Spring 2016 Back Yard Garden Update

At Matthews Farm, 2016 will be the year that I defeat the squirrels and chipmunks. Each year my garden has grown bigger and bigger, and each year more critters come out to enjoy the harvests the night before I come out to pick the fruits of my labor.

This offseason I decided to build real cages around each raised bed, and my strawberry & carrot bed has a hinged top as well. The other bed cages will be organic, as in they will grow with the crops as needed. I plan to build trellis’s for the tomatoes, cucumbers & squash, and keeping those caged in will be an ongoing process.

Below are lots of pictures of the evolution of the garden, the planted crops, and some early seed bloomers (pole beans) that will grow in a bamboo teepee. I am also quite proud of the set of sawhorses that I built thanks to direction from familyhandyman.com.

I’m looking forward to a summer full of fruits and veggies from the back yard!

 

Garden coming out of the Fall

the first cage going in

First Raised Garden Cage

Right of Passage Sawhorses doing their thing

Strawberry Patch Cage with Top

Faithful Sidekick Cody

Nifty hinged top

tools of the trade

Finished Cage Top

Broccoli

Blueberries

Strawberries

Green Beans

Green Beans

Strawberry Patch

DIY Soaker Hose

Strawberry Ready to Eat

Vegetables and diy soaker hose

Blueberry Patch

Matthews Farm

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

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July Update on Raised Summer Garden

Here are some pictures to give you an update on how the summer raised garden is coming along.  We have 30-40 tomatoes growing, one bell pepper which appears to be turning red, and some baby squash (I picked the first one too early and it was not ready).  We had lots of blueberries but those were eaten soon after harvest.  We can’t wait for those to mature so we can have gallons of blueberries in the summer!  Until then we have veggies…

Bell Pepper

Tomatoes

Yellow Squash

Top of the Tomato Cage

More Tomatoes Coming

Tripod Tomato Cage

Today we got a good rain and a couple of my tomato branches split and fell over. I needed a quick fix so I found an old tripod that came with my first dslr, a Nikon D40. It really isn’t worth the materials it’s made out of, but made a great additional support system for my tomato cages.

Attractive?  Maybe not so much
Awesome? Totally!!

Hanging Mason Jar Impatiens

In February I made some DIY hanging mason jar candles for the backyard of our house.  With daylight savings I knew we wouldn’t be putting them to good use over the summer so today I bought some impatiens at Lowes and set out to make some hanging plants for the backyard.

Off the bat I know that drainage will be an issue since I’m not drilling a hole in the jars, but the impatiens cost less than a bottle of Gatorade so it’s worth a try.  In an effort to prevent a soggy jar I broke up some old concrete that I had laying around and put about two inches of rock in the bottom of the jars.  On top of that I put planting soil in and created a space in the center for the impatiens to fit inside.  After placing the impatiens inside I filled any remaining spaces with potting soil.

With that I converted diy lanterns into diy hanging plants.

  

Thanks,

Carson Matthews

Hot Tub in Sea Island

Back yard hot tub dripping water into the swimming pool in Sea Island.

 

Atlanta Fescue Grass After 3 1/2 Weeks

After 3 1/2 weeks of growing grass in my backyard, we are making some progress.  The problem areas are still problem areas, but they have good reason to be so.  They are starting to fill in but it’s very obvious that  in my situation, the new grass literally only grows from the aerated holes.  Not much going in the areas that may have filled in because of ponding water.  Below is a picture showing the progression over the 3.5 weeks.  It really doesn’t look drastically different from the October 5 shot, but that’s because I mowed it for the first time today.  In most areas it was super thick and getting too tall, so I’m hoping it will continue to fill in.

Here is a shot from a different angle

Here are links to the previous posts documenting this grassy story:

https://carsonmatthewsblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/growing-grass-in-atlanta/ 

https://carsonmatthewsblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/growing-grass-in-atlanta-update-after-two-weeks/

 

 

Growing Grass in Atlanta Update After Two Weeks

Tomorrow will mark two weeks from the day I aerated and seeded my backyard with fescue grass.  I started out with weeds and dirt, and am making my way towards some lush green goodness.  Here is a picture showing you the progress.

There are several things that I have done differently this time around.  For one I have the area roped off which has done a pretty good job of keeping the kids and dog out of the area. That and consistent watering have probably been the biggest factors.  I wrote all about the initial process here https://carsonmatthewsblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/growing-grass-in-atlanta/ explaining every step plus the ingredients.  Hopefully the spots will fill in over the next few weeks before the leaves really start falling.

 

Swimming at Chastain Pool

Last weekend we took our new GoPro out for a spin at Chastain Pool. We had a lot of fun trying it out and getting some underwater footage.

 

Carson Matthews

Thanksgiving Turkey Preparation Timelapse Video

Here is a iPhone 6 timelapse video of our Thanksgiving turkey preparation on Thanksgiving morning. After this it went into the Big Green Egg for several hours and came out perfect!

Timelapse Compilation of Sunrise and Weather

Here is a video compilation of time-lapse videos out of our front window. Our house faces East so we get great sunrises and a consistent look at clouds and storms moving through.

Sunset over the Chattahoochee River

Here is a picture of the sun tonight as it began setting over the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta. This shot was taken from the East Palisades Trail of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area looking west to Cobb Parkway as it crossed the Hooch.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

70mm f/8.0 5 frames processed in Photomatix and Lightroom

Saturday Down South

Saturday Down South