It was a good cool day and a good time to get rid of the boxes on the porch. Spring cleaning is in the air!
2nd Man saw them and said that they reminded him of the Stargates from the film/tv series of the same name.
Um yeah, no, they aren't THAT big, ha.
Thankfully, they went together very easily. Four pieces each, line up the holes and then it was a bolt and nut. Super easy. I did two and then took an iced tea break...
...and then did one more.
I went ahead and rolled them to the back and set them in place. I removed the other three from around the citrus trees (don't need to worry about a freeze now) and put them in place. Then I measured them so they were perfectly aligned between the square boxes.
That means we have three more now for a total of six. Four for the blueberry bushes we already have and two more for something else we bought that we'll have in an upcoming post. There are three on one side of the fruit tree spot and three on the other side.
Speaking of the two "other" ones, on the way out to the farm I stopped to buy some bags of soil and compost and filled them up. I turned the soil and grass underneath, put down some cardboard (just like we did with the tree beds) and layered in the soil/compost. They are ready for planting but the plants that will go in them aren't quite ready yet.
Next we'll need to get the soil for the blueberries (they like acidic soil). We found a store here that sells it, it will require a large amount...we're working on that too.
It was a good day, cool weather, no need to mow yet (but getting close) and I got several other projects done. But there was a downside to the day...
To be continued...
Looking Good and I thought I had done alot of outside work.
ReplyDeleteI have a large tractor tire that I will be digging a hole and placing the large tire down in the hole and will be planting flowers in it and then I have regular smaller tires that will also get planted but first I need to scrub the tires off really well and then they will be painted before I can do any planting.
I kinda got my work cut out for me.
Bought some butterfly weed along with a couple of Bee Balm so need to get them plants planted.
My daffodils are in bloom; well a few anyway. Several where coming up but the freeze sort of slowed them up but those are even starting to turn green again but they're coming; slowly but surely.
Have yourself a wonderful day.
Hubby is out mowing the yard at the moment.
I've seen those tire planters. Very cool. Where did you find the tire? You must send pics when it's in full bloom I bet it will be pretty. Butterfly week is so pretty and bee balm, you're doing great for the bees and butterflies!
DeleteHa, Ha, those garden rings do look like Stargates, with a little imagination!
ReplyDeleteYou are getting everything ready for a good planting season!
A lot of imagination ha. I got two of them filled, hoping to do the last four this weekend. And mow too. And maybe another surprise. ;-)
DeleteWhat's the purpose of the "stargates"? I understand that plants will go inside of them, but why? It protects them?
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
LOL, well the Stargate name was just us Science Fiction nerds being silly ha. The last picture shows how they are used. They are basically above ground planters. Instead of building more wooden square beds, this seemed an easy way to have an almost instant above ground planter. And since we had some already from a few years back, we just got a couple more and so we'll have six that we can plant in. More pics coming soon. Just an open ring filled with soil and putting a plant him them. The last picture above shows it after I put the soil in just haven't planted the fruit bush in there yet. Stay tuned!
DeleteThanks for the explanation. I'm trying to learn more about plants and flowers so I can work on my yard.
DeleteI should have noted, the reason we do these and the raised beds in general is because our soil here is a LOT of clay. It's hard for plant roots to do well in clay. Sometimes if you dig a hole in clay soil, the smooth side can act just like an inground pot and plants can drown. So we've used raised beds all over. They are open bottom and eventually as the soil and nutrients from above mix down into the ground beneath the raised bed, the roots can go down too. For these, the reason was additional, blueberries require a special blend of soil and so it will be easy to keep the acidic level correct in a dedicated raised bed. Ask questions anytime!! We're learning and sharing as we go!
DeleteWhat specifically do you recommend to use to fill your raised bed planters and in what proportions? This has been the main roadblock for me getting started. I’d be doing a large amount of raised beds for fruit trees due to heavy alkaline clay.
ReplyDeleteHello! We've got some posts from back when we planted these trees. Check out this post: http://twomenandalittlefarm.blogspot.com/2017/02/raised-bed-fruit-trees-part-one.html
DeleteWe have the same thing with our soil, it's clay and VERY difficult to plant in. That's why we've used all raised beds for most of our fruits and vegetables. In the post I linked to above, we have large square wooden raised beds. The fruit trees fit this level. I put down cardboard and then layered soil/compost/etc in the beds and planted the fruit trees. No real digging since the soil was freshly poured and just deep enough. What will happen is the roots will work their way down into the clay and then nature takes its course and the clay deep below breaks down a bit and the roots figure out a way. Those trees are fours years old now and they've grown two or three times as big now. So again, just a mixture of what you think works best. For example as with the blueberries, because they required acidic soil I blended it with that. For the fruit trees I blended raised bed soil with compost and things that would help the particular fruit tree variety.
Our goal is that in a few more years, we will no longer need the raised beds because they are in the ground much further down. The raised beds just give them a head start. Then we hope we can just remove the raised beds and they will just be mounded at the base, if that makes sense.
Feel free to email me directly if you have any questions, glad to help out.
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for asking!