Misc/Chat Garden fun

[kyrsyan]

I finally finished cleaning up the leaf and limb debris from the last round. There will be another round next weekend or the weekend after. After a sun sail goes up over my son's new water play area. I was going to wait, but it turns out that misters will actually make a sunburn worse. So sun sail up. And that will provide the privacy from the apartments that the trees were providing, so trees down because they really are too close to the fence and garage. And with those down, nice long smooth trunks, that will probably be the last of the trunks I need to make the new garden beds.
I got all the soaker hoses in last weekend, only for them not to work. Ugh. So back to timed sprinklers. But the sprinklers were watering the grass as well. So in areas that I was already planning for mulch, I went ahead and got the cardboard down. And then I moved the potted plants onto the cardboard to hold it in place until I can get wood chip down. And it cuts down on the number of areas that I need to water because the sprinkler gets those as well.
I was going to start the new garden beds today but the body asked nicely that I take the weekend off from heavy tasks, such as digging in gravel/dirt mix. And since I'm coming off of caffeine again, after accidentally consuming it for two weeks, I decided to agree. I don't want to overwhelm my body and crash, because that will mean more than one weekend of taking it easy. And there is still stuff I can do. I'm going out later today and marking the spacing for the two new garden beds. And probably running the lawn mower over the spots where the leaf and limb pile had been. And there are a few cuc and melon plants that need to finally make it into their garden bed. Otherwise, there are a few sewing projects that need doing.
And the garden is happyish. The vegs like being watered daily, which is a must in this heat. Things are taking longer to grow than I expected but that is life. I debated fertilizer and decided against it for now.

 

[anna43]

I got my garden all hoed early this morning before it got too hot and while it was still in the shade. The ground is powdery dry even after 2" of rain last week. Usually 2" of rain and I can't work in the garden for several days. Not this year (and last 6 years) it was dry in a day. My potatoes are looking very good and blooming. Other stuff is still alive which I guess is as good as it gets this year. Too hot, too dry and too windy just sucks the life out of everything. Strange thing while hoeing was some places were soft and powdery and other areas resembled cement.

My carrots germinated and were looking good, but over half have died with the heat/dry/wind. I was hoping to plant another row of carrots and some turnips, but it's just too dry and I don't want to waste seed.

Lettuce should be ready in a few days although not much survived the heat. Still I'll be glad for whatever I get. Radishes are done and woody but I have a few left in the fridge.

I cannot afford to water much and the town has requested us not to do so. Many people don't pay attention, but I personally would rather have water coming out of my faucet to drink rather than running the town wells dry watering the garden.

 

[kyrsyan]

I got my garden all hoed early this morning before it got too hot and while it was still in the shade. The ground is powdery dry even after 2" of rain last week. Usually 2" of rain and I can't work in the garden for several days. Not this year (and last 6 years) it was dry in a day. My potatoes are looking very good and blooming. Other stuff is still alive which I guess is as good as it gets this year. Too hot, too dry and too windy just sucks the life out of everything. Strange thing while hoeing was some places were soft and powdery and other areas resembled cement.

My carrots germinated and were looking good, but over half have died with the heat/dry/wind. I was hoping to plant another row of carrots and some turnips, but it's just too dry and I don't want to waste seed.

Lettuce should be ready in a few days although not much survived the heat. Still I'll be glad for whatever I get. Radishes are done and woody but I have a few left in the fridge.

I cannot afford to water much and the town has requested us not to do so. Many people don't pay attention, but I personally would rather have water coming out of my faucet to drink rather than running the town wells dry watering the garden.

I am lucky enough to not be in a drought area. And honestly, I mulch the heck out of the gardens so that I can keep the watering to a minimum. That was also why I was trying to use the soaker hoses. That would water under the mulch and mean that there was less evaporation and waste. The only reason the gardens are getting watered so much at the moment is because of the extreme heat. If things go the way they are predicted, I won't need to water for the next week because nature will be doing the watering for me. If nature goes back to normal for around here, I'll only need to water once every few days.
All I'm doing at this point is crops that can handle summer. Turnips, beets, lettuce, and a whole slew of others will be started inside again in about a month and a half. So that they can go in the ground at the beginning of September and I can get a late harvest or spring harvest, depending on the crop. That little voice says that I need to keep the gardens going for as long as I can this year.

