"Well Hello, Beautiful"..or...The Cavalry Arrives

So I've been seeing aphids regularly on the purplehull peas and especially on the okra. I've been neeming and soaping them once a week or so and I noticed a big herd of them yesterday at lunch. Being in the upper 90s like it is most days in the garden, it's too hot to spray. It would be a classic case of the the cure being worse than the disease. So I made a mental note to end their little sap-sucking lives when I got home from work. As planned, Dr. Bronner and I went out there, and to my surprise, found five of these scary-looking little monsters. I was about to give it the flick-of-banishment when I realized what they were. They're ladybugs. You may not know this, but before they're the cute little bugs you'd let walk all over your hand, they look more like alien alligators. Each one of these eats 300-400 of those damn aphids a day. I opted not to spray, so the ladybugs could eat to their heart's content. So the aphids got a reprieve...hehe. I wish I could be there and had a tiny microphone to hear their screams of abject terror when they see this six-legged eating machine coming their way. Oh how sweet it is.

Tips For Working In a Crawl Space

Here are some tips if you have to crawl under your house.

1. Wear a thick long sleeve shirt and jeans. You will have to do a lot of crawling and the clothing will protect you from creepy crawlies and from scrapes.

2. Bring a flash light-no explanation need here

3. Put all the tools you will need in a ziplock bag. It will keep them together and it will keep the dirt out of them while you low-crawl to your destination.

4. Have someone outside that can asist you by getting tools and making cuts for you. This will limit the amount of time you spend crawling.

5. Wear a a dust mask-it is very dusty under a house and my house has a powdery sand that gets easly stirred up. Believe me, you do not want to be breathing all that crud in. A simple $2 mask will do.

6. While working, try to keep your suppplies and tools organized so you will not lose something or make a mess.

7. Walkie talkies are a great way to communicate with someone that may be assisting you and easier than shouting.

Tub Drain Repair

One of the things we did while Mandy was here was to repair the tub drain. For the purpose of explaining the anotomy of a tub drain, I will share with you my finished work first. 1) 4"x4" Castiron to Plastic Coupling (sometimes referred to as an "adapter") This is what allowed me to mate up the new PVC pipe to the old cast iron drain system. 2) The Trap Arm is what carries the waste water to larger drain pipe called the stack vent. Trap arms can only be so long. If the trap arm is too long, it can cause the waste water to back up. 3) The P-Trap always has some water collected in the bottom. This water creates a seal that prevents fumes from the sewer/septic from venting into your bathroom. 4) 4" to 3/4" adapter allows the drain pipe on the tub to mate up to P-Trap. 5)Tub drain pipe and 6)overflow drain pipe have adjustable lengths so it will have a universal fit. The Face that mates to the tube uses a rubber gasket as its seal.

When Angela and I moved in, we knew the tub was missing the trap arm and P-trap but we put off repairing it because it involved getting under the house in the dark with all the creepy crawlies. Someone in the past started to repair the tub drain and never finished. They left me about 8" of 4" pipe and removed everything else to the tub with the exception of the tub's drain pipe.

First I dry fit the 4"-3/4" adapter and p-trap together. That allowed me to get a measurement for the new section of 4" pvc pipe i was going to need for the trap arm. I called out the measurments to Angela who used a pvc hand daw to make the cut. then I dry fit everything. The cast iron to pvc coupling was very easy to use. It is just a rubber sleeve that slides over the joint between the two pipes and then you tighten the two metal bands. Make sure that the one band is over the metal pipe and the other is over the pvc pipe. With the coupling in place and secured I disasembled the p-trap and glued it with some pvc glue. I like using the Rain-R-Shine because sometime (true in this case) the stuff you are working on is wet. I kept the collars on the tub drain close so I could assemble the parts together easily. After the pvc cement started to set up, I tightened the collars on the tub drain and overflow drain. and I was done. Below I will post some of the pictures of the condition of the plumbing in the bathroom

With a panel removed from the hallway wall, you can see the original plumbing that supplies the tub.

This is me doing the final assembly.

Here is a handy table that shows the trap length allowed for several diameters of pipe and the slope the trap has to be at to work properly.

The Rain Just Kept Coming

I have not posted all that much becuase to be honest, I have not done all that much. It seems that spring has turned to monsoon season. We have been getting lots of rain. While Mandy was here, we installed a new drain trap for the tub. The drain was just running off onto the ground under the house before I installed it. We have put up several different types of trellises in the garden to give the cucumbers, tomates and peas to climb on.

