Planning for spring with Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

My Brother got this book as a Christmas gift and I have been digging (lol) through it for tips for next year. Will be growing the same plants as always but using some of his tips to hopefully improve the harvest.

1) I will be building up as he suggests with a 1:1:1 compost/vermiculite/peatmoss mix. I will likely not go for the full 6" as my existing soil is fairly good and was mixed with compost in the fall.

2) Excited about the appendix with timing for starting seeds and transferring seeds outdoors.

• Broccoli (12w before spring frost, 5w before spring frost)
• Lettuce (7w before spring frost, 4w before spring frost)
• Pepper (7w before spring frost, 2w after spring frost)
• Summer Squash (2w before spring frost, after spring frost)
• Tomato (6w before spring frost, after spring frost)
• Basil (4-6w before spring frost, whenever soil is warm)

Find average last spring frost date here

3) Lots of other info on his particular system for making the plant beds and structures for his system.

Going to be trying out the new led lamp for starting seeds this year and using the paper pots from this post for the larger plants.

Of course this book did not cover the barley, for homebrewing, which I will start outside a few weeks before the first frost and the hops which are perennials.

Here is the book: All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!

Richard McDermott Miller. Figure Sculpture In Wax and Plaster. Book review.

Armed with a borders gift card from xmas, thanks Singhs, got this book that I had my eye on. Old book (1971) but is new to me. Great review of basic techniques in sculpting wax and lost wax casting. The book is aimed toward at home hobby sculpting and casting. The biggest highlight for me is the emphasis on material selection and handling. Especially for plaster. High density of quality photos showing each step of the process.
Figure Sculpture in Wax and Plaster $11.96 new on Amazon.

Quickly found a few things that will improve my process.

• steam burnout of the wax.
• using nails for blind vents (as shown on right)
  
• better process for mixing plaster

Highly recommend this book. As far as i can tell is the best book for beginning to work with wax sculpture and lost wax casting. A good buy for DIY lost wax casters.

The results of my attempts to follow this book