On Vacation for Three-and-a-Half Months

During the winter months, I replaced gardening and bicycling with hiking in our winter home, Arizona. Here's a link to that blog: Tramping Through Hill and Dale. Check back here in March for any new garden updates.

Berry Long Boxes (Part 2)

After leveling and placing the boxes, I set about constructing the trellis structure from which to hang the canes. These would be constructed of 4"x4" cedar, 3.5 feet tall, and 2.5 feet wide. 

It helps to have a table saw for the dado cuts. I didn't actually use a dado blade as I was too lazy to put it together. However, a single saw blade makes fairly quick work of it anyway.

Cross pieces finished. The dado for the vertical pieces will have to wait until assembly in the yard as I will have to cut the verticals to length beforehand.

After the verticals are buried in the ground, I cut them each to the same height—four feet.

I measured down six inches for the top of the cross pieces...

... then dadoed each vertical using a circular saw.

I then fitted each cross piece before attaching each with two bolts.

Finally, I capped each cane cross with a copper cap. I was so proud of my work until someone (my wife) suggested they looked a lot like Calvary, so I detached each copper cap, re-cut each vertical, and then reattached the caps.

Much less rood.

The final layout looks a lot less like a Roman execution.

All that's left to do is to string the wiring.

Berry Long Boxes (Part 1)

One last piece of garden to terrace in. I had room for three rows of black berries and red raspberries. As with the other spaces, I opted for building cedar boxes to serve as my terraces, in this case three twelve foot by two foot boxes.

I used 2"x6" twelve foot cedar boards for the long pieces. Side boards are two footers.

Corners attached using 2"x4" pieces cut to 5 1/2 inches and screwed in using deck screws.

Lastly, 2"x4" two-foot long cross pieces were screwed in to prevent bowing.

Then, I set about the laborious task of digging out and leveling each box. I was way too busy to photograph the process (actually, I just forgot). Tune in tomorrow for the 4"x4" cross beam construction from which to suspend wires and hold up the canes.

Six Feet Over (Again)

The potato boxes one month on. They've loved the biblical rains we've had of late. The pots have all been filled to the brim with soil. Now we wait for the flowers. Attractive plants, I think. And they'll keep us from starving after the Trump apocalypse in the fall.

Gratuitous picture of Ritchie and Fiona, also one month on.

The red fingerling.

Overall, the garden is doing quite well, except for Bernie, who's been stifled by the DNC virus. 

Pici Keen Spring Garlic

Last night called for a special meal: It was my 31st wedding anniversary, and I was also down to the last of my spring garlic. My favorite way to use spring garlic, also called green garlic, is in a simple dish of pasta with olive oil. This lets the subtle green garlic flavor come through unhindered. Spring garlic is to garlic what scallions are to onions, a milder version of the other. I also used the tops, in a big batch of veggie broth.

I did add a couple of cloves of garlic for a little extra kick.

Sauté the garlic in a copious amount of olive oil. I also add a few red pepper flakes to punch it up.

For the pasta, I used my favorite, (after my home-made variety): Pici, from Siena, Italy (this via Eataly in Chicago). Pici is a thick hand-rolled spaghetti-like pasta, (think bucatini on steroids, only not hollow).

Pici is THICK, and takes a good 20 plus minutes to reach al dente. A minute before that, however, drain the pasta and add it to the garlic and olive oil. Reserve a cup of pasta water to add to the pasta, the secret ingredient to making a velvety smooth sauce.

Sprinkle on a little parm and enjoy.

Six Feet Over

Planted my potato boxes yesterday, as well as the potatoes. Terraced and leveled each box into the hillside. These will remain until the apple trees (next to the white buckets) grow large enough to shade the area. Then, I'll have to find a new location (curbside, perhaps?). 

Each box will hold six 5-gallon pots, or five of the 7-gallon variety.

After I leveled each box, I dug a trough of soil up the middle. It's important to have the drain holes in the bottom of each bucket covered by soil as the roots will eventually find their way out through the holes in search of more nutrients.

I added about four inches of mulch to each pot, then planted three potatoes in each.

The top two boxes were planted with the Andean La Ratte white-skinned fingerling; the bottom will contain a red French fingerling (both from Seed Savers Exchange).

Tater Boxes

Since we cut down Doug, the fir, we have a lot more sunny space to work with in the front yard, at least until the apple trees grow up a bit. I figured I'd try my hand at growing potatoes in pots. So, I bought eighteen industrial grade 5-gallon garden pots (they actually only hold 3.5 gallons, oddly). And, since this is a front-yard garden, aesthetics are important. I thought I could hide the black plastic with some nice cedar boxes, six to a box. The pots are just under 12 inches in diameter, and about 11 inches tall this giving me my rough dimensions. I would add a bit to the width to make room for soil to cover the drain holes as is done in this type of planting. My inside dimensions worked out to 16 inches wide, by 6 feet 2 inches long.

Pro Cal Pro-can #5s, made in the US of A of recycled materials.

The sides of the boxes are 5/4-inch cedar decking, which comes in 5-1/2 inch widths 8 feet in length. I was able to get one side and one end piece from each board. Since the boxes are two boards high, I would need a total of four boards for each box, or twelve boards for three boxes (ten bucks a pop). The corners would be made from 2" x 4"s and 2" x 2"s cut to 11 inches to match the height of the two 5-1.2 inch side boards, and a single 2" x 4" x 11" board in the middle of each box. Then, for a more finished look, I capped each box with a corner mitered 1" x 4" all the way around the top.

All of the pieces for all three boxes, sans 1" x 4" cedar finish top trim, cut to length.

Each end piece was predrilled and screwed with 3-1/8 inch all-weather screws.

The T-10 trim-head screws used in this project. Fantastic screws.

First box ready for corner pieces.

The corner pieces, pre-drilled and screwed together with 2-1/2" screws.

I attached the corner pieces two with 3-1/8 inch screws through the 2" x2"s top and bottom, into the side planking. Then, from the  inside using 2-1/2 inch screws at an angle through the side planking into the corner 2" x 4"s. This ensures a clean from on each box.

The center 2" x 4" is screw from the back (inside the box) using two 2-inch screws.

The finish top plate of 1" x 4" cedar required six pieces for the sides, and two for the six end pieces., mitered to fit nicely.

I first pre-drilled and screwed each corner using a 3-1/8 inch screw.

Finally, I pre-drilled and screwed each board around the perimeter approximately every ten inches.

The finished boxes waiting to be terraced into the front lawn. Check back soon for that post.

The Sight of Music

The Music garlic I planted last November has come up nicely. It was all we could do to hold back a few cloves of this delicious garlic to plant. We'll face the same dilemma this year.

The Story of Music (from the Seed Saver Catalog)

This Italian garlic variety was brought to Canada by Al Music in the 1980s from his homeland of Italy.

This sweet and pungent garlic consistently produces great crops.

• Organic
• Hardneck
• 4-7 cloves per head
• Very tight, durable heads

Garlic has a history of over 7,000 years of use in human culture and is native to central Asia. As well as being used for food, it has also been useful as a medicine, even as recently as World War I and World War II. 

Some European cultures have been known to associate garlic with "white magic" or spiritual protection, giving rise to the belief that it will ward off vampires.