I started this blog to record my experiments/adventures in the land of urban agriculture. It is growing into a garden consutation business. I will be happy to advise, plan, install and maintain (or any combination thereof) a garden for you. Contact me for more information at lknzfarm@gmail.com or 678-427-3101, or message me at Elkins Farm and Garden on FB.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Not Much Going On

Tim, my "landlord", came by and cut up the trees down on our back fence. He took off two truck loads and we'll decide later if we're going to chip or burn the leftovers.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Little Help

This pine coming down was a good thing for my veggie growing. It was a big shade problem for the back yard. The nice thing is it didn't do any damage to my neighbor's or my property. That bit of fence is about where the raised beds will go.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Return of the Rainout

I noticed it was getting cloudy so I paused the Wolfsburg match, put on my boots and headed to cut up the last of the trees on the ground. As I opened the garage door it started to rain. Seriously! I went out any way to cut the downed trunks into manageable pieces. Gonna definitely need to do some chain sharpening. I hit dirt on a couple of logs. Well, I'm using the rain as an excuse to be lazy today.

Monday, February 20, 2012

New Compost Bins

Making hey while the sun shines. Cut up the picket fencing, loaded it on the wagon, and hauled it to Compost Corner. Got down there and went to work turning one bin into several.
When I started I wasn't sure how many I'd make. I want to increase my production, but wasn't sure how I was going to go about it. I cut four pieces of fencing down to four foot lengths (the side of my current pallet bin) and started to replace what I had.
Not smart.
First, I realized two things at once. Reuse what I already had and I didn't have to cut all the fencing down. I made a T out of three of the pallets and stuck an unreduced piece of fencing on the front (house side) of the bins. I stuck two four foot lengths of fencing on the ends. Voila, I had two bins instead of one.
Then I tacked up three more pieces of fencing for a third bin. Now I have room to grow and I've got enough pieces to build on one more. Two if I get crazy industrious.
Well, the work isn't going to get it self done. Any who my tea is about ready to pour up.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Rain Out

It was a rainy day in Rome. That equaled a sleepy day of doing nothing much. The kids even let Mommy and Daddy sleep. I'm contemplating asking some of our neighbors if I can mow up their leaves that are still on the ground. Need to bolster my compost production. I think our cross the street neighbor may also have chickens. That would be cool, and might even work in my favor for talking Kristi into letting me keep a chicken or two.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Fencing, Oh the Possibilities

Headed to Mom and Dads to pickup some fencing I had pulled out of a client's yard when I was doing landscape maintenance. I took both of my assistants with me and everyone had a great time. I also got a wheelbarrow and a loungy chair for the basement while I was there. All that and Pearce and I got the trailer back to Rance before the rains came down.

Travel Day

Pearce, Claire and I are headed to Roswell to pick up some fencing, a wheelbarrow and maybe a few other sundries to get the veggies going.
We started the day off right. I cooked up a pound of sausage from a friend of ours and brewed up a pot of coffee. Pearce and I sat at the table eating sausage and drinking coffee like good little farmers. Claire was to busy.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Midweek Musing

I really wish I had some idea what I want out of my desire to grow stuff. Do I just want to play, experiment with different things? Do I want to grow all of our veggies for the kitchen? Do I want to grow veggies to sell? I'm pretty sure I want to do all three. How do I combine the three ideas? Lots of questions without answers.
"Questions are the easy part. Answers raise a doubt."

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Hauling

Pearce and Daddy did some yard clean up today. Pearce loves the tractor driving (of course it's turned off w/out Daddy).

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Today Was Tree Day

   Started off early this morning with the final bushes in the leafy green patch. It was 7:30 and I put off watching soccer. I took them out one runner at a time. The big daddy root was bullet proof, but I finally split it. I'll worry about taking it out later. Got a little building debris to clean out of that spot as well.
   Now for the trees. I had to get gas for the chainsaw and needed 2-cycle oil. Went to the Home Depot for the squeeze bottle that measures out just the right amount. While there I saw peach trees and plum trees for $20 a piece. I think two or three peaches and a plum will be good.
   Well, after getting the gas I got to work on freeing up some sunlight for my pecans. I took out the tree directly behind the garage that was super shading one pecan. Then I began working on the oaks and other trees surrounding my pecan triplets. I took the top bar off the chain link fence so I wouldn't break it if the trees didn't agree to fall exactly where I wanted them to fall.
   Of course they didn't. The oak landed kind of on the fence kind of on some other oaks. The other tree I took down took off a limb from one of triplets. Otherwise that one came down as I wished it to. Now, all I have to do is clean the mess up and take down one or two more trees around the triplets.
   Next on the agenda is to get the area between the backdoor and the deck clean, and make the front of the house presentable.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Slow Day

Didn't get a thing done on the leafy green spot today. Went to church and tried to nap with the kids. Pearce took an hour to go to sleep, then Claire woke up. It was a fun afternoon. We'll see what we can get done next week. I'm also going to need to start figuring how to acquire the wood for raised a bed or maybe two.
Any ideas will be appreciated.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Prep Work Leafy Greens Day 1

Started clearing the space between the backwalk and the house for some salad greens. That little bit of land was really messed up. It's not quite as messed up now, whew, but there is a bunch of little junk to get up. That's just between the driveway and the basement door. Next is from the door to the deck. I hope to get that knocked out tomorrow and put tree removal off a weekend.
Good footnote to today. I have picked up tomato seeds. Pearce and I will try to get them started inside tomorrow.