April 16, 2012 - Cloudy and Rainy

Of course, now that I have irrigation water, it is raining. That's OK though, as my body feels like it's been dragged behind a truck....backwards! The weekend was spent hauling most of the remainder of my 1/2 yard of composted manure from the pile in the back yard, to the back part of the garden, bucket by bucket full. I don't know how many trips I made, but that bucket got pretty darned heavy! I got the first of the future corn beds staked out and spread with compost. The two beds won't be as large as I had planned. Once I began measuring and staking them out, I found the smaller of the two would be 4'x6' and the larger one will be 4'x8'.

I shoveled all the soil from the last of the three whiskey barrel planters, then rolled it out of the garden and set it up in the soon to be new flower bed. I'm going to use the old potting mix from last year's containers to partially fill it, then amend it with some new mix and compost. I've started some Honey Bear squash seeds to plant in it, then I'll surround it with flowers.....most likely some of the many zinnias I have growing in flats.

The soil I removed from the three barrels was leveled and prepped for three pole bean beds. I had enough wire fencing left from the old garden area to form a trellis for the center bed, but I ran out and will have to think of another method to use in the other two beds. I suppose it will consist of 8' long 1"x2"s and garden twine.

I did some more cleaning in the garden shed, and set up the mini greenhouse. With lights installed, and a rope light in the bottom for heat, I moved some of the plants from my bedroom out there. It won't be so far to carry them out for hardening off.

I still had that half flat of seedlings that didn't grow well in the cheap potting mix I'd purchased. I had planted some of them a couple of weeks ago, but the broccoli didn't survive. There were three more puny broccoli seedlings, so I will try them again. I have healthy ones growing inside, in better mix, so all is not lost if these don't make it. I did plant the three Brussels sprouts though, and if they don't survive I'll have to wait and try again for a fall crop. The remaining seedlings were three New Zealand spinach plants, a few tiny lettuces, two Chinese cabbages and some arugula. I found room for all of them, so the flat of puny plants is now empty.

Taking a chance that the forecast is correct for the next ten days, I put out a few zinnias, all of the echinacea and chamomile, and a few marigolds. I have plenty of zinnias and marigolds left inside if needed. I do hope the echinacea survive. I filled in the rest of the flower areas and the triangle gardens with volunteer alyssum, moved from the kennel garden.

I prepped and planted two beds of Grandpa Ott morning glories, one at the back fence and the other in the kennel garden. Again, to be on the safe side, I also planted an entire flat of them inside. If they all survive, the property will be completely engulfed in morning glory vines!

Finally, I edged the entire fence line along the east garden area, and half of the new flower bed at the south end of it.

Oh, I forgot to mention I spent most of Saturday on front yard cleanup. I raked and picked up all the leaves and pine needles, helped Mr. Granny with two underground sprinkler replacements and began the horrid task of trying to dig grass from around the barberry bushes. I have barberry thorn wounds in both hands, and the grass is still tangled in their roots. I hate those bushes! I had my youngest son dig two of them out last fall, and I wish I'd had him take them all out. I don't know how long I dug at those grass roots, but it was exhausting work and I only got about 1/4 of the bed done. Why do I find back yard gardening enjoyable, but front yard cleanup just plain hard work?

I took a video of the garden yesterday, but I couldn't get it to work on Blogger. It uploaded, but when I'd try to play it, it kept saying to try again later....I finally gave up and deleted it. When we get sunshine again, I'll take pictures.





19 comments:

  1. Backyard is more fun b/c it's like decorating vs trying to keep up appearances.
    Can't wait to see your yard surrounded in morning glories. I found the nasturtiums today so will get them out this wk.
    We had some high winds today so our new raised bed's temporary cover not only blew down but the plastic ripped...just a day after i put out my whole tray of lettuce seedlings. boo. We went to home depot and bought some 6 mil plastic and clips and recovered it with the heavy duty plastic and clips. One more step toward being a Pacific NW Gardener. Next stop is homemade hoops! At least they're safe for the night or what survives. Putting things out and having mishaps is disheartening but at least it was just lettuces and not something that has a long growth time!
    Our little dried out onions are growing too! I gave them some bonemeal first, then some mixed fertilizer for bulbs and then the other day gave them a little nitrogen booster shot and now they are really fat and happy with only a few which didn't survive!
    My peas are up best in rows that i hand cultivated and hilled and the ones i didn't hill are coming up a LOT slower. I guess that hilling hint for having warmer soil really is true. lol
    Potatoes..no sign of them yet. We saw one sprout but think it's actually a weed. hm. Having never grown potatoes, I have to go look up what their sprouts look like (now) and see!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amy T. (fleur), my first potato shoot emerged this week, as did some of the carrots that weren't yet up when you asked about them. I took a picture of the potato shoot, so if it turned out, you'll know what to look for.

