Some elbow grease needed.

Remember the before photo of the barn area on the 1st post? I had a few hours to spare on Sunday so I went at it with a rake, a tiller and my ride-on lawnmower.

Here's how it looks now...

A bit better, I have 2 piles of old crap to pick up and the back has quite a bit of broken glass still.

I used the rake to rake up any debris (wire mesh, plaster, insulation, wood, nails) and then I used the tiller to till down the hills of old fox pooh down into the ground. Next I was looking around to figure out how to flatten it. I used my ride-on mower, set the blade down to 1 and let the mower deck do the leveling for me (no, I didn't run the blades on it).

Decent job for now. I just need to fix up the perimeters and then start the boxes.

Looks can be deceiving

I'm wondering why the lettuce is not germinating like the tomatoes are, the germination times are pretty much the same. I open the lid to the greenhouse and inspect the peat pellets, they look nice and such so I touch it.... DRY!!! The middle of the tray dried out while the sides stayed moist.

That was a nice lesson for me. Better to touch the goods.

*POOF* Here we are! Look at us!!!

This tray was setup on Saturday using a heat mat; the sprouts were not there last night, I swear! This morning I thought I'd take a look and there they were; like watching little veggie-zombies crawling out of the dirt. So weird!

From left to right: 2 rows cherry tomatoes, 2 rows buttercrunch lettuce, 2 rows hybrid tomatoes.

I think the cherry tomatoes will be put in some upside-down planters and the hybrids will have a home in my SFG. I suspect I'll be giving and selling many of the tomatoes when they come to harvest. But then there's always spaghetti sauce.

Only one of the lettuce seeds germinated, I suspect that in a couple of days it will be up to 6 or 7.

Seeds and makeshift growlights.

I started some seeds a few weeks back and they are coming along quite nicely. Mind you that the first 2 weeks of growing were on a air hockey table with a south facing window. The poor seedlings were just stretching to get the most sunlight they could. Here are a few photos after I created a light growing station with a metal shelf and a few fluorescent fixtures.

Marigolds (about 3 weeks old)

And 2 days ago I started some Tomatoes (cherry and early hybrid) and some Buttercrunch Lettuce. Mmmmmmmmm.

Herbs (Oregano, Parsley, Thyme, Basil, Rosemary) and Strawberries (this one I regret to have done, I should have bought plants instead)

All in good time, all good eats in time.

That's one small crop for a man... one giant harvest for mankind.

I know, it's a cheesy title but it is quite true.

(Please, do NOT press the F5 key when you create a blog entry, this is the 2nd time I'm doing the first post *sigh*)

So what is this blog about? Two things, really: 1: I love food! 2: I'll be growing my own.

This is not just about gardening, this is about transforming an old fox barn from the previous owner into a wonderful vegetation oasis that you can eat off of. Literally. So let's begin:

Method: Square foot Gardening (by Mel Bartholomew)

You may remember him from his past PBS and other channel shows. He has to be the greatest "WTF is that all about" thinker of all time. He took row gardening and transformed the drudgery into a cakewalk. Well, at least from what I can tell. You see, I have not started my new Square Foot Garden (SFG) yet. It's in the works. Let me show you what I have to work with.

The area:

An old fox barn, very stinky and useless. This is the after photo from last years demolition of the barn (which incidentally gave me severe carpal tunnel and I had to get surgery 2 months ago.) It used to be very smelly and had all sorts of junk in it. Since the rains and winter washed away and stomped the old fox poop into the ground, now it's just a half junk filled space. So this is my official 'before' photo.

Mel said in his book and videos, "The best wood, is free wood." Well, I agree with that. So here is the material that I will be using to create the SFG boxes and fix the perimeter so deer don't come for a late night snack.

Yep, that's a ton of wood... well, maybe 1/2 a ton or so but that will be used for:

a: the planters

b: the perimeter fence

c: any other project that needs wood.

And if the deer are really hungry, they could just much on the leftovers in the compost bin.

That used to be full! But since the warm weather started, the bin finally started doing it's work. Creating the best dang compost I ever had.

So, that's it for my first post. I'll show you my seeds and the veg that I am about to grow in the next post. This will be quite the summer.