Enough Vegetables to Make a Salad - Update!

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on my plan of attack for this years garden (POST).Well the seeds have sprouted, the gardens are built and I am well on my way to having enough vegetables to make a salad completely from things I've grown. One problem, all my lettuce died... No problem... I'm working on the backup plan. For now, I'm going to focus on making sure the tomatoes, peppers (bell, jalapeno, habanero and cayenne) and the eggplants, etc make it to harvest.

Enough Vegetables to Make a Salad

For the first time this year, we have a couple consecutive days with temperatures over 70 degrees. I'm not sure if Spring has sprung, but I definitely have the fever. With that, it's time to start planning this year's crop.

We first tried our hand at gardening 2 years ago and had some success (with things like tomatoes and beans) and not so much with others (like pumpkins and corn). Well, it's time to turn that around; not only am I going to grow enough vegetables to make my own salad, but I'm going to apply my year of master planning projects at Drexel and put it to good use. Well, on a small scale at least.

Since we bought the house, we fixed up the shed,  put in a fence, and built our first small garden. At approximately 8'-0" x 7'-6", it's enough for a couple plants, but not the whole salad. Hopefully, with the new elements below, we'll have enough room to grow everything we need.

Until next time, Capt. Greenthumb checking out.

[caption id="attachment_465" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="This is the back corner of our property on the day we bought the house."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_464" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Same back corner prior to beginning the first garden."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_463" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="First garden we put in about 2 years ago. Produced some good crops, but not big enough for this years expectations!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_468" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Plan view of the three planter beds planned for this spring. Includes dedicated area for tomatoes and a trellis for the cucumbers."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_466" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Anyone interested in where I get these great looking scale figures!?!?!"][/caption]

Victorian Front Porch

It's neat to design something small, bring it into the workshop on 11x17 plans and build it. Working on large scale school projects like a velodrome, that will never get built, is still pretty fun. However, designing a rather large, covered front porch that is, one day in the near future, probably going to get built, AWESOME!

My good friend, @squallco, and his wife and newborn, recently bought a home in a beautiful,  historic part of NJ, with plans to renovate and move in. Part of the renovations included a new porch that fits in with the historic character of the house and the neighborhood. The design intention was to design something that, with minimal ornamentation, fit into the existing parti, yet kept that modern, clean feel to it. We are still in the process of finalizing the designs, but to this point, it's been a lot of fun! Can't wait to take this to the next level!

[gallery link="file" orderby="rand"]

Creating (Storage) Space

With a few days off between Christmas and the New Year, it was time to get some much needed work done in the workshop. In this case, I needed to upgrade and expand on some of the overhead storage areas in the workshop. Since we moved in, we've been laying pieces of plywood across the existing 2x4 beams. The beams span about a 15'3" width, and are not load bearing, but limit the weight of storage it can hold. Additionally, being over 50 years old, some of the beams were cracking and not up to par for bearing any weight. Since I had a couple days off, I thought it would be a good opportunity to build new 2x6 beams at 16" O.C. for the first 8' of the garage. The only tricky, given the width of the span, the height of the ceiling, and the location of existing structure, it wasn't possible to cut a single 15-foot beam and get it into place. For that reason, I needed to take 2- 2x6's and overlap them approximately 9 inches, and bolt together with 3/8" lag bolts. I used joist straps and 2x6 blocking to tighten everything up and topped it off with OSB. The result was a workshop (which also acts as a gym) that feels like a new space. No more cramped space with barbells on top of the table saw. The workshop is clean, spacey and ready for 2012... looking forward to building some new and interesting creations, and wrapping up this pesky architecture degree. 

Beam connections were thought about (and run by a structural engineer) prior to building.

Existing framing/storage

More existing

Materials - the hurricane tie downs were used to connect the beams to the walls.

Prince - ready for a long day in the shop.

Since I was hanging the beams by myself, it was easier to build a template, then pre-drill the holes for one of the beams.

The day I was hanging the beams, there were two shop managers looking over my shoulder to make sure it was done properly and everything was level.

Closeup of bolted connection

Finished product, from below

Finished project, from above

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Creating (Storage) Space

With a few days off between Christmas and the New Year, it was time to get some much needed work done in the workshop. In this case, I needed to upgrade and expand on some of the overhead storage areas in the workshop. Since we moved in, we've been laying pieces of plywood across the existing 2x4 beams. The beams span about a 15'3" width, and are not load bearing, but limit the weight of storage it can hold. Additionally, being over 50 years old, some of the beams were cracking and not up to par for bearing any weight. Since I had a couple days off, I thought it would be a good opportunity to build new 2x6 beams at 16" O.C. for the first 8' of the garage. The only tricky, given the width of the span, the height of the ceiling, and the location of existing structure, it wasn't possible to cut a single 15-foot beam and get it into place. For that reason, I needed to take 2- 2x6's and overlap them approximately 9 inches, and bolt together with 3/8" lag bolts. I used joist straps and 2x6 blocking to tighten everything up and topped it off with OSB. The result was a workshop (which also acts as a gym) that feels like a new space. No more cramped space with barbells on top of the table saw. The workshop is clean, spacey and ready for 2012... looking forward to building some new and interesting creations, and wrapping up this pesky architecture degree. 

Beam connections were thought about (and run by a structural engineer) prior to building.

Existing framing/storage

More existing

Materials - the hurricane tie downs were used to connect the beams to the walls.

Prince - ready for a long day in the shop.

Since I was hanging the beams by myself, it was easier to build a template, then pre-drill the holes for one of the beams.

The day I was hanging the beams, there were two shop managers looking over my shoulder to make sure it was done properly and everything was level.

Closeup of bolted connection

Finished product, from below

Finished project, from above

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7