Little Growies Like Their New Home

All of the plants from the old greenhouse have been moved to the new greenhouse. Many of them have true leaves and need to be transplanted to larger containers. The other shelves have been built, so there is a place to water them. What is not in this greenhouse is a way to catch rainwater. The city of Charlotte had a sale on some fancy-schmantzy rain barrels last year. The one that was purchased is still not installed by the house. That will be the weekend project to install that and pipe it into the greenhouse.

One of the shop-lights in the ceiling still won’t work. Getting it going will be an afternoon project this week. The brick floor is 2/3 complete. Hopefully it will also get finished this week. If there is no rain (fat chance), the Bambi fence will get finished this weekend except for the gate. When the fence and the greenhouse are complete, there are only small projects to accomplish.

There was no room in the old greenhouse to finish planting the rest of the seeds needed for the garden. Now there is room to proceed with that task. Here’s hoping for a great garden season.







David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Greenhouse is Done

It is done, but not finished. The greenhouse itself is complete. The half day construction time cited in the instructions might be possible with better instructions, but I doubt it. Even if a half day means 12 hours, it would be pretty close. The instructions were just pictures and some were really hard to decipher. The greenhouse kit was done with quality materials and all of the parts were there except for a few screws for the tie-downs. The screws were too short anyway.

The next step was to buy a big (900 #’s) bag of sand and sand the dirt floor in preparation for placing brick. The first shelf was constructed. I kept trying to take it inside the greenhouse and finish it there, but it was to floppy. By the time I got enough of the wood in it to make it steady, it was too heavy and I couldn’t lift it. Also there were a couple of improvements that could be made, so tonight it will be taken apart and re-assembled inside the greenhouse.

The next step will be to install ½ of the brick floor to hold the shelves in place. The shelves for the other side were not built as the “educational process” needs to be experienced first. Before doing that the lights, wiring and heat pads will be installed in the ceiling and in the 1st set of shelves.







David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Asparagus

          I usually wait until after the 1^st frost to trim back the ferns on the asparagus.  When I bought the plants, they were Jersey Giants and were supposed to be all males.  One little girl decided she wanted to be “where the boys are”.  She produces seeds every year, but they have just been allowed to self-sow.  This year a few of the seeds were hanging around when the ferns were cut down so they got planted in the greenhouse. 

          Searching the internet for transplanting information, I learned that Jersey Giants are hybrid asparagus.  The little plants are there already so they will be planted anyway.  They will go into a new bed so they will be easy to identify as the illegitimate children of the regular bed.

          In the regular bed it is difficult to identify the asparagus that grew from seed or the original plants.  Asparagus beds are supposed to last 40 years.  That is longer than I expect to last, but I look forward to replacing the beds with rootstock that has been grown from seed. 

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Progress on Greenhouse and Bambi Fence (part 2)

The seeds that need to be replanted may get attended to today (1/16) if the rain keeps up. Otherwise, the new greenhouse and the Bambi fence will take priority. The new greenhouse has arrived, construction is started and progressed as far as it can go with 1 person. The foundation is square and level and part of the frame has been assembled. The advertisement said 2 people could assemble the greenhouse in a half day. I am beginning to assume they meant 12 hours. 4 hours has been spent just lining up the parts for each step.

All but 1 piece of the Bambi fence braces have been cut and inserted. That piece has been cut. The ground dried enough to fill and tamp the postholes, but there has been more rain. The ground is too wet for stretching the fabric. If there is no more rain those items and the construction of a fence stretcher will happen this weekend.

The front porch is now complete except for cladding post and re-painting. The cladding can only be done one side of one column at a time because there are only 6 clamps and all six are needed for each board. The cement is supposed to dry in one hour. Unless it cures for a whole day the board can fall off, so the limit is one board per day. There are 20 boards. If the temperature is below 50 degrees, the board cannot be installed.

Progress on Greenhouse and Bambi Fence

Except for the most recent plantings most of the seeds in the greenhouse have sprouted. Cilantro, Eggplant and Nasturtium still need to be planted and there will be late incremental plantings of most of the other varieties. The marigolds are starting to get true leaves and will need to be repotted soon.

The new greenhouse has been ordered and should arrive by the weekend. The details on foundation and shelves are still being worked out, but it is hoped that the foundation will get done this weekend. If it doesn’t rain at least the ground will be prepared.

The Bambi fence has been slowed down some by wet ground. The posts phase had almost been completed when the rains came and the ground was too wet to fill and tamp the holes. That got done Tuesday. Now the braces are being cut in and nailed. If no rain comes the ground should be dry enough to stretch fabric by the weekend.

Some progress has been made on the front porch. Doug was too busy to cut and plane the cladding boards for the columns, but that is done now. The first board was put up Tuesday to try the glue. It is good that only one board was done, because the glue did not hold. More glue and more clamps went on yesterday with a hope for improved results.





David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

New Year/New Resolutions

The best way to be successful with your resolutions is to not have any. Instead of resolutions have goals. When you fall from grace 1 time, the resolution is shot. When you make goals, progress can be made toward the end.

Most of last year’s goals for the garden were accomplished. If not completely they were accomplished at least in part. The garden gets better each year. The bambi fence worked well enough that is being replaced with a permanent structure this year. The greenhouse improved a lot. It will be replaced with a new one this year that will be a permanent structure and be located where it will get more light.

About 30 trees were removed last year. To save a little money, the tree man was told he could haul off the marketable lumber and leave the scraps in the yard. That would have pretty dumb if my health had been good. As it turned out my heart got out of rhythm and my work speed and endurance went way down. Almost none of the yard projects got done and the garden was late getting planted. My heart got fixed and all that is behind me now. Projects are winding up almost every week.





David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/