Thursday, October 1, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Rain Barrels
This is our array of rain barrels. They are 35 gallon food grade plastic barrels and have been plumbed together so one catches water and the other four serve to hold overflow.
Curtis designed it so I am able to open each barrel individually. Our reasoning was that I could start to water an area, and if I forget and leave the hose running, it will be limited to just one barrel (or however many I choose). This also gives us a very clear idea of how much water each area of the garden receives when we water.
The gutters that feed to the barrels are about 30 feet long, but I have been amazed at how quickly these barrels fill when it rains. With even a moderate rainfall, the barrels can fill in just a few minutes.
The barrels are raised off the ground to allow for enough water pressure to use a soaker hose.
Horton Garden Blog
I have been faithfully updating our personal family blog for over three years and found that my gardening posts were starting to overrun the "aren't my kids cute" posts, so I decided to start this blog to track our garden progress and other projects around our house. My husband and I are both engineers and I tend to be a ruthless planner/documenter so this blog will probably be terribly boring unless you like that sort of thing. When I quote facts and numbers about the garden, I'm not just guessing. I have kept a garden journal since my first personal garden in college (1/17/1999) and being the nut I am, I write it all down. If there is a way to measure, weigh, or otherwise record something, I'm on it!
My husband is umm, lets say passionate, about things and will run with a new idea or project if it strikes him as interesting. He's the "get it going quick" one and I'm the "finish and maintain it" one... between the two of us, we get into all kinds of fun stuff.
Horton Garden Facts:
Located in Farmers Branch, Texas
Zone 7-8
Established in 2004, (first big project when we bought the house)
Expanded in 2009 to just about 500 square feet
My garden is located at the back corer of our yard. It has a 6 foot wooden privacy fence on the west and south sides and there are many large established trees within 50 feet in almost every direction except east (perfect!).
The soil here is a nasty black gumbo clay that is a bog in the wet season and gets giant 5 inch cracks during our dry hot summers. To be able to grow anything we have amended the garden with tons of organic matter and manure as I can find it. Our first Christmas in this house in 2004 Curtis asked what I wanted for my gift and I told him "sh*t". He got me bags of manure and soil for the new garden--the perfect gift and a fun story. Since then, any time I can I have added to the soil with whatever good stuff I can find.
Mulch Again
May 13, 2009
I bought another truckload of "Texas Native" mulch from Soil Buliding Systems for $30. Nine wheelbarrow loads later our paths and border are remulched to 5-6 inches deep. Hopefully this will sustain the paths for the summer. The mulch was very broken down, not good for pretty landscape mulch, but perfect for the garden since this will all be tilled under after the growing season is over. On 2/24/09 I put the first full load of the same mulch along the paths and border. This original path had gotten worn away--and dug away by the rotten dog.
I have been generally very pleased with buying mulch this way. In my old garden, the path was only 20 feet long, so bagged mulch was a decent option. In the new expanded garden the paths are 80 feet--not cheap to cover with bagged mulch costing nearly $4 a bag.
Having a good path is essential for a garden in my opinion. With a good sturdy path, I can walk into the garden in any shoes and not get all muddy. It makes the garden more accessible, and because of it, I tend to be out there more often to keep an eye on things and enjoy my garden. I prefer to use shredded tree mulch, or whatever organic matter I can find for my paths becuase when the gardening season is over, we can till the whole up--paths included. The mulch will mix into the soil and slowly break down. This makes for a more rich soil adn helps to break up the nasty clay clods.
I bought another truckload of "Texas Native" mulch from Soil Buliding Systems for $30. Nine wheelbarrow loads later our paths and border are remulched to 5-6 inches deep. Hopefully this will sustain the paths for the summer. The mulch was very broken down, not good for pretty landscape mulch, but perfect for the garden since this will all be tilled under after the growing season is over. On 2/24/09 I put the first full load of the same mulch along the paths and border. This original path had gotten worn away--and dug away by the rotten dog.
I have been generally very pleased with buying mulch this way. In my old garden, the path was only 20 feet long, so bagged mulch was a decent option. In the new expanded garden the paths are 80 feet--not cheap to cover with bagged mulch costing nearly $4 a bag.
Having a good path is essential for a garden in my opinion. With a good sturdy path, I can walk into the garden in any shoes and not get all muddy. It makes the garden more accessible, and because of it, I tend to be out there more often to keep an eye on things and enjoy my garden. I prefer to use shredded tree mulch, or whatever organic matter I can find for my paths becuase when the gardening season is over, we can till the whole up--paths included. The mulch will mix into the soil and slowly break down. This makes for a more rich soil adn helps to break up the nasty clay clods.
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