After the Wedding

"After the wedding..." has been the typical response to nearly everything for the past month.

We need to get the tomatoes staked.- "After the wedding"

The chicken coop needs some new paint- "After the wedding"

Let's plan {insert activity here}- "After the wedding"

I need to blog- "After the wedding"

Finally, that day has arrived, 

but not I'm in the process of moving.

So here are a couple of shots.

First a photo of a hen and a couple of chicks at the beach at Half Moon Cay, Bahamas.

Leave it to me to find chickens on a private island in the Caribbean.

(and take way too many photos of them).

Had I thought I could smuggle them through the ships security and through US Customs,

I would have grabbed one and brought it home.

 And last but not least,

a photo from our wildly wonderful photographer

Amanda Lester

Now it's time to get the jungle garden weeded

and start all those other projects that got left behind in the wedding process.

Are You Chitting Me?

On a whim I ordered some seed potatoes from Annie's Heirlooms.

I planned on building a potato tower 

out of wire fencing, straw and compost,

but planning on large garden projects 2 weeks before your wedding isn't the best idea.

So, we stuck them in the ground.

We'll see what happens.

Wordless Wednesday

Early morning drink for the tomatoes before the 80+ degree temps

Koi Pond in the morning with the new papyrus plant

Finally Planted

I finally finished planting the garden

(except for the potatoes- they haven't arrived yet)

The girls enjoyed checking out the new plants-

and scratched up a few new baby tomatoes.

Peas are popping

The beans are popping too.

And so are the cucumbers. 

Can't wait to see them on the trellis.

 And in the meantime I'm trying to finish

all those wedding DIY projects

like the pennant banner.

74 feet long

and 66 feet long.

Now I'm hot gluing them. 

What was I thinking??

The Cucumber Bean Trellis

Last year I made this cucumber trellis.

It served its purpose for the most part,

but it wasn't the greatest.

The chicken wire allowed the cukes to grow through them

but it sometimes pinched off the growing veggie.

It also wasn't very sturdy, so Big E and I knew we'd either have to improve the design of this 

or find something else.

So I found something else here: The Rhinestone Beagle.

Basically it uses 8- 1x2's and 7- 2x2's

some galvanized nails and some twine.

The original design uses 8 foot lengths

but I opted for 6 foot 1x2's for length and

stuck with the 8 foot 2x2's for height.

You're going to use 6 2x2's as your vertical posts and the 1x2's for the cross pieces.

Lay them out and then nail them together.

Be sure to use 2 nails at each juncture to prevent the board from spinning.

The bottom cross piece we nailed 12" from the bottom

and the top piece was about 2 feet from the top

and I think the other 2 were spaced about 18" apart from the others.

(you can tell I'm not one for exact perfect measurements, that why Big E built it)

The original plans called for the 7th 2x2 to lay in the crook at the top

of the trellis and everything gets lashed together with rope or twine.

Because I was too lazy to walk to the barn to get twine 

we were running out of time,

and Big E wasn't keen on lashing, 

he suggested we nail the sides together at the top.

So using 3 1/2" galvanized nails

(they were a little too long but it didn't matter)

he nailed the sides together at each of the 3 posts.

This also made the trellis able to close as if hinged.

This makes it easier to carry and a cinch to store in the winter.

(this is why I'm learning to let Big E build things how he wants 

because he usually knows what he's doing)

 

 And here we have the finished product.

Cucumbers are planted on one side

and pole beans on the other.

One improvement I think we'll have to make is that 

I think there needs to be either 2 more vertical pieces 

and/or extra cross pieces to make for easier climbing for the plants.  

But I think that's something that I can add after the fact 

as it won't be for sturdiness just for the plants' benefit.

Also, because it's so easy to get under the trellis,

I'm going to grow my lettuces under there.

The cucumbers and beans will provide some shade for the lettuce.

We also managed to get nearly everything planted

with the exception of the plants I started

and the tomatoes.

That's on for the weekend.

Busy Sunday

It was a busy weekend in general.

Wedding items were worked on

(including a nearly completed wagon),

there was a birthday party,

a ball game

and finally....

A garden started.

The weather in our area has been a little crazy this spring.

Big E finally got the garden tilled for me for Mother's Day

and yesterday we managed to get some seed in the ground.

Though a little late for some stuff, we planted it anyway to see what happens

(really, temps were in the upper 30's this morning so weather-wise, it isn't that late).

We have a giant row of peas planted since my son likes to eat them off the vine,

spinach, kale, 2 types of cabbage, beets and carrots.

We planned out the rest of the plantings of cukes, tomatoes, pole beans, squash, melons, pumpkins and corn. 

What can I say, we're ambitious.

Now I just have to keep these cluckers out of the garden

since they think it's their very own Olympic sized dust bath. 

And they like kale.

Almost Finished

This Mother's Day I worked on the wagon.

After painting it some more in the morning, 

we were ready to begin assembling parts in the evening.

Assembling the pivot head

Attaching the wheels with the new hubcaps

Completed front wheel section

Attaching the front wheels to the wagon bed

Here is the nearly finished product.

I still have the side panels to put together,

but they need another coat or two of paint.

And once assembled, I have the task of redoing the lettering.

With a little luck, I'll have it all done this week

and be able to move on to planting the freshly tilled garden.

Big E even gave up going to get ice cream 

to get this done for me for Mother's Day.