Monday, September 27, 2021
I worked on building up "raised rows" in the garden this weekend. I have two rows about 2/3rds of the way finished, but will have to wait until I dig the sweet potatoes in one and cut down the jalapeno pepper and marigolds in the other before I can finish them.
And now I'm paying for all that digging (which turned out to be really hard work!). I think every muscle and joint in my body aches!
RAF looked at the raised rows and pointed out that he won't be able to knock down the grass and weeds with the lawnmower now. He has a very good point. I hope I'm not going to end up "undigging" the raised rows because I can't (don't) keep them cleaned out.
Saturday, September 25, 2021
It's hard to believe the month is almost over. The green peas didn't come up very well at all...I think I ended up with about 10 plants out of the entire pack. I had some more seeds of the same type (again very old) and have tried filling in the gaps with those. It's been about a week since I planted those, and so far, no sign of any of them. Something broke off or chewed off one of the plants I did get to come up. Seems like the forces are against me and my green peas.
After our nice rain on September 4/5, it stayed hot, and it didn't take long for that little bit of rain to dry up. Everything was getting pretty dry again, but thankfully a cold front came through last week bringing us a little more rain and cooler temperatures for a couple of days. It's hot again now, and we still need more rain, but every little bit helps.
Because everything looks so pitiful, and there aren't any prospects for any more things like tomatoes, I plan to spend part of today cutting back the old plants to get them out of the way. When that's done, I will dig some of the dirt out of the "between the rows" area and cover the straw mulch to start my raised row garden. The first raised row will be planted with vetch and rye, and this time, I'll keep it watered to make sure it gets off to a good start.
Also spent some time pulling dayflower (Commelina sp.) out of one of the flower beds. It had absolutely taken over that bed. That flower bed has Narrowleaf Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium); Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis); Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum); and Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum). I'm not really happy with how the bed looks, so will probably end up moving most of the plant somewhere else this winter. I don't know how they'll like that -- they may not survive the move. But we'll see.
It's hard to believe the month is almost over. The green peas didn't come up very well at all...I think I ended up with about 10 plants out of the entire pack. I had some more seeds of the same type (again very old) and have tried filling in the gaps with those. It's been about a week since I planted those, and so far, no sign of any of them. Something broke off or chewed off one of the plants I did get to come up. Seems like the forces are against me and my green peas.
After our nice rain on September 4/5, it stayed hot, and it didn't take long for that little bit of rain to dry up. Everything was getting pretty dry again, but thankfully a cold front came through last week bringing us a little more rain and cooler temperatures for a couple of days. It's hot again now, and we still need more rain, but every little bit helps.
Because everything looks so pitiful, and there aren't any prospects for any more things like tomatoes, I plan to spend part of today cutting back the old plants to get them out of the way. When that's done, I will dig some of the dirt out of the "between the rows" area and cover the straw mulch to start my raised row garden. The first raised row will be planted with vetch and rye, and this time, I'll keep it watered to make sure it gets off to a good start.
Also spent some time pulling dayflower (Commelina sp.) out of one of the flower beds. It had absolutely taken over that bed. That flower bed has Narrowleaf Mountain mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium); Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis); Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum); and Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum). I'm not really happy with how the bed looks, so will probably end up moving most of the plant somewhere else this winter. I don't know how they'll like that -- they may not survive the move. But we'll see.
Monday, September 6, 2021
I didn't have any luck with my green peas (Pisum sativum) this past spring. Either the seeds were so old that they didn't sprout; they rotted from all the rain; or something at them before I ever saw any of them. I'm going to try a fall crop, so today I planted "Early Frosty" beside the cucumber trellis. This is my first no-till crop. I had planted marigolds with the cucumbers as a companion plant, but instead of pulling them up, I just cut them down leaving the roots in the ground. Then I pulled the mulch back, dug a little trench beside the trellis, put the seeds in the trench about 3" apart, covered them up, and watered.
I got the seeds (Livingston Seed) at the local feed store this summer when they marked them down to .25 cents per packet. If they grow, what a bargain! This is an heirloom variety so I plan to try to save some seeds if I can.
Sunday, September 5, 2021
We FINALLY got some rain last night. My sister said she had 1 1/2" in her rain gauge. It was very much needed, and very, very welcome!