Saturday, March 17, 2012

Re-configuring the Veggie Garden Headers and Then Some

I got the old header line out of the garden.  It is right where the south row of the new  silver buffalo berries is.  You can't see the hedge very well.  It's still young.  The new 3/4 inch line will run directly from the faucet just outside the green man gate, up the west side of the veggie garden to the center pathway.  Of course it all has to be configured with a filter, pressure regulator and two timers, one for the south side of the veggie garden and one for the north side of the veggie garden.  I have to order some supplies from Dripworks.

I dragged some long, long pieces of 3/4 inch tubing that I wasn't using from the back acreage and placed them on the left or west side of the garden.  They run about 60 or 70 feet to the center of the garden.  Twelve feet to the left of the white pipe is the new silver buffalo berry hedge that will protect the garden from the wind on the west side.  The brown rows on the left are strawberries.  They are moving although I am not positive where I am moving them to.  I have a couple of ideas.

I placed the tubing and found out I have enough used tubing to complete two 90 foot lines up the center of the garden.  One for the north side and one for the south side.  You can see my mountain of compost just inside the line for the north veggie garden section.   The new garden configuration is really nice.  There is plenty of room around the edges and up the center to maneuver a wagon, wheelbarrow or an ATV.   The center driveway is 16 feet wide.  The old Chevy truck will be able to drive in with loads of manure.  Exciting stuff.

The final garden size are two sections of about 90 feet by a little over 40 feet.  That means our rows will be 40 feet long.  Why not 50 feet?  I don't know.  This is just the way it worked out.  I think we were thinking that the flat tube would water more evenly at a shorter distance.

Flat tube will be next.  I found some that was left over from when we originally did the garden five years ago. We will definitely be seeing how far that goes before we buy more.  That stuff is expensive!  

I spent a lot of time today measuring and staking out this final garden configuration.  Then, I cleaned up the dog poop from a winter of pooping.  Yeah, if I lived in Seattle I wouldn't have this problem.  It would all melt away in the rain.  The dogs have five acres to poop on but they really like pooping on the strawberries.  As usual, I took the fencing down months ago and we just got the new fencing up a few days ago.  That always happens to me.  Hubby has a job to work and he also has to do the car repairs.  Throw in some overtime and yard stuff can get put off for quite awhile.  Fortunately, he really has tried hard to get his part done.  Fencing is one thing I just cannot accomplish. 

I took another stab at turning the compost pile and watered it some more. I moved one wagon load of compost from beyond the far side of the goat pen to the main pile. Then I watered the strawberries.   Back to forking some more compost. I cleaned out the goat shed but just left the straw in the pen.  I got them a nice thick bed of new straw. 

I picked up the hoses and such that have been laying around in the garden and brought a couple of slings of wood into the house.  Fed the dogs and cat and goats.  The goats ate their hay so fast, I threw them  a little extra.

I promised myself I wouldn't over do it today and I finally quit working for the day.  I did get a lot done but, it is spring and there is plenty more to do.  At least the veggie garden is starting to come together.  I can start planting peas on St. Patrick's Day according to local gardening lore.  That won't happen but maybe by next week I will be ready.

Really chilly today although over night temps have been well above freezing for several nights in a row the temperature just didn't go up much today.  Fortunately, I have a nice toasty fire going in the woodstove. 

It is snowing pretty good out here.  Maybe I better check the highway reports so that when Hubby calls I can let him know what is going on.  He should be off work in about 20 minutes. 

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