May 3, 2012 - I Should Have Known!

The weatherman didn't tell me it was going to rain, but I should have known.  Yesterday I was checking on my Fortex pole beans, wondering why I had one healthy bean plant growing in the bed where I had planted probably 30 seeds.  I dug my fingers down into the soil, and pulled up a perfectly dry, unsprouted bean.  The bed was dry as a bone!  I don't know how that one plant managed to not only survive, but to look absolutely perfectly healthy.  I also don't know why the bed was so dry, as the garden sprinklers hit the fence where the beans are planted.  I know my sandy soil dries out quickly, that's why I've eliminated most of my raised beds.  I had amended the soil along the fence with quite a bit of compost, and raked it up into slightly raised half-circle beds for the pole beans.  The soil in the pathways was damp on the surface, but the slightly raised beds were dry.  All three of them.  There was nothing I could do about the bed that was already filled with bean seeds, but I grabbed the rake and leveled out the two unplanted areas.  Then I attached a "Y" connector to the garden hose that feeds the two main sprinklers, and installed another hose for spot watering.  With the "Y", I can control which hoses are being used, so as to not overwater the rest of the garden.

With the new hose in commission, I set a small sprinkler to soak the bean bed.  Then I soaked the two newly flattened bean beds and planted one of them with more Fortex beans and a 3' home made carrot seed tape that I had left over from the planting on May 1.  I'll be sure to check the moisture more often back there against the fence.

I decided it might just be time to set the timer on the automatic sprinkling system.  Usually I run it manually until the weather really warms, but I do tend to forget if I've watered certain areas or not, so I decided to play it safe and set it to water twice a week, starting at 5:00 am this morning.

So it rained all night.  I might have known.

My chore list has been put on hold for the day, or at least until the sun comes out.....if it comes out.  My shovel, rake, 4-pronged cultivator and garden shoes are taunting me from just outside the patio door.  I was really determined to finish edging the patio flower bed today.  Not going to happen.

I've stuck to my chore list all month....all two days of the month, that is!


Chore List for 5/1

Dig out 1 bucket Bermuda grass.  (I dug out two large buckets)
Fertilize & hill potatoes.  Germination is 100%.  
Weed, hoe and rake east beds and paths.
Fill large container with potting mix for Diva cucumbers to be grown on east fence.
Plant one hill of Honey Bear squash in north garden.
Plant three 3' rows of carrots.
Start edging patio flower bed.
Replant 1 row spinach. This replaces the spinach that mysteriously disappeared.

Chore List for 5/2

Dig out 1 bucketful of Bermuda grass.
Clip out raspberry suckers.
Plant cantaloupe seedlings and a few seeds. Seeds saved from store bought, planted as backup to seedlings.
Plant 1 bed Fortex pole beans with 3' strip of carrots in front
Work on edging patio flower bed.


Chore List for 5/3

Dig out 1 bucketful of Bermuda grass.
Finish edging patio flower bed.
Plant Four O' Clocks around patio.
Install folding fencing around Four O' Clocks.
Clean and hose off patio.

Rain, rain, go away.  This old Granny wants to play....in the garden!

23 comments:

  1. Boy Granny, I am so proud of you for sticking with your chore list all month! I really need to make myself a couple of "to do" lists....but, I'm too busy :)

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    1. LOL, Robin....too bad my "chore list" isn't longer than three days out of 31!

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  2. wow that is quite the chore list!! Good for you!!!

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    1. But, Mrs. P., it's only a list....today's chores didn't get done. So I baked bread and cinnamon rolls instead! :-)

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  3. It's been cold and rainy all week long and today is finally warming up though still cloudy. I'm looking forward to the warm sunny weekend to do alot of catching up on gardening - planting beans, squashes and cucumbers.

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    1. Jenny, I love when it warms up and gets sunny after a rain. I swear you can see the plants grow! My cucumber seedlings are not looking happy, they need to get out. Hopefully the weather man is right and they can go out on Sunday. I may just put them out earlier, as they are used to being outside 24/7 anyway. I'm getting tired of moving them out to the sunshine when I can find it.

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  4. Hey that is how we got rain here too. I watered so the next day it rained.

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    1. Daphne, that's all it takes. That happened the last time I set my sprinklers to go off in the wee hours of the morning. I woke up to a lot of wet!

