Learning to Building in Steps

The first project that I got to work on start to finish with Daedalus Design/Build was a small, elegant deck in Swathmore, PA only a couple blocks away from Swathmore College. We demolished a existing and rotting set of stairs led from the kitchen to the backyard and started from scratch. Take a look at the pictures below.

More words to come...

First Vegetable Garden

We planted a garden! It was the first garden for each of us, and while we enjoyed it I think we were both glad that it only took a day!

The 20x15 ft' patch is in the backyard of Hannah's parents in Ambler, about 25 minutes from Philadelphia. It was a bit late in the spring to be planting (it was over ninety degrees on the day we planted), but that only meant that the plants we were putting in the ground were more developed. Aside from Richard and Moriah's kale seeds, every plant we put in the ground was fairly mature. Here are the steps, roughly:

1. Spread compost (manure and decomposed leaves) to fix nitrogen into the soil. Using a lawn fertilizer would add too much nitrogen to the lawn at once, and runoff from lawn fertilizer causes serious damages to waterways and lakes. 

 2. Till the soil. Tilling homogenizes the dirt, clay, and composted materials and also eradicate any weeds that would compete with our young cultivars.

 3. Spread plastic cover, which keeps weeds down throughout the garden. We used rocks to hold down the plastic and poked many tiny holes in the surface to allow water to seep through into the ground.

4. Plant! We planted about 20 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, 3 small rows of kale, cucumber, 2 kinds of basil, tarragon, rosemary, oregano,radishes and asparagus. 

Rows of Kale Sprouts & Seeds

3 kinds of peppers

Tomatoes!

All in all, the entire garden only took us a few hours. This is something I would definitely do more of too, as it was quite enjoyable especially when you surround yourself with pleasant people. When everything starts growing I will update the blog with our successes (and failures too). Hoping it will be a bountiful harvest. 

So I got some kale seeds from Richard and Moriah. I was inspired It is a super food  according to the guy that that sells those 'Eat More Kales' t-shirts and a bevy of other herbivores, it is a superfood.According to a bushel of nutritionists, the isothiocyanates lower the risk of developing cancer. It is also suggested that these molecules play a hand in detoxification at the genetic level. While the latter seems incredulous, there have been some researchers who have suggested that organic compounds have a hand in epigenetic. However, the largest health benefit derived from kale would surely be it;s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. 

Anyways, I put the seeds between two moist paper towels and let em' rip! This method of seed sprouting is akin to the first science experiment everyone does in grade school with bean sprouts. After only a day, tiny shoots poke out of the seed, and by day three leaves had appeared! I then put the sprouts three inches below some potting soil and water them (probably too much!). 

Then, into the back of the Subaru and down to Philadelphia they went! 

Prawan A, Saw CL, Khor TO et. al. Anti-NF-kappaB and anti-inflammatory activities of synthetic isothiocyanates: effect of chemical structures and cellular signlaing. Chem Biol Interact. 2009 May 15; 179 (2-3): 202-211

A few sprouts two days after they had been put in the paper towel

Sprouts after 5 days

Memorial Day, into the ground

One week later...

Two weeks later...

One month later!

Check this out:

Prawan A, Saw CL, Khor TO et. al. Anti-NF-kappaB and anti-inflammatory activities of synthetic isothiocyanates: effect of chemical structures and cellular signlaing. Chem Biol Interact. 2009 May 15; 179 (2-3): 202-211