Introducing myself

[Kevin Lawson]

Hello everyone!


I have been a fan of Mark's for a couple years now, but I only just learned about this forum. Can't believe I didn't know about it! I am from southern Central Ohio, I live on about 5 acres, and I have been gardening for about 5 years now. I am still in the "I have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm just gonna try stuff" stage. The only things that have remained the same in my garden are my perennials... probably because I'm too lazy to relocate them. If I put a perennial somewhere, it's going to stay there (unless the wife wants it moved LOL).

My garden method and template change every year - I don't think my garden has looked the same from one year to the next since I started. I would love to move to a raised bed approach, but my budget keeps my hand from touching the "Place Order" button. I only have one small raised bed which is 7" tall and 32 sq. ft. It is used solely for growing cilantro/coriander. In terms of perennials, I have a large thornless blackberry bush, a 21' strawberry bed, a new seedless concord grape vine, a new blueberry bush (still in a pot), and some new black raspberry bushes that a friend gave me. I also have one asparagus plant that survived my wife's mowing practices.

I am very excited about my annual garden this year. I am growing (*inhales deeply*): bush beans, 10 varieties of tomatoes which I can't remember, cucumbers, zucchinis, 3 varieties of beets, 3 varieties of Swiss chard, peanuts, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, sweet corn, and sunflowers (*inhales deeply again from lack of oxygen*).

I also have a hedge of sorts between the two halves of my garden which contains borage, marigolds, and sunflowers. Both sides of the garden amount to roughly 1,800 sq. ft.

Finally, I am very excited that I just planted a half acre of a cover crop of my own design which contains subzero kale, marigolds, and cilantro. It takes too long to explain my thinking, so I will leave you to wonder. I suppose that is plenty and more for an introduction. I look forward to learning from you all. Excited to become a part of this forum!


May God bless you all.

Kevin

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Welcome to the forum @Kevin Lawson !

Haha I hear you! Most of my perennials (even though I kept them potted) haven't moved since I put them there.

Raised beds can be pricy, but do note that if you buy something of quality, it lasts many years. In Mark's last video he says that some of the beds are 15 years old! If you calculate that back it's not too expensive. If you for example say that the bed was $300, but it lasts (over) 15 years, in reality it's only $20 a year. And that way it doesn't sound nearly as big an expense. On top of that, I reckon those beds of Mark's still have a good number of years left in them.

I personally would love a strawberry bed. It's just the one plant that I cannot keep alive for the life of me. I've recently bought another strawberry plant and I'm afraid to even look at it, haha. So far it's still healthy, but I haven't watered or touched it since it came home.

That sounds like you'll have a bountiful harvest on the way! What do you do with your excess produce? Pickling, drying, selling, etc?

We're very excited to have you! Welcome!

 

[Kevin Lawson]

Thanks, Mandy! That is a good way of looking at it, with regard to the raised beds, but the hardest part will be getting my wife to look at it that way.

We do can some of our produce, but we have not yet explored pickling or fermenting - I would love to though! I haven't really sold any produce, but I have given it away to family and friends. I struggle with being a salesman and starting a kiosk at the local farmer's market - that is one thing I hope to learn from people on this forum: how to get started and to grow in self-confidence.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha, that might take a little more work. But at the same time, the produce you can grow in it should help convince her a little too

Near where I live there are multiple self-serve roadside stalls plus one community stall which is free. I mean, worst case, the produce rots and they simply compost it back down again. Best case, they get a couple extra dollars.

Confidence comes with time! I've got areas I'm quite confident at, and areas that I try to avoid for the time being. But in time we'll all get there

 

[Kevin Lawson]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice! I appreciate it!

 

[KIGardening]

Welcome to the forum Kevin. Feel free to throw pictures in the story of your gardening patch for us

I have some tips for you that might help you towards your garden beds quicker and maybe a better salesman. However I try to make it a bit general so that other readers in different parts of the world might find this comment useful.

