Sunday, March 24, 2013

Garden Chronicles Part I


Four years ago we started our garden at the lake house. We started with tentative steps, more of a conceptual idea, where we would get the best sun and drainage…so we tilled.
How did that work out?
Well…first we discovered we had tilled over an existing drainage tile!  We did not till up the pipe and had sufficient soil to keep going.
Outlining the freshly tilled soil with garden timbers we began adding garden grade (compost) to enrich the soil…a never ending process I have found (enrich and re-enrich with compost…some we make ourselves).
The first summers crop was bountiful…more than we could eat and share with the neighbors…but my  “master gardener” was not happy…not enough room to plant all the different possibilities…so we dug up more yard, more landscape timber and more “enriched soil”!

Texas summers are hot and often dry, so keeping this garden watered was always and issue, as was keeping the grass watered…so we added a sprinkler system fed off the lake…free water (well not exactly).

The garden is now approaching the size of a small truck farm (just kidding!) with an increasing diversity of vegetables and herbs. Add  to this pots and hanging baskets and you have a wonderful pallet of vegetables and flowers. Oh yes and fruit trees too, peach, lemon and fig.
The master gardener tired of bending a stooping and asked for raised beds…”how high” I asked. Three feet would be fine. Quickly calculating I saw a “LARGE” investment in treated lumber and fill…can’t just  use dirt…has to be a “formulated” garden mix…well of course…silly me! So I designed a slightly raised bed with my fancy CAD program from Google and submitted for her approval.
The new raised bed were filled and planted…now we wait.
There is an old Texas saying that you shouldn't plant a garden before Easter because of a late freeze and sure enought one is forcast for later this week...will we survive?

Stay tuned for more.

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Welcome

I hope you will enjoy my early attempts at Blogging, an all new experience to me! I will be experimenting with the format, items to add (hopefully interesting).


I am a retired corporate pilot, thiry nine years of roaming around the world for an oil company. The Good Lord knew we would need oil...unfortunately He put it in difficult places, deserts, jungles, artic regions and every other inhospitable place you can imagin, no five star hotels there!



Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee