I got two more holes dug in the back yard after work and started on a third when it was time for dinner. Not very exciting, is it?
I can tell, however, that I'm digging in areas not planted before. I've been hitting too much broken asphalt in the ground. This evening one of the holes produced a small blue button. One thing about this neighborhood -- they buried their mistakes...
Last night I dealt with an accounting issue that I put off for about seven weeks. Tonight I caught up with the ironing. Tomorrow I have a couple of other niggling items I'll try to get done. Slowly but surely.
Tomorrow we are planning to plant tomatoes in the evening after work. But at this pace we won't get caught up with planting until June...
Showing posts with label Digging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digging. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Finished Processing the Organic Compost!
I finished hand turning the rest of the back yard tomato growing area!
It took two or three days to hand turn the approximately 10 x 13 area. Because I left this dirt in place I only went down a few inches -- say 4 to 6 inches -- versus the other digging where I made a large dirt pile to the side -- going down 6 to 12 inches or more. There were sprinkler pipes criss-crossing the remaing area so I didn't feel comfortable using the Mantis. I applied a liberal amount of compost over this area on Wednesday night and turned the dirt a second time on Thursday.
Overall I pulled out about two gallons of rock and asphalt and about one gallon of roots...not much at all in the grand scheme of things. As noted previously, I didn't dig as deep as other areas. However, I did find three full bricks about one inch under the ground laid end to end. What's surprising about this is that I didn't find these bricks earlier through the years while planting seedlings.
This still left a significant amount of compost. I put a small cart full of compost into one of the raised beds and another cartful onto the "South Garden". I put out another dozen or so cartfuls of compost all over the back yard growing area. After some point I was able to move the compost pile off of the south side over toward the center of the growing area by pulling the bottom tarp. We have been covering the compost with tarp, but this last time the pile got small enough that we laid down one of the tarps on the ground, placed the compost on top, covered the compost with the rest of the tarps and anchored it with bricks and cinder blocks.
I evened out the compost piles using the bow rake, then watered it down. For all practical purposes, I am done with this project!!
There still are other offshoots planned. My wife wants me to turn the "South Garden" so sooner or later I'll get around to that. I need to move a hay bale and the wood pile sitting on top of it (This pile got moved around just like the compost pile) back to east of the lemon tree.
The other item I have relevant to tomato growing is to process our own passive compost pile. We have a huge pile of decaying organic matter in a roughly seven foot in diameter chicken wire fence. My goal is to pull all of it out and make three piles. The piles are (1) Matter that still needs to decompose (2) Matter that shouldn't be in there (think pine needles from our ponderosa pine) and at the bottom (3) Good self-made compost!
While I'd like this good compost to be on the tomato growing area, I really don't care. I'm more interested in getting it distributed anywhere on our property. Only our ponderosa pine is benefiting from this compost and it doesn't need the help.
It took two or three days to hand turn the approximately 10 x 13 area. Because I left this dirt in place I only went down a few inches -- say 4 to 6 inches -- versus the other digging where I made a large dirt pile to the side -- going down 6 to 12 inches or more. There were sprinkler pipes criss-crossing the remaing area so I didn't feel comfortable using the Mantis. I applied a liberal amount of compost over this area on Wednesday night and turned the dirt a second time on Thursday.
Overall I pulled out about two gallons of rock and asphalt and about one gallon of roots...not much at all in the grand scheme of things. As noted previously, I didn't dig as deep as other areas. However, I did find three full bricks about one inch under the ground laid end to end. What's surprising about this is that I didn't find these bricks earlier through the years while planting seedlings.
This still left a significant amount of compost. I put a small cart full of compost into one of the raised beds and another cartful onto the "South Garden". I put out another dozen or so cartfuls of compost all over the back yard growing area. After some point I was able to move the compost pile off of the south side over toward the center of the growing area by pulling the bottom tarp. We have been covering the compost with tarp, but this last time the pile got small enough that we laid down one of the tarps on the ground, placed the compost on top, covered the compost with the rest of the tarps and anchored it with bricks and cinder blocks.
I evened out the compost piles using the bow rake, then watered it down. For all practical purposes, I am done with this project!!
There still are other offshoots planned. My wife wants me to turn the "South Garden" so sooner or later I'll get around to that. I need to move a hay bale and the wood pile sitting on top of it (This pile got moved around just like the compost pile) back to east of the lemon tree.
