Monday, February 13, 2012

Harvest Monday - February 13, 2012

I've got no harvests this week, but I do have some expenditures. Not that long ago my MIL gave me a birthday gift of $500 for my 50th birthday. I was told to spend it on something that I wouldn't ordinarily. As I mentioned before, my mind immediately to the garden. Now the gift itself won't go on my tally especially since the command was "don't spend on something I would normally buy", but I went over the $500 and that amount will go on the tally. So here is what I got. Just to follow the law I'll say in advance that except where noted none of these companies have given me anything. And I don't even yet support them. That will only come if the products bought work well in the garden over the summer. I've got my fingers crossed.

The first bought was a Gardena sprinkler. Not just any sprinkler, but a fully adjustable one. It is the Cadillac of sprinklers. It has a built in timer. It has three adjustments. The flow can be adjusted. The length of the spray can be adjusted. The fan can be a wide fan or it can narrow down to 4.5m. My old sprinkler would only get long enough for the whole garden if I watered the side of the house and my neighbors car. So I never did. I had to water small bits of it at a time. My bed area is about 4.8m wide. Supposedly this baby can go that narrow and still do the whole length of the garden. It does have a flaw. It can't turn the corner to the circle bed. (Wouldn't it be cool to have a sprinkler that could do an L and was also so adjustable?). But for the main 8 beds that are 16'x4' it is perfect. Well if it works as promised. Price $89. And yes I'll love it if it works, and I would never ever buy it on my own.

The second thing I purchased was a row cover from Australia. I've been using Agribon and in our strong winds (ignore my weather station, the wind meter isn't working right) the fabric rips. It is common for me to go out and have to repair it many times over the season. And if I don't notice the rip, the moths get in. And they did once last summer. I also hated the long length of row cover. I had to lift too much. I had a cabbage butterfly get under once and getting it out once it flew to the other end was a pain. I practically had to take the whole thing off and let all the other butterflies out. So I wanted covers for half beds. So they would be 10' wide and 15' long. And I wanted three.

My second complaint about Agribon is that it sheds water. If the drops hit hard enough they will go through, but even with the lightest weight of fabric a lot of the water goes off the sides. And I grow greens under the row covers so they typically need more water than normal not less. The material that I'm getting is woven. I'm hoping it is more porous.

The third complaint about Agribon is that you can't see through it well. To see how my plants are doing I really have to lift it up. From the pictures this one seems to be more transparent. But I'll find out when I try it.

I liked their plastic clips too. Right now I've been using metal clips which are a bit abrasive and contribute to rips. My plastic tubing is between the small clips and the large clips, so he sent me samples to see which ones would work. Well the big ones don't hold at all. The small ones seem to hold well but they can't lock with my size of pipe (typical 10' lengths of 1/2" white PVC found in US home improvement stores). I bought the small ones and hope they work. They seem to go on and off quite easily. Total for 45' of row cover fabric (enough for three half beds) , 40 clips, plus he said he put an extra Jumbo Plus clip in my package because customers like to use it to bunch up fabric on the ends. Price: $220.94.

The last thing I ordered was some irrigation from Dripworks. I have a long thin bed that is a total pain. It has to be hand watered as it is only 2.5' wide and is along the road in front of our house. I would love not to water the main path in my veggie garden too. So I wanted some irrigation for the herb and sunflower bed there. And since it wasn't that much more I added enough fittings to do the two outer beds of the circle garden and some movable irrigation (ie not hooked into the mainline piping) for two of my 4'x8' beds. I figured I'd get enough to play if I wanted. I really don't want to set up irrigation for all of my beds. It just isn't worth it. Price: $260.

This makes a grand total of about $570. Since the gift was $500, I'll add $70 in my tally. And now I'm down $530.11. Ouch. But I know I'll make it up once the veggies started rolling in. Last year the expenditures were about $670 and I made it up in July. Though I have amortized a lot of costs, the first few years of a new garden are always the most expensive.

Harvest Monday is a day to show off your harvests, how you are saving your harvest, or how you are using your harvest. If you have a harvest you want to show off, add your name and link to Mr Linky below.

21 comments:

  1. Gifts are so much fun! I have drip irrigation and it makes things so easy. You'll love it.

    And Congrads on your 50th!

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  2. It will be interesting to see how the row cover and clips work. Right now I use clothes pins to hold the Agribon to my PVC supports. I also need to think about irrigation some day, but not this year.

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  3. Looking forward to learning more about how the new row covers work out, I especially like the idea of being able to see through them. Also adding drip irrigation to this year's to do list — thanks for sharing tips!

