New York Renovator

I’ve removed sod a few different times: through suffocation (laying plastic on a plot until the turf dies); through roto-tilling; through manual removal. By far, I think the easiest and most satisfying is through manual removal. The suffocation method takes too long and is messy; roto-tilling is hard, trying to get the machine to chew through tough turf, and then there’s the back-breaking work of picking and raking the plot to remove sod clumps (and I never seem to get them all). Manual sod removal is quick, it’s easy, and you see instant results. After you remove the first 3-5 inches of sod, you can roto-till the soil.

The best time to “bust” sod, as I call it, is a day or two after rainfall. The soil is slightly moist and the sod will tear apart easily. However, if your soil is waterlogged, the task may be very messy and muddy. Don’t plan any summer garden wedding programs anytime soon!

Get a flat-end spade. Cut a long strip of any length, and about 1 foot wide. Then, chop the strip into 1 to 2 foot sections, for easy handling.

Work up one side of the strip with the spade. Your goal is to tear the root system out of the subsoil below. It’s important to get the roots out, or else the turf will grow back. My yard varies: in some places I need only dig 2 inches down to get past the roots; in other areas, it’s 4 inches.

Use the spade to hack horizontally into and under each square section.

Pull up the section. Dump it upside down, and chop off any loose subsoil and clumps. Loosen the dirt from the roots with your hands if you need to.

This is what the section looks like after we removed a few sections.

Hacking into the sod is probably the hardest part, but I love it because it is incredible exercise. It’s a little difficult to explain with text, so we made a quick video showing how to do this.

Now that the snow is melting, I can walk to the backyard to access the winter damage done by the deer and snowmobilers. :-p

My poor apple trees. My poor grape vine!! I could skin those varmints alive, I could.

My grapevine didn’t get it as bad as the apple trees. The busted post is from the Husband varmint. He accidentally backed into the garden fencing when working on the brakes, lol.

But my apples trees! ! Ever year I go out to access the damage, and every year it’s the same– the trees are half eaten by those STUPID DEER!!!!!!!!! I hate them, I do.

By the way, that goofy string on the limb is my hokey version of deer repellent. Well, it WAS deer repellent. Well, actually, I guess it wasn’t. It didn’t repel anything!!!! GAH!!! It was a bar of soap hanging from the string. The soap (so I heard) repels deer. MY deer are SO nasty that they even eat soap!!!

*cries*

I have to go high tech, I think. I can’t sit back and watch my beautiful trees chewed up and devoured by critters that deserve only to be made into stew. I hear coyotes repel deer! mauhahahhahaha!!!! But… coyotes repel ME, too. So…. next best thing is to get….

COYOTE WHIZ!!! Yes! Well, technically it’s called “Coyote Urea.” *adjusts glasses* I really don’t care WHAT the durn stuff is, as long as it makes those deer high-tail it outta my yard. Buy.com has some of this stuff on sale for under $15. It’s called Shake Away Coyote Urea, and one application is supposed to last up to 90 days. That’s better than anything else I’ve have ever seen.

So, I hope my problems will be solved… now I need to figure out how to repel the blasted snowmobilers that tear up my yard…

I’ve always wanted a porch swing. I was hoping to get something last year, but big bills reared their ugly heads, and then winter was here. And this year, all my attention and money is going into the new kitchen… but come autumn, I’d just love to finally relax after all that hard work and get a swing. I spotted this at Buy.com; isn’t it exquisite?! It’s wrought iron, and you secure it to the ceiling joists of the porch. I like this much better than the kinds that have those canvas canopies. Buy.com always seems to have a sale going on, even on things like these!

Of course, I need to finish my front porch. :-p It was almost finished a few years ago, but the roof leaks in the winter (ice dams) and I cannot close up the ceiling until I fix those leaks. And the rails and columns need to be painted and adjusted. We get so much water underground (and above ground) that the porch has sunk into the ground. I love my front porch, but it’s HUGE (10 x 20′) and empty. I want to make it more welcoming. I think a beautiful porch swing will do the trick, don’t you?

