Time to Get Down, Get Serious

It's been an eventful week at Steepmeadow. We've made some capital investments, and planted quite a few more plants.

On Friday, a "Fruit Fly Bar Pro" fly strip that I'd ordered arrived. I'm not a huge fan of using poison (in this case dichlorvos - 2.2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate), but our fruit fly infestation was completely out of control. Our pogrom seems to have eliminated almost all of the fruit flies in the greenhouse, and our windowsills are no longer full of their foul little corpses. I'm planning to leave it in there for two weeks to disrupt the lifecycle completely, and then get it out.

On Wednesday we received two more T5 full-spectrum grow-lights for the greenhouse. This gave it the full compliment of five. Two on each level except the top where we store some tools. 

Yesterday involved some heavy planting. The original nine banana peppers that I'd planted had finally failed. I love banana peppers, and will not be mocked. I planted nine more, this time in coir. 

We also planted ten each:

• Wisconsin Chief tomatoes
• Alaska nasturtiums
• Marigolds
• Ruby red peppers
• Milkweed

The fifty new plants were dropped into store-bought seed-starting cells. These are nice and compact, and may be the way to go. More plants in less space.

I learned that I've been overwatering when I got into the failed banana peppers. The toilet paper rolls were soaked, and in a few cases couldn't be re-used. One of the things that's going to happen this week is that I'm going to let the seedlings dry out a bit. This is almost certain part of the trouble we're having with the yellowing leaves on the tomatoes that were planted early.

Construction was also on the list yesterday. 

Using 2x2x8 lumber and galvanized poultry netting, I began work on the prototype rodent resistant bed.

Last year, our beets were ravaged. I haven't necessarily got anything against squirrels, but we were not fond of finding ever beet chewed into.

This year we're going to try a variety of different strategies. One of them is to construct a full net over one of the beds. This will be amplified by a blanket (that admits light and rain, but protects from frost and wind) for early season warmth and protection. 

While the sides are stapled in place, the cover is removable. It locks down over the corners, but can be lifted off relatively easily to allow us access. 

I will happily admit that kneeling in mud and slush with a staple-gun to attach galvanized poultry netting to the raised bed on the inside (because aesthetics are important here at Surbiton Manor, we are in the [cough cough] suburbs) is no fun whatsoever. I only got one short side done yesterday, and will have to venture out this afternoon when the weather has warmed somewhat. Also, one of the 2x2's fell to the floor after I cut it in half and snapped off at a knot. (Note: choosing lumber took a while. Mostly, the 2x2's in the shop looked like bananas.)

This was a pricey and time-consuming venture.

And it wasn't over yesterday. I think it took about six hours to get it built - and I still need a 2x2 to finish it, and to staple the last galvanized poultry netting in place at the end.

I was a little disappointed at the way the blanket cover worked out. It was extremely difficult to maneuver into place, and then, when it was stapled down to the removable 1x2 boards (six screws lock the cover in place), looks like some kind of marshmallow Jawa sand crawler. And something's got to be done about the flappage (perhaps a couple of temporary cross-beam 2x2's), and the bits at the end. It's sort of like a poorly wrapped Xmas present. But it should be effective.

Other strategies include planting nasturtiums and marigolds, and purchasing some fox urine. This will be a summer to experiment with natural pest control. If building a full cage is what it actually takes, then we'll have to do so slowly, over time.

It is quite warm. It reached almost 50 degrees yesterday, and we're looking at another day like that today, tomorrow, and a shot at a thunder-storm and near 70 on Wednesday. Then, it being spring in Minnesota, the temperature will plummet for a bit.