Patio Project ~ One year in the making

Its amazing what can happen in a year.... and A LOT of hard work.

Our patio like our back yard was a hot mess as you can see from the pics below.

We spent all of last summer concreting the giant holes and cracks and this year painting with Rustoliums fancy smancy concrete paint. (Same paint we used on the garage.)

The biggest thing I learned from this is concrete SUCKS!!!! 

Seriously the hardest work I have ever done in my life.

Secondly.... thin layers of concrete does not hold up through the winter. 

(Duh... right?)

Here is what this mess looked like before hand.....

This was early spring 2014

Some concrete done but still work to do....

 

This is halfway painted with some concrete to complete.

Notice that horrible color? 

That was the first color we picked called Graywash, the thought process was that the lighter the color the cooler the ground would stay. While this might be true it was hideous and we hated it so we went a little darker.

..............Drum roll please..........

Final before shot

TA DA!!!!!!!

Can wait for the first BBQ!!

Who's in?

Water Works

So this post took forever!!!

That's because I cant make a stinking decision to save my life sometimes!!

After probably 30 trips to Home Depot I finally decided that simple is best. I did decide during this process that I really like the sprinkler isle... there's so many fun things. I should have been a sprinkler designer. :)

I did two different sprinkler "systems" the first was pretty straight forward and was fairly decisive as to how to build it. It was for the rose garden along the drive way. A garden that I would rarely water because it was always a pain in the ass. Now its super simple!! The pics don't really tell the whole story, but the point is the poor roses might actually get water this year.

What sprinklers you might say??

Oh there they are!!

One of the fun little guys I found in the sprinkler isle was this guy....

Please ignore the mess..... pre blow out :)

That little guy does a pretty good job and where i don't have sprinklers i just drilled holes. I also have an easy on/off connection so the hose just snaps on.

Overall I would give myself an A- on this project. 

It could use some improvement, but overall pretty dang good. :)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The second  "system" I built was for the large garden. This is where I could not make a decision at all!

It took me weeks of thinking, trips to Home Depot, and multiple mind changes to finally settle on the plan I originally intended on in the first place.

Here is how it all came together....

Original plan all laid out.....

Weeks of decision making went by......

Decision Made! (original plan)

Supplies all laid out on my handy 'bench'

Making cuts and gluing them together.
(I shouldn't admit this, but the purple stuff smells really good)

Learning #1: instead of gallivanting around the garden with little pieces, round up the pieces you can do together in one spot then glue.

that purple stuff is tricky!!

Learning #2: Glue first THEN drill holes. (its sorta like pillage THEN burn)

One of my pipes was glued all skiwampas and shot straight in the air.

Luckily I learned this lesson before I drilled any more pipes.

Learning #3: make sure EVERYTHING is glued before you turn the water on

 

DUH!

I found this nifty guy in my favorite isle at Home Depot. 

It allows me to take the two pieces apart for storage and tilling. I was super proud when I found it. :)

I think this system I would give myself a B.... couple lessons learned but I think it will function just fine. 

All that was left is to get my little starts in the ground. 

Bo was nice enough to re-till the ground for me.

We are doing the three sisters planting method. 

The corn I started in the house weeks ago and planted three little beans around each corn.

 

2-3 corn stalks and 3 bean seeds.
I threw in a few corn seed for good measure

Half done!

All done!!

That last pic shows the sprinklers on for only 5 minutes!
While the sprinkler could have been a bit cleaner in the way they look and function, they still put down a ton of water quickly. Ultimately that is the goal, to ensure we are conserving as much as possible but still getting the plants what they need.

All that is left to plant is the squash, I really struggled with my seeds this year and honestly I have NO idea why. Its really frustrating. I sadly will need to buy starts this week ... luckily I have some great local growers!!

Lesson #1

So look who decided to show up to the party..

That my friends is a 1/2 inch pea. 

Three weeks late.

Ultimately I chalk this up to the lack of sun on the south garden until April.

I think that this spring has also been colder than usual and has confused things.

That's all for now.... more to follow with the sprinkler/irrigation project.

Potatoes are in!

Life took over a bit and so we are a week or so late in getting these little guys in the ground.

Ultimately its OK though because part of the instructions said that taking the extra time to sprout in the house will actually help speed up the process when the potatoes do get planed. While we were busy with the day jobs, I had my potatoes in a brown bag with an apple helping the sprouting process.  The gasses that the apple puts off helps the potatoes sprout faster.  It worked and all my little potatoes had sprouts AND leaves!!

It has also been pretty cold the past few weeks so I had not been in much of a hurry to get them in the cold dirt.  Ultimately though if I never get them in the ground, they will never grow and this was the first weekend were able to.

In our research the type of potato used in potato boxes is the difference between getting 5 potatoes and 50 potatoes. For a potato box you must use a long season type. For our area (Salt Lake City) all that you can find in the nursery are the short or mid season variety's. We had to order our potato seeds in and chose to use Yellow Finn Potatoes due to their long season and the promise of a buttery potato. You can find these at a number of online retailers but I ordered mine here.

Not that it needs to fully be explained, but here are our steps for planting.

We laid down a layer of organic dirt and straw as a little bed for the potatoes like so:

Here they are all laid out

Then we (Bo) put about 2-3 inches of layered dirt, organic compost and straw over them

Here is the compost we used. It was about 8.00 from Home Depot

Cute action shot...... right?

