George’s Digital World

Greece, May 2010

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:26:24 +0300

I don’t have much time to write a complete blog post on the trip to Greece, yet, but here are some pictures as a quick update.

Garden Log May '10

Thu, 13 May 2010 04:00:24 +0300

I posted some pictures after 3 weeks from the last update. Since then, we have gone through the first batch of lettuce and radishes and replanted both. We have already started munching on the second batch and tries the swiss chard as well. I have to say that it makes a great salad mixed with romaine.
I also built three new beds, where we have watermelons, cantaloupe, new onions, more romaine and radishes, a few leftover tomatoes, plenty of spinach and five pepper plants. Further back we threw out some grown potatoes and they sprouted just fine, so we will see how they turn out in the fall. Also planted dill, parsley and two kinds of basil.
The tomatoes are doing great after an early scare with sick looking leaves. They now have plenty of flowers and are ready to start the fruit. They are packed real tight, some of them only at 1 foot apart, some at 2. We will see how much fruit they will produce and what size. Zucchini is doing equally well, though they didn’t look so good the first week or so after replanting. They probably don’t like transfers that much.
I am a bit worried that the watermelons and cantaloupes are going to be a waste of time and space but we’ll try them for the last time this year. If there is no fruit in time, they’re out next year, at least until we get some more land to experiment with those.
Planted the beans after inoculating them and they have all sprouted and doing great, except a real small bunny is making it through the fence and eating them. I will have to put a thin net around the wire fence very soon (hopefully tomorrow). Fortunately, it’s not touching anything else.
The broccoli is freaking huge! The heads are out and we just had some yesterday at dinner for the first time. I also planted about 16 cucumbers, but they have not germinated yet. I think they’re a bit late. If they don’t pop up next week either, I’ll reseed them.
Everything is running on the irrigation system which has been reconfigured to accommodate the new plants. After I return from Greece, I will do a video of how this works and how you should put it together.
I have another problem with some moles that are digging tunnels all over the place. I used c-don poison on them and I found a dead one a few days later in the lawn. That’s great, except I can’t use poison too close to the garden and there are a ton more that seems to be alice and well. I closed up all their tunnels to see where they will pop up again. I actually saw one the other day and ran for the pellet gun, but I scared it and couldn’t get a clear shot.
That’s all for now. Enjoy the pictures...

Gardening 2010

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:04:09 +0300

I really wanted to start this blog earlier this year, since this is the first year that I am actually growing everything from seeds. I was set up for time lapse videos, daily pictures, instructional videos of the process etc. However, as usual, I ran short on time. Next year I’ll do a better job documenting. For now, I will just give you a quick update in words up to today and hope to have more frequent updates from now on.
The whole operation began in the basement around mid February. I got several fluorescent bulbs and hang them from the ceiling in a pulley structure so that I could raise them as the plants grew higher. This system proved to also be very convenient for watering the plants. Well, with a little TLC (tender love and care) we got to today and we just harvested our first romaine lettuce and radishes this past week.
This year is also the first year that I built beds. I got tired of trying to work with the clay we have for soil here, so I made four 10’ x 5’ beds and filled them with a top soil, peat moss and pearlite mix.
Again for the first time this year, I installed a drip irrigation system, complete with a timer, pressure regulator and fertilizing unit. I made sure I can easily reconfigure the hose network and dripers based on plant requirements and placement.
Talking about plant placement, I am planning on growing several batches of plants in the same bed spot this year. I started out with romaine lettuce, carrots, onions, radish, swiss chard and cabbage. As soon as something gets harvested, the soil gets fertilized and replanted immediately. At some point, as the weather gets warmer, romaine will be replaced by zucchini or cucumber and swiss chard by green peppers.
I also already have tomatoes in the garden and keeping an eye out for the cold nights. Talking about cold nights, again for the first time this year I got a small greenhouse for $39 from Lowe’s. It already has saved me many dead plants and my neighbor is using it as well. It has a lot of space for how small it is and I am very happy with it.
So, that’s all to catch you up for this season and I’ll try to be more consistent with updates. Enjoy the pictures...

Kayaking

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 04:24:20 +0200

Looking forward to going kayaking again. I now own a Tsunami 140, that needs to be in the water already.
Thinking about joining the MR340 (a race of 340 miles from Kansas City to St. Louis on the Missouri River). Kind of crazy, but at least nothing like this video clip can happen there.