could really "learn" from him instead of just being a carefree child visiting their farm.

With a smile on her face, my wife has often told me stories of riding on the tractor with her grandfather to the his corn fields and of the farm and animals that were always there.

Planting tree seeds with grand-dad.

Both my father and father-in-law have always had "gardens" that would rival some of the small sustainable living farms that you read about these days.

And as for us, the first time my wife and I planted a garden, in North Alabama, we had someone with at tractor come over and plow up about 1/4 of our backyard. Then we used a tiller to break up the larger "clods". I don't even want to think about the blisters and of how many times I almost buried that tiller in a foot of dirt because it was plowed so deep! We planted and grew so much in that first garden that we gave away 3/4 of the food. Our kids were right there helping.

Who could imagine that soil and planting could become the bedrock of such fond generational memories? And now, my son and daughter are carrying on the agrarian traditions of their heritage in their own ways, with new purpose and meaning.

My daughter and their family use raised beds for veggies, herbs and the like and teach their own kids to plant, harvest and care for the earth (Simple Gifts),

My son and his wife have become involved in an inner-city "pea patch" garden in Seattle to grow some really nice veggies in the incredibly rich northwestern soil. He's gotten actively involved with helping with research studies on their city's rooftop gardening program and how rooftop gardens can assist in soaking up some of the seemingly constant rain.

And now, they are breaking ground on a new community garden on a vacant lot in the heart of West Seattle (Grow Charlestown) and teaching others the benefits and joys of gardening and eating locally grown food.

Even more than sports, music, crafts, or almost any other "activity" that I can think of right now, planting and gardening can draw the generations together in a way that leave the other things seeming sort of hollow. Maybe it's just me, but I long for a more family-based community where we are more a part of each others' lives, planting the values we cherish in the soil of generations to come.

Chris

3GT

DIY Greenhouse Over Raised Bed Garden

At the end of last year's growing season, October 2010, I decided to put together a greenhouse or hoop house (depending on your definition) over our two raised garden beds. I was hoping for an extension of our growing season a bit. The tomatoes held on a bit longer than they would have if the full effect of the Atlanta frost had have gotten to them, but the PingTung eggplant still wilted away just from the cold.

What we didn't expect was just how much our various types of lettuce would grow throughout the winter. We planted red sails, deer tongue and arugula near the end of the fall season not knowing whether or not they'd even come up, they thrived! In fact, during the worst snow storm that we'd had since the early 1990's, we actually picked our greens and made salads from the garden. The broccoli got a very nice head start in the greenhouse as well!

I'd see several examples of small greenhouses online and being the do-it-yourselfer that I am, I put together a parts list and made a run to the hardware store.

A few things about our raised beds to start with. As with many people, we started with a single raised bed. I used untreated 2x10's with 2 stacked on top of each other. The second one, I wasn't quite as cautious and used 1x8's that I had left over from some work I'd done on the house.

I had enough sense to make these parallel to each other, but because of the slope of my yard I didn't make the ends line up with the other bed. Consequently, during the construction, I ended up taking one end off the first bed, the heaviest one of course, and moving it about 2 feet to line up with the other one. You really don't want to move one of these things!

I built it with a door and with sides that could be raised (as in the picture) on those warm spring days.

I wonder if anyone is interested in seeing some details about how I put it together, construction costs, passive heating and the like?

Let me know if you are and I'll put up a part 2 with some nifty ideas on how to keep the plastic on and what kinds of materials to use.

Oh... did I mention that it held up under 4 + inches of snow!

2014 Edit -
      Living in the south, we don't often get all that much snow but this year we had a crazy ice storm.  When I was able to get outside, the ice, which weighed several hundred pounds had cracked three of the ribs of our greenhouse!  I ended up taking everything down and we now just have two raised beds with lots and lots of lettuce.  I love the spring!

If you're interested in how to construct one using my design, see my post on DIY Greenhouse Construction.

Eating Okra Leaves

I was reading through one of the gardening books that we've picked up over the last year. The book was something like "Burpee's Total Gardening". Anyway, I was looking at plants that were cold resistant for things to winter in my unheated greenhouse and was reading through various other ones as well about some of the ways to prepare them when I read something I'd never heard of before.

