make it happen!
That’s what the neighbors are thinking. Dwight installed the north fence–or at least all the panels we had painted and transported to the property. Â The goal is to hide the various clutter necessary to raise food.
Dad and I have now finished painting enough panels to complete one end of the fence.
No drama, just saga. We have been working on the fence as we have time. We’ve decided to make the north and south sides of the garden fence solid. Dwight has some salvaged corrugated metal that we have primed and painted. Dad and Dwight did all the priming; Dad and I have been painting during the heat of the day. The panels are approximately 6′ tall.
Thanks to some reinforcements, we were able to get some stuff planted today. Although all the gardeners have offered to help, it seems to rain for three days and then we have to wait for three more to dry out. Since they are all busy during the day, Mom and Dad and Dwight met me at Piper. We planted 11 tomatoes, then protected them with cages and deer netting. Â While Dad and I worked on the tomatoes, Dwight and Mom weeded the cabbage/broccoli bed. Then we interplanted probably 50-60 pepper plants in that bed. We covered that with row cover; hopefully everything will survive to adulthood!!! Finally, Dwight dug two more post holes and we now have the first hints of the gate! Oh, almost forgot: we spaded up the east bed again . . . so many weeds.
tomato cages
looking toward piper
This is the hand that held my hamburger.
the pepper, cabbage, and broccoli bed
looking west at those straight bean rows!
Imagine my surprise when we pulled in to show Colin the progress on the garden, and we found Dwight in the middle of digging his tenth hole of the day!! Lots of progress was made–and some decisions, too, regarding the gate and garden shed placement.
No news to report. Here are pics of our work from a couple of nights ago when we finished too late to have any light for pictures.
Here’s a look at what my hands looked like after this evening’s post setting extravaganza:
We were able to complete one of the long sides of the fence. It took me 20 minutes to dig the first hole; I was unable to complete the second hole; however, Dwight came along and finished them. When I had a free moment, I quickly planted another four rows of Blue Lake bush beans. As usual, it was too dark to take a pic of the finished work.
Building fence is not for the faint of heart–and not especially easy–or fun–when it’s this muddy!
After watching a few YouTube videos, we decided this was the way we wanted to protect plants–year round. Dwight cut rebar in to 2′ lengths. The ground was sooo saturated with water, we didn’t even need a hammer. We left 6-8″ above the ground. The PVC sticks are 10′ long. I think they could be a little shorter. Anyway, during cold weather months we plan to put 3mil plastic on so that we can have greens for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners–and in between! Obviously, we need to either get a wider row cover or shorten the PVC sticks.
Dwight’s handiwork