• If there is a bottle/can deposit scheme in your state/country collect your bottles/cans and cash it in. If you have friends/family who dump the in the bin then ask to keep it apart for you. Provide a bag or box if that help your case and collect it on a regular basis based on the friends/family use.
• Around the world scrap metal is worth something. However, not everybody is interested to spend the time to collect and cash it in. If you have friends/family who have that stuff laying around ask them you can have it and cash it in. The same counts for broken appliances.
• My first raised garden beds and compost bins where made out of old washing and drying machines. I stripped the inner parts out and had used the outer shell. These will usually hold out for about 2-3 years before they rust out, but if it is free who cares.... and you can cash in the remains.
• If you can get your hands on heat treated pallets (don't use the chemical threated ones!) and you handy with a crowbar, handsaw and a hammer you can remove the planks and beams from each other with the nails intact and you can use those nails again to build your garden raised bed out if it. With a bit of lack that will last you about 5 years, based on the environment and thickness of the wood.
• As previously stated try to sell or barter your left over produce.
• If you want to preserve your food then ask your family/friends for their old jars of processed food. If you wash the lids by hand and straight away after opening (that means the same morning/afternoon/night) meal then in most cases you can reuse those lids a few times, before it turns to scrap metal (see pattern). Therefore saving money on buying jars/lids.
• If you have materials that you don't know what to do with it, then ask a nutty professor for help !

If you get stuck, have questions or need a different point of view then tap into this forum.

 

[Kevin Lawson]

Welcome to the forum Kevin. Feel free to throw pictures in the story of your gardening patch for us

I have some tips for you that might help you towards your garden beds quicker and maybe a better salesman. However I try to make it a bit general so that other readers in different parts of the world might find this comment useful.

• If there is a bottle/can deposit scheme in your state/country collect your bottles/cans and cash it in. If you have friends/family who dump the in the bin then ask to keep it apart for you. Provide a bag or box if that help your case and collect it on a regular basis based on the friends/family use.
• Around the world scrap metal is worth something. However, not everybody is interested to spend the time to collect and cash it in. If you have friends/family who have that stuff laying around ask them you can have it and cash it in. The same counts for broken appliances.
• My first raised garden beds and compost bins where made out of old washing and drying machines. I stripped the inner parts out and had used the outer shell. These will usually hold out for about 2-3 years before they rust out, but if it is free who cares.... and you can cash in the remains.
• If you can get your hands on heat treated pallets (don't use the chemical threated ones!) and you handy with a crowbar, handsaw and a hammer you can remove the planks and beams from each other with the nails intact and you can use those nails again to build your garden raised bed out if it. With a bit of lack that will last you about 5 years, based on the environment and thickness of the wood.
• As previously stated try to sell or barter your left over produce.
• If you want to preserve your food then ask your family/friends for their old jars of processed food. If you wash the lids by hand and straight away after opening (that means the same morning/afternoon/night) meal then in most cases you can reuse those lids a few times, before it turns to scrap metal (see pattern). Therefore saving money on buying jars/lids.
• If you have materials that you don't know what to do with it, then ask a nutty professor for help !

If you get stuck, have questions or need a different point of view then tap into this forum.

Thanks! That's a wealth of good advice!

 

[Kevin Lawson]

Finally had a reason to take a picture.

I found a visitor in my green beans.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Wowza! I'm internally struggling with that I want to pet it, and that it would probably actually horrify me if I saw it in real life. It just looks like a giant rat

We have our local rodents chewing up our passion fruit every day. Granddad reckons they might be possums. I've never seen them though. Only spotted an echidna once. But then again, most wildlife here is quite skittish and doesn't let themselves be known. The main reason I often reckognise the local skippies is by sound, rather than seeing them.

You're very daring, picking it up like that. I reckon it's got quite a bite to it!

 

[Kevin Lawson]

They are all right as long as you know how to pick them up. He was trying very hard to convince me he was dead, but since my kids were helping me pick beans in the garden, I had to get him out of there before one of them stepped on him.

As soon as I picked him up, he bared his teeth and hissed at me. I just put him ever the fence and let him walk off. I actually like possums - they keep down the tick population and they can't get rabies. I wish I could have one as a pet, but there's nooooooo way my wife would ever be okay with that!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha I don't blame you! Gotta protect the kids.

