I dug all of my clay out and replaced it with proper topsoil... did that with the rose bushes and they are now three times the size they used to be.
Replacing it will definitely have quick positive results. Personally I am more into soil building which is less disruptive but does take time. There's a reason for doing each and it depends on your budget, final goals, and timeline.
I used 3.5 inch deck screws when I built mine. The one thing I regret not doing is taking the time to level it. The small incline became much bigger than I thought when I leak tested the liner. I should've drained and leveled it, but at the time said fuck it as I wanted to get it finished. Now it pisses me off every time I walk by it.
Beautiful! Do you dry them or cook them fresh? How much space do you devote, what are the yields like?
Yeah, I was really happy that I took the time to properly level it... basically put the liner in with a bit of water in it and then used sand under it to level the base. The one thing I regretted doing was not filling in a knot hole, as it caused a high strain area in the liner that eventually popped. I had to dig back all the dirt, remove that part of the landscaping felt, shovel a bunch of the gravel away, then drain the water a lot, patch the liner, put a simple 5"x5" thin piece of plywood over the hole, then re-assemble. When I did the second box, I had less precisely milled lumber that had some gaps, etc, that I covered with thin plywood to help distribute the pressure of the filled pond liner, and it worked out very well. Sure was easier (and seems to be just as effective) than re-milling the rough cut lumber. Which is a bonus, as I got that lumber STUPID cheap... something like $2 a board foot for shitty poplar he had lying around the lot. It was practically free. I'll be trying to use the big lag screws to pull the parts back together for the one corner that is separating, and will probably take the time to go sink some long deck screws into the other corners to help hold shit in place. I'm going to try and delay it until after things are done growing so I can dig out the dirt and reduce the outward pressure on the planks. Here's hoping shit doesn't fail catastrophically before the end of the growing season.
I pick them fresh, as they come in, and shuck them and toss them in a ziplock and store them in the fridge. After a week, or so, when the ziplock fills up, I boil them with some sliced bacon, diced onion and garlic, chicken stock, and whatever herbs (oregano, parsley, chives, etc.) that I have on hand from the garden. Often I'll throw in some cherry tomatoes or okra* if I have a bounty. Then I eat and fridge-store what I can, and freeze the rest of the cooked cowpeas. They freeze wonderfully well. They are bit of a space hog, but nothing like corn or a vigorous tomato or anything. Here, in the American Deep South, the yield is exceptional and they require absolutely no fertilizer, water, maintenance, care, etc. And being a pea, they don't deplete much nitrogen from your soil. *Oh, anyone have any good okra recipes (besides making a gumbo or just deep frying it)?
I was getting overwhelmed with peppers. So I roasted and jarred them with this recipe https://honest-food.net/how-to-preserve-peppers/ One jar is too big because I overestimated the volume on the Anaheim Chiles but did better on jar sizing on the banana peppers. I used red wine vinegar for my vinegar because I wanted them a little sweet. These are really tasty and will be good in the fridge for about a year; I foresee them being pulled out during the holidays. They taste pretty damned close to commercial jarred roasted red peppers, except the Anaheim Chiles have a pleasant kick.
I need to do some ranting about my struggles with tomatoes this year. I timed the planting of them pretty well, but a week after that some critter chomped all three plants down to the stalks. I let them be hoping they would come back, and they did. They've been showing them decent growth the last 4-5 weeks, and I was hoping to get at least some harvest by the end of September. Since they started producing fruit some animal has been grabbing them once tomatoes get to a decent size, but are still green. Every tomato I've seen that was looking promising has been taken. I'll be lucky if I get one tomato this year. It's so frustrating.
Same exact thing has been happening to me. I've seen the little fuckers in the mornings on a couple of occasions, but by the time I get outside, they've already grabbed something and are scurrying away. I've tried spreading cayenne all around the base of the plant, but they just climb up the cages. I also tried spraying animal repellent but it's been raining so much here that it just gets washed off nearly every day. At least they've learned not to eat my hot peppers.
@binx bolling I repped you about the okra, but had another thought about what you could do with them. Got a dehydrator? I've had okra chips once before and thought they were great. I'm about to purchase a dehydrator because I want to powderize a bunch of chiles and make sun dried tomatoes. I'll be more likely to grow okra next year and dehydrate them for chips. They are a vegetable that comes in hard and fast and you better figure out what to do with them.
I just bought one because Cabela's had them on for crazy cheep. I'm going to use it mostly for the tons of unused herbs I've grown, as well as the huge amount of tomatoes I'm expecting to hit soon. Sundried tomatoes are amazingly tasty.
I haven't nailed down which model to purchase yet. Which one did you get? I'm kinda stuck on the horizontal flow, stainless steel shelf models which of course are more expensive. But I can really see myself using this a lot. I plan to pack sun dried tomatoes in olive oil. I'm kind of excited about these goodies I'm putting away for the cold, dark winter. Fancy charcuterie for all the holidays.
Oh yeah and speaking of drying herbs. I have a fuckton of mint out there that I should save for later. @walt didn't you mention that you use mint in a ton of your cooking? What kinds of things are you cooking with it? I know of a lamb recipe with mint but can't really think of how to use it other than that..... and we don't really eat lamb.
I got this one: https://www.cabelas.ca/product/94810 I had an additional 50% off code due to some other stuff I bought earlier (fishing gear, etc), so it seemed pretty reasonable, all things considered.