Weekly Garden Thread - November 4-10, 2023 [Favorite Gardening Tips Edition]

Kinda warm out there in the sun. Why does all welding PPE have to be black or other dark color?

Had a couple of setbacks.

My mig welder wouldn't weld. It made clicking sounds and the welding wire came out but no power which was also evident by the voltmeter on the machine. Opened it up and rodents had been in there and chewed off some wires. Luckily there was a wiring schematic on the inside of the main cover. Got them all patched up.

I thought I had 5-6 cut off discs but I had one. Had to go to town and get more.

Between the two issues, I lost four hours.

Got two more top center arched pipes to notch, bend and weld to put the peak in them. The entire arch with peak is three 10' sections. Then it's a whole bunch of grinding of pipe ends to weld another 10" arch to each end of the center arch/peak and then add the legs.

(old drawing)

Dimensions are wrong on this. It will be 22 foot wide. Height will be a foot taller. Ignore the truss bracing too. The bottom horizontal will be lower so I can reach it to attach lengthwise lean and lower trellis pipes and overhead micro-sprinklers to. I did the drawing a few years ago and never revised it other than in my head. The truss bracing will be bolted, not welded on. Guess I'll need 8 of those 21' fence top rails for the horizontals and EMT conduit for the angle braces. Mo money. It will still be cheaper than buying a kit.(minus automation:)

I'm cooled off. "Break's over. Back to work."

I’m wore out from two 8 hour days in the 80+ sun and ready for my two 12 hour shifts tomorrow and Fri. NOT

Of course the weather forecast was wrong as usual so instead of mild wind, we had 30-35 mph gusts today, so dragging around a chunk of plywood to block the wind and still having to wait for a lull between gusts took a little time.

Got two more complete truss frames done on top of(literally) the one I’m using as a jig and all pipe is ready to weld. Welding one takes less than an hour so that will be easy to finish this weekend.

Low 60s and clear for the weekend which is warm enough for painting. It just won’t dry very fast being enamel.(unless I add a touch of lacquer thinner which also removes some glossiness which isn’t a bad thing)

Hopefully at least get at least one in the ground Monday.

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Pollard, stagger your bok choy plantings. I grew small bok choy once and once they started to bolt they got very tall and leggy. You need to harvest as soon as the flowering top starts to show. Same for Chinesee Cabbage.

Once you have your high tunnel up you will have a real advantage in doing winter vegetable plantings. (Remember however there is less sun per day so you can no longer rely on the stated "Matures In" dates on seed packages! )

I did four of each variety of Bok Choy just to try them all. Next year is when I’ll really grow some and had planned to do succession plantings in the tunnel. I’ll have to check day length charts and average temperature charts.

There’s a reason I only planted four of each. I know not what I’m doing with Bok Choy. Bok Choy is a weird one in that a cold snap or nights below 50 may make it bolt. (just learned that this morning) Kind of opposite to most stuff we grow.

Each layer of plastic also reduces light intensity which is already low in Winter.

Picked up white paint for the tunnel frames this morning. I’m forgoing the primer. The rust treatment I use describes itself as a primer and ready to paint the next day, plus the paint I got is a rust preventative, direct to metal type.

Time to go weld up the four remaining frames and spray them all with Ospho.

"The yard needs to be mowed one more time before I send the Kubota to the dealership for its annual maintenance visit..."

Time for the winter nap and garden planning and January seed catalogues!

***Check out the row covers for spring cabbage! 8'x'25 Currently $14. Will last multiple seasons. Protection from cabbage loopers.

Not sure you even need to use hoops. If you want just some sections of used 4" rabbit fencing bent over every 3 or 4 feet and some old 1'x3' to weigh it down the sides.

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