Monday, March 20, 2006

Past Inspiration


Looking Toward The Hayfield 4/20/03



Garden & Greenhouse 4/20/03



Spring Greens 4/20/03

6 comments:

  1. "Future inspiration" is a better title, I think! :) I'm coming out of the shadows to tell you thanks for all the wonderful ideas and photos you share on your blogs--one of these days when my husband and I have space to plant, my kitchen garden will be ready to take on life... I thoroughly enjoy reading your blogs, and your positive take on life!

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  2. Hi Marie,
    Welcome to the farm (and garden)! I'm so glad you decided to come out and say hello. Thanks so much for your kind words. LOL, I did have "future" in this title at one point.

    Well, while you're waiting for your own garden to materialize, you are welcome to e-visit mine anytime. I look forward to hearing from you again. : )

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  3. I can tell already I going to love your new blog. I love looking at other peoples gardens to see what they're growing.

    What is your gardening zone? Your daffodils look a little ahead of mine here (just outside of Boston MA)

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  4. Ohhhhh, your garden is beautiful. :-)

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  5. What a wonderful garden!

    I have a question regarding the white PVC hoops you have holding the netting on one of the beds. What fitting and what dimension pipe did you use? How long do you expect it to last in the sun?
    I've been enjoying your other blog since I discoverd it a few weeks ago and am looking forward to enjoying this one even more.

    Angela

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  6. Hi U.A.,
    I, too, love peeking into other peoples' gardens. Officially we are Zone 6, but since our farm is down in a "low lying area" (a 300 foot deep valley), it's really more like Zone 5. We get frosts past our official April 15th frost date, sometimes early frosts before our offical October 15th frost date, and colder temps than "up top." I think the coldest I've seen on our thermometer was -15 degrees F. It's not too bad except for the fact that it's pretty much impossible to grow fruit trees here because of the early frosts. At the first farm I lived on in Missouri, we planted about 30 swarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees. I sure miss them.

    Hi Jamie,
    Thanks so much!

    Hi Angela,
    Welcome to the farm--and garden! So glad you've been enjoying your visits here.

    Regarding what we call the "mini greenhouses" in the garden. Each raised bed is 4 feet by 8 feet. On two of the beds we constructed the PVC frames (one of which you can see in the photos.) The one you see is the first one we made. We used 1/2-inch PVC water pipe (very inexpensive and easy to bend) and 45 degree angle pieces. We laid a scrap of 2x4 woven wire fencing on the top to give it more stability (that's what we had laying around, but chicken wire or other wire fencing would work fine). In the fall and winter I usually cover the frame with thick clear plastic--this creates the greenhouse. On sunny days, I simply pull up the sides because it heats up real fast under there.

    The second mini greenhouse frame is now over the bed to the right of that first one. We wanted it taller, so we ended up running a center ridge pipe down the middle. We used 4-way fittings to secure the side pieces to the ridge piece. It is not only taller, but more stable. We never bothered to put fencing on that one. The pipes are connected to the raised beds with simple "U" shaped metal thingies (sorry, can't remember what they're called). The pipe fits snugly inside the "U," and then there are tabs on either side that are nailed to the wood bed.

    Overall, this was an experimental project that worked out very well. And it is a perfect example of what I call Gardening On The Cheap. The pipes have been out in the weather since 2003, and show no signs of deteriorating. And when they do, replacing them will be easy and inexpensive. Hope this helps! I look forward to hearing from you again. : )

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March 2013 update: My apologies for the inconvenience - I know word verification is a pain - but I've had to turn it on to help stop the ridiculous number of anonymous spam comments I've been getting every day. Thanks for your understanding.

Welcome to InMyKitchenGarden.com! Thanks so much for taking the time to write. While I'm not always able to reply to every comment, I receive and enjoy reading them all.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and I especially love to hear about what's going on in your own garden. I know, too, that other readers also delight in reading about your garden successes, failures, helpful tips, and lessons learned. Feel free to leave comments on older posts!

I try my best to answer all questions, but sometimes it takes me a few days to get to them. And sometimes, I'm sorry to say, they fall through the cracks, and for that I sincerely apologize.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope you enjoy your visits to my kitchen garden!