We had a lot of rain and wind and the corn was looking weak so Angela propped them up with some bamboo and when the wind and rain let up she repacked the soil around them. They are doing fabulous. She went our several times during the week-long storm, wearing her welly boots and trying to keep the umbrella from blowing inside out. The first bed is starting to take off and it will be interesting to see what all come out of it. The tomato plants are all about 6-12 inches tall, except for the brandywine tomatoes, which are very small. The lemon cucumbers have climbed over our small 3' trellis and are reaching another foot in the air. They are loaded with blossoms about to open. The corn has small ears nowand the silks they have made is long and golden. It appears that each plant is about 4 feet and has just one ear so far. Since it's my first corn crop, I'm not quite sure what to expect. The pinto and black beans are very densely planted and have many pods and flowers. The butternut squash is also doing very well and is just getting long enough to train up the trellis.

There have been a few disappointments. The cantaloupe concerns me- the leaves are kind of yellow in color compared the rest of everything else but hopfuly they will be fine. The red bell pepper plants we planted are very tiny and we just learned that they drop there flowers when the temp reaches above 90 degrees. :( That will be any day now. We are thinking of giving up on them and planitng somthing else.

So while it was raining and the garden out of reach, we worked on some minor things around the house. I repaired the HVAC, more on that on another day, installed a small cabinet over the toilet in the main bathroom. Today we also dug up the old pavers and relaid them.

With all the rain came some unwelcome refugee visitors, Carpenter Ants. So we had to call an exterminator and had them spray the house inside and out. Since they came we have not seen any ants which is good, since Angela was having ants making guest appearances in her dreams. The Exterminator I used was Peninsular. They were quick, professional and not that much money. I would recommend them if you need pest control services in Jax.

Rainy Daze

A Queen's Dinner

I went to the farmer's market today with mom and got so many delicious things. Then on the way home, we stopped at a fruit stand near her house. Justin's working tonite, but I made myself an excellent dinner anyway. I'm having sliced tomatoes, kale and small red new potatoes steamed in veggie broth, and onions, yellow squash and zucchini sauteed in a bit of olive oil. Later for dessert, I'll have some ice-sold cantaloupe. No, none of it came from our garden, but it's fabulous nonetheless. I love summer!!

hearing voices

Ok, so sometime back in March, I was nibbling on a red bell pepper from the grocery store and wondered if the seeds inside would grow. Now it's mid May and the plants I germinated from those seeds are disappointingly spleeny. Everything else that's been planted since is going like crazy. I envision a secret garden convo going something like this:

Butternut Squash:(brutish garbage man voice) Where my bitches at? Whatwhat??


Corn: (drag queen voice) Pipe down, over there! You only got here a couple weeks ago, you need to respect your elders!


Watermelon: (southern lady's voice) Yeah, you're not even supposed to be here till the fall, you attention-hog. Just 'cause you got that big-ass trellis you think you're somethin'. You aren't even planted on a big hill like we are!


Butternut Squash: Listen, corn-dogs, everyone here knows you're just a notch or two above the grass that gets walked on! Don't get snarky with me! And you watermelon sissies better watch yourselves. There's only these puny peppers between me and you - and there's only four of you pansy-wanna-bes anyway. I'm just sayin'.


Pinto Bean: (demure lady's voice)Can somebody help a sista out? These flea beetles itch something awful...


Jalapeno: mmrrfffph....rrrmmmpphhhh


Butternut Squash: Who the hell was that?


tiny Red Peppers: (weak, whiny kid's voice) It was my cousins - they've haven't punched thru the soil and this crappy oak leaf mulch yet.


Marigold: (schoolteacher voice) Quiet, All of you malcontents! The two-legs are coming!

Butternut Squash: You mouthy little show-off! You're not the potentate of this garden. You don't even make anything edible! Wait till my leaves are huge - I'll block out the sun and you'll diiiiiieeeeee......

Anyway, anthropomorphic conversations aside, the little red peppers are scraggling along and we've yet to see what they'll become, if anything. Some grocery store veggies are hybrids and others aren't. We'll leave them there a little longer, but if they don't get a move on, they'll be summarily replaced. Maybe with something that can put the butternut squash in its place.

