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Vegan Garden Diary Page 4

2000 May 10

Here's a better drawing (jpg below), than the drawing shown on page 2, of the house and grounds, showing the vegan garden and the proposed fencing to enclose the new area of garden (at the right of the house). For a larger on-screen view, and a clearer printout, this TIF file might be better to use. To see the TIF file when you click on the link, your browser should be configured to open the TIF file in a an appropriate TIF-displaying helper application. Photoshop would be ideal. Or you could use a TIFF-displaying plug-in, such as AlternaTIFF .

I made some changes to the positioning of the fence. 

With the help of a generous cash donation, we were able to acquire nearly all of the fencing material we will need. We bought (prices include sales tax).... 
 

50 feet of 3 ft 4 inch high welded wire fencing material (only slightly more expensive than "chicken wire" and easier to work with and longer-lasting).  $32
30 feet of Deer-X fencing. It is 7-foot tall black polypropylene, 3/4 inch mesh  $7
16  1 inch by 2 inch by 8 foot wood strips $16
Total spent on fencing $55

All 50 feet of welded wire fencing will be used for the new fence. We bought about 200 feet altogether of polypropylene mesh fencing ($48). About 30 feet of the polypropylene mesh will be used (valued at about $7) for the new fence. The remaining 170 feet of mesh will be on hand to protect beds, and plants, from birds, when necessary. Since our beds are typically 20 feet long by about 3 to 6 feet wide, we should have enough mesh for about 8 beds. 

We found, in neighborhood trash,  2 steel 5 1/2 foot fence posts to use when we move the existing hurricane-wire fencing, and hurricane wire gate. I'd guess we saved about $8 dollars by finding used posts, instead of buying new posts. We are pretty sure that many of the old fence posts are too rusted, underground, to reuse.
 

New Fencing Completed so far

So far we have dug 2 holes and placed 2 steel posts where the gate will be moved to. We have dug a hole for the steel post needed where the hurricane wire fencing will end, and the welded-wire fencing will begin, along the east side. Digging the holes is the hardest part of this fencing job. We have treated, with wood perservative, 2 wood posts, that will be used to support the welded-wire fencing and the plastic mesh fencing. Just the part of the wood posts that goes underground, is treated with wood preservative.  All we have left to do is dig 2 more holes, install these 2 posts, attach the fencing to the posts, hang the gate on its posts -- and we will have the new garden area enclosed. Later we can dig more holes and install more posts, to take some of the "sag" out of the fence.


 


 

We have sowed so far: 4 20-foot rows of peas, and several feet of lettuce, endive, and salad turnips. We have started some tomatos indoors, and sprouted some sweet corn indoors, and have recently  transplanted the corn outdoors. There should be about 40 cornstalks, in a 12 x 9 foot block. That's 4 rows, each 12 feet long, with 10 stalks per row. 

Later we are going to plant more blocks, of different cultivars. 

We have also finished our second sprinkler tripod, made out of 3 or so of the 1 inch by 2 inch by 8 foot wood strips we just bought, and a piece of 2 inch by 3 inch lumber we had on hand. Having 2 sprinkler tripods will enable us to water 2 parts of the garden at once. At least two, or maybe more tripods, are needed to water the whole garden at once, without adjusting the sprinklers to wastefully spray water way outside the boundries of the garden areas.

The rest of the 1 inch by 2 inch strips will be used for stakes, and trellises.
 

Update 2000 May 19

The new fencing is totally in place.