In the section on Okra, it said that the plant was a perennial that is planted as an annual and because of its Hibiscus-like blooms, and that it was more at home in the flower bed than the garden. But that's not the strangest thing... Under the section on preparation it said that the leaves were also edible! So, me being bold as I am, I went out and tore off one of the leaves and chomped down.

I was amazed! The leaves are actually very nice tasting. So, put that in your memory bank and freak someone out sometime when you start eating the leaves off their Okra plant.

Chris

3GT

Spaghetti Sauce Recycling

Last week my wife left me... it was a very sad time for me. But before you jump to any inaccurate conclusions, our marriage is as good as it has ever been over the past 31 years. She travels home every month or so to take care of her mom and dad, helping out with doctor's appointment, clothes shopping for her mom (who has Alzheimer's disease), etc.

Before she takes the trip, she stocks up things for me to eat at for dinner while she's away. This shopping trip I was with her and we decided that spaghetti would be good with a huge salad with the abundant greens we have in our garden, this time of year. So, I picked out a sauce that looked like it would be a good base (I'm near obsessive with adding extra herbs to things... drives her nuts sometimes).

Fast forward to the night of the bachelor spaghetti dinner... I opened the jar and tasted it to add to the meat that I'd prepared for it. Mmmm ... pretty good... added a few things to placate my herb-adding urges.

Then, I noticed something about the jar, besides the label, there was something different about the jar. There were designs of some kind in the glass. No... it was writing. I rinsed out the jar (distracted from my dinner) and noticed that there were measurement lines and other writing under the label.

Then I had a though... hey, since we do some canning of our garden veggies, I wonder if a canning jar lid will fit this thing?

I opened the drawer, rummaged around and found a small lid ring and true to form the thing fit PERFECTLY!

After soaking in some warm water, the label came right off revealing the label: ATLAS MASON.

You have to understand that we're really not brand loyalists in our home, but I decided then and there that the next spaghetti sauce that we buy will be Classico in their recyclable Atlas Mason canning jars.

Wonder if their marketing department knew how people would react to this decision and how directly it would effect someone's buying habits?

Who knew that saving the planet's resources could be so yummy? :)

Chris

3GT

My first Deciduous Azalea !

Living in the Atlanta area, I've fallen into the rat race trap of always being in a hurry. I rarely take the time to stop and really look at other homes' landscaping. I really long for a slower paced life!

For years, as I've hurried along in my rush to get to wherever I'm going. I leave our subdivision, turn left, go down the hill and around the curve to the right. At the point of the bend in the road, where it's almost too dangerous to stop, there's a drive on right with a home that sets back about 200 yards. There's nothing really special about the small, single story home, but there is one feature on the edge of their drive that has caught my eyes year after year.

As I zoom past this driveway I catch a beautiful flash of orange from around a six foot tall "tree" and I've always wondered what kind of tree has orange foliage. I've always wondered, but have never stopped to ask the owner, what kind of tree this isroad that goes into our subdivision, I have always seen and admired (if not envied) the beautiful orange "tree"

This year, while watching an online video on how to trim azalea, the instructor had the common evergreen azalea and was showing how that by trimming it correctly after the blooms drop, you can product a much fuller nicer plant.

Then, to my amazement, he brought out the "other kind" of azalea; a deciduous azalea that was in bloom and it was orange! I'd finally found that orange tree that I'd been wondering about for years.

Just to confirm my suspicions, with my wife in the car with me, we pull into the driveway of the and sure enough, it was an azalea.

With this knowledge, I'm on a quest to find an orange deciduous azalea for my yard. My first stop? A little place down the road a bit that has some of the best prices and largest variety of plants in the area: Grower's Outlet in Snellville.

So on Saturday, we go down and finally squeeze into the parking lot, grab a cart and begin to get sick at the inflated prices that we'd paid for things at the local nursery as compared to their prices. These prices were unbeatable. We ended up getting several ground covers to work into some spots that we needed finishing out, but no deciduous azalea. We stop at some other places when we're out during the next week or so with no luck.

Finally, Sunday afternoon on the way to meet some friends for lunch, we drive by a local nursery called Randy' Perennials & Water Gardens because they are known for having specialty items.

My wife sets in the car because she knows what I'm looking for. I ask one of the workers and she points me to a group of 6 foot tall trees and there it is... one of only two orange ones.

The thing I didn't realize is that deciduous azaleas smell incredible, very sweet, reminding me of the fragrance of honeysuckles.

