Damage Control

     This week was lil interesting. I was noticing a lil problem with the Macro focus on me Samsung EX2F. So I contacted them and they issued me a repair ticket. I had to pay my own postage there. But here's how it went....(a) UPS it to NJ on Monday...(b) received and repaired on Tuesday...(c) return ship to me on Wed...(d)...in my hands on Thursday afternoon. So there you go! We all have our personal preferences, but hard to complain about customer service like that!

     During this time I double dug the garden bed ( double digging is digging 2 shovel depths deep ) and screened and loamed it. Last fall I layered the top of the bed with a couple of inches of cow manure from Wright's Dairy Farm...free for the taking, just bring your own shovel and buckets. After sifting thru and removing old weeds and root balls I added 250lbs of Coast of Maine - Lobster Compost. So...then bed is all turned and now onto the critter fence.

 

 ( nice bird bath huh? )





 

     Fencing is all made with 3/4 inch PVC piping cut and painted with Krylon Fusion paint. Last year I only put fencing on 3 sides ( figured the chain link was my 4th ). But watched daily at the end of the season as a chipmunk did the end around and robbed me of tomatoes. So this season it's 4 sided approx 30 inches high. Anything that can get in higher than 3 feet I wasn't gonna be able to stop anyway.

 

     Last year I SERIOUSLY underestimated how high my cucumbers would climb. I had them at over 7ft and was tying anything to the top of the chain link to hold them up. What a cluster fuck! So, now the back wall of my trellis is made of PVC that runs 7ft high...tomorrow we string the rope trellis netting across this structure and tie it off to the chain link.

 

 

     I also did a quick/cheap soil test. I know that until the soil warms up most of the fungi/bacterias  don't start really doing their thing. However the tests show that my soil is WAYYY Alkaline ( Green ) Nitrogen ( Pink ) is very low, Phosphorus ( Blue ) is low and Potash ( Orange ) is normal. 

  

  

 

       As it stands I was going to add Vermiculite and other additives ( all organic ). But to offset the Alkaline levels I am going to add Cottonseed Meal and Peat Moss as well. But hey, tomorrow is another day. Just glad I got my camera back for today.