After lunch yesterday, we had another 16 bags of Black Kow compost loaded into the back of the car and we parked it by the wall. In spite of the heat, I got out with the weed mat, scissors, and garden tools and finished spreading out the weed mat, forked hay on it, and unloaded the 16 bags of compost. Five were opened and spread, the other 11 are scattered around on the hay, but the heat and time got the best of me and I quit just before first thunderstorm started.
As I moved stones, the good sized gray on with a fossiled surface was lugged and rolled up and shimmed in place as one more piece to the patio and other larger flat potential stones were moved aside. The top of the retaining wall was edged with stones holding down the weed mat to prevent the soil from eroding through on to the wall.
While I was working, one of the hay farmers raked and baled the remaining hay that was mowed a few days ago. They got 41 large 5′ round bales from the upper fields. The lower south field is still standing and will be for another week or so, but they expect to get at least that much more from that field.
Two of the four collection points to await the trailers and trucks to pick them up this weekend.
Yesterday morning while it was still cool, I picked a good sized basket of green beans and the first cucumbers. We enjoyed some for dinner, the rest will be blanched and frozen or fermented into dilly beans. I was excited to see peppers formed and growing when I was pulling weeds for the hens. This morning’s decision was fermenting. Two quart jars, one of dilly beans, one of dilly beans and thick cucumber slices. The rest will be blanched tonight, some frozen, some eaten with dinner.
Since my focus has been on the walled garden area, I still haven’t made or repaired the garden boxes. I did get the garlic tied in bunches and brought in to the garage and hung on an old ladder to dry and the onions brought in and spread on a screen on top of the wheelbarrow to cure before they are moved to the basement storage area. Canning hasn’t begun, but the freezer is filling for the winter months when fresh foods aren’t available. I do love my gardens and the putting by season.
Be safe everyone and remember, masks aren’t a political issue, they are a health and safely issue. Wear one.
Basically, I consider this year’s garden a success. In pictures with captions.
Many future tomatoes, all still green, two varieties, paste and slicers. Healthy peppers with blooms, basil, Chinese cabbage, and more tomatoes. Vigorous cucumbers, taking over. Lots of young cucumbers, this is the largest, just another day or two.Soft neck garlic and potato onions pulled to cure.With potato onions, you plant a single bulb and it produces clusters like this. The larger ones will be used as onions, the smallest will be replanted in fall for next year’s crop. I think I will plant some traditional onions next year too, most of these are under 2″ diameter. They will stay in the sun to cure for a couple of days then be brought in to the garage or wire shelves in the basement to finish curing, then their box that was not rebuilt in spring because it was already planted last fall will be rebuilt, given a load of compost and replanted with either beans or a fall vegetable in a month. While pulling weeds in the potato bed, I uprooted this little new potato. I didn’t dig for more, but it is hopeful that they are making potatoes under the leaves.
Failures. The multiple plantings of corn have produced less than half of the stalks that should have grown. There may be some corn, but certainly not for what we had hoped. The experiment planting pepper and tomato seed directly produced nothing, nor did the direct sow of basil and dill. The two rows of Chinese cabbage that were planted after the peas were pulled did not germinate a single plant. Thus, now that the onions and garlic are pulled, there are two and a half 4 X 4 foot beds idle as well as the area where the mint was dug out and that box has still not been built and installed which will give me another 4 x 6 or 4 x 8 foot box. That is a lot of space that can be used to do a third planting of bush beans, some winter greens like spinach, fall peas, carrots perhaps. Anything planted now will need watering, we have reached the hot, dry period with occasional afternoon thunderstorms that are very hit or miss.
When I rebuild the box and build the longer box, I think I am going to use corner posts at least 14-16″ so that heavy plastic can be laid over the bed to extend the growing season even after a light frost or two. We often have a frost then another period of mild to warm weather that would allow the harvest to be extended.
More bean seed and some fall veggie seed were just ordered. As soon as it is appropriate, seed will be planted.
While the pizza was baking and then after dinner, I moved and stacked the mini wall to help prevent erosion on the steep.
Most of the stones are ordinary, but there are a few lovely dark purple gray and this one.
Today we will buy another car load of Black Cow and at least toss the bags down on the hay before the afternoon storms begin. The hay men didn’t finish all that was already mowed, but have lined up 31 huge bales for picking up on the trailers and trucks. They will probably try to get the rest of what is mowed before the rain begins.
The morning began with “Yogurt in a cooler.” It has been a while since I have made my own yogurt, having been buying a quart a week from the Natural foods store in town and having it curbside delivered with other food needs we can’t grow. But it is easy and cheaper to make my own. A half gallon of quality local milk that will make two quarts if I ate that much in a week, costs between $2 and $5 a quart less depending on which brand they put in my order. I have the jars, the cooler, and a supply of beach towels with which to wrap the cooler, so I am back to making my own.
