Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

[SweetSue]

Now gardening has begun. The garden fairy looks happy over there in the corner, and nice set-up with the trellises. Gonna have to rewire the entire house or just most of it? At least you'll sleep knowing it was done right. Dale and my uncle rewired our house right after we married. It made the house feel so much safer the night they finished.

Any plans to start a medicinal garden?

 

[Teddy Edwards]

Without an actual soil analysis, what is a reasonable rate?

According to Purdue University Department of Horticulture and Landscaping, 20 pounds per 100 square feet annually, if the ash is worked into the soil about 6 inches or so.

I'm a spadeful kind of guy (that's why I'd never grow hydro ) - and I dig half a dozen or so piled spades into the raised veg beds (5x8ft) every winter. (Cannabis grown in the veg beds also look very healthy). Also apply directly to the lavender hedge and around clematis - they love it.

 

[Radogast]

Now gardening has begun. The garden fairy looks happy over there in the corner, and nice set-up with the trellises. Gonna have to rewire the entire house or just most of it? At least you'll sleep knowing it was done right. Dale and my uncle rewired our house right after we married. It made the house feel so much safer the night they finished.

Any plans to start a medicinal garden?

Parts of the house have been rewired. The visible parts (basement, half complete projects) are new - but scratch the surface and things are not always as updated as they seem. The biggest one so far was a 220 dryer socket in the wall, visually fully installed, Actually 1' of wire tucked in the wall, leading nowhere. And 30 plus projects 'in progress' when we purchased the house. I am seriously concerned about the wiring. 15 amp wires on 20 amp breakers connected to who knows what behind the walls. I'll get things cleaned up over time.Last Friday I removed many yards of late model cables hooked into the main circuit breaker and leading to - nowhere - and that was just under the kitchen.


We will be installing gardens of kitchen herbs, tea herbs, and flowers, front and back.

Today I was looking at euro/american hybrid hazelnut bushes.

My wife and I talked about trimming a large tree near the curb and how sunlight might help with runoff erosion under it's canopy.

Next year we will probably remove the driveway beside the house and put in a terraced side garden - it depends on the finances to install a garage door into the back of the garage that opens onto an alley.

I am so excited that plants actually like to grow here


Some of the garden activity will have to wait. Today's after work projects included moving the art table down stairs from the attic: fetching a dresser, exercise bike, and side table from the auction house; and chiselling spaces, drilling for new hinges, and sanding the butler's pantry built-in cabinet doors. I'm getting so much done I feel like Cannafan

 

[Radogast]

According to Purdue University Department of Horticulture and Landscaping, 20 pounds per 100 square feet annually, if the ash is worked into the soil about 6 inches or so.

I'm a spadeful kind of guy (that's why I'd never grow hydro ) - and I dig half a dozen or so piled spades into the raised veg beds (5x8ft) every winter. (Cannabis grown in the veg beds also look very healthy). Also apply directly to the lavender hedge and around clematis - they love it.

Thanks a bunch !

I think I'll use the one spadeful per garden bed method.

 

[Tead]

Nice little "Chinese Lantern" shaped fruit wraps.

Ya know... check of course.. but I think I ate those as a child. I forget what they're called. Little yellow skinned fruit inside... kinda like a little tomato in form.

15 amp wires on 20 amp breakers connected to who knows what behind the walls. I'll get things cleaned up over time.Last Friday I removed many yards of late model cables hooked into the main circuit breaker and leading to - nowhere - and that was just under the kitchen.

Frightening!!! I'd give you many words of warning and advice but it sure sounds like you've got a handle on the beast.
We had some remnants (unpowered) of knob-and-tube left over in our attic. I ripped it out just to get it out of my world.
Be safe.

 

[Radogast]

Ya know... check of course.. but I think I ate those as a child. I forget what they're called. Little yellow skinned fruit inside... kinda like a little tomato in form.

