As the gardening season is on, there's something to do in the garden every day. Our garden is a small one and we only grow fruits and veggies for the family, not for sale and not looking to extend.
This is why investment is minimal, strictly for what we really need. In rest we're using the tools we have, some are really old but still functional and perfect for the purpose.
Old School Hole Making
Every year we need a few poles for the net supporting cucumbers and tomatoes. These poles need to go in the ground and stand still. This is an old school tool, I have no idea how old it is, but it does the job, so it's perfect. It's better than using a spade.
So you just mark the place, where you want the hole, rotate it a few times, till you go deep enough, then take it out.
And there you go, the two wooden poles are set. Later, when the seedlings grow tall enough, comes the net to support them. I'm going to show you that as well, when it's time.
Reusing, Repurposing
I'm a huge fan of the 5R and do what I can to protect nature. That's why we're trying to reuse what we can, repurpose as much as possible. It's the best way to reutilise things you have.
We've had this barrel that has been sitting unused for quite a while and we did not know what to do with it. One day our neighbor saw it and asked if he can have it. Now it serves as a water barrel, used for watering the garden.
He set up an irrigation system in the garden, using the barrel. He's filling it in the evening from the well so he can irrigate in the morning. There's a trick in this. the temperature of the water must be adjusted. The water in the well is coming from deep and it's cold, sometimes too cold if you're irrigating in the evening, especially in hot summer nights. When the water is in the barrel and stays overnight, it takes up the outside temperature, which is better than the water in the well.
Seedlings
We're growing seedlings every year, starting as early as February, to have seedlings early. We grow them inside as the weather is not favorable for outside growing. We have four seasons and sometimes spring comes late, we have snow in March at times.
The problem with growing your own seedlings is that you sow the seeds and then wait two or three weeks, depending on the seeds. Sometimes your seedlings grow nicely, other times you get nothing. This is how it works, unfortunately. The problem is, sometimes it's too late to sow another round and we have no other choice than to buy seedlings.
If you go to the farmers market, they give you what you need, even if they don't have it. What does this mean? If you ask for red pepper, they give you red pepper. If you want green pepper, they give you green pepper. They when the peppers start to ripe, you get a totally different thing. You can't trust them at all. Everything is for sale and they don't care how they make money.
This is why we don't buy seedlings from the farmers market, unless there's no other choice. Instead of the farmers market, we buy our seedlings from a greenhouse that is usually selling flowers and seedlings at the beginning of spring.
This greenhouse can be trusted, they have never lied to customers as being honest is the most important strategy one can have. When there's no trust, there's nothing.
So this year we had to buy quite a few seedlings, starting from cucumbers, pepper and others, to not miss out.