Good Morning. Thanks for the ping. We have had loads of rain this week, some pretty cool nights, and not nearly enough sunshine. Weeds abound.
I got most of the beds weeded yesterday. Garlic finally had some scapes, which I have snipped off. I am thinking that I might just dehydrate them and turn them into powder to use when cooking.
I have way too much lettuce to eat. How does one “preserve” lettuce for later use? Any nifty recipes(I am getting tired of salads).
Hubby is working on the siding on the “grand old money pit shed”. Rain canceled the bobcat to do the grading. Now it’s wait again to let the ground dry out.
He says the “root/storm cellar” is ready for some shelves and storage. So I’ll be shopping for some shelves. Also time to order the cistern.
I've got blooming cactus:
Pomegranates setting in (they need very little water):
Another bumper crop of lemons:
: I know they aren't "water-wise" but I can't go without roses. This one is called "George Burns."
And, one last one from my native plant/bee garden, called "Sticky Monkey Flower.":
It is sunny and hot here in southern New Hampshire. I have finished the first, expanded raised bed planter, made of salvaged slats from pallets. It is 117 1/2” by 53” and 16” high. It replaces two landscape timber 4’ by 4’ raised beds with two rows of timbers. I pulled the old boundaries out and they were pretty well rotted. I extended the two watering valves to the new height and filled it with about 9 loader buckets of compost from the local transfer station.
Now, I am disassembly pallets to make four more raised beds. I hope these go faster with the experience from the first one. The design came from a Youtube offering by a gardener from New Jersey.
Household Six has the first raised bed planted. When I am finished we will have ten raised beds in the 8-10’ by 4’ class, and a couple in the 10’ by 2’ class. And I can start building our new garden shed.
Summer’s heat is here, so I’ve switched to a nocturnal schedule. Last night I was finally able to start tilling. Did a first pass over about 80% of the field. The entire field needs at least 3 passes, a few days apart, before I can plant.
Last year when going through some older rye seed in buckets, we found a few that had been eaten by bugs. After everything was harvested, Dad dumped the bug-eaten seed where the pumpkins had been, thinking there was no viable seed left. Well, some of them must have survived, because there is a beautiful patch of winter rye almost as tall as my shoulders. I decided to let that go to seed. This year everything that isn’t planted with other stuff will be planted with field peas, and after harvest in the fall I’ll cover the field in winter rye. A few years of that should lower the weed pressure enough I can start thinking about expanding.
WHAT IS IT???
primose? poppy? I want to move it and mulch, but until I know what it is, I'm holding off..
It was mostly warm and dry here in Central Missouri over the past week, which was welcome relief from the cool and wet pattern that we’ve been mired in.
We were able to get all of the grass mowed, including the back paddock around what should be a sunflower field, and the wetland area below the bait pond. It’s been too wet this spring to work the sunflower field, and now it’s so late that there’s not much point in spending the money to do it, so I’ve decided to leave it fallow this summer.
The kitchen garden is looking pretty good. We were able to do a bit of badly-needed weeding over the weekend. I pruned the low suckers on all of the tomato plants yesterday. Those are doing much better after a few days of sunshine and warm weather. Squash and cucumbers are starting to take off. Beets are gaining. Pole beans are showing signs of improvement. Peppers look good. Kale is flourishing. Carrots are up nicely, with a good stand. Turnips and rutabaga freshly sprouted. Green salad is slowing down, but hanging in there. Radishes are starting to get woody. The rhubarb division that I thought was croaked has put out a sprig of new growth, so there’s hope yet for that one.
It looks like we might get a small fruit crop in spite of the late freeze. Pears, apples, plums, and peaches are all present. The crop is thin, but better than nothing. Hopefully what’s there will be able to mature before the bugs wreck it.
Weather guessers are thinking we might get some rain over the next few days, which wouldn’t be all bad at this point. It’s amazing how fast the ground dries up with 80°+ temps and 20mph winds blowing all day long.
I am pleased to report that I have one dozen pea plants. In a garden of some 1250 + square feet. BUT !!! I finally got the last corner fitted with chicken wire, and now I just have to roll out, bend and zip tie, that last side + a few feet around that last corner to the gate. Two feet on the ground, two feet up the fence. 4 ft. wide chicken wire is a drag to work with. But we learned our lesson about shortcuts and now I’m going for overkill!
This has taken forever. Didn’t help that Mr.L won’t help. And he used to be so into gardening!
I’m glad I didn’t have much in there though because yesterday I found a stray groundhog inside the garden. That got me getting back to work on my fence. It’s been a giant pain, but the critters around here make gardening pointless and heartbreaking unless you build Fort Knox. Nearly done.
