I somehow managed to convince Amber it was a good idea to stop at Home Depot on the way home from church today. “I just need some potting soil and fertilizer”. It is never just a few items from that store though, so after I loaded up two carts full of cedar mulch, humus, potting soil, two types of organic fertilizer, light bulbs, pipe fittings, some seeds, and seed starters, we finally paid for it and left. I forgot we were in her SUV instead of my pickup, so I had to be very careful how I loaded everything to not dirty up the “princess’s sleigh”.
While looking for something else on the irrigation isle, I found this nifty “auto drain”. I assumed it was like the breaker on our hydrants, which opens up if the pressure is low, allowing all the water to escape instead of freezing and busting your pipe. I bought a tee fitting and a close nipple because I knew just where I wanted to install it.
Now, I can just shut off the water from the front yard when I expect a freeze, and this little gizmo should let most of the water automatically drain out, saving me the effort of manually opening up valves here and there.
Moving on to my raised beds, I added 2 bags of “80% humus and 20% manure” and mixed it in to raised bed number 3. I was disappointed that I didn’t see many worms. Hopefully, this new organic material and all the hay and newspaper will help that situation.
I had to remove lots of soil to get everything level.
Then I layered hay, newspaper, and more hay on top.
I took this picture after getting my tools put up just before the sun went down. I still need to screen the soil in raised bed number 6. Raised beds number 1 and 2 need to have layers of hay and newspaper applied. Beds 3, 4, and 5 are ready for planting in the spring.
I planted some lettuce…
…and some spinach…
…in containers and put them on the deck where I will see them everything morning.
A note about organic fertilizer: This stuff smells bad. It is expensive too! I’m making an effort to use organic systems as much as practical. I’m convinced that all the chemicals we use (synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides) have both known problems, and countless unknown problems. Mother nature has a built-in balance to everything, so I’m going to try to make the most of her design.