I've heard that possums have an incredible bite-force and often easily bite through gloves and whatnot. I've only ever seen 1, and he was severely injured. I called a wildlife carer that I knew for the poor guy.
Haha, I'd probably try keeping one as a pet too as they look absolutely adorable... when not angry. But it's illegal to keep them as pets.

 

[Kevin Lawson]

I'm not sure if it is illegal in the states - never bothered to check

We had a nice summer rain yesterday evening, and the sun came out beneath the clouds an hour before sunset. I snapped a quick picture of the greenhouse as the sun peeped out. Got to love sunsets.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

What do you use to photograph? Those pictures are awesome!
Did you build the greenhouse yourself? I love it's design! Looks like it's built to last and quite customise-able.

 

[Kevin Lawson]

Just my wife's phone. I think it's a Samsung A53 or something.

Yes, I built it based on the plans from Ana White's DIY website. The dimensions are 10 ft x 12ft. It is about two years old now, and I use it for a lot of things.

The only thing I wish I did differently is, instead of making the back wall as detailed in the plans, I wish I made another door directly across from the main door for better airflow.

Even though I cut a small window into the back wall, it is very difficult to keep the temperature down to a manageable level. Once the temperature outside reaches 70 degrees Farenheit (21.1111 Celsius), and the sun is out, it is hard to keep the temperature in the greenhouse under 100 degrees Farenheit (37.7778 degrees Celsius). Sometimes, like during the summer, it climbs to 115 degrees Farenheit (46.1111 degrees Celsius) making it impossible to keep any plants in there. I need to come up with some kind of ventilation, like a fan that pumps the hot air out the roof when it reaches a certain temperature.

Other than that, it is a great little greenhouse! And it is fairly easy to make. I'm no carpenter, and I did it myself.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

That means I really have to figure out my camera, haha. I've got the Samsung Galaxy S20FE.

Is it possible to make the window larger, and/or to make some vents on the top? As heat tends to rise up, that might help a little. Another idea might be to invest in some shadecloth and to drill some hooks into the wood, so you can quite easily put it up in summer.

 

[Kevin Lawson]

Certainly a good idea. The window is not centered on the back wall as there is a center support on the wall, so I really need to make another window symmetrical to the one that is already there. Yes, I need to figure out a way to also put vents or openable windows in the roof to let the hot air out. I just need to take the time to plan it out properly The shade cloth is also a great idea! I have considered it - just haven't gotten there yet.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'm not sure it's possible anymore, but you could extend the "roof" section and open up the top of the walls underneath, creating vent holes in a sense.
Terrible drawing below

 

[Kevin Lawson]

I think it is certainly possible - it would just take some imagination. Though with the type of plastic I used, I'm not sure how it would hold up being flexed at the joint. I will have to think about it. Thanks for the suggestion! It's a grand idea!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hmm. I amigine, if this was a build idea still, the support beams could've been extended, so that it would've supported the extra length of the roof.
Since that's not the case... hmm. I have never actually built anything myself (aside from treehouses as a kid I suppose), and whilst I am plenty creative, I do not know whether any options I suggest would hold up in real life. You could put small support blocks in under the extension. Especially if there was a window area, you could attach the added supports on the inside to the wood. It'd slightly alter the size of the window, but that shouldn't matter too much.

All in all, I do think your greenhouse is a wonderful design! I'm very tempted to try my own DIY skills someday, hah. I'd just have to buy a drill, and opinions on brands are veeery varied.

 

[Kevin Lawson]

I was thinking more along the lines of lifting the plastic, building a small thin frame the length of the greenhouse and the width of the upper angled part of the roof (where your illustration is) and putting hinges on the frame at the top so I can just push it up and prop it open, but there are several ways it could be done.

I definitely recommend DIY! If you play your cards right, you can save a lot of money. For instance, at the time I built this greenhouse, the cheapest one I could find of this size was $2,500. When I finished the project, I had only spent $1,200. I cut the cost in half by doing it myself.

Regarding the brand of drill, I don't know what brands you have in Australia, but I have found that the Bauer brand from Harbor Freight (not sure if you have those there either) are very cost effective and useful. My first drill was actually just a $20 one from Walmart, and it lasted me 5 years and many projects before I got my Bauer drill. You don't necessarily need the best drill out there. You just need one that works for what you need to get done.