Update On The Beds

Jonah

In the Jonah Bed, the pinto beans have started to flower. The strawberries have been producing white flowers with yellow centers but no strawberries so far. The lemon cucumbers have had a few leaves fallen to insects. Angela applied some neem oil on them a few days ago, hopefully it will work. The corn is doing wonderfully, so far no disease or pests to report at all. The rest of the bed has tomato plants. I have never grown tomatoes before but they seem to be growing very slowly. Angela has made a mini trellis for the beans to start climbing on.

Abigail Bed

This week we began building a trellis for the butternut squash to climb. We made it out of 1 1/2 inch oak limbs that I cut off some the oaks that had fallen recently. Last week we thinned both the Jonah and Abigail bed. The red bell peppers are growing a lot slower then I would like, but this might be normal. The squash is growing very well as is the watermelon. Both sets of plants have started growing their true leaves.

Mandy

The Mandy bed was only planted 5 days ago and already the seeds have started germinating. Sadly something has been eating on one of the okra seedlings and completly eaten off one of its leaves. Also leaf miners have gotten into purplehull peas and the okra. I am not sure what the organic remedy is going to be, but we need to work on it quick.

Also this week we put in cut sections of 1 1/2 inch pvc pipe. They are about 8" or so, our hope is that they will attract some insect-eating lizards which are all over the property. One has already taken up residence in the garden. We call him stumpy on account of his missing tail. Although he has not let us know if he likes the new lizard hotel bungalow we made him.

Also something of note. We have been experiencing record heat here. I know what you are thinking "it's Florida, get over it" but this is unbelievable heat. For the least 3 days hew have broken the record with heat in the mid 90's. Unbelievable! Moreover, we have had almost no rainfall since I put in the beds. There are cooler temps and rains forcast for the next 3 days so I will keep my fingers crossed.

(Note from Angela: Aside from the garden, the whole yard feels like it might combust. We need rain!!!)

Irrigation With Soaker Hoses

Being in Florida, even in the beginning of May, it has been reaching into the low 90s and the sun has been intense. This has presented a problem with watering. By midday the soil is bone dry and hot. One of the ways to combat this is by mulching the beds. We wanted to use leaves because we are up to our armpits in them but leaves present their own set problems when used as a mulch. They tend to prevent a good amount of moisture from getting down to the soil.

To remedy the situation, we elected to use soaker hoses. It is a black hose that is permiable so when water runs through, it seeps and trickles the water out. I' m not exactly sure how to guage how much water actually makes it out though. I can tell you it can effectively waters the soil roughly 8" out from either side of the hose. We used lawn staples to secure them to the ground. Just in case you did not know, lawn staples are really long staples that are used to secure cloth to the ground.

After placing the soaker hoses we then put down a thin layer of oak leaves. The leaves will hold in the moisture and at the same time insulate the soil from the hot sun and wind.

(Note from Angela: This bad ass hose bib was added by Justin and has been a lifesaver. Before, I was shlepping a gallon watering can back and forth from the well pump house, and having to do it several times a day. Now with the soakers, we don't even have to water every day unless it's wicked hot. Also, while Mandy was here, we added quite a few red wigglers to the garden beds and the compost. )

The Mandy Bed

Mandy, Angela'a sister, came into to town and it was great having her. While she was here, we expanded our garden with a new 4x16 foot bed. In it we planted, in this order, "Hales Best Jumbo" cantaloupe, "Horace Boyett" Cucumber, Purplehull Peas, and "Clemson Spineless" Okra. There was a small spot left empty in the Abigail bed, next to the red bell peppers, so we planted some jalapeños.

Just one note about the seed Angela and I have been using. Most of the seed we have been using has come from Seed Savers. It is an invaluable resource for seeds that have a wide genetic diversity. Another resource has been our local feed store, Standard Feed Company. They have a suprisingly diverse selection and very helpful staff. They also gave me a planting schedule which helped a lot too.

One thing we did do differently was, we directly planted the seed in the ground as opposed to growing seedings. no real reason for this other then we were impatient and really wanted Mandy to sow her bed before she headed back to Asheville.

We have been crowding the plants more so than normal because we read that when you garden in a bed you can crowd them more than normal because of the soil and it helps hide your veggies from things that might want to eat them.

As for the soil, we added the same mixture of 160 lbs. top soil, 160 lbs. manure, and around 1.5 cu. ft. of peat moss. Our plans for the next set of beds is for 2 more beds of legumes.