I don’t know what else to add to the garden surrounding… maybe a bench. too? I’d like to add a bird feeder, but don’t know if the birds would come to the house that closely. I have my Secret Garden on the side of the porch– oh that will be so lovely when it’s all grown in!

We work at this a little bit every year, adding more flowers and shrubs and more of the concrete walkway. It’s a very beloved garden to me. Eventually, the Rose of Sharon and Lilac bushes will grow up on both sides of the arbor, and make a virtual green, flowery wall. Oh! I can’t wait. I think I may add a Victorian glass globe or a bird bath and feeder in here. It will look SOOOOO beautiful! Buy.com has all that stuff, too. Very good prices. I love this one, and there’s another bronze bird bath just like it. You’d think this would be close to $100, but it’s only $31!

Oh, dreams dreams. I love gardens! They are so inexpensive to make! And the reward is so satisfying. After I finally get this kitchen done, I cannot WAIT to begin the gardening again!

“Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and there is no known way to kill it that does not involve nuclear weapons.” Dave Barry

I used to have such a beautiful front lawn. Before I bought the house, I would walk by it and admire the front lawn– it was lush and so beautiful! I even sat down in the shade of the trees when passing by (the house was vacant at the time). We have the best front yard on the entire street.

But then, the floods hit, a few years in a row. We are at the bottom of a small incline, so our yard got the brunt of the flooding. When the waters ebbed, our front yard was filled, several times, with trash, soot, and about 1/2″ of silt from the road. It basically killed my front yard. Now, the yard is FILLED with evil, evil crabgrass. I’ve managed to ignore it, because so many other parts of the yard needed attention. But I think this year, the crabgrass may go too far.

I HATE CRABGRASS!!! Did you realize that crabgrass is NOT native to North America? Nope! The idiots in government had it brought over from Africa in 1849, to feed draft animals. GRRRRRR. And we want these idjits to run health care? Thank you, NO.

So…. I don’t know what to do. For years, I’ve considered buying chemicals to expunge the crapgrass, er, I mean crabgrass, from my lawn. I don’t like chemicals. But it’s either Scott’s Step 1 Crabgrass Killer treatment, or I ask Los Alamos to detonate my yard… because all this weeding and lawn mowing isn’t doing anything…

The only silver lining to this cloud is that Buy.com has good prices on garden materials and supplies, so it won’t cost me an arm and a leg. Plus, I like to give Buy.com business. They are cool- they have funny commercials with Howie. And they have always given me the best service, and they have spectacular sales all the time.

So… I’d better read the crabgrass its last rites, because it’s days are numbered. Of course, I still have two feet of snow on top of it, but all in good time…

UPDATE: April 13, 2010. I received this comment today:

I work with Burpee, and wanted to respond to some incorrect information in this post. Please be advised that Burpee was never bought by Monsanto. Burpee is privately owned by George Ball. I pasted a formal statement from Burpee below.

Burpee was founded in 1876 by seed pioneer W. Atlee Burpee. Today, the company remains privately owned by George Ball, a third generation seedsman, who serves as Chairman and CEO of W. Atlee Burpee & Co. and is past president of The American Horticultural Society. For more information, please visit our company history page at www.burpee.com.

In response, I’d like to state that while Burpee is truly not owned by Monsanto, Burpee (according to my knowledge at this writing) does receive Seminis seed, which is owned by Monsanto. So Burpee receives seeds from Monsanto. As far as I know, seed packages do not label the origin of their seeds. So the consumer has no idea if he’s getting Monsanto seeds or not. Because of Burpees’s association with Monsanto (as far to my knowledge- PLEASE SOMEONE correct me if I am wrong!), and because it is not possible for the consumer to know if the seeds are genetically-modified and/or from Seminis/Monsanto (as far to my knowledge- PLEASE SOMEONE correct me if I am wrong!), I will not buy Burpee seeds any more. The reader may do as he wishes, but that’s my statement.