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  5. We've had 2 solid days of rain. I have a bucket of onion transplants waiting for a break in the weather. And, it looks like we might be ready for our first mowing. Hubby will be thrilled. He does NOT share my love of sunshiney yellow dandelions!
    :O

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    1. Sue, tell Hubby we can trade spouses. Mr. Granny just looks the other way, but I run out every morning and pick off all the dandelion blossoms so they can't go to seed! I'd just dig them out if there were more, but usually there are only a half dozen or so, so I just decapitate them. We just got a ray of sunshine that lasted for nearly an hour, so I got my seedlings all moved out to the kennel garden where they can just fend for themselves, and planted a row of parsnips with some seed I couldn't get to sprout inside...don't have much hope they'll sprout outside, either. Now it's sprinkling again.

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  6. Here too, rain every other hour LOL!

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    1. Yep, Erin...the sun just came out again, I might have another hour in the garden!

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  7. I'm afraid to make a 'chores' list - it might scare me to death! Your is truly impressive.

    We're begging for rain here. I had to water my bush beans daily to get them up. I still need to get my pole beans planted. That would be on my to-do list of I had one!

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    1. Dave, it's not "making" the list that is a problem. It's "doing" the things on the list!

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  8. I'll take your rain.
    In our neighborhood, it's people putting couches outside that makes it rain -- because then they become an even worse eyesore. Better hope more put them out, I guess.

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    1. Stefaneener, the rain is just sprinkles. Enough to keep me from working outside, but not enough to really do any good. A breeze is blowing just enough to dry up any good the drizzle might do.

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  9. Hi Annie, I love coming to your blog every night to look at your pictures or to see what I can learn! No gardening for me today. We went to see a play called "Church Basement Ladies". It was so funny! Back to gardening tomorrow if it doesn't rain! We have clay so just the opposite of your sand problems! Nancy at Cozy Thyme Cottage

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    1. Not much gardening for me today either, Nancy. We need a few days of nice, warm sunshine!

      I used to live in Oregon, and we had hard clay soil. Believe me, I'd rather have the sand! After we moved to WA, my mother visited once and went out to my garden and pulled weeds. She said it was such a pleasure to pull them out of that soft soil, it made weeding fun!

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  10. We are still getting rain! I am glad we finally got it, but enough already. We've had 3-4 inches in the last 5 days. At least the sun comes out in the afternoon and heats everything up. I'm amazed how quickly things came up with the rain, heat, and sun!

    We weeded one side of the house flower beds yesterday. What a muddy mess! The kids opted to clean the chicken coop instead of more weeding. I can't blame them. I went inside and worked.

    I haven't kept a daily chore list, but a really long master list. I pick and choose according to the weather and my arthritis. Today will be spent getting parts ready to install our new-to-us above ground pool. I'm so excited to finally have a pool that is deeper than 1.5 feet! Kids are excited, too. My husband not so much. :)

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    1. Langela, We had an above ground pool once. We left the hose on to fill it one spring, then went bowling. Daughter called to report one side had collapsed and the back yard was flooded! We put an in ground pool in soon after!

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    2. I've heard bowling can do that to you! :0)

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  11. do you fertilize your lettuces at all? I loved the arugula post! Grew some last yr here, hated it, this yr I'll go for another round and if not convinced, it's X'd out.
    Overcast and rainy here too off and on. We planted tons of 2nd round seedlings and patio flowers last night. How long do the four o'clocks take to grow or when will they start blooming from your planting date? I checked them out and they're a really pretty flower and I love the late day blooming idea since we're known at our garden as "the midnight gardeners" b/c we work til the sun is almost down. lol

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    1. Amy t., I use a pelleted organic fertilizer on just about everything in the garden. I also add alfalfa pellets to the lettuce (and spinach) beds.

      The Four O' Clocks volunteer, but I'm trying to keep those out of the garden and planting new ones this year, as Ed sent me another color I want to incorporate. It should be fun, trying to keep the volunteers out while letting the new seeds grow! I've marked the planting spots with jar rings :-) I really don't know when they began blooming, the only photo I can find of them in all their glory was taken in August.

      http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nJ6tggr4HQw/TlA1fdTOT2I/AAAAAAAAIu4/0CMacHE76OU/s1600/2011-08-19%2BPatio%2B1.jpg

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