Everything in the ground cherry (physalis) family (including tomatillo) is somewhat poisonous, except the actual fruit when fully ripe. The prevailing strategy is to pick up the fallen lanterns and store them in a basket for 2 weeks to ripen. I have mine in a garlic house

Frightening!!! I'd give you many words of warning and advice but it sure sounds like you've got a handle on the beast.
We had some remnants (unpowered) of knob-and-tube left over in our attic. I ripped it out just to get it out of my world.
Be safe.

I have a multi-meter, a fox and hound tracer, and am fairly tolerant of 110 volt shocks (I tripped a circuit breaker once around age 13 when I shorted the thread wrapped inputs to my Lionel train transformer with my bare hands - thus ending all remaining affection for the knob and tube era.) I'll be safe

 

[Tead]

I'm reminded of a childhood event.... sorry.

As a young Tead, our family had a cabin on the Oregon coast (PC... 3 down from the parking lot at the cape) right on the beach. One year, our neighbor tried to put up a fence on the beach side of his house. Craziest thing. He was tired of tourists in his back yard. Wind and sand promptly destroyed it, but not before it changed the flow of wind and caused various sand build up issues with a few of his neighbors. We had a bunch of it build up to the joists under the house and had to get a big conveyor belt (yea... apparently you can rent those!) to help get the sand out to the back yard so the tractors could spread it out. The cabin was old and had old electrical systems (fuses... old cloth covered wire) and no 220 service anywhere. Oddly, there was 220 at the old ass panel, so my dad rigged it directly to the panel.... no ground wire.... just 2 hots and a neutral. It was raining, as is often the case in that neck of the sand dunes. Tead reached down and touched the metal frame of the conveyor belt and instantly flew many feet back. I woke up with some minor burning, but generally OK.
I don't think we found a ground wire.... as I recall, we were just super careful not to touch the metal parts.

 

[Radogast]

Yard Update


Harvested 1/2 the ground cherries (the ones on the ground) and placed in my garlic house

Trimmed the maple out front (I need a longer ladder to do a good job. My previous extension ladder was taken during the move.) The tree needs to be trimmed up, because the roots in the shade are not strong enough to resist soil erosion.

Installed a $15 garden arch - the squirrels, house sparrows, and cardinals now feel more secure eating from the sidewalk.

The arch seems to frame the scene when I peek out the windows beside the front door.

 

[Radogast]

A neighbor thinned her iris - and gifted them - so I planted


I scalped the grass with a string trimmer to form a bed. (The back yard is one big worm farm.)

Laid out the iris by parent clump (color.) Since they are rhizomes, I assume they are Bearded Iris.

Planted with minimal soil disturbance. There are 4-5 worms per handful of soil, and some fungal hyphae networks.

My urban back yard - so far

 

[Tead]

Don't you think the grass will just return to the shaved bits? I've always had to put down a blocking fabric. Hell, I lined my raised bed and still get some grass shooting thru here or there... even after many years.

Man... I peek at your photos and just see projects.... you've got quite a few lined up baby!

 

[bobrown14]

I took a piece of wire and shoved it up the gas pipe about 2 feet without hitting an obstruction, so I grabbed the pipe and tried to shake it and it wouldn't budge. The little chandelier on their is under 10 lbs, so we are good If the ceiling falls, I can do a normal install.






35 gallons of ash later, the racks aren't up, the floor isn't swept, and the tools and supplies are still scattered.




I wonder how many decades it has been since someone used the fireplace.

Is there a gardening use for fireplace ash? It is mostly gray and fluffy, not much char, a little brick dust mixed in.

Hey there Rad - nice new home you have there.... now the fun begins... I'm an old house junky... we live in another one now.

With old pipes for gas lights AND sockets on the 2nd/3rd floors without grounds, you most likely have whats called "knob and tube" wiring. Its safe cause its like 10ga wire so it takes a lot to get it hot... suitable for 20a service all day long. A little scary looking but as long as the insulation is in good shape and you don't cover it with insulation, you're good to go.

