Backyard farming in seattle, Backyard chickens, Planting bags, lunar planting days, tiger woods golf 2012

Monday was fun . We planned on doing a lot more than we did on  lunar planting day... but the skies opened up on us. We Western Washington folk are pretty tough when it comes to rain.  But after about 4 hours Jimmy and I were wet and cold and muddy and started to snark at each other.  So, we called  'nuff', put away the tools and surveyed our work before heading  in to hot showers and tigers woods golf..   But before giving in to rain and cold we managed to get our homemade planting bags full of soil and full of peas and potatoes.  The area along our side fence gets almost no sun which is perfect for growing snow peas all  season.   But no matter how much we amend the soil in that bed (which is about 16 inches wide and 7 feet long) the   large decorative shrubs on the other side of the fence suck up all the nutrients and provide homes for  bugs.  These bags are our solution to make a rich  and protected raised home for the roots of our snow peas. .  I also made a huge bag for growing potatoes. We have a bed dedicated to potatoes but it just doesn't provide enough fruit for my  ...in  Jimmys words..... "potato lovin' Irish soul".  You cant tell by the photo below but there is at least 1/4 cubic yard of soil in this bag. I also felt confident enough to put  my  salvaged 'sprouted' brussel sprouts in the ground. They look great and have actually grown since I dropped them in the bed.  Saturday is another great planting day and the rest of the  ground seeded vegetables will go in then.
The chickens have acclimated pretty well to their new  status. So well, that tomorrow they well begin daily  sojourns into their extended grassy  run.
Yep, Things are off to a good start this spring at Frankie and Jimmys  little backyard farm!

Planting bags for snow peas all full of seeds and hope next to sunless fence.

 Potato bag....way bigger than it looks in the photo, 2 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot, and then it spread even bigger when we put in the soil.

 Transplanted sprouts in sprout bed

 A close up of one of the sprouts

vegetable gardening in seattle, planting bags, air bags, DIY, too many brussel sprouts

Yesterday was the kind of spring day we,in the Pacific Northwest, dream of....Sunny, warm (60 degree's) and dry.Jimmy and I took full advantage of it.  Jimmy turned over all the beds while I set up a sewing room in the studio and made  planting bags...also known as air bags.  Jimmy bought a couple of these in 3 gallon sizes last year for his  exotics in the shuttle and we were amazed at how well they work. We have decided to try them in the great outdoors as temporary raised beds.  We plan on lining the patio and fence line with these.  This is an experiment. We bought 1/4 inch thick  felt pond liner from the local nursery to make the bags.  When we told the guy at the nursery what we were doing he indicated it couldn't be done. Then told us  they had the same bags ready made for sale.  Jimmy and I  responded ...'yes we know.. but one potato bag is $20'.  For $12.... I can make a potato bag and  a couple of others. Much more economical.  But we will see.  For others out there who want to do the same I used a leather needle and upholstery thread. The total cost for all materials still came in under the price of 1 commercial planting bag.
And then we have the brussel sprouts.  We have had more brussel sprouts over this last winter than any human can reasonably consume. (if we had a 6 year old they would be crying and begging for mercy by now) Yesterday we pulled them all out. Cuz really?..... We are just plain sick of brussel sprouts.  I kept  a couple of stalks that still looked good  and pulled off  a few more for one last sprout hurrah.  Jimmy was less than enthusiastic  about his pork chops last night when he learned they were being served with BRUSSEL SPROUTS.   He only ate them because he knew we were at the end and most of them were in the compost pile.  I did save some of the ones that were re-sprouting on the stalks.  I cut them with some of the stalk left on them and put them in a box of dirt.  We will see if they root.... If not.... who cares.

1 bed ready (1of 12)

 Jimmy working really hard!

 Brussel sprout rooting experiment

 Brussel sprouts in the compost pile...even the girls are tired of them

 DIY potao bag

 Even MORE brussel sprouts (GYAH!)

We made our diagram of the planting boxes  yesterday and  worked on the puzzle that is rotating  crops, companion planting and the basics of who needs more sun, who doesn't and who is going to grow from a 2 inch  seedling into a 6 foot monster.  We had our giant copy of  'the encyclopedia of country living'  open all day  for reference.  Altogether we were dog gone productive yesterday.