—————————-

Small Pines, a terrific Adirondacks “homesteading” kind of blog, has a great post about buying seeds. He mentions the monolithic company, Monsanto:

The Monsanto Company supplies most of the major seed companies in the US. (There are lists out there you can check.) Monsanto is one of the major players in the genetically altered food world. Of course, much of that genetic altering concerns bigger and better disease-resistant crops. However, it also involves altering plants so they produce only sterile seeds. No seed saving. You have to buy new every year. Sounds absurd, right? Unfortunately, it’s true. You can watch the documentary for the full scoop, if you like.

The documentary is here.

This stuff just makes my blood boil. Monsanto is out to control the world’s food supply, and they have the backing of lobbyists(and therefore, our bought-and-paid-for government) behind them.

This probably doesn’t make the nightly news, but Monsanto sues farmers for their crops and even their equipment, because of “seed contamination.” For example, an independent farmer in Canada who uses his own seeds and not Monsanto’s was sued by Monsanto. A Monsanto farm truck had spilled Monsanto seeds, and these seeds had cross-pollinated with the crops on the farmer’s land. Monsanto says that their seeds’ genes are “patented,” and therefore the farmer owes Monsanto money. It’s unbelievable! This is from a post titled Monsanto Seed Threat.

Some say that if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, they simply shouldn’t buy Monsanto’s GMO seeds. But it isn’t quite that simple. Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples, and then sues, saying they own the crop.

Meanwhile, Monsanto is taking many other steps to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of normal seeds:

1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.

2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible.

3. Monsanto is pushing laws that ensure farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops.

4. There are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA rules that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal because it’s now considered a “source of seed contamination.”

Well, for a few years, I have been buying the bulk of my seeds from Johnny’s Selected Seeds. There’s a list of Monsanto seed companies here at the Garden of Eatin’, and they list Johnny’s Selected Seeds as a Monsanto-owned company. However, the owner of Johnny’s say that Johnny’s Selected Seeds has no affiliation with Monsanto Company. The affiliation is not direct, but Johnny’s does get some of their vegetable seeds from Seminis, a company recently purchased by Monsanto. Johnny’s says they are in the process of replacing their 40 Seminis varieties.

[P.S. Monsanto does NOT own Johnny's and Monsant does NOT own Burpee, either. It's the association with Seminis that seems to disturb a lot of organic growers like myself.]

I have also heard of an organic seed farm in Vermont called High Mowing Organic Seeds. I’ll be getting my seeds from organic, non-Monsanto companies from now on. High Mowing Organic Seeds has good prices, too. There’s a list of “good” seed companies at the Garden of Eatin’ website.

What a lousy year for gardening. It seems I’m not alone– a lot of you gardening bloggers are also bemoaning the soggy spring, cold summer, and lackluster crops. I managed to pull out a big turnip and a few snowpeas, but so far NO eggplant, just ONE pepper, ONE zucchini, and ONE tomato (out of two plants)! Awful! Terrible! My local weatherman recently said out of the past 30 days, it’s rained for 20 of them!

ANYWAY, I’m still gardening. We’re turning our attentions away from our miserable vegetable gardens (hey, at least we have lots of lettuce!) to the flower gardens, “hard -scapes” (like concrete walkways) and improving our garden fencing and the compost area. My compost area is torublesome– it always has been. I have TOO much stuff to compost! Grass clippings, loads and loads of leaves and weeds, plus all our waste vegetable matter. I am going out tomorrow to look for a larger, more suitable bin to hold the waste. I’m also doing a little online shopping for some “compost starter.” My compost piles just don’t seem to do very well. I’m not sure if it is because the backyard is so shady, or I’m just not doing it right. But I’m getting some starter. I saw some great stuff at Buy.com, and it’s very affordable: Woodstream Compost Starter. It’s filled with all sorts of bacteria and stuff that compost piles find absolutely yummy yummy! Mmmmm. Well, I know we need it, because our pile STINKS like all get out, and I may have the neighbors with ther pitchforks coming after me if I don’t fix it! (It is said that a stinky compost pile means that it is not decaying properly).

