I had a playset on the northside of the house that I just took down. I had made a perimeter out of pressure treated on a slope and leveled it out. Moved all 4000 lbs of rubber tire much via two wheelbarrows over to my neighbor right next door since he has 3 kids and just bought almost the same exact playset. Had to vacuum that mess up after removing the landscape fabric. Boy was that annoying. Here you can see a whole dump truck load of beautiful wood chips. Smelled like apples and tea leaves..... Here I got some horse manure from the local horse ranch. Unlimited for free - I can go back as often as I want. They even load it into the truck for me! Mixed it in with a relatively new compost pile I had started out of chainsaw sawdust, kitchen scraps (raw veggie waste), wood chips from branches and leaves, and also threw in some of the wood chips from the load mentioned above. Put the wood chips as a floor. I didn't want to plant in the soil for a few reasons: 1) because I had used pressure treated 4x4s for the perimeter, I didn't want to risk leaching and 2) the soil was so compacted and full of black locust tree roots I would have given up before I started. Started making the garden beds out of pallets. Got a neighbor who is a truck driver and gave me like 20 pallets in the last week. I started with some extras I had but now I've using the very new pallets he gave me. All HT heat treated. Decided to go with 4' x 8' x 3 boards high which works out to a height of about 10.5". Glued with Titebond II, two pairs of pocket screws per board, reenforced with 10" long pieces of pallet wood with glue as well. The wood will rot before the joints give out. To get to 8' I just made it into 3 sections of 32". For the 4' short side I made it into 2 sections of 24". I had a few pallets that were 48" but most are 40" or 42". With the extras I make the 10" support pieces for the joints. At this point I'm not even counting I'm just spending a lot of time pulling boards, removing nails, cutting off the ends, then measuring 32" or 24", then measuring 10". I don't mind the tediousness. It's almost like meditation. Here's the first bed going in. I ended up rotating 90 degrees to maximize the southern exposure. Each corner is supported by 2x4s glued and screwed all over the place. Some pics of the cuts. Also got me a pallet buster because I was breaking too many boards. This thing works amazing and worth the $50. Here's where it got real tedious. I had a huge mound of dirt on the corner of the property that's been sitting for 12 years. Filled with tree roots and rocks. This was from when I had a french drain dug on the high side of the outside of the house. Had to use the pickaxe first, then the rake/hoe thingy, then the shovel. Then I had to sift through 2 shovelfuls of dirt at a time to remove tree roots and rocks. That method worked surprisingly well. To fill the first bed I had to get 16 cu ft (2 garden carts full) of soil along with the same amount of compost.
Oh here's a pic of the corner suporrted by the 2x4s. Here is where my damm cart got a crack on me so I decided to fix it instead of hauling it back to home depot. They don't have any in stock at my local store either. I drilled two holes, used two m12 bolts with big washers and a lock nut, and slapped some Premium PL in the crack and for the piece of pallet wood to stick to. I think this will do the trick. Also fixed a crack in the base of the garden cart when I accidentally tossed a split the wrong way. Finished filling the garden bed yesterday and lo and behold today I received my garlic bulbs. Very excited. These cloves are very big. Also on the top of the list of things I never thought I would do is buying 5 bales of hay (from HD) and transporting it back in my pickup.
I might have to return the hay............I can use wood chips instead. The Hidden Dangers of Straw Bale Gardening - The Grow Network.
I returned the straw. PIcked up 3 bags of perlite as well since I felt the soil + compost was a bit on the clayey side. It drained pretty well after wetting the bed so to speak yesterday but I think the perlite will help for sure. Mixed in about 1/3 of a bag just on the top few inches, didn't want to disturb the soil too much. Planted 10 rows of 6...... then covered up with wood chips instead of the straw. Bed is 4' x 8' x 10.5" tall. Gave one bulb to my massage therapist as a tip........ And that leaves 5 close to plant in the spring in order to harvest the scapes. Fingers crossed!
Based on what I've read and watched, if you keep cutting off the scapes that will lead to less bulb production. If you plant in spring and put those aside for scape harvesting only then the bulbs on those plants won't develop as well as the ones you plant in the fall and leave alone.
Awesome project and love your progress. While I didn't click the link for straw, I have used it before in an attempt at weed control. Big mistake, it was full of seeds. I'll never use it again.
I dont mean to argue or tell you what to do but, You've got that backwards. The scape is the flower shoot. If you let it develop then the plant will produce a flower and garlic seeds in the flower and the plant will put most of its energy into the seed production and the bulb from that plant will be very small. If you cut the scape after it "pigtails" then the flower cant develop and the plant will put all of its energy onto the bulb. If you cut the scape before it "pigtails" then the shoot will just keep growing back...to a point. If you let a flower develop and then harvest the seeds you can plant them and the crop will be a single clove. This is a good way to develop your seed crop because a single flower will produce many seeds. If you plant a clove the crop will be a bulb.
While I love big equipment there is something about a simple approach and manpower that is very satisfying. Good job on repurposing. I made a couple from an old deck and old pool liner earlier this year. Pallet buster looks handy, so does the unloader.
Thanks for your post. You are correct. I mistakenly used the word "shoots" instead of "scapes" when asking someone for help, and their advice is pertinent if I were to harvest the shoots. What I meant was to harvest just the scapes so I will be cutting them off and I'll be planting the rest of the cloves I was saving just as soon as I can find the energy to dig for more soil! Thanks. Yes, both are super handy. The unloader at under $40 is a no-brainer even if it breaks (which it has twice now, once replaced under warranty). The plastic bit holding the strap broke on one side but it still stays put for the most part. Every once in a while I knock it back down if it slips up off the tailgate but so far so good.
It was a piece of expanded metal sheet. I used these to cover the gable vents when I did my attic insulation.......and I figured it would work pretty good for sifting soil and it did indeed. Just small enough that a bunch of gravel doesn't pass through it either. I'm pretty sure it was this one from HD. Everbilt 24 in. x 1/2 in. x 12 in. Plain Expanded Metal Sheet-801417 - The Home Depot
In hindsight I probably should have purchased 2 and rotated it 90 degrees to get a wider area that I can sift through. It works ok but it takes only 2 shovelfuls of dirt at a time otherwise it starts spilling all over the place.
Scapes are the shoot that grows out of the center of the plant that the flower will develop on. Right before the flower develops the scape will make a curly pigtail, and have a small raised bump, the bump is the beginning of the flower. You can cut the scapes and use them as you would a scallion.
They are much better than scallions. Scallions are wimpy and weak. Garlic scapes are much more fibrous and way tastier too. I love to stir fry them in a cream sherry reduction with Chinese roast prok. It's amazing like that.
Took 3 hours yesterday to dig two garden carts of soil, sift it, and mix in 2 carts of compost along with some percolite. Going to plant the remainder of the garlic and in the spring I'll plant ginger in the rest of the bed. They can't survive the zone 4 winter if we actually have a cold winter. It rained all night and I went and checked the new bed and glad that it's draining very well. It was not muddy or caked up at all. Very loose but obviously moist.
Here's a quick video of the consistency of the soil after raining all night and day the day after I filled the bed. I had wet it slightly when I filled it knowing it was going to pour.