Recent content by gtaus

We have had three days of rain here, so I did not get too much done outside. I took the "down time" to finishing building another two half-sized 2X4 foot pallet wood raised beds to put alongside the back of my chicken run. My plan is to use the chicken run fence as a trellis for things like peas...

Some pictures I found on a Google search...

Looks great. I have been considering making similar small frames like that to use as a mini greenhouse to maybe get some plants out 2 weeks earlier and/or add a number of weeks of growth at the end of the year. I like the idea of being able to put them on and take them off at will. Other than...

Late this winter, I built four new 4X4 foot, 16-inch-high pallet wood raised beds. Here is a picture of some of them... I filled them with hügelkultur wood, then an organic layer, and today I was working on mixing the top 6-8 inches with a topsoil/chicken run compost 1:1 mixture. I got 2-1/2...

Pallet wood, salvaged wood, it's about the same to me. Most of my salvaged wood these days is coming from the same places where I pick up my pallets. Thanks for sharing.

I'm a really big fan of almost all types of squash. Buttercup being the favorite, but butternut and other yellow type squash as well. :idunno Zucchini is one of my go-to veggies, but in season, Dear Wife complains we have too many. As soon as they are gone, she is in the store buying zucchini...

I did not know about that. I'll have to check into it some more. My buttercup squash vines spread out 20-30 feet and basically took over the garden. Maybe there are Butterbush varieties with shorter vines of buttercup squash as well?

Thanks for the pictures. Looks like some deer protection cage to me. You might have been able to re-engineer your design to get around that panels having to be screwed in place. I'm thinking back to your wire hinges and using a bungee cord as a latch.

:idunno Correction: I meant to say buttercup squash, not butternut squash, is our favorite. And I have started a number of buttercup squash plants for transplanting. We also like the butternut squash, and other types of squash, but buttercup squash is what I meant to say.

🤔 I am having a hard time visualizing those panels attached to your raised bed in such a manner that you have to remove them to access the plants. Sounds like a major PITA to me as well. Wire works. I have also used zip ties more recently. In fact, I try to replace wire with zip ties just...

Here is an idea that I came up with to protect my two new hügelkultur raised beds that I plan on using for beans and peas.... I got out some pea seeds just for planting in my 2X4 "pole bean" raised beds. However, I discovered that the new beds I just had filled had been dug up pretty bad...

If you are like me, your hügelkultur raised bed might only have about 6-8 inches of topsoil in the bed because you fill up the bottom half of the bed with logs and other organic matter. That works great for me in most instances. However, if you need more topsoil depth for a certain root plant...

I'm thinking it is squirrels digging in the raised bed. I don't see many mice around here, but there are some. I just don't understand what the squirrels are looking for in those raised beds because it is nothing but topsoil and compost in that top layer. Nothing has been planted yet. Anyways...

Yeah, I liked that raised bed riser idea. I'm going to borrow that concept if I need extra soil depth on my raised beds that have normally 6-8 inches of topsoil. I have been thinking about using a riser like that to grow some daikon radish in a raised bed. Those radishes can get quite long...

I got out some pea seeds just for planting in my 2X4 "pole bean" raised beds. However, I discovered that the new beds I just had filled had been dug up pretty bad... That bed was nice and level just the day before when I filled it. I'm thinking maybe squirrels got into it? Maybe birds? We...