It dried out over the last couple of days and was able to put good effort into the border around my fruit trees and working on the early season lettuce. Storms will roll into my little slice of the planet this evening so it’ll be at least Tuesday before I can give the unprepared planting beds the attention (tiller) they need.
For the fruit tree boundary I collected 26 railroad ties from our burn pile using a chain and the tractor to snatch them out. I could use the tractor to get them near where they would be placed, but all of them needed to be moved by hand once they were in the general area of the trees. If it’s been awhile since you’ve manhandled railroad ties or you’re a novice in this field let me say there are no words that can do justice to the task!
The ties are heavy, dumb, and spiteful. I’ve got weed-block and mulch down in two of the three tree areas and would have finished off the last one, but the wind was strong enough to make that more of a challenge than I was willing to signup for today.
I thinned the planted lettuce that was in the garden, using the excess to begin second and third rows of plantings. I don’t think I’ll need that much lettuce all at once (I’ll still need to plant at 2 week intervals to have fresh all year through) but with this ‘rona shit all about If the kids and grandkids need to pop smoke, there will be plenty to go around. I put another two lettuce varieties in the beds along with broccoli.
I’ve consolidated most of the reemerging strawberry plants into one planter (30 or so) and part of another planter (10). These are a gift as I had no expectation that what I had planted last year had survived.—actually what I planted last year did not survive, what I have this year are the runners that were generated by the original planting. They are now flowing and will begin to produce in May and run through August.
Today I started 40 Roma tomato’s, 6 Oregano, 10 head of cabbage in my little seed starter greenhouse. Tomorrow may be a good day to begin building out the shelving and stringing up the lighting for all of those plants that will soon be graduating from the little seed starter rig to the solo cup jungle.
I would mention that railroad ties are treated with creosote (or worse) and shouldn’t be used anywhere near edible plants. Good luck.
Thanks for the heads up. I looked very briefly into using RR ties before I slung them up there. My bottom line was much like I read on Tarah’s blog. (link is http://www.grandmashousediy.com/garden-railroad-ties/). She says:
I’m going to jump right in here and talk about creosote and the dangers of railroad ties immediately because I know that’s going to be the center of the conversation because just about everyone has heard that railroad ties are toxic. But how toxic? And at what extent is what we’re hearing fear mongering and panic? And why, on earth, if there is any question at all, did I choose to use them around my vegetable garden? You all know me and know that I ere on the side of caution when it comes to my health.
Upon extensive research this is what I know about creosote: The warnings and horrors when you read about it when you do a search on google is entirely based on HANDLING it, using wood that was JUST treated with it and being a worker in a plant that is TREATING lumber with it right now.
There is little said about wood that was treated a long time ago with creosote. Most people just think “Well, it could be toxic, why take the risk?” And that would normally be me too. However, the alternative to railroad ties for me right now was not at all affordable (cedar etc) and I really think that green treated lumber might be an even more toxic choice.
Like Tarah, I’m thinking that if there were any ‘bad stuff’ left in these ancient RR Ties, the odds of it being absorbed thru the roots of my fruit trees and finding it way to my peaches about nil. But I’ll be testing them this summer to see if I may have been wrong about their innocents!
Thanks again