The other item I have relevant to tomato growing is to process our own passive compost pile. We have a huge pile of decaying organic matter in a roughly seven foot in diameter chicken wire fence. My goal is to pull all of it out and make three piles. The piles are (1) Matter that still needs to decompose (2) Matter that shouldn't be in there (think pine needles from our ponderosa pine) and at the bottom (3) Good self-made compost!
While I'd like this good compost to be on the tomato growing area, I really don't care. I'm more interested in getting it distributed anywhere on our property. Only our ponderosa pine is benefiting from this compost and it doesn't need the help.
Monday, December 30, 2013
The South Side Area is Done
The south side area of the back yard tomato growing area is now complete.
I had taken out some of the encroaching grass previously (I think it was a week ago Friday) and expected it to be relatively easy to pull out the rest. Wrong. The remaining grass was thicker. It took me parts of three days to get all the grass.
Yesterday (Sunday) I dug out the south area using the shovel. Originally I had the thought of just turning the dirt but I decided there were too many underground roots to simply turn the area. So I dug it out and made a long dirt pile in the "Middle East".
The area was roughly 4 feet by 13 feet. That's a rather large area and took me five or six hours. I pulled out approximately 8 gallons of asphalt, roots and some rock. Our disposable trash can is pretty heavy from these materials. Fortunately, most of this dreck was larger chunks of asphalt -- easier to accumulate and handle. The dreck in the "Middle East" and the "Far East" was mostly smaller rocks.
In spite of the above, this area was much easier to dig than the "Middle East" or the "Far East". My wife speculated that this was because the sprinklers hit this area and not the other two. I believe she's exactly correct.
I was expecting to finally hit a sprinkler pipe while hand digging and I did. It was very near the western border of the roughly 13 foot area, maybe two inches inside the rectangle. I put a board down to mark the location.
I put the dirt pile back on the south area late Sunday afternoon. It was too windy to apply compost.
Today my wife put on amendments. I added compost and used the Mantis over a vast majority of the area. Then I moved the remaining compost onto this south area.
Based on my slowness in taking out the grass in this south area, the 9 x 9 area (which is really more like 6 x 6 with an additional area to the north, making it roughly a 6 x 8 foot area) will take much too long to process for tomato growing. I just don't have this type of time.
The remaining area (around 100 square feet or so? I didn't look closely) may just need hand turning with a shovel. If so I can have it ready in a day or two. But I'll make that judgement when I start digging. After all, I had the same idea with the south area but decided to override that based on roots underneath the ground, as mentioned previously.
In my mind, this remaining area should be the easiest to dig outside of the area underneath and to the east of the lemon tree. That's my perception...but reality could be different. Let's hope for the best.
There will be compost left after this area is complete.
I had taken out some of the encroaching grass previously (I think it was a week ago Friday) and expected it to be relatively easy to pull out the rest. Wrong. The remaining grass was thicker. It took me parts of three days to get all the grass.
Yesterday (Sunday) I dug out the south area using the shovel. Originally I had the thought of just turning the dirt but I decided there were too many underground roots to simply turn the area. So I dug it out and made a long dirt pile in the "Middle East".
The area was roughly 4 feet by 13 feet. That's a rather large area and took me five or six hours. I pulled out approximately 8 gallons of asphalt, roots and some rock. Our disposable trash can is pretty heavy from these materials. Fortunately, most of this dreck was larger chunks of asphalt -- easier to accumulate and handle. The dreck in the "Middle East" and the "Far East" was mostly smaller rocks.
In spite of the above, this area was much easier to dig than the "Middle East" or the "Far East". My wife speculated that this was because the sprinklers hit this area and not the other two. I believe she's exactly correct.
I was expecting to finally hit a sprinkler pipe while hand digging and I did. It was very near the western border of the roughly 13 foot area, maybe two inches inside the rectangle. I put a board down to mark the location.
I put the dirt pile back on the south area late Sunday afternoon. It was too windy to apply compost.
Today my wife put on amendments. I added compost and used the Mantis over a vast majority of the area. Then I moved the remaining compost onto this south area.
