Building Materials

Bruce pointed out a couple of days ago that the ground here doesn’t drain well, and I can remember the soil being very wet after even very short rain showers.  This means that we’ll have to build a lot of raised beds for our vegetables, and considering the economic crunch, and just good old frugality, we should try to use as many recylced materials as we can, and this is where we all need to pitch in.

We can’t use treated lumber because the chemicals in it will leach out into the soil.  We CAN use: cedar, cypress, redwood, corrugated metal, stone, cinder block, and brick.  Keeping that in mind, there are a few places we can keep watching for used materials:

• Construction sites, who will often let you take their scrap materials
• Home Depot or Lowe’s – especially for the pallets they throw away, which can be taken apart.
• Free stuff on Craigslist (houston.craigslist.org/zip)
• Freecycle (Houston and Tomball – you’ll have to click “Join This Group” on the Houston page)
• The Habitat ReStore (at 13572 Hwy 249).  Not free, but the prices are good, and the money goes to a good cause.

And of course, if any of you find out about friends or neighbors who have materials they’d be willing to donate, please let us know.  You can either post a response here on the site or email me.

Thanks!

Restarting the Garden!

Well, after an unexpected interruption in the garden, brought about by Ike, it’s time to get back to work on the garden.  I’ve been encouraged by the number of people who have been asking me about when we were going to get started again, and I’m excited about what this garden could do for St. Tim and for the community.

With winter on its way out, we need to break ground, and build some raised beds.  We can already be planting a few vegetables, like onions, spinach, and peas – and if you’ve never had raw sugar snap peas straight off of the vine, you’re missing out.  And in only a fewf weeks, it will be time to plant LOTS of stuff – broccoli, beans of all kinds, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce…

I’ll be looking to nail down a ground breaking day very soon, but I need to know what days and times are best for those of you who would like to be involved.  Also, how do you feel about having work days on Sundays after church?  Please submit some feedback on what would work best for you, and keep watching the site for updates.