Seedlings

Two-week update on the seedlings with pictures.  All are up and growing.  Two pods didn't sprout and that's ok 'cause it was in the plan.  Looking at the picture below, front to back the seedlings are:  Broccoli, Emerald Giant Bell Pepper, Marconi Pepper (sweet pepper), Corno Di Toro Rosso Pepper (sweet/spicy), Fengyuan Purple Eggplant (long asian variety), Chocolate Stripes tomato (purple heirloom noted for taste), and my fantastic Traveler tomato (Arkansas hybrid).  They'll go out in the SWCs between first and second week of April.  Next weekend, I'll plant the other seed pods with squash and melons.

Here's my ghetto seed-starting setup.  As stated previously, it was built from leftover deck wood.  I bought 2 36-cell seed-starting kits from Lowes, a 97-cent thermometer, and one "grow" tube for the shop light I had lying around.  I think the tube was $9.00 which is why I only bought one.  the other side is a standard fluorescent tube.  The silver backing you see is a Mylar blanket.  I bought them some time back to cover the SWCs instead of plastic bags.  I think i paid $35 or so for 50 of them.  I'm using one to reflect the light back onto the seedlings.  By-the-way, Mylar is a material similar to foil only it's plastic-feeling and pretty darned strong for how thin it is.  It was supposedly developed for use in NASA and is often used in the Survival community as an emergency blanket as it's reflective properties reflect light and heat extremely well.

Garden Update

Container Garden:  The seeds planted last Monday are all up except for the 3 types of pepper.  Added an extension to the first flow director to direct water flow directly into the holding barrels.  It was too far up and the wind was pushing the down-flow all over the place.

Fruit Trees:  Sprayed dormant oil on mother-in-laws apples last week.  Today, sprayed all mine including apple, pear, and peach.  Also, put down some copper, lime, and nitrogen.  I thought I had some 10-10-10, but evidently not.  I'm going to try and produce a peach crop this year.  Last year, I removed the fruit.  The apple and pear still appear too young and the pear isn't a good grower for Arkansas due to fire blight issues.  I'll keep 'em, but am probably going to plant two more types.

Our Valentine Milestone

Gina and I revealed our intentions to our bosses today.  It went pretty much as expected.  They were both happy for us.  Gina was very happy with the reaction of her boss although I don't know the intimate details of how it went down.  Mine, particularly, did his best to hide his background thinking while talking to me.  He did a really good job.  I've been there before.  As a boss facing this position myself in the past, I understand.  You are happy for the individual, but all the while mission thinking kicks in and you begin wondering how to progress from here even as you're absorbing it all.  My co-boss (of sorts) went through physical manifestations almost akin to the grieving process.  It was a little comical and at the end of the day, after much deliberation on how to manage the mess, he too smiled and congratulated me.

It's odd the things you think about as you change your life path and work those steps to reality.  I've got a while to go and I'm already thinking how much I'll miss the job and the people.  Just yesterday, I was thinking how much I was ready to go.  And, really, I am ready.

Started Seeds Indoors

Continuing with the SWC gardening, I'd decided to try some unusual veggies this year, some of which are heirlooms that you can't find at Lowes.  In order to make that happen, you gotta start your plants indoors and that requires some work as well...even temps of around 80 degrees and a light source.  I once again re-purposed some things I had lying around, specifically deck railing wood and a 4' fluorescent shop light w/bulbs.   It's too ugly a contraption to take a picture of so I'm not going to post a pic.  The intent is to get a head start on the weather so crops can mature quicker and produce longer before the intense heat here curbs the production.

I'll tell you a secret as well.  That fuddy-duddy preacher next door always produces an awesome garden every year.  It will give me a small guilty pleasure to see him staring at my most-awesome SWC garden with envy.  I might have a lemonade and a great big smile on my face sitting on the deck as he slaves away to make his perfect little garden he does every year...with his 3 acre lot farmed with a huge Kabota tractor w/every known attachment known to man...and his oversized zero-turn lawn mower, and his 4-wheeler that he rides to the garden that's only 150 feet away...whew, where was I going with that one?  LOL.  Ok, don't tell anyone I said that, ok.

So, today, I planted several varieties including a large bell pepper for stuffing, a sweet spicy stuffing/salad pepper, a sweet grilling pepper, an asian Egglant, my dependable Arkansas Traveler tomato, and an heirloom purple tomato.  In about 3-4 weeks, I'll start the melons, squash, and cucumber seeds indoors as well as plant the spinach and lettuce outdoors. 

Update:
The rain capture barrels worked perfectly first time.  That's unheard of for me.  Usually, the little projects I work on take some adjustments.

Rain Capture Barrels

Part 2 of my attempt to capture rain water for the self-watering container garden.  I bought 3 plastic 55-gallon barrels from a guy in Little Rock.  They used to contain soy sauce and had the number 2 stamp on the bottom so I know they're food safe.  Each barrel has two holes with caps.  One of two caps has a 3/4 inch threaded port that is blocked off.  If you cut the plug out, it becomes functional.  If you look at the second pic below, you can see where I plumbed the 3 barrels together with 3/4 inch PVC.  Since the barrels are upside down and the plumbing is on the bottom, the weight of the water provides the pressure to the spigot.

Looking at the first pic for reference, I'll explain how this works. Rain from the gutter down spout goes into the first flow diverter I talked about in the previous post.  Once the 4" pipe fills, the diverter outputs to the left barrel.  If you look closely, you can see where I cut a hole in the barrel and installed a plastic drain cap.  It is covered with screen material to keep debris and mosquitoes out.  The middle and right barrels do not have this.  They only have a small vent hole in them.  I did silicone a small piece of screen material over the vent holes for mosquitoes as well.  Because the 3 barrels are plumbed together, as the first barrel fills, the water pressure equalizes the middle and right barrel effectively filling all 3 barrels at the same time.  Once all 3 are full, the left barrel has a 1/2 inch threaded overflow so all extra water flows out.  I used a threaded overflow in case I want to plumb the overflow to another direction later.  Sticking through the deck fence, is the water spigot to connect a hose to.  Above it is a hose holder with compartment for attachments.

In pic 2, you may notice that there is 2 removable connectors that allow me to disconnect the barrels to clean as needed.  The system is ready and we'll see with the next rain if it's functional or not.  All that's left is to cover the barrels with lattice and paint the diverter assembly so it all doesn't look so red-neck!