      Delete
  2. Hi AG--you need to get one of those handy garden wagons to haul all your stuff with. It's saved me so many trips back and forth from the compost bins, etc.
    I kept saying "where are the pics" till I got to the end. Blogger can be a royal pain loading videos. It would have been great to see it. YouTube maybe?
    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, Sue, I do have a cart and a wheelbarrow, but they were both full of the sod I'd dug out around the fence! It was easier to bucket the poo than to empty the sod! Well, not exactly easier, but the sod was heavy and sitting in the sun to dry out a bit....of course, then it rained on it. I got pictures this morning :-)

      Delete
  3. Wow! Why is it I find your posts so exhausting? I'm glad you finally got some rain. Compared to last year, it is a draught here. Last year we had rain in biblical amounts. I don't mind watering every night and the slug damage is minimal.

    I always use last years soil from the my pots as an amendment. It eases my conscious at the cost of purchasing several bags each year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ed, I cringe at the amount of potting mix I use in my tomato buckets each year. At least I can reuse it in other areas of the garden.

      Delete
  4. Those buckets do get heavier as the day goes on. I think it's a conspiracy!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IG, I think those cows have rocks in their poop! Oh well, they say we old people need to do strength exercises....I think I've been doing that!

      Delete
  5. You were busy. I find some chores hateful and others in the garden I love. I love prepping the beds and planting. But I hated planting the asparagus. You would think they would be similar enough, but I guess not.

    And cheap potting mixes are never a bargain. I buy a really good mix and I'm willing to go to the trouble to get it since it isn't easily available here. It is so worth the trouble.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Daphne, you'd think I'd want my front yard to look nice, as that's what everyone sees....but I don't care that much about it, because that's not the area I look at! I basically live in the back part of my house, and I see the back yard and garden. I get satisfaction in making the back yard pretty.

      I think I'm going back to purchasing Ace potting mix. I have always had good luck with it, and it's not terribly expensive. Many people talk about ProMix, but it's not available around here.

      Delete
  6. It made my tired just thinking about moving all that manure! I hate barberries too. Our place came with several of them, and we're digging them out little by little.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's a lot of hard work you have going on there.

    I am interested in the pole beans and the whiskey barrels. I can't wait to see how all that develops.

    I love my zinnias. They are so easy to grow and easy to care for. I have volunteers of zinnias right where I want them this year. I actually have been trying to spread my zinnias over a greater area of the yard. Here's hoping. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christy, in the past, I've grown the pole beans up the sides of the kennel garden, so this is their first year on the cedar fence. I've also grown them around "tepees" with success. As for the squash in the barrels, one is by necessity (big roots in the ground underneath) and one is because I forgot I had the Honey Bear seeds and didn't allow a spot for them in the main garden. I think they will be pretty in the flower bed.

      I might have had volunteer zinnias, but I'm so concerned about volunteer sunflowers and cosmos, I'm hoeing out everything that I didn't actually plant this spring!

      Delete
  8. I hope you spend the rainy day reading a fluffy mystery and surfing gardening blogs! Sounds like a crazy amount of work. You do inspire. I wish I could share some of the enormous bamboo poles I got from Denise and Kevin yesterday. My pole beans are going up in style.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Stefaneener, I have so many unread mystery novels...so what did I do all day? Played Bejeweled3 on the computer and ate jelly beans, LOL!

      Delete
  9. You have really been doing a lot of hard physical labor this year, I should send you my children LOL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Erin, please do! Those boys could really haul a lot of heavy buckets of poop, LOL!

      Delete
  10. I wish I had half the energy you do! But being tired from the garden is one of my favorite things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, David, you know how us old retired people are. We just sit in our rocking chairs and do nothing all day ;-)

      Delete