My flower room runs on it but I added a ground. As in 2 6' steel rods in the ground outside tied to the ground in the mains and on into the house circuits.... what a pain but safety first, eh. I can get it to 1800 watts but that requires a suitable switch and suppressor for turn on .... or the surge is like 50amps or more and equipment don't like that much at all.

On the wood ash..... yeah here's a quote:

"Since wood ash is derived from plant material, it contains most of the 13 essential nutrients the soil must supply for plant growth, when wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain. The carbonates and oxides remaining after wood burning are valuable liming agents, raising pH, thereby helping to neutralize acid soils."

This can be added to the compost pile .. make layers and add in the ash in a layered fashion... Think Terra Preta .... that's how the Amazon gets turned into farm land, for better or worse. It works to turn crap soil into black gold....

Those little lanterns flowers are Tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica), as you suspected. I particularly like the botanical name being from Philadelphia and all! They are edible ... I've never figured out how to eat them but they are a member of the night shade family related to tomatoes and potatoes and my favorite Nicotiana (N. sylvestris) which we grow.

Nicotiana will cover up the smell of cannabis in flower starting at dusk and during the night when it will smell up the neighborhood with a sweet pungent smell that's good for lots of ailments and can be used as offerings to the animal spirits. Of course its poisonous if eaten... whatever. Wait ... what ... I think I got to rambling on... my apologies.

Anyways... I'm soooo excited about your new home and now yer the city folk like us. That's awesome... I think you should find your neighbors somewhat more amicable to differences is culture than the folks in the woods in New England... lets hope so.

I wish you good fortune and much health for you and your family in your new home.

 

[Radogast]

Don't you think the grass will just return to the shaved bits? I've always had to put down a blocking fabric. Hell, I lined my raised bed and still get some grass shooting thru here or there... even after many years.

I'm not a fan of mowing grass. If it grows back, I'm weeding it. I overplanted with white clover seeds and will be adding vegetables and flowers as seasonally appropriate.

Man... I peek at your photos and just see projects.... you've got quite a few lined up baby!

I refuse to have a long ToDo: list. If it isn't urgent, it's not on the list. Today, planting mint cuttings and lengthening pull chains was urgent

Hey there Rad - nice new home you have there.... now the fun begins... I'm an old house junky... we live in another one now.

I'm surrounded by old house junkies. I think it's the old houses that attract them

With old pipes for gas lights AND sockets on the 2nd/3rd floors without grounds, you most likely have whats called "knob and tube" wiring. Its safe cause its like 10ga wire so it takes a lot to get it hot... suitable for 20a service all day long. A little scary looking but as long as the insulation is in good shape and you don't cover it with insulation, you're good to go.

My flower room runs on it but I added a ground. As in 2 6' steel rods in the ground outside tied to the ground in the mains and on into the house circuits.... what a pain but safety first, eh. I can get it to 1800 watts but that requires a suitable switch and suppressor for turn on .... or the surge is like 50amps or more and equipment don't like that much at all.

I'm OK with the knob and tube. I'm more concerned about the 14/2 wiring at the box and where it splices to the knob and tube. It would be easier to run a ground to the outlets where I need 3 prong, but I don't trust the added wiring of previous owners. We get thunderstorms every week right now. The boy needs a ground for his gamng computer.

On the wood ash..... yeah here's a quote:

"Since wood ash is derived from plant material, it contains most of the 13 essential nutrients the soil must supply for plant growth, when wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gases, and calcium, potassium, magnesium and trace element compounds remain. The carbonates and oxides remaining after wood burning are valuable liming agents, raising pH, thereby helping to neutralize acid soils."

This can be added to the compost pile .. make layers and add in the ash in a layered fashion... Think Terra Preta .... that's how the Amazon gets turned into farm land, for better or worse. It works to turn crap soil into black gold....

Nicely done on the ash information. Except for leaves in the fall, I don't expect to do much composting. I will be adding a touch of ash when I do other ammendments and cover seeds.