Buy.com has all sorts of helpful stuff for gardening– even some good garden books, too (I found this book, “How To Cook Compost” very intriguing). I really recommend that you check out Buy.com’s sale website page that they update every week. Most of those items are electronics and gadgets– hey, those come in handy, too! You can find garden tools, power tools, small and large appliances, and a ton of all sorts of stuff. If you have not checked them out, you really should! And happy gardening!

Our growing season is so brief here in Upstate New York, we tend to get exuberant over seemingly small things. Such as, MY PEAS ARE NOW ONE INCH HIGH!!!!!!!! Look!

Aren’t they beautiful?! (Ignore the weed).

The grapes are also doing very well. I am really enjoying watching these things grow.

And our lettuce is doing well. I have to get in here and thin the rows, though. We eat a lot of lettuce and fresh spinach during the summer, so I have five rows of this stuff planted!

The only thing not doing well is the cantaloupe. It’s been a very chilly and cloudy spring, and looks like the summer is starting off that way, too. It is unusually cool. So I don’t think my melons are going to do so well. It’s a good thing I never got around to planting the watermelon; I would have wasted my seeds.

My apple trees have dozens of tiny little apples on them! This is the first year we’re going to have a real harvest. I just hope I can keep the flies and caterpillars at bay… I may spray my trees to keep the bugs away.

How is your garden growing?

So we’re starting June with ANOTHER frost advisory tonight. :-p and double :-p. We’ve had frost advsiories this late before, but it is very rare. I had the boys cover the tomatoes, eggplant, and pepper plants with buckets. The rest of the plants will have to fend for themselves, as they are too small and too spread out for me to do much.

It’s been a soggy, cold spring. In a way, it’s been a lot like late winter. I think it was warmer in January than it has been now (we had a flukey warm spell in January). Weird!

Anyway, we’re still picking the sawfly larva and cleaning up the flower gardens. I was really hoping that the local bird population would pick up on the sawfly, finding them a tasty alternative to our New York bugs; but the birds avoid them like some avoid colon cleanser… no such luck. *sigh* So we go out almost every day, to pluck pluck pluck the little devils off our pines.

My lilac flowers have expired. I love lilac season, I wish it was longer! But it is good while it lasts. And even when they spill their spent blooms all over my garden paths like lavendar tears on stones.

Lilies are next. I love lilies, and have a vast assortment in my gardens: day lilies, Stella D’Oro, Asian, Stargazer Oriental, Tiger, and more.

I picked up a pot of wilting, blackened Calladiums at Lowe’s a week ago. They were on sale for a dollar because they had been left uncovered at the Garden Center during the last frost we suffered. I put them in the ground and they are doing marvelously. I hope they survive tonight.

And here’s another pretty sight: my Livvy. She can’t go outside, and watches our gardening activities from the window. And she watches most pitifully, too, with meows of protest over her unfair confinement.

So spring is almost over. Here’s hoping we have a warmer summer!

How sweet the sound! And the sight! It’s amazing grapes, and we GOT THEM!! Wooooo!

My grapevine survived its first winter, the scads of chomping, humgry deer, and the vicious Japanese beetle attack last summer. Now, it has to survive the bugs, the birds, strong winds, and curious children. Here’s hoping!

I’m giving more responsibility to the kids this year, to get the spring planting done. We are the latest we’ve ever been with the planting. But we had frost warnings as late as earlier this week! Crazy! I really hope our warm autumn weather lasts well into September, or we may not see much this year. It’s tough when you have such a short growing season; I can’t imagine how scarce it must be in even colder climates as Canada.

We’re working on enlarging the garden beds. I think I’m only going to get one bed enlarged, due to time constraints.

Those old perimeter boards are 150 years old. We got them from the attic floor. They worked really well for a few years, but now they are full of ants and are going to the burn pile.

We weeded the other bed.

We only had enough home-grown compost for one large bed. I try to add compost every other year. I may grow clover or rye in the other bed, after the harvest is over, to replenish the soil. I’m going to write a post about how to enrich your soil for vegetable gardening, in the near future.