Feb 17, 2017

February Garden Update



Ever have plans that go awry? 

Ha! Who am I kidding?  A more impressive feat would be if someone had a project go totally and completely according to plan.

My goal for the garden this month was simple: to lay down cardboard and mulch again. To perform a reboot of the garden space since we had let it go and weeds were the only thing growing. But that simple desire meant we had three major problems: no mulch, no cardboard, and huge stumps. 

As you recall from the January update, we dug one stump out of the ground and were working on burning down the other. We ended up burning it down in stages as our first couple attempts didn't work out quite as well as we hoped, but we learned some tricks.

Tips for burning a stump:
  1. Pile up the charcoal. It works best when the pile is at least two briquettes deep. It allows the top to ash over and keep the ones underneath still red hot and burning down through the wood.
  2. If you have the ability, drill air holes. We would drill in from the side and then down from the top making sure the two tunnels met up. This helps provide oxygen for the fire so it keeps burning faster and longer. 
  3. Combining these methods are effective, but can be dangerous. We ended up with a fire that stayed lit for 3 days. Hubby went out the second day and took his blower to scatter the ash build up to start again on fresh wood. Well the wood was still burning and it immediately turned to flame. He used that to his advantage by throwing more briquettes on the stump, but it could have been dangerous if it wasn't in a protected area of our yard. 
  4. Between fires if there will be multiple take the time to blow away the ash, and take an axe to try and increase surface area and break away the stump. Remember the goal is to have the stump gone, not necessarily to burn the stump away. (Unless of course you have some marshmallows that need eating!)

I thought people were crazy when they warned about stumps catching on fire, burning below ground and spreading fire through the roots. Now I can see how that could happen, so do take precautions. Our stump had chicken wire wrapped around it to contain the charcoal and prevent things from falling into it. It also was in a remote area of our yard with little risk of things falling into it. So be careful. 

We had plans for the stump removal, so that left cardboard and mulch. Surprisingly finding the cardboard was the easiest part of the whole ordeal. The first time we did this we had to scramble from store to store to find the cardboard and ended up with a few mattress boxes (which are ideal), but mostly used large and medium boxes from retailers. But a few weeks ago I had a work event around the corner from a mattress store. I decided to take a detour and saw that they had a bunch of boxes in their dumpster. I was going to impress Hubby by returning home with a full car, but the boxes were to big to fit. He was nice enough to come and help me load up the trailer.

The mulch might be a little more time consuming. The straw will be easy, just a quick trip to the feed store to buy some bales. It's the wood chips will be more challenging. Last time we had a local tree company deliver a huge pile. It was too much really. There was enough to lay it around the coop, house AND the garden. I'm guessing we will have to drive to the tree lot and fill the trailer. Thankfully it is free, but it does mean moving yards and yards of wood chips on our own. 

So instead of having a garden ready to plant all I have is a whole in the ground, a fire hazard, a stack of cardboard, and no plants. Here's hoping the March update will be more fruitful and go according to plan!

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9 comments:

  1. You still have plenty of time to get some good stuff going. Are you starting seeds first, or will you direct sow your goodies? One step at a time will get you there!

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    1. I start with seeds, but haven't even started thinking about what we want to plant yet. I'll probably look at that the next couple of weeks and at least start with that. Thanks for the encouragement! :)

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  2. We have done the exact something, bothers me how many days the stump continues to burn. On some of our stumps after hubby cuts them, I drill several holes down into the stump. Pour epson salt into the deep holes. Wait a month and most of the stump has rotted away.

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    1. I had forgot that Hubby first tried putting some chemical in it to rot it away, but it didn't work. Apparently that chemical can make it even more flammable. Thankfully it was nearly a month between the chemical and when we started burning it.

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  3. Fascinating tips about burning a stump! We have never tried that before, so it was very interesting to read about it! Hubby usually just uses an axe to get the worst of it gone, and drills a bunch of holes in it. If we ever get a bigger property, we may try this out if we had a safe place to do so. Thanks so much for sharing!

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    1. This was a pretty big stump and they didn't cut it very low to the ground. Hopefully you'll never get a stump this big!

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  4. I love it when I learn something I didn't know. Never thought about fire spreading through the root system. This is going to be dinner table conversation tonight!

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    1. I love that thought! Yes, I thought they were crazy when I first heard about it, but after seeing the stump on fire for 3 days straight, I understand the concern now!

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