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Bedford Ramblings
Steve Mills
Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.
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The first NEW garden bed of the season for which I was supposed to be cutting back.

Posted Sunday, February 21, 2016, at 12:04 PM
Bound for the garden? Some have worms included.

I know, it may look like a truck full of firewood and for the the most part, you would be right. Most of it was cut for firewood BUT if you have been keeping up with my blogs, you know that two major things have happened in the past few months.

My furnace has been retired and I do not have plans to replace it AND I made the mistake of going to a seed swap where a young lady came in with almost every seed my current seed store is selling.

So how does that relate to a new garden bed? Well, I need new beds to grow all the seeds I have AND to give the bed a good source of rotting material underneath and to store moisture, I chose to make some of them by a hugelkutur, layered, lasagna or in-ground composting method.

There are probably 50 other names for the method but I placed the logs in a trough of ground that I made with the tiller and grading blade. More about this effort can be found here: http://www.gardengleanings.com/gardening-2/the-start-of-new-raised-beds-using-lo... (No advertisements, affiliate links or email gathering)

A quick shout out to Dr. Navid Monajjem. I am TRYING to behave and so far, so good. Doc took a cyst off my back last week and he wanted me to reduce my bending over. I have been, but that warm weather the last few days just beat down my resolve.

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  • Before the linkage on my tractor broke I was able to till three "retired" beds and plan to make some raised beds similar to the hugelkultur without tilling. I'll get it fixed, but the experiment needs to be done the other way too.

    I also have four new tires to turn into individual garden beds and will (to the best of my ability) demonstrate the method of turning these inside out at our first garden club meeting. The meeting by the way is Friday March 4th.

    I do not have the Extension office locked in yet, but that will likely be the place. It might be a little longer than others because I also plan to bring a calendar to establish the meeting dates of all our "primary" meetings for the year.

    There will be handout for all with 9 months on it. We can fill in the dates we establish so everyone will have a copy right then. Hopefully, we can also determine a few, if not all, of the prime topic for reach meeting.

    -- Posted by stevemills on Sun, Feb 21, 2016, at 11:57 AM

  • Don't forget the "Winter Break Social" this Friday Feb. 26th at Legend's! 6:30 pm.

    -- Posted by chefgrape on Mon, Feb 22, 2016, at 7:28 AM

  • I don't see anything else on my "crowded" social calendar so I should be able to make it. Maybe we can get some talk going about what we want to do with the new season and Weed'em & Reap?

    -- Posted by stevemills on Mon, Feb 22, 2016, at 9:30 AM

  • I 'opened up' two more tilled garden beds last night to prepare them for placing wood in them. Today the wood goes in then close them back up with soil.

    The wood I have is only about 9 months old, so I am going to search in the woods a little to see if I can drag an older log in. Have one in mind but the second is going to be an 'egg hunt'.

    We have not had much rain yet but the radar looks like it can't miss so I will wait to put hay on top. More direct water should mean a little more washing in of the soil.

    Also planted 10 different varieties of carrots, radishes, beets, parsnips and spinach last night. I could not stop from planting about 20 'golden' snap peas. Don't want to put all my seeds in at one time in case Mother Nature throws a curve ball.

    -- Posted by stevemills on Mon, Feb 22, 2016, at 10:11 AM

  • That log I had in mind almost beat me, even with fur wheel drive. The rain made the grass slippery and added to the soft ground I almost did not get it in the bed but, it is there.

    Now some more firewood, hay and I will be ready to close that one up. I may have to cut off one section that sticks up a little high but it will still fit into the garden, just not as one piece.

    -- Posted by stevemills on Mon, Feb 22, 2016, at 7:10 PM

  • I get an email on posts made to the blog that I create and it sometimes helps me see more clearly. Take for example my new fur wheel drive.

    Not too many are aware how much fur can help your traction, but it is hard to get and the type of fur can make a big difference. Also, getting it to fit the tire and stay on during hard pulling can be an extra challenge.

    So, if you are considering fur wheel drive for your vehicle, drop me a note and I will share all that I have learned over the last approximately 12 hours since I got it.

    -- Posted by stevemills on Tue, Feb 23, 2016, at 6:57 AM
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