I also decided I was tired of trying to climb up in the coop several times a day to move eggs to nesting boxes to discourage the laying in the corner under the perch and encourage returning to the nesting boxes. I did a partial coop cleanout because the water inside the coop leaked and created a mess just inside the door and to open up two more nesting boxes. Three had been blocked off with the feeder and the water in front of them. By removing the water and just giving them water outside, two of the boxes could be reopened, that is 5 to choose from though when they use the boxes, it is never either of them. As I was working, the culprit that lays the first egg in the corner kept coming in and surveying her spot from which I had removed all of the straw. Fresh straw was put in the nesting boxes and 3 terra cotta flower pots were placed upside down in a row where she wanted to be. As I climbed back down out of the coop, she came right back in to the corner and this is what she found.
Now she can use a nesting box or if she chooses to not, at least I can reach them from the pop door, or with a scoop from the main door. I’m curious what she will do.
Yesterday we had a dozen bags of Black Cow manure compost loaded into the back of the car. And a roll of weed mat. When we got home, I unloaded the compost in the yard just outside of the walled garden. It isn’t nearly enough, but it is a start to hold down the cardboard and the hay that was placed over it. The garden is filled to the top of the wall in the deep part below the retaining wall.
After it gets rained on and the hay begins to compost, more soil or leaf mulch will have to be added. The first dozen bags went farther than I anticipated they would and the steep part at the edge of the retaining wall will be a challenge. I may run a secondary retaining wall of stones like in the outer wall from the top end of the retaining wall to the outer stone wall to hold the soil on the uphill side. More stone was moved, and one plant was relocated, but it really isn’t a good location for it as it is tall and is right on the edge of the bed at the wall. There is a large clump of the same plant at the corner of the garage, so I may sacrifice what is here and move some once the bed is finished. It would be perfect against the large stone you see above in the retaining wall. A clump of Dutch Iris was moved to the bed behind the garage wall, a garden I am really liking this summer with all of the bright colored flowers.
Note the posts holding plastic mesh fence to deter the deer.
It is a mix of iris, day lilies, Calendula, Zinneas, with annual yellow coneflower, marigolds, coreopsis, and a few other annuals tossed in for more color. All of the bright colors make me happy. It got too hot to continue to work back there in the sun so I quit working on it for the day. It is a work in progress, not something that must be done immediately.
There was no more work on our hay last night. They may have been baling the last field on the farm down the mountain. Two of the their tractors are still parked under the trees in our field. I expect they will return after their day jobs today as they have today and tomorrow before we have more rain in the forecast. They need to at least get what is down baled, even if they can’t get the last field done yet.
Late last night, hubby let the pups out for their last nightly outing and one of them returned smelling skunky. Not a full on spraying, but more like they walked through somewhere that had been recently sprayed. If it wasn’t going to be 90 today, I would open all the windows and turn on all the fans. When I went out to do morning outdoor chores and returned into the house, the odor hit me again. What an effective and unpleasant defense mechanism. I have feared having one of them directly sprayed ever since we got dogs. The big guy seems to be in a lot of pain lately in spite of being given a human adult sized dose of Meloxicam every morning. He is coming up the stairs to be with us again and then reluctantly goes back down, not limping as badly as he was, but he is a very old man for a huge Mastiff.
I try to avoid politics in my blog and not to dwell on COVID, but it is terrifying that cases are rising nationwide and there is no national unity in addressing it, that so many people are dismissing it as a hoax and refusing to adopt basic safely practices to help slow the spread. During the early months when it was rampant down the east and central part of the state, the rural areas where we are were not experiencing many cases, but it is on the rise now. We are starting to see businesses in our area shutter their doors permanently and many more will likely follow. We obey other safely laws and rules for the good of ourselves and others, why have masks and social distancing become such a devisive issue. Travel is not advised now, and we would love a vacation, but won’t, yet I see friends and acquaintances posting pictures in areas where the virus is a hot spot, then they return to our area. I want to return to a more normal lifestyle, but can’t afford the risk of catching or spreading the virus to someone more vulnerable.
I will continue to play in my gardens, spin on my spindles, read my books mostly e-books from the library, and avoid the public except for essentials. We will continue to wear masks, I have made dozens for us and family, continue to wash our hands until the skin feels like it will dry and crack off, continue to eat in to the detriment of some of our favorite restaurants, and hope that someday, life will return to something that resembles the old normal, or at least a variation of it.
If you use my link at the top of my blog to go to my shop, you will see that it now goes to my Etsy Shop. As of today, Square Up was going to migrate my shop to a new format and to have my domain linked to it was going to cost me more than I have ever earned from that shop, so it is being deactivated. All of my wares are in the Etsy Shop and shipping can be free with them.
