Using the Fence

I'm not at a full Potager Garden and very much doubt my space will ever be that tidy.
However it does utilize every bit of space - like using fences.
Currently we are trying to use 3 of our fences and once we've replaced the front we will work on putting the new front fence to good use.
This middle yard fence separates the common yard around the house from our back upper garden.
Our back side garden fence has raspberries and grapes started along it.
The chicken fencing we just planted new seedless Concorde Grapes so it will be a while until they really start to fill the space.
Hence no photos of them to brag about yet.

However when we moved in there was 1 established old grape vine in a very sad state. Three years ago to improve its health we did a cut back.
That's where you cut the grape all the way back to its main root and allow it to send out new healthy shoots.
As you can see from the photos that grape is now going strong.

Grapes on the left (of the top photo),
growing up and over the arch.
Soon we will be adding a roof over the rabbit play yard,

at which time we will continue to vine them up and over.

 

Grapes from the other side of the fence growing up the trellis.

On the right side are my lovely blackberry bushes.

This is only their second year and only 4 plants already they
are roughly 4 feet tall, bushy, and full of blackberries!

Each year we add something more, something permanent, something lasting.
I may have a small space but for the moment I feel like we are trying to use every tiny bit!
What we aren't currently using, we are planning to use!
Can't wait to get started on some of our larger summer projects!

Garden Spring Issues

Blackberries!

Love that I already have a load of blackberries starting to grow!

Note the pale color of the leaves with the dark veins
The pale color is most likely because our soil is too alkaline.
The dark streaks are from my grandmothers treatment
(proven 100% effective)
of pouring coffee & coffee grinds on them.

With in a day the bottom of the plants were back to the beautiful dark green,

while the top parts have the strange streaks occurring.
Thankfully (for my plants)
I'm a coffee addict!
Soon the whole plant will be back to its dark green lush self!

Also my lovely Stanley Plum that we just planted started to come in with curled leaves.
Which is a sure sign of aphid infection.
Sad to say this plant most likely came infected from the store I bought it.
So we bought and night released 1500 Ladybugs onto the Plum, surrounding trees, berry plants and my mint garden.
I want as many of the lovely darling to take up residence in my yard full time as possible.

This fall we will treat the leaves with an insecticide soap.
If new leaves continue to grow in curled we will need to move up the treatments - soaps, neem oil ect.

However, I'm really praying my ladybugs are hungry and solve the problem.

Note: all currently curled leaves will not magically uncurl.
Thankfully my tree is small and half its leaves are healthy and beautiful 

we just want to nip this in the bud (gardening pun)

as quickly as we can.

So the Ladybugs ate and ate and ate, then only two were left after 48 hours.
There were still bugs and larva on my Plum.
Phase two yesterday morning involved soaping my tree's.
Recipe link HERE

This really worked but will need to be reapplied OFTEN.
I also soaped my other two tree's to keep the aphid infection from spreading.
Will keep you posted on how new leaves form when they arrive on my plum.

Also due to this crazy wet springtime the mosquitoes are taking over the world!

Okay, maybe not the world, but definitely the Salt Lake Valley!
Its so bad that in the 20 minutes it took us to release the Ladybugs

I got 7 bites and my husband 5!
Its getting hard to garden in the morning or evening due to the mosquitoes!

We are even thinking of building and putting in a bat house!

Long live hungry bats!

Eat the mosquitoes!

Peas!

At the top you see my Spring Peas - they are on a trellis facing full sun and growing like weeds!

They are spectacular!

Close up of the lovely pea flowers!

The long pallet is for my Summer Peas

They will be in almost all shade and will grow slower but also not boil in the hot summer sun.

We will see how it works out this year - fingers crossed!

Growing Babies

All of our babies are growing up!

Our lovely pullets have grown so much!

They aren't laying yet but soon!

Whitey I found was a White Broiler Chicken.

They are specially bred for gaining mass quickly.

The older they get the worse their health and they are bad egg layers.

So we ate Whitey - YUMMY!

He was almost 15 pounds in only 3 months! Insane!

It was like butchering a turkey not a chicken!

Zorro's Bachelor Pad

Setting down our stones for the bunny grow out area.

Close up of the rocks laid out before we put them in.

We also made this bachelor pad for our male rabbit; Zorro

He truly loves it!

To celebrate we gave him a full month of down time before putting Stormy back in with him to try again.

Brick Bandits

BRICKS!

All right, so we didn't steal them and we're not bandits.

I did however, beat everyone else in our township to the deal of a lifetime!
(seriously at least 20 other people wanted them and one even begged for a phone call in case we didn't take them all!)

And when I say all
I mean
ALL!

13x4x11-2= 570 bricks!

It took several hours and trips to bring them all home in our van but we did it!

So an amazing thank you to the wonderful couple that wanted them moved on!
You guys are amazing!

Current plans for the bricks include:

Grow boxes in the front yard to line the walk way.

The floor of my soon to be tea patio!
(much sooner now!)

Possible grow boxes around the tea patio for herbs!

~~~

This weekend we will kick off the first project of adding grow boxes to the front yard!

Pretty sure this pile is going to take a while to use up but its going to be lots of fun.

Now years ago I would see these posts and wonder how people manage to find so many great things for free?!
I'll tell you, its a matter of looking, being available and luck.
I'm on several community boards for our small town,
(which is how I found the bricks)
luck was seeing the post within ten minutes of it being posted and being the first person to respond.

I also search online area's like KSL or CraigsList.

We also troll the cull bin at Lowes and Home Depot.
 

Also I've join interest groups - this wasn't to gain free things but to learn from others.
The benefit is that many people in those groups will share what they have with other people that they know care about those same interests first.
I'm in a homesteading group, a rabbit group & a few chicken groups.

Most of what I find now is on Facebook in private groups.
We also have a few amazing friends that let us grab up things their companies are clearing out.

Paying attention and cultivating relationships in these areas really helps us find the great deals!

Like getting 570 bricks for free!

I've wanted a tea patio for years!
We've marked out the area, even have a patio set all ready to use under it.

Yet, we've waited due to budget (skint broke is a thing)

Now I can start on the floor and the walls with things we've found for free!

Deeply grateful today!

Bean Trellis Project

You can see three bean walls, the fourth should be built Saturday.
After they are done we will be adding trellis/lattice across the top of the four walls.

The first trellis is Thai Purple Beans which I was given when we bought heirloom tomatoes and I got to talking.
See here as well.

The last three will be Chinese Long Beans

which my husband found and imported from China as we couldn't find a local seller.
See here as well.

Also in the front you can see our garlic.
We added straw to help keep the weeds down and the soil damp.

So many projects this summer! Can't wait!