Setting up outside

I took a couple days off this week to setup the Grow Camp. Our weather in Michigan is sunny and about 70°, perfect weather to work outside.

First I set up the base and picked a spot that would get full sun, level and made sure I could still mow around everything. We are on the top of a hill so level ground is rare in our yard. Even this spot wasn't level, I had to dig a 1" trench on the shed side and the right end so it would sit level. To dig the trench I took a cheap box cutter knife, extended the blade all the way and locked it, then cut the grass right along the base on either side. Slid the base over a little and used a small hand shovel to dig out the trench. After a little bit of tweaking I got it to sit almost perfectly level. I used the grass from the trench to line the inside walls that were not in a trench to fill any gaps where soil might seep out.

Once that was done I lined the bottom with a cloth weed blocker and taped it loosely to the sides with paper painters tape.

Now the dirt. My neighbor across the street had 5 yards of sifted top soil in his driveway and said I could take as much as I needed, so I did! I even used his wheel barrel. About 12 trips back and fourth, a sweat band on my head, I got it filled with about 4" to spare. I then added a bag of peat (I planned on using 2 bags but I underestimated how much coverage a bag would do). Then 6 bags of Miracle-Gro vegetable soil mix. And finally 4 bags of PH balanced compost.

After we got everything put together I noticed that there were quite a few pins left over, 16 to be exact, and there were only supposed to be 8. Looking all over I discovered that I missed all the pins that go under the top rails.

Since I had already pinned the end for this support bar I had to take it all back apart and use some large wire cutters to remove the pins so it could be reinstalled after pinning the top part. I used a small hammer to tap many of the pins in, they can be a little tough to push in by hand.

We put these little felt pads wherever the S hooks would rub on the plastic.

We sometimes get really high winds so this should prevent any damage from the plastic flapping around and rubbing on the S hooks. The ends and even the rounded part have some rough edges from however they form these.

We can't grow everything in the Grow Camp, so I'll use the extra peat mixed with planting soil in the potted stuff like all the hot peppers, some corn and probably some of the bigger tomato plants.

Here's me just before we started planting some of the bigger sprouts like squash, cantaloupe, peas and radishes. We bought a few strawberry plants from a local greenhouse to see how they do.