Mandy's Visit

Home Movie

Planting the Beds

This is the layout of our beds. "Jonah" is the bottom bed and was planted April 18th. "Abigail" was planted April 30th. Everything was planted from seedlings, most of which we germinated in our laundry room.

Note from Angela:

90% of the work from putting in the beds was done by Justin and 90% of the work from germinating was done by me. Lemme tell ya, many a lazy hour has been spent spritzing dirt, looking for anything green to come up. Also, Justin didn't tell you much about what's in the garden now. In the Jonah bed:

• Fence Row cherry tomatoes
• Azteca tomatoes
• Brandywine heirloom tomatoes
• Black beans
• Pinto beans
• Lemon cucumbers
• Silver Queen corn

In the new Abigail bed, there are:

• Sugar Baby watermelons
• Butternut squash
• sweet red peppers

The next bed that goes in, not sure if it will be "Ethan" or "Mandy", but it will have clemson spineless okra, cantaloupe and peanuts. The next bed will have southern peas as cover crops, meaning we'll let them grow then we'll cut them down and "turn them under" so that as they decompose, they'll add nitrogen to the soil. That bed will have purple hull peas, zipper peas and white acre peas. Whatever pods they produce, we'll definitely harvest, but the real intent with it is to begin augmenting the soil. We plan to rotate the beds with various cover crops each year to keep this process going. It might sound like we know what we're doing, but really we don't. We're learning and the curve is steep.

Also, I've seen some flea beetles in the garden and some pesky ants hanging around. I know the ants are getting ready for the inevitable aphid rodeo that they think will soon be riding into town, but they're wrong. Dead wrong (cue the OK corral whistle and obligatory tumbleweed...). We'll be spraying with neem oil and a homemade insecticidal soap/garlic spray. And if the raccoons get any bright ideas, I've got some cayenne with their names on it.

Bed Construction

You can build a raised bed out of just about anything. A lot of the reading suggests going to construction sites for (s)crap lumber, and I have hears of using recycled materials and even concrete block. We decided on a low quality 2x6 lumber from Home Depot. The grain was pretty tight so it should be strong enough. What I mean by low quality is that it has knots and on one side of the board, one the edges has bark on it. It sells for just over $2 for a 8' board.

To build one, you will need 7 2x6 8 foot boards. Have the guy at home depot cut 3 of them in half for you. Then I used 10d (12d might be better, I had a lot of them bend) 3"nails. The image above shows the basic construction (not to scale). When you're done you'll have 2 frames that measure 4x8 feet. You can obviously make them any size you want 4x4, 4x6 or whatever.

Before you nail the center beam in place, make sure the bed is square. To do this, measure from the INSIDE corner 3' down one beam and make a mark. Then measure 4' on the side of the ajoining beam and mark it. Next you will measure mark to mark. It should be 5'. If it not then you will need to adjust your box some. After it is square, nail in the center beam.

After you have built the frame, place it where you would like it to be and mark the ground. I used spray paint to mark the inside of the box to the ground. Then use a square trench shovel and cut down through the soil along the outline of the bed. After you have made a complete outline, start making slices though the length of the bed every 1 foot. Then make slices going from front to back of the bed. When you are done you will have basically slices the turf into nice neat squares. (Angela says, it's like cutting up a sheet cake)

Now, slice off the turf top and set to the OUTSIDE of where the bed will be. Dig down below that with a shovel til you have dug down about 12 inches. Use a fork to loosen the soil down even further. Do this for a single row the length of the bed. On the next pass, you will put the soil in the trench you just dug out. It will not all fit in there so you will have to mound it up on the outside edge of the bed. When you placing the soil back in the bed try to put the top layer of soil at the bottom. I found this to be next to impossible but maybe someone has some insight on this.

What ever you do, DO NOT STEP ON THE AREA YOU HAVE DUG UP. It will pack the soil and it will make it hard for air, worms and roots to penetrate. These are some photos of a bed being made. Ang and I were so wrapped up in building them, we forgot to take some pics of it.

After putting all the soils LOOSELY back in the bed, I placed the frames back on the area I just double dug. Here in Florida, the soil tends to be very sandy and our place is no exception. So for each 4x16 bed I added 160 lbs. (8 cu ft) bags of topsoil, 160 lbs of composted manure and 1.5 cu ft of peatmoss. We used a hard rake to mix it well. My first bed, I used 2x4's to secure the bed to the ground, but the second one i did not. The soil does a fine enough job.

