Rain Barrels 2.0

Last year I set up rain barrels to collect.....well.... rain water!

They worked great for supplying water for the garden.

But...I rushed the installation and did not elevate the barrels properly. Thus flow from the barrels was slow and annoying. Plus I could not connect them together since they were not elevated. Gravity is like that sometimes. Dang gum Issac Newton!

So this year I reconfigured, refitted, and repositioned. (of course I spent next to nothing on parts). Gravity is my friend this year.



Since the barrels are elevated, when barrel #1 is full ,water will flow into barrel #2 (via green hose). Then when barrel #2 is full, water will flow out of the overflow tube at the top of #2. (and away from my foundation!)

Cuz I'm redneck smart like that!

From the sky to roof to gutter to barrel to my plants. Forget the environment, this just makes sense (cents?)!!

Dora is still getting it done!

Here are the victorious Dora the Explorer
squash cups a week later. Take that peat pots!

aannnnddd I'm never using a peat pot again.
It's all Dora her super yogurt cups from now on.



Speaking of yogurt cups. Here is a pic of one
of the tomato plants growing nicely in a large
yogurt cup. Hope to transplant to the garden
on Tax Day!

It must be the gas from the plastic

I am cheap.

Really cheap.

So when I started the veggie seeds back in Jan, I made a decision to not spend tons of dough on seed trays, growing lights, potting soil, blah blah blah.

I used what I had on hand. So any coffee cup, yogurt cup, sour cream cup, etc was recruited for a seed pot. (shhh, I even raided my neighbors recycle bin).

The best seedling producer was the "Dora the Explorer" yogurt cups.

However, I did get a deal on "peat pots" which are supposed be great for growing and transplanting. So I gave them shot.

In fact, as an experiment, I planted some herb seeds and squash seeds in the fancy smancy peat pots AND Dora cups.

Same dirt, same room temp, same sun exposure, same watering schedule.

Look at the results!


Cilantro seeds in Dora, growing.
Peat pots...just some cups of dirt.


Squash seeds. Dora is 1-1. Peat pots are 0-10.

It must be the Bisphenol A off-gas from Dora's plastic!

Lastest on the Garden.

The lettuce is growing very nice.
Threw some baby greens in my salad last night.



Now until recently I hated broccoli. And I mean HATE.
But as I get older, my taste buds become numb and now I love it.
Hope we see some broccoli soon!

Sleet turned to snow

The sleet turned into 2" of snow. The gardens are covered layers of cold, brutal death.































Hopefully, my 4 layers of protection will be good enough. :0)

(just in case I started some more lettuce seeds inside, hope I don't need them....)

sleet a cometh.....

Sleet is a coming.










So to keep my baby plants warm and protected from the weight of sleet, I gather all the milk jugs/"frat boy" red cups/cottage cheese containers I can find in the recycle bin. Being a dad of four kids, I have lots of milk containers!! :-0

Then I cover with an old shower curtain and sheets.














Then the finishing touch with a good 'ole blue tarp.














It's the ghetto-farm boy version of lasagna!!

Hope it keeps my baby plants warm and protected.

survived the cold? for now....maybe.

Well I think my lettuce and pea babies survived this week's "touch of the the north". It was 20 degrees several nights. I armed the plants with covers of milk jugs and heavy tarps to keep out the cold.

Here is what they look like today. Some of the lettuce actually grew. Tough lil' buggers.














Today is 65 degrees and overcast with rain coming. So I used the warm and wet weather to plant the spinach youngins'. They were looking a little sad in the shed. Think it wanted to be free to grow. We'll see.....














Here are are the Earliana and Roma tomatos in the shed. I kept the fluorescent bulbs on today since it was overcast. The light gives them an angelic glow. Perhaps a sign of much produce come June! ;0)