Every time I touch the rich, black soil here, I turn up worms. I don't want to unbalance what is already excellent. Prior to the takeover by American settlers, the property was fertile farmland for a large city of the Fox and Sauk tribes. A quick walk to the Mississippi, the top foot of soil is a gardener's dream. I suspect it goes much deeper.

Those little lanterns flowers are Tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica), as you suspected. I particularly like the botanical name being from Philadelphia and all! They are edible ... I've never figured out how to eat them but they are a member of the night shade family related to tomatoes and potatoes and my favorite Nicotiana (N. sylvestris) which we grow.

I think what I have is Physalis longifolia or Physalis pruinosa. Too small for the strains of tomatillo found in stores - and the fruits are ripening to yellow as they fall. If it is pruinosa they should turn egg yolk orange after 2 weeks in storage in their lanterns.

Nicotiana will cover up the smell of cannabis in flower starting at dusk and during the night when it will smell up the neighborhood with a sweet pungent smell that's good for lots of ailments and can be used as offerings to the animal spirits. Of course its poisonous if eaten... whatever. Wait ... what ... I think I got to rambling on... my apologies.

Anyways... I'm soooo excited about your new home and now yer the city folk like us. That's awesome... I think you should find your neighbors somewhat more amicable to differences is culture than the folks in the woods in New England... lets hope so.

I wish you good fortune and much health for you and your family in your new home.

That Nicotania Sylvestis looks very nice in flower photos. A nice aroma would be great! How long is the flowering seaso when you grow it indoors alongside your C. sativas ? Can you time plants and cuttings for near perpetual blooming, like our favorite herb? I'm starting some perrennials on the front porch that will move into the basement for the winter. I'm on the lookout for good cuttings from the neighbors and open to suggestions from those further away.

I've had a deer appear out front in my dream, found raccoon scat in the back yard, and startled a few pretty snakes - but overall the animals have been quiet. Our first local Downy Woodpecker showed up on a bird feeder today

We finally got our front door altar up and running. I'm sure this is a relief to the house ghost Rachel. Acording to my wife she has done guardian angel appearances when I do things like close up the electrical box right before a water leak sprays in that direction.

Earlier this morning I made eye contact with a man attempting to walk up our driveway towards the open garage. When he saw me see him, he rang the doorbell. After I greeted him with "So what's going on?" He spoke about wondering if I needed yard work (despite him not having the tools or clothes to do yard work on him) and made a polite, hasty retreat. When he left the house he didn't knock on any neighbor's doors - just walked quickly away from the transitional gentrification neighborhood we are in and towards the old neglected homes of the ghetto 1/2 mile to the west.


The folks in the midwest are incredibly nice and helpful compared to New Englanders. I watch the snooty people portrayed on BBC shows and see where New England gets their attitudes. Even when they try to be unpleasant here, they are such amateurs compared to the inbred arrogance of Massachusetts or the overly polite death of a 1000 cuts delivered by southerners.

Blessings on you and yours

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Hi Radogast. I'm lurking.
I have to say I am absolutely in love with your new home. Everything about it is just so full of potential, yet already beautiful as it is.
This place was meant for you and your family, it just feels right.

Are you going to plant things around the "stonehenge" arbors to climb them? If you said so already, sorry...I missed that.

Have tons of fun, but don't work too hard.

 

[Radogast]

Hi Radogast. I'm lurking.
I have to say I am absolutely in love with your new home. Everything about it is just so full of potential, yet already beautiful as it is.
This place was meant for you and your family, it just feels right.

Are you going to plant things around the "stonehenge" arbors to climb them? If you said so already, sorry...I missed that.

Have tons of fun, but don't work too hard.

so .....

Last night, around 8:30, my wife dropped the metal blinds on the front door with a flourish, turned the latch and announced our house was closed to visitors for the night. ....

5 beats later ...

knock knock, knock

The nephew of the lady next door (Sally who has lived there 38 years) had noticed the "stonehenge" arbors appear overnight. He decided I was making and selling them - apparenly no one in their right mind would erect 4 arbors in a 13' circle unless they were display models - andhe wanted to know how much to buy them. A pleasant 10 minute conversation later he was on his way and I rebolted the door for the night.