Picking a Site

We live on a a 1 acre lot that is mostly shaded by massive oak trees. For a vegetable garden, they say you need around 5-8 hours of sunlight a day. This left us with only one option, and this is a small stretch in the back of the lot. The area was overgrown with grass and spiderwort.

This is a survey of our house that I copied and laminated. We are using it to create a 5-year plan of what our goals are. It's a work in progress and things will change over time as we get exposed to new ideas. The north end of the property is on the right vertical fence line and is the location of the raised beds. We picked this site because it received the most sunlight so we would not have to disturb the large oaks on the property.

Angela wanted to do raised beds to help with drainage and limit the effect of pollution on the beds. About a couple hundred yards to the east of us it Pottsburg Creek. I have not heard any bad reports about Pottsburg in particular but many of the creeks here in Jacksonville are contaminated.

In the southwest corner of area called "Bed C' is there we placed our first bed. We decided that each 4x16 bed would be named after loved ones, friends and family. Having a name for a bed helps keep track of them in a journal and is lot more aesthetic than a number. The first one was Jonah and the next Abigail, named after my children. Mandy, Angela's Sister is coming to town and I'm hoping she and Angela will build the next bed and we will name it after her.

Our New Garden

It is my goal that I can produce most of my food here at the house so one of the first things we did after moving in was to start our vegetable garden. Before I get into all the details of what we have tried, let me tell you the books we've been getting our information from.

Self-Sufficent Life and How To Live it by John Seymour-Not a lot of details but it was an excellent place to start. It is more of an big picture overview kind of book.

All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew-This book has very useful information on gardening in beds. I have found it to very usful. And Angela likes the pictures of bugs.

The Gardener'd A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food by Tanya L.K. Denckla

The Vegetable Gardeners's Bible by Edward Smith - This book also has lots of helpful information for beginners and lots of photographs. The section on pests was particularly useful in identifiing a new pest that moved into the garden. (It was flea beetles)

Encyclopedia of County Living by Carla Emery - This book is an incredible resource. Aside from all the helpful info, she also directs you to websites, organizations and good books on whatever topic you are interested in.

2 in 2

Yeah. That how many trees have blown down in two weeks. Both oaks. Both awaiting chainsawing, splitting and stacking on our ever-growing woodpile. Justin pointed out that they never seem to break clean off (much like what Dirty Harry will do with his .45 Magnum...only instead of your head, it's our trees...moving on...) So they never break all the way off. I told Justin that it's the tree's final "eff you!" They gotta get their licks in somehow I guess. I incredible irony is that we have a number of dead trees on the property, and despite a couple of passionately windy storms, they just keep right on standing, woody monuments to the vertical deceased. Not sure where I was going with that.

Aaaannd....We're In!

I totally forgot we were blogging about this thing. And by "thing", I mean the pandemonium known as buying an older house. I can't believe the saint that was our real estate agent is even still speaking to us, after all that we put her thru, but she is. She brought us some brownies after we moved in - and they weren't even poisoned! I know she was relieved when it was over, probably more than we were. Before we even owned the thing, we put a new roof on, scraped and painted a bunch of the so-called lead paint, had the brick garage demo'd and hauled off (loooong story), redid the electric on the well, etc etc. The lead paint thing was especially idiotic. I didn't think it was any big deal but here's the way the mortgage company sees it playing out in neighborhoods all across America:

A happy child of three or four is skipping along a residential neighborhood, and suddenly realizes that she's hungry. Instead of going back home (because her parents have probably already called the five-o about their missing toddler) where she could enjoy warm cookies and milk, the child instead spots an older home up the block. She thinks to herself: "MMMM! That house looks tasty! And it's pink, too - my favorite house flavor!" Without another moment's thought, this sweet child dashes out into the street and heads for the tasty house. Soon she's eating her fill of delicious lead paint chips. Fast forward another few years and the child is a drooling buffoon. And it's all because the terrible and irresistable culinary delight of lead paint was let loose upon an unsuspecting neighborhood. It's a trajesty. Someone should do something.

So yeah. To get the mortgage (by way of their seemingly endless cadre of inspections), we had to do some pretty insane things. But no matter - we're in, dammit.