I'm not sure where to start with this next attempt at catching up.
I guess i'll start with whatever pictures i have that are uploaded.
Last spring i replaced the short 6 foot posts i had the grapes trellised on with much taller posts. I think they are 8 or 9 foot now. Its been too long since i did it. I had to cut away all the old wire, prune the vines away then pull the short posts, then pound the new ones in. I ended up going no further that year because the posts had no hooks like the shorter ones did. I couldn't simply slip the wire into the slots and be done with it. The taller fences only have rounded protrusions. So i had to come up with something and plastic clips or zip ties would not last and metal hose clamps or muffler clamps would add cost far too quickly. So i came up with this:
It gives the wire enough play to be tightened as necessary.
This was during the post replacement:
The comparison in size can be seen on the right side of the pic, just past the stepladder
I got nothing else done with the grapes that year and they had no support through the heavy snow this winter and were a complete mess this spring.
They look much better now and the vines will be running higher off the ground and will make weed suppression much easier:
I also removed the leftmost Edelweiss and gave it away. You can see all the dead brown grass that was the weed growth that totally got away from me last year. The tallest wire goes all the way to the top of the posts where it is painted yellow.
So that got accomplished, finally!
While i was taking care of that, hubby was helping clear the garden
About a week ago i prepared a new bed and planted 52 strawberry plants for our youngest who adores strawberries.
It was good timing for putting out bare root plants that had broken dormancy in the mail 2 weeks prior, the following 3 days were overcast with occasional light rain showers. So, with the Remay fabric covering them, they seem to have escaped sunburn. I bought the "Three Great Strawberries" collection from Burpee. It was 25 of each "Northeaster", "Tribute" and "Earliglow". They did short me about 5 plants and some were either DOA or too puny to bother with, but i only needed 52 and gave the rest of the more likely looking ones away.
I also built myself a new seed starting setup out of PVC. Earlier in the year i was thinking i might build something out of wooden 2x4s. So i did some research and found this website:
http://www2.arkansas.net/~mgee/growlightstand/growlightstand.html
Many, many thanks go to this person who shared this design freely and made the simple instructions crystal clear.
I took a few pictures of the build in progress but never did snap a shot of the completed stand- which is currently in use.
I did omit the building of the wooden trays and instead used some leftover hardware cloth (a welded metal mesh) and zip-tied it to the support bars. The project cost me under $50.00 since i already had the light fixtures, chain and the PVC cutting tool instead of a saw. ---because we know this isn't my first rodeo when it comes to PVC.
I also learned that one can indeed fit 10' lengths of 1" PVC pipe into a closed Nissan Sentra. Just like my old Hyundai Accent, its amazing what a family car can haul if you pack it right. :)
Well i guess that is it for now. Its a beautiful day outside and is expected to be in the upper 70's.
I hope to not neglect my blog this year like i have for the last 2!