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  4. The row cover is very intriguing - please give us updates so we can learn more about how it performs. You made that gift go quite far!

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  5. I was waiting to see what you'd do with that wonderful gift! Now I look forward to see how all your purchases work out!

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  6. INteresting row cover idea. Good luck.

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  7. Ditto to the other comments on the row cover. I'll stay tuned.

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  8. What a lovely shopping opportunity - and such well-considered purchases too. No impulse buying for you, eh?
    I share your views on crop-covers We have a type here called Envirofleece and Enviromesh and it has the same disadvantages that you list in relation to Agribon.

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  9. Good luck with all the new stuff! It's funny that you have such a beautiful garden and are just now adding irrigation. For us in our semi - arid Utah garden irrigation is a must! During the summer months I have to water my garden 3 times a week!!

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  10. Sounds like one amazing sprinkler! We have the same problem with watering our chicken coop and neighbors yard. luckily they have a garden too so sometimes they are happy that we took care of some work for them. :)

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  11. Sounds like some fun purchases. My 'harvest' this week is an update on our egg count.

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  12. Oh, I hope you greatly enjoy all of those things.

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  13. I will certainly give people updates on how the row cover works. I hope it solves some of my issues, but I won't know until I try it. Obviously if it lasts years the durability issue won't be resolved for a while.

    Mark, no I'm not much of an impulse buyer. I'm reasonably well off, but I don't like to spend money. I think all my purchases through. I just hate throwing things away. I often prefer to make do with what I have.

    Stoney Acres, irrigation is a luxury here. For the amount of times I water in a year (ignoring the summer of 2010) it isn't really required. August does tend to be the one month were I almost always have to water, but I 2003 was a weird exception. It rained a lot and flooded in parts of New England. I remember because I took a two week backpacking trip in Vermont with my daughter that summer. It was so wet. I think it didn't rain two days out of fourteen. But I digress. Usually August is heavy rains followed by sun. And sometimes it is a couple weeks without rain. August is our driest month of the year with an average of 3.5" of rain.

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  14. Do let us know how you like your new sprinkler.

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  15. I'll be interested to see what you think of your sprinkler. I need a new one, ideally that waters the whole garden for when we go away (presuming there aren't water restrictions)and that one sounds like it definitely would.

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  16. Good luck with all the new toys. Can't even imagine needing a sprinkler at the moment - it's approaching the end of summer and I have watered only 5 times now. Rain, rain go away!

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  17. I am dreaming of water sprinkler at the moment. Its a good time for shopping and plan for the garden.

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  18. I'm wondering if this is similar to a cover called Protektnet, which is manufactured overseas. I remember reading about this in a farm journal. Some growers built large caterpillar tunnels covered with this. It lasts several years. They had to put a hive of bees in each tunnel for pollination. Yields and quality were much improved under cover. Do you think flea beetles can get through the mesh?

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  19. Congrats on all the new garden purchases! That sounds like a snazzy sprinkler and the irrigation will be so nice to have. Those row covers sound interesting. I bought Agribon ones for this winter and have been using clothespins, which haven't worked so well- they rip the cloth. Although I've probably only used the row covers about 6 times this winter, so definitely no need to invest a lot of money, but I think actual clips might be useful.

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  20. I was surprised by some of your comments on Agribon. I have 10' wide Agribon (lightest weight) and a 6' wide light weight cover from AM Leonard (possibly manufactured by DeWitt Co.) I think the difference may be in how we install them. I simply drape the row cover over the bed, holding the edges down with old 2x4s and rocks. Excess fabric goes under a board and I let it out as needed. It's a very windy garden,but I've never had the wind grab the cover, probably because it is flat to the ground. Also, the water goes right through, probably because it is flat. The plants lift it up as they grow. Probably any cover tight enough to keep out flea beetles will also repel water, especially if installed over hoops. The hoops require clips and the clips are snagging the fabric. Yes the boards will also snag - so care is required

    I buy the stuff in bulk, so it comes on rolls and I cut it to any length I want.

    As for durability - I consider this stuff disposable. After 3 months in a garden it starts to shred all over, even if it has never been under a board.

    BTW most plants are fine under unsupported light weight covers as long as they are direct sown or the transplants are sturdy. I've only had problems with undersized transplants.

    To get water under the row cover, try soaker hoses. They lay on theground, so they are under the cover.

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  21. I just use a soaker hose that seems to work fine. But to encourage deep root growth, I usually hand water once-twice a week. Thank goodness it is raining right now, and has been for the last 4 hours.

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