Lots of pictures of my doings of the last weekend.
First is the cold frame with temporary cover, a large double walled bag (originally a airbag used to buffer lumber loads on freight cars). Only thing in it at moment is the snow peas that haven't spouted yet.
The next is the spouted snow peas. These are the ones that spouted in the house within 24 hours of being planted in paper pots. I am NOT having luck with peas, they are not spouting, either in the ppots or in the ground. Of the peas that were planted 4 weeks ago only 5 have shown any green.
Next, the strawberries and the wifes flowers. Didn't really want to plant the berries there but they were get to big for their pots. Over the summer I'll build the pyramid to transplant them to. Now where to put it?
At the same time that I got the strawberries, I got a six pack of Pac Choi, which got planted next to the cabbage. As you can see something is chowing down on them. I'm assuming that it's cutworms so will collar them and the cabbage with rings like the garlic. Next to the milk jug is the last of the grown from seed cabbage, don't think it's going to make it, after cold weather, insect attack and being blown away.
As I have 6 large beds and hope for more, I need a rot proof and cheap way to border them. It would take five 10ft and an 8ft board to enclose each of my 25x4 beds. So, I am trying concrete. Will make 4ft long planks of concrete which will be joined together to make the long sides of the bed, with one across the ends. It measures 4ft by 11 inches by 1.5 inch and takes about a third of a cubic foot of concrete. This is my second attempt at making a concrete plank.
I'm using 80lb bags of Quikcrete, which makes about a half foot of concrete so I have a bit left over. This extra goes into the large bucket to make a stepping stone ( first one is on the upper left of picture).
This is the results of the first attempt, fill for the wind blown hole in front of the container door. I think I took it out of the form too soon.
6 comments:
That's not cutworm, they'd take them right off at the stem. Could be slugs, maybe.
I hate working with concrete, but that sure would be a rigid and rot proof side for the beds. That's a great looking cold frame! John brought over the windows for mine, but never showed up to build them. Now I don't need them until next fall. What are the measurements of yours?
It's 49.5 x 25.5, cut the boards at 48 and 24 but overlapped them when I put it together. What size are the windows?
35x51 measuring the aluminum flange around the outside.
I thought about building beds with concrete, but shied away from it. Never thought about making concrete 'planks'. Top work!
Regarding the concrete debacle, you might look at the hypertufa forum on Gardenweb. Might give you some idea of how to approach this more effectively. Very helpful place.
About the munchers on your pak choi, it could be slugs or snails, or cabbage worms. Try going out in the middle of the night with a flashlight and seeing what you find under the leaves. If it's snails or slugs, try Sluggo. If it's worms, try hand=picking and dumping in a cup of salt water, or spraying them with ammonia. Actually, that works for snails and slugs, too.
My sister and her partner made beds by using "urbanite," or broken concrete chunks. Set on edge, they made something like a stone wall for the beds. They're sturdy and free and holding really well.
If you had access to them, maybe that would work?
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