 

[kyrsyan]

Oh, I hit the ouch this week. Two days of work with the mattock to work loose the old garden bed soil so I could move it. Mainly because of the heat for the past two weeks and that the soil hadn't been planted. I couldn't leave it because it was a 4" high "brick" in the form of the original garden bed. But dang, there are body parts that are objecting. So I'm listening to the body, because I don't want to be down and out long term due to not listening. So the next few days are actually going to be cleanup of those areas. Bushes being pruned. Tree trunks that weren't taken to ground level being taken to ground level. Etc, etc, etc.

And then, probably Friday, I'll dig the holes for the new permanent plantings for that area. A Primrose lilac is going in with coneflowers around the base. That gets followed up by lots of cardboard and mulch so I don't have to worry about a lot of weeding and maintenance. More coneflower will be added as I get it sprouted and to size inside.

Then next week, I'll move on to the next spot. That gets a beauty berry and passionflower plants in the end. Somewhere in the whole section of that side will also be home to two Yaupon holly bushes. And maybe a rosemary or two.

The area after that gets a tea olive and yarrow. Then I move into removing Nandina bushes, only 4 left, and replanting with European elderberry.

This weekend was already double booked with projects, and due to some errors this past weekend, it is now triple booked. (Communication issues can really screw things up. Next time I'm just sending pictures.) So mowing, the once a month grocery trip (and the resulting day of breaking down packages to more appropriate sizes), and getting the sun sail put up. Turns out the sun sail itself is probably the cheapest part of that whole set up.

Fingers crossed, and body willing, the overhaul for this whole side yard will be complete by Fall, if not sooner.

 

[ioujc]

I truly admire those of you who just "stay at it non-stop!!"

I seem not to be able to do that anymore. I took yesterday afternoon off to cut, chop and store about half of the 200 onions I harvested early, because the bulbs were "cooking in the ground" and some were getting soft.

I have washed my hands with soap about 20 times and they STILL smell like onions!!

I had planned on working outside today, but I just can't get myself going!! So, I guess I will finish the onions......and smell bad again!! My RV REEKS of onion!!

In a nearby town, there was an onion "factory," as we called it. They made onion rings and breaded them, then they were packaged, frozen and sold all over the country. (That is ANOTHER company that closed its doors and was sent over seas during the OBUTTHOLE era.)
ANYWAY......every so often the wind would switch from its normal pattern and you could smell the onions for miles around!!! It was NOT a pleasant odor!! Well, that is sort of like what my RV smells like now!! (Not quite that bad, but close enough to saturate your clothes, hair and skin!!)

Hopefully I can get the smell OUT, because I am already known as the Crazy dog and cat lady, the Crazy chicken nut....I SURE do NOT want to be also known as the ONION STINKER!!

 

[kyrsyan]

Doing 200 onions in one afternoon would wipe me out for days. I would have to do it in smaller batches to not wear myself out. So I'd say yoi have more than earned a day off.

 

[ioujc]

Doing 200 onions in one afternoon would wipe me out for days. I would have to do it in smaller batches to not wear myself out. So I'd say yoi have more than earned a day off.

Ah, but that's the thing!!! I only did HALF of them!! Got another hundred to do today!!!

 

[kyrsyan]

Ah, but that's the thing!!! I only did HALF of them!! Got another hundred to do today!!!

That's still more than I could have done in one day. If I was having a really, really good day, maybe 50. Stop being so hard on yourself.

 

[ioujc]

Kyrsyan.....it sounds like your plans for your garden will end up as a heavenly place to spend many days enjoying!!

Having an over all plan is the real deal!!

Sounds like your play area for your son will make many memories for him.

Hope you are taking pics of each stage as it progresses.......then you can look back and enjoy the magnitude of what you have accomplished and see before and after pictures!

