Saturday, April 27, 2013

Starting to get caught up!

Finally I think my medical issues have come under control. I am getting back to my exercise program as I can. With this happening I am getting back to my projects around the place. There are loose ends all over the place but they will be dealt with as can be. The yard/ trees/bushes/plants are a major concern. I’ve made the rounds with an organic 15-15-15 fertilizer and what I thought I had bought, Cal-Dolomita, not. I’m not sure but it acted like plain ol’ lime/calcium. To use it, I mixed it with wood shavings so it didn’t set up like cement as it did when I first tried it. I had to go back and break it up to get it to mix into the soil. That was not what I wanted, Cal-Dolomita does not clump, it readily goes into the soil when watered or during rain fall.
CaO (Soluble en ácido): Min.32,5%
MgO (Soluble en ácido): Min. 17,5%
P2O5 Total (de lenta asimilación): 1.0%
Carbonato de Calcio (CaCO3): Min. 57,8 %
Carbonato de Magnesio Min. 36,7%
Humedad Máx. 1.0%
I like using it and apparently the plants love it, they responded with all kinds of new growth when I used it for the first time. For the bushes and small trees I added about 1 cup to the soil, plants got ¼ to ½ cup depending on their size. I will get another 50 kilo next week.

Back to a project that has taken way too long to complete. I have now finished the water system for the raised bed garden.
 The two pipes extend the full length of the garden.
I had previously drilled the holes in the PVC, there are 3 rows of holes, now I get to go back and clean many of the holes. Then everything just sat and waited for me to get around-to-it.  The tomato plants are so big that I’ll spend some time just getting the spacing of the pipes.
Our water pressure varies a lot during the day so I plan on an early morning to do my watering. The timer, that I didn't show, is a mechanical timer which works fine, depending on needs I can set whatever time needed (when I get around-to-it). I can set it quickly then go do other chores. I can now put seedlings or seeds in at most anytime. The big thing will be figuring out when to plant what for the micro climate at 3,800 feet where the garden is but the temperature and the clear poly roof will allow me to plant a lot of things year round or close to it.
Some tomatoes are ripe, would have been bigger had I been up on my watering. The large leaf plant is a lima bean, that too needs to get its water regularly. The white quail in the lower left has a nest in the grass, she had 4 eggs yesterday.
I thought the caladium was done for when it died off last season but it has came back nicely, perhaps we can find a better home for it in the near future. Today they look even better after getting watered yesterday.
To give the Trueno trees (chinese privet) a better start in life I put two of them in 5 gallon buckets, the other two will be put in buckets this week (lots of new leaves already). Once the winds die down then they’ll be planted along the fence. The two pomegranates in the block planters on the right are starting to take off as well, they will stay in this are for a little protection from the strong winds out of the north north-west.

The CX chick in the foreground is the same age as the chick on the rock which was the only chick the mama hen hatched (she is back behind). The meat chick is one of the 6 I bought for her to raise with the 1 chick which has worked out really well. That hen is one furious mama, even now the cats don’t go near.

One of the pullets we hatched here that is starting to lay. We are now getting at least 6 eggs a day, more to come.

Well, even though it is Saturday I’ll still fuss with something that has been waiting.

For ya’ll up North, spring is coming!

Art



2 comments:

  1. Hi Art,

    Nice to at last see more pix of the garden and new comments about what all's going on.

    A couple of questions, though...

    -What is a 'Trueno' tree? Trueno in spanish means 'thunder'. Do you have a Latin (scientific) name for this species?

    -Also, the photo of 'coleus' you mention above... Those look more like Caladiums, which are ornamental 'elephant ears' with multicolored leaves, though they are much smaller plants than usual elephant ears.

    Cheers!

    Paul M.
    ==

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Trueno is a chinese privet, ligustrum lucidum an evergreen. I messed up, we had been talking about our coleus as the dog had laid in it and made a mess of it, you are right, it should be caladium and they are as big as they get. We do have elephant ears which the leaf gets to be about 18"+ long. I posted photos of those some time past. Thanks for catching my boo boo.

    ReplyDelete