Finally, on the trip back home, we return to Randy's and snag the nicest one of the bunch. The incredible aroma of the freshly opened blooms filled our SUV; it was almost intoxicating!

After planting, it bloomed for a few more days and seems to be doing well in the shade of a birch and redbud tree. I so look forward t next spring's blooming of my first deciduous azalea.

It's Gonna' Be Dirt

Some time back, my dear wife and I went into an Whole Foods store and out front was one of those really nice Compost Tumblers all ready for me to take home and get started on my compost adventure. They say that confession is good for the soul (or something like that). So, here goes... I admit it, I was really coveting that compost tumbler envy.

The problem is, I don't have that kind of money to spend (nor do I want to) in order to turn our kitchen scraps into nice black compost. But there it was and I stood there drooling (not literally of course) over a silly compost tumbler. I find it amazing that people will pay over $150.00 for one of these things (even the cheap ones). My apologies to you if you did... I just couldn't do it.

So, like a good husband, I fought back the urge and was delivered from the green-eyed monster (oh wait, that's another one of the seven deadly sins). I think my wife was quite proud of me in that instant!

Nevertheless, that singular event set my insatiable mind abuzz wondering how I could put my creative juices into action and make my very own compost tumbler.

The it happened... my compost tumbler epiphany! One afternoon while driving home from work, I passed a salvage store in a nearby town and they had several 55 gallon drums out front for sale for a meager $14.95... more fuel to the fire.

Once home, I did a few quick internet searches and came up with several designs as well as videos of how to build a compost tumbler using 55 gallon drums. After processing the various methods, I came up with my own design that would allow me to have my tumbler near the ground, be able to turn it with my hands and use the existing banded lid as the doorway.

I constructed a stand and let it rest on a set of wheels I got for less than $10. So, for around 25 bucks I put together my first compost tumbler and started filling it with brown and green goodies from the table and garden.

The only supplemental thing I did to the barrel (since it was already painted) was to drill some holes in it for air to penetrate.

Putting the stand together with some existing wood I had laying around, I was off and running. It's just now getting warm enough for something to really be going on, but we're definitely making dirt! And for me, that's like pocketing the difference in what I'd have spent buying the fancy schmancy one.

The casters that I used as the base for rotation were mounted on some existing 1 x 4 material that I had and the base sits directly on the ground. The problem that I've run into with my design is that because of the weight of the barrel, the material to be composted and water to

keep everything moist, results in a bit more weight than I'd anticipated. Thus, my base incurred a structural failure (it broke one day when I was turning the thing).

In reviewing some of the videos (see link above), I'm going to rework it with a more substantial base. But for now, allowing it to rest on the ground and just roll it around the yard to do the mixing (at least until my wife gets fed up with it being all over the place).

As you can see, it's starting to make some nice dirt. Even though I add everything from veggie peals/parts, shredded wood, leaves and coffee grounds, it doesn't stink.

In fact, it smells like dirt! My son Daniel gave me a hint about adding soils of various kinds to introduce various colonies of needed bacteria for decomposition. In doing so, I introduced some worms into the mix. Because it doesn't heat up like your normal 3 ft. X 3 ft X 3 ft compost pile, the worms can survive and actually thrive in that environment.

I'm getting ready to build a sifter that will fit over my wheelbarrow to sift out the material that is ready to be added to my plant mix. Mmmm... it's gonna' be dirt soon!

More articles on composting: http://bit.ly/g6ve5U

Chris

3GT

Go to --> Part Two on Tumbler Composting

Gardening For Geeks Like Me!

For those of you who know me understand that I'm a geek at heart. Working with computers every weekday for 30+ years, it just sort of happens. Most of the time I try and distance myself from my geekiness, but that rascally persona invades reality some of the time. Now is just one of those times.

In the summer we plan to go over to the "left" coast to visit my favorite son and favorite daughter-in-law (I hate that term... but I love her). Anyway... one of the

adventures we've planned involves a day at a symposium type dealio on all things green. In the process, I got on the mailing list of "Mother Earth News" (another term I'm not so fond of), who sends out a newsletter and various informational ezine type info.

Today's really is a good one. On their site they have an online Vegetable Garden Planner. You may have seen them before, but this one really rocks and is truly built for geeks like me (and probably you too if you're still with me).