 

[kyrsyan]

Still working on the garden. Discovered today that I really have to spend the time outside in the morning. I don't know why but my body/brain connection just doesn't work correctly if I don't go outside and do some physical work and sweat some. Not sure why. But this morning I had to run two errands and that chewed up my morning time. But when I tried to work I absolutely could not focus. So after lunch, I went out with the shovel and mattock and put two bushes in. Wala!!! My brain works and I can focus. Not sure what's up with that but there it is.

I'm about halfway down the one side of the house now. I used RoundUp on the Nandina and it's only working on one of them. So that will be another morning chore this week. My body won't handle digging up those root systems again. And I'm planting the new stuff further from the house. So if I can kill them off, and then prune the above ground stuff, I'm good. But there is another section to do before that, and that section needs some more work, including a new seal on the sewage vent pipe and reattaching it to the house.

And I priced lumber. I will building at least one of the new garden beds from the trunks of the trees. My brain finally puzzled out how to do it and have it stay in place. I'll be placing them vertical rather than horizontal. I may reach out to a few arborists and see if I can get some additional 2' to 4' straight sections that are 6" to 8" diameter. My friend found a very, very old container of polyurethane. We're going to see if it's salvageable to replace the roof tar that we can't find in the depths of the garage, as the protection on the ground ends.

And we are going to find the concrete cobblestone molds. Even if it's just one 80 lb bag every other week, if done steadily that will provide the spacing I need in between the house and the plantings. Although I may see about making a general wood frame so that I can lift the mold a hair and let it form as a solid 2' x 2' block, with the top being a cobblestone pattern. That would block more weeds and help with some of the roof water drainage. (No gutters.)

 

[kyrsyan]

Reminder for fellow gardeners that get piles of wood chip from the arborists - water the chips in this heat unless you want super hot compost and possibly a fire. My pile has only been there for 2 days and it was already smoldering. And I haven't been having the super high temps that everyone else has. It's been 90s here but only the heat index has gone higher than that.

 

[packyderms_wife]

Reminder for fellow gardeners that get piles of wood chip from the arborists - water the chips in this heat unless you want super hot compost and possibly a fire. My pile has only been there for 2 days and it was already smoldering. And I haven't been having the super high temps that everyone else has. It's been 90s here but only the heat index has gone higher than that.

I guess this is a timely reminder to go check my compost pile! Maybe that's what I've been smelling burning.

 

[kyrsyan]

Might have been a bit of an unseemly happy dance this morning. The arborist came by and refilled my woodchip pile. Probably while I was working since I didn't hear them. (Really good noise canceling ear buds.)
I'm almost done the section down the side of the house. Faster than I expected but the body is good with it. And I'm almost completely out of cardboard. I may have to hit up the local liquor store this weekend for a refill.

 

[WanderLore]

Hey you can try a simple thing I've used for killing off when round up doesn't work.
1. mix round up and 24d together. 2. little bleach and salt. Either/ Or
For getting rid of yucky smells: try a little lemon juice on your hands, and boil a little on the stove with some water.
Hubs used the tractor and dug up a nice square by chicken coop for me. I will be planting and put some transplants there today. I think they will do good.

 

[kyrsyan]

Hey you can try a simple thing I've used for killing off when round up doesn't work.
1. mix round up and 24d together. 2. little bleach and salt. Either/ Or
For getting rid of yucky smells: try a little lemon juice on your hands, and boil a little on the stove with some water.
Hubs used the tractor and dug up a nice square by chicken coop for me. I will be planting and put some transplants there today. I think they will do good.

I need to put new plants in the area so I'm trying to avoid more drastic methods. The plants are already showing reactions to the Round Up. But they are old and have extensive root systems, so I was actually expecting to have to do at least one more application. Likely two more. But it's better than trying to dig them out. Sooooo much better than trying to dig them out. Because if you miss even one tiny root piece, those buggers come back.

And since I've learned to use the morning chore time on the day before mowing to prep for mowing, it's one of the tasks I can do on that morning. After I do a quick run around with the weedeater to spots the mower can't get.