To answer your actual question

Yes, there will be plantings climbing the stonehedgy things. There will be hanging windchimes, a hummingbird feeder, and stand tall with ribbons and bells on

As of today, I am thinking of a mixture of edible plants and flowers with colors and properties based on the chinese 5 directions that correspond to their compass points.



20 hours and 3 thunderstorms later, the white clover is sprouting between the iris.

More free iris are on their way sometime in September.

We decided against a compost bin and will merely chop and spread seasonal leaves as mulch.

I'm planning for 3-5 hazelnut bushes against the back fence. I think I'll start them in pots as I hear they are slow to start growing and could use the protection against competition from other plants.

 

[Tead]

Man I love fancy leaded glass windows. Had some awesome stained glass windows in an old house on the south side of B'ham many years ago.
I'm jealous.

 

[Radogast]

Today was the final day of the Hazel Moon, so the wife and I drove for an hour after work to a little organic farm.


We came home with 3 hazelnut, 2 paw paw, associated tree shelters, 1 Skirret, and 1 Russian Comfrey,

We also came home to a drooping tomato plant, so I propped up the top limb with a shepherds hook. Not bad for 8 weeks old.

So far no predators have obviously attacked the fruit. A flock of house sparrows are helping with the bugs

I had just enough time to get the paw paws into the ground before dark.

According to the grower, a 2' solid tree shelter really is the best protection for a young paw paw against wind, rabbits, sun and lawn mowers. Light passes through the plastic.

When I asked if I could accompany him to a back greenhouse for the trees, he said sure "He had nothing to hide - no cannabis or anything like that. I agreed that was a good decision but he mght want to reconsider in 3-5 years when it is legal. Beyond that, I kept my mouth shut !

 

[Tead]

The folks in the midwest are incredibly nice and helpful compared to New Englanders. I watch the snooty people portrayed on BBC shows and see where New England gets their attitudes. Even when they try to be unpleasant here, they are such amateurs compared to the inbred arrogance of Massachusetts or the overly polite death of a 1000 cuts delivered by southerners.

Damn. I got a trip to bean town at the end of the month. Staying on Revere beach. I keep hearing words reflecting how unfriendly they can be. I sure hope they have some patience with an extremely outgoing Yat from da swamps.
Could be fun... could crash and burn like the Hindenburg.

 

[Radogast]

Damn. I got a trip to bean town at the end of the month. Staying on Revere beach. I keep hearing words reflecting how unfriendly they can be. I sure hope they have some patience with an extremely outgoing Yat from da swamps.
Could be fun... could crash and burn like the Hindenburg.

I answered your "Beantown tips" question over in your thread. New Englanders will treat you nice in Boston. They like tourists.

Besides, at this time of year, 1/5 the population is out of state college students.

Revere Beach has some locals who 'hang out' all day. I give them a little distance. I don't know what they are really doing, but I respect my instincts enouh not to initiate contact.


A little more planting


After planting, my little Skirret was getting pushed around by the wind, and looked a little weedy, so I assembled a protective teepee of sticks. The grass is coming back strong, as predicted by Tead

3 hazelnuts in a row.

Look at the soil. The color and texture is consistent as deep as I dug. I didn't water before this picture.

 

[SweetSue]

Wow! That's some serious sod Rad. Is all the soil in the area this rich, or is it confined to your property?

It's good to see things beginning to take shape. This is a completely different challenge to the expansive grounds you were playing with in Mass.

 

[Radogast]

Wow! That's some serious sod Rad. Is all the soil in the area this rich, or is it confined to your property?

It's good to see things beginning to take shape. This is a completely different challenge to the expansive grounds you were playing with in Mass.

This soil was part of was a farmed garden of several square miles supporting a native city when the European-Americans showed up. Plants really grow well here. I unearthed dozens of worms as I planted each hazelnut..