Lessons learned? July 2009

Things Learned During the First Growing Season

1. Label the Seeds in the Seed Tray
The dark green bushy plants with the bean poles are actually flowers - maybe nasturtiums?

2. Be Careful When Watering
Don't splash the leaves with water or they will get scorched (especially beans, squash and tomato plants)

Seed & Seedling Planning: Log 2009

Crops to Plant Directly in the Ground by 4/25

• greens (chard, spinach and kale)
• carrots
• beets
• radishes
• lettuce
• celeriac

Crops to Plant Directly in the Ground after Memorial Day

• beans
• squash
• cucumbers

Seeds to Start Indoors: Started 4/11/2009
Plant Seeds:
Soil: Used pellets, germinated in the dark
Length of Germination: ?

Tips:
- keep moist (not soggy), if they dry they die - soggy fungal nightmare
- when all seedlings show remove plastic cover (some say remove at sign of first sprout -test)
- seedlings must receive 14-16 hours of light per day

• heirloom tomatoes
• chili peppers
• perenials: 3 types of marigolds & nasturtiums
• eggplant (none)
• onions (none)

Options to consider: landscape fabric vs heavy mulch, where to get seeds from, composting solution, fluorescent bulbs (4-tube ballast, 1"-2" above seedlings)

Moving to Larger Containers
Soil: Organic ?
Length of Time:
Tips: replant when roots of seedling hit the sides, spread apart the roots, use a container twice the size of the previous, water to settle the soil around the roots

Plant late May

Preparing the Planting Beds

Location, Location, Location

This might sound like the name of a tacky travel show but it took a year to work out where to position our garden.

After monitoring the 2 acres around our house we identified an area which got at least half a days sunshine. You'd think a full day would be better but after watching herbs and greens shrivel under the glare of strong sunshine at 5,800 ft we decided half a day would do it.

This are didn't have enough light.

Clearing the Garden

The garden space was full of over grown trees, paving slabs and medium sized boulders. It took 2-3 weeks to dig out the rocks and pull out the trees and shrubs. The next phase will be building the raised beds.

The reasoning behind the raised beds is that their height makes daily weeding and watering less of a back breaking task and that we can add in better soil. We're going to use a combination of nutirient rich mountain soil which is being excavated from the path behind our house, compost and top soil.

We're picking up the wood for the beds at the end of the month so will be sharing the next step in a couple of weeks. The adventure continues...

The Professional Kitchen Project : Electricians

The Power of Post-its

The US Department of Labor states:
"Electricians usually start their work by reading blueprints. Blueprints are technical diagrams that show the locations of circuits, outlets, load centers, panel boards, and other equipment."

If you don't have any blueprints handy we've found that post-it notes with the explicit wording such as "Light Switch" work well.

And there was light...which made the whole kitchen seem bigger, brighter & cleaner!

The Professional Kitchen Project: Sinks

How Many Sinks??

A lesson to learn when building your own Professional Kitchen is that there is no such thing as too many sinks....

The mandatory stainless steel 3 section sink is a must for every certified kitchen. You'd think with three sinks you'd be able to wash your hands...



or what about the one back there on the left - um no that's the prep sink for washing ingredients,


here you go - this is the hand washing sink & to prevent any hand washing confusion there has to be a big bold sticker to clarify the issue.

"wash your hands"

<- (what a cutie-pie)

There's nothing quite like the quiet hum of Victory - this is our four door pass through - it's named after the fact that it has two doors on each side.

NOTE: A four door pass through is very, very, heavy and all of the weight is at the top!

The Professional Kitchen Project: Building Walls

Wall Frame & Plaster Board

The trick with building walls seems to be from the bottom up.

We used water-proof plaster board which could be tiled.
It's slightly larger & heavier but well worth it - who wants
soggy walls further down the road?

This is the main room - down at the bottom the room opens up to the left. The plaster board doesn't reflect the light so the room looks smaller that it does in reality.




NOTE: Plaster board is made of plaster at the end of the day so try and avoid jamming it into an enclosed vehicle as the corners can crumble.

The Professional Kitchen Project : Bringing Down the Walls

Little did the Laundry Room know....
that it was destined to become a Professional Kitchen (a culinary swan)

So after a great deal of planning, the blue tape was laid to mark out the sections of the room and the demolition started! The walls were removed to make room for the kitchen space. This involved the removal of a cloak room and sliding doors, floor tiles, unwanted shelving and doors.

Before....






Two men and a sledge hammer...









" Laundry walls Are falling down,
Falling down, Falling down.
Laundry walls Are falling down,
My fair kitchen."





Note: a shop vac is a wonderful thing - the walls crumble into plaster & dust....