This online tool allow you to set up the layout of your garden, pick your plants, automatically sizes the plant distribution according to space needs (there's nothing worse than planting cucumbers too close together!) and even has various color backgrounds for family type if you want to do crop rotation. Yep... it really rocks.

Not only that, but once you have your garden (or gardens) saved, you can go to the planner section; which truly becomes geeky with a gantt chart that tells you when to plant and when to harvest your delectable goodies. It also tells you how many you can plant in the space that you have so that you don't have overcrowding.

What could satisfy the geek in me any more than having my very own garden project plan!

This thing will even send you twice month reminders of what to sow when. Can gardening get more geeky than that?

Alas, as with everything, there is a catch... you can get this for 30 days free; but, hey... 30 days free is better than nothing. So, go ahead, get your geek on and design that garden and do some efficient square foot gardening in whatever space you have.

And now you have a tool that will help you lay it out efficiently, just for geeks like me... errr.. US!

3GT

The Smell of Summer

I love the sounds, sights, and smells of warm weather! The incredible sight of flowers bursting forth in such an array of color is candy to the eyes. Going out in the morning and hearing the various sounds of the birds as they begin their day.

But let me tell you, there's nothing that reminds me of summer than the smell of tomato plants. Today I went out to the garden in the back where I'm growing my tomato plants in large "smart pots". One of my tomato cages had taken a tumble because of one of the early Georgia storms.

When I lifted it up I noticed some suckers (those little branches that start between the main branches) and decided to pinch it off. I pinched off several suckers and that's when I noticed it... the aroma of the tomato vine.

I don't know what it is about the aroma of some things triggering memories, but that aroma made me remember the things of summer. The humidity of the deep south, the sound of the mourning dove's cry, the feel of sweat running down my back and the smell of compost.

Funny how the smell of a simple tomato plant will trigger remembrances of summer! I can't wait for the succulent taste of an acidic tomato on that 'mater sandwich. YUMMMM...

TGT

Swiss Chard ... My new favorite vegetable!!!

Left to my own demise, I really can cook up a storm. Well... at least I can follow a recipe well. ;)-

When my sweet wife has to run over to Alabama to attend to her parents and give them a hand for a few days, she often leaves me with cooked dishes of food that I only have to heat and/or meals that are fairly planned out for me.

This week one of the things on my "menu" was wild Alaskan Salmon that she'd picked up especially for me to eat. So, with the garden going so well and the chard running wild, I decided to hack some of it down and see what the stuff tastes like. No, believe it or not, this is the first time we've tried any chard from our garden and frankly I'm thinking about planting a whole stinking bed full of the stuff!

After a few searches, I came up with a chard dish that sounded good and gave me some remedial information on chard and techniques for cooking it. The blog I found it on is called "Beyond Salmon" and I give kudos to its writer for such a delectable dish!

With olive oil, cream and Parmesan cheese, how can it not be good?

The tidbit of info that really interested me was the author's description of Swiss chard as being "two vegetables" in one; first the stem and second the greens. When you take two different approaches with cooking the two, you'll never throw the stems in the compost pile again!

I added a couple of cloves of minced garlic to my version (since my wife is away) and I think I've found a new favorite vegetable!! Of course, my wife would say that I like anything with garlic on it.

... and yes, she's right again!

Chris
3GT

http://bit.ly/mhjSeN

New Drip System

Last year, we went to Seattle to visit my son and daughter-in-law and left someone in charge of watering our garden. Bad move! Even though the sprinkler was on a timer, the mechanical part went on the fritz and some things got too much water and some didn't get enough. Not a good year for the plants.

I hate wasting water on the grass and patio and house.... it goes everywhere except the exact place that needs it. Not so this year! I was determined to do the watering thing right (or at least more right) this year.

I just finished putting in my first drip watering system from DripWorks. They have some really nice products and I figure that by being much more specific with how, when and where I water those veggies, we'll come out with some tasty treats from the garden.

Right now I'm on a 15 minute timer every other day; which, will probably be increased as we move into summer. I'm using some 6 inch spaced Soaker Dripline throughout my raised beds and 1/2 gal per hour single drip emitters coming off a 2 gal per hour multi-port for my tomatoes in their Smart Pots.

I think I'm going to really like this setup. :)

Garden is doing great with the new drip system! Tomato plants are growing and my blueberry plants are loving it. They are hanging full of fruit. This is one of the best things we've done for the garden.

3GT