Based on my slowness in taking out the grass in this south area, the 9 x 9 area (which is really more like 6 x 6 with an additional area to the north, making it roughly a 6 x 8 foot area) will take much too long to process for tomato growing. I just don't have this type of time.
The remaining area (around 100 square feet or so? I didn't look closely) may just need hand turning with a shovel. If so I can have it ready in a day or two. But I'll make that judgement when I start digging. After all, I had the same idea with the south area but decided to override that based on roots underneath the ground, as mentioned previously.
In my mind, this remaining area should be the easiest to dig outside of the area underneath and to the east of the lemon tree. That's my perception...but reality could be different. Let's hope for the best.
There will be compost left after this area is complete.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Finished Preparing the "Middle East"
I made more progress on the back yard, just not the expected progress.
Monday I went out to pull some grass from the 9 x 9 area turned last year. But it was mud. The sprinklers went off that morning and rewatered the whole area. The sprinklers went off on Thursday as well. It rained Thursday and we didn't turn off the sprinklers in time. On Saturday I finally shut off the sprinkler head within this 9 x 9 patch of dirt. Now this area might dry out but it still looks like soup...
So instead of pulling out this grass, I started on a rectangular area just west of the "Far East", an area we've dubbed the "Middle East". I finished turning a roughly 3 x 6 foot area on Wednesday, my wife added soil amendments, I added compost and used the Mantis to turn it in.
Tuesday I did some shovel work for my wife, turning a raised bed and adding holes to "Alongi Row" for some ficus nitidas.
As mentioned, it rained on Thursday. It was too wet to dig on Friday so I pulled out some grass that had started to encroach on our tomato growing area. This is different than the 9 x 9 patch of grass that we hope to clear out for an additional growing area. The patch of grass I removed on Friday is easier to handle. I pulled out about half of the encroaching grass.
On Sunday we completely processed a 3 x 8 area to the south of the area completed on Wednesday. This patch of dirt was relatively easy to turn.
I pulled out four or five gallons of rocks and asphalt over the week in the "Middle East".
I'm happy that the "Middle East" and the "Far East" are completed. I think these are the two hardest growing areas. I had become somewhat disenchanted with my slow progress so far but the relatively fast Sunday work renewed my spirits.
The next patch of dirt to turn will be the southern area of the back yard growing area not previously turned. This was an excellent suggestion from my wife. I was going to move the compost pile somewhere else, but my wife suggested I can do this area without moving much of the compost pile. She's right.
But first I need to complete pulling out the encroached grass in the southwest area of our back yard tomato growing area.
Monday I went out to pull some grass from the 9 x 9 area turned last year. But it was mud. The sprinklers went off that morning and rewatered the whole area. The sprinklers went off on Thursday as well. It rained Thursday and we didn't turn off the sprinklers in time. On Saturday I finally shut off the sprinkler head within this 9 x 9 patch of dirt. Now this area might dry out but it still looks like soup...
So instead of pulling out this grass, I started on a rectangular area just west of the "Far East", an area we've dubbed the "Middle East". I finished turning a roughly 3 x 6 foot area on Wednesday, my wife added soil amendments, I added compost and used the Mantis to turn it in.
Tuesday I did some shovel work for my wife, turning a raised bed and adding holes to "Alongi Row" for some ficus nitidas.
As mentioned, it rained on Thursday. It was too wet to dig on Friday so I pulled out some grass that had started to encroach on our tomato growing area. This is different than the 9 x 9 patch of grass that we hope to clear out for an additional growing area. The patch of grass I removed on Friday is easier to handle. I pulled out about half of the encroaching grass.
On Sunday we completely processed a 3 x 8 area to the south of the area completed on Wednesday. This patch of dirt was relatively easy to turn.
I pulled out four or five gallons of rocks and asphalt over the week in the "Middle East".
I'm happy that the "Middle East" and the "Far East" are completed. I think these are the two hardest growing areas. I had become somewhat disenchanted with my slow progress so far but the relatively fast Sunday work renewed my spirits.
The next patch of dirt to turn will be the southern area of the back yard growing area not previously turned. This was an excellent suggestion from my wife. I was going to move the compost pile somewhere else, but my wife suggested I can do this area without moving much of the compost pile. She's right.
But first I need to complete pulling out the encroached grass in the southwest area of our back yard tomato growing area.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)