After a quick water they were ready for the final inspection ...... from Trigger

I also have a few potatoes that I am going to plant traditionally to see the comparison.

I am crossing my fingers we will get some growth soon.

Due to the cold and the sun/clouds not behaving we haven't seen much growth yet elsewhere in the garden so cross your fingers with me!

Planting Asparagus

We love Asparagus and probably eat it every week.

It only makes sense that we just grow our own...... It makes even more sense because I love purple so much that the Asparagus should be purple. 

So that's what I bought!
(The real story is that is what came into the nursery first... but I'm not complaining!)

I have heard it is sweeter and I am stoked to find out.

So here is "How to Plant Asparagus" Ember's Version

Asparagus generally takes 3 years to produce for the first time so I did the smart thing and got them from a nursery as roots and crowns. That way I hope to have them produce on the first year. When I picked them up from the nursery this is how the little guys looked. There is 8 plants in there.....

Some of the advice I read online said that you should soak the roots for 15 minutes or so in warm water or a compost tea. The tea sounded pretty advanced for me but I know how to heat water pretty well so we went with that method.

Here is Trigger posing with the bucket of soaking roots. 

Bo was also super nice and dug my trenches for me which you can also see in the pic

My nursery is amazing and the lady that helps me there is amazing too.... I go to Western Gardens  and love how they try to buy only local and stick to organic as much as possible. I'm not a stickler on organic (yet) but will always by local I can. Anyways, my lady (I should really learn her name - I'm horrible) hand drew me planting instructions.  

Here is my rendition that looks pretty close and pretty horrible.

Basically you dig a hole or a trench then place a mound of compost in the hole. The asparagus is then placed on top of that mound with its crown on top and little spider legs draping down. 

This is how the asparagus looked when it was done with its bath.

Spacing for these guys should be 6 inches deep x 16 inches spaced. 

Remember how I said should? 

Well I may or may not have crammed more into that space than that.......

We had planned on only having 8 plants in that bundle, but there was actually 10! Score!\

Here is a little better representation of the mound and spider legs

And Trigger helping.......

Once these little guys are in the ground you cover the roots with dirt/compost and make sure the little crown is still peeking out of the soil a bit. The instructions I read said that after a few days the ground will settle in and you can add more dirt. 

After a quick water (using the bucket water from earlier - I'm green like that yo!) I put in the fence to keep the little monkeys out. Since these veggies will be permanent I decided to splurge a little and buy a pretty fence. I absolutely LOVE wrought iron fences, but I wasn't going to splurge that much. I found the perfect thing at Home Depot that gave me that look and it was the perfect length. It couldn't have worked out better!

Here is the finished product!

It somewhat looks like I have a little cemetery in my back yard now.

If you know me at all or follow me on Pinterest you know that I am pretty much OK with that. :)

(P.S. You should totally follow me on Pinterest)

Building the Potato Box

I have wanted to try a potato box for a couple years now. The promise of 100 lbs of potatoes in such a small space sounds amazing!!

And....  way to good to be true.

From the information I have read its hit and miss on the success rate of these things, but I am going to give it a go just the same. If I take some of the best practices such as using the correct type of potato,planting in a ring, and covering just the stems I am hoping for tons of potato come fall.

Cross your fingers with me!!

This is the basic plans we decided to follow:

The supplies were a bit more than I would have liked to spend, but that's what I get for taking Bo with me. The 2x6x8 were like $6.00 each but they are really nice boards. I almost feel bad using them to throw dirt and water on but if it gets me tons of potatoes its worth it. Ultimately all of the materials were really good quality and the box turned out awesome.... that's also what I get for taking Bo with me. :)

Ok, lets get to the good stuff!

This post will probably be picture heavy, but after all that's way better than reading my nonsense so here we go.....

Raw Materials

Boards cut to 21" and 24"

I got to do most of the cuts today with the "Saw of Death".

I have always been terrified of cutting my head off with that thing.

In hind-site it was a completely irrational fear.

(Side note: see that blue stuff? That is homemade Windex my friends! 

It works fabulously and that whole gallon cost me less than $1.00 ~ Let me know and I would be happy to share the recipe)

Holes Pre-drilled

Predrilled Holes

Notice how the pre-drilled holes are staggered? 21" on the outside and 24" on the inside.
That was one of my many lessons today.

I totally would have not thought about that myself.  Now I know. :)

Side one .... Check
(Face War begins)

Starting to look like a box
('Face Wars' continue in the background)

According to all of the instructions this is where you stop building and start the potatoes. As the potatoes grow you add more boards, dirt and hay. Since our box is going to go in a corner we have to pre-build two of the sides.

One side complete!
(The monkeys approve)

Trigger congratulating his Dad 

Checking out the hard work

(Another side note - Do you see that hammer by Bo's foot? It got used slightly on a second project. I am starting to hate the $20 hammer less now.)

Second side complete and relocated.

Final Product!

I am pretty stoked to get the potatoes started. 

In the research we have done we will need to order them in. One of the common mistakes is that people use a short or mid season potato. We have read that a long season potato is really the only one that works and unfortunately I cant find it in any of the nurseries. 

Honestly I am not that heart broken that I didn't have them today. That kicked my butt!!

One more project off the list!