Posts Tagged ‘Lettuce’
Build a Mini PVC Pipe Garden House
For many years I had trouble with birds (and my own chickens) getting into the garden and eating tender vegetable plants as they emerged from the soil. And, in the colder months I wanted to extend the growing season and protect my crops from frost. I wanted to install a hoop house, the kind I’d seen in magazines or while driving back country roads, but they were too large for one person to manage and too expensive for my limited budget.
I wanted something lightweight, easy to move and something I could make myself with supplies I might already have on hand.
I looked around the farm to see what I could use and hoped that an idea would come to mind. Sure enough, it did. As I stared at my raised beds I thought of a mini greenhouse type structure that could be draped with bird netting in the growing season and float cloth or plastic to extend my plantings.
Here’s what I came up with:
A PVC frame that fits over my 4’x8’ raised beds and is held in place by “C” brackets screwed to the wooden vegetable bed frame. A 10’ piece of PVC runs the length of the uprights to keep the covering draped properly over the frame. At ground level it can be tacked to the wooden vegetable bed or covered with dirt or rocks to keep it from blowing off.
How I made it:
I cut 4 pieces of PVC pipe 2 feet long; two for the sides and two, half the width of the vegetable bed, to make the peaked top. This would be wide enough to reach across the bed and give good clearance for taller plants like lettuce, broccoli or tomatoes. I then assembled the greenhouse frame using 45 degree PVC pipe fittings (these were on hand, but 90 degree might work better on the legs). Once I tested the greenhouse, to see if it did what I thought it would, I glued all the pieces together. I made 3 frames for each 8’ bed.
To install my newly made mini-greenhouse, I screwed “C” brackets into the vegetable bed frame about 6-inches from each end and in the middle of the bed (about the 4’ mark), I then zip tied a 10’ piece of PVC pipe down the middle to keep the peaks upright and to keep any covering from falling in on the plants.
In less than an hour, using the supplies I had on hand, I made enough frames to cover four of my eight vegetable beds; protecting my crops from marauding chickens and scavenging birds.
The Power of a Dollar
Every so often I go on a rampage of frugality. It’s more like a feeling of sickness, a sickness of spending money, sick of the cost of things, sick of pulling out my wallet everywhere I turn, sick of how a dollar doesn’t go as far as it use to. Just plain sick. This past week has been one of those times as the cost gas, water and food increasing almost on a daily basis fills my subconscious.
On the way home from work I swung by the library to peruse their daily used book sale to see if I could find any interesting title additions to my growing library. As I walked the stacks those money infused thoughts crept to the forefront. It drew me to think how and when and where money flitters away. It’s not a great amount, mind you. I’m already a fairly frugal, penny pinching saver, always trying to find new ways to spend less on what the farm and I need. As I drew my hand over the books looking for titles that would interest me it came to me…for a buck I could buy a book, a book that would educate me or entertain me. I stood there staring, thinking really, about how many things I have or could buy with a buck. It was amazing to me that in a short period of time I could list more that a dozen things I have bought that were only a buck.
There was the trip to my favorite ethnic market where the produce is plentiful and the prices reasonable and I could buy…
2 pounds of carrots
5 grapefruit
A string of garlic
3 heads of lettuce
4 pounds of onions
1 cantaloupe
¼ pound of Feta cheese
Or, 1-1/2 pounds of chicken quarters, for a buck.
Then there was the thrift store sale where I bought a new pair of shorts and a few more clay pots for vegetable or flower starts, for a buck.
During a trip to town running errands for work I bought an iced tea to stave off the heat…for a buck.
At a garage sale I bought a galvanized water trough, for a buck.
On Craigslist, I bought iris bulbs, for my ever expanding flower garden, two bags for a buck.
I can also buy two stamps, a fat-quarter of sale quilt fabric, salt licks for rabbits, a scoop of grit for chickens, and a few dog treats, for a buck.
At the library that day I bought a 4-part mini-series, for a buck.
And, of course…a book.
It was proof positive that the dollar has more buying power than I sometimes think. It was nice to sit and reflect on how many things can (or have) been purchased for a dollar. The more I reflected, the more my frugal rampage dissipated, until finally it disappeared all together. Funny how some worries retreat as fast as they come on.
What can you buy for a buck? It’s out there ya know. We only have to look.
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