I apologize for the image quality. I had to reduce it to get a reasonable file size. Even so, it took way too long to upload. When I first started, it said it would take 35 minutes, so I lay down and closed my eyes.
Two hours later, I checked on it, and it said 88% and 5 minutes left. Half a minute later, it said 89% and 19 minutes left… wtf??
But, here it is! A tour of our garden, such as it is so far.
The Re-Farmer
I’m just taking a lunch break from working on that garden bed, and first wanted to share some adorable news.
We have four kittens again!
There is one white and grey with a distinctive line of darker colour beside one eye. That one is more comfortable with contact, and I was able to pick it up and cuddle it. I was seeing the other two – one that has markings that are more black than grey, and another white and grey.
I turned to do something, with the one kitten in the sun room with me, when I turned back to the cat shelters and noticed three kittens playing around! The mama brought over her last baby! I didn’t see the mama, but I had heard her calling to her kittens, distracting the one I was paying attention to at the time.
After all this time, I was sure we’d never see that fourth kitten again, yet there it is!
Working on the garden bed later one had a different distraction, and one that I quite enjoyed. I heard a utility vehicle driving around beyond the outer yard and, when it sounded closer, I went over to see. The renter was checking the fence line in preparation for rotating their cows to this quarter section. I had a nice chat with her, and even showed her around the inner yard to see what we’ve been doing – and the tree that fell on the outhouse! She told me she found some trees fallen on the fence line, but nothing she wasn’t able to just move aside, herself.
The weather we’ve been having has made things difficult for them, too. Normally, they would have planted in the field on our quarter section by now, but they’ve missed the window of opportunity because of the rains, and how muddy the field is. They might just leave it fallow this year or, possibly, plant some sort of cover crop.
After our bit of a visit, it was back to sifting soil. I got about half way done when I stopped for lunch.
Before I’d gone outside, I’d restarted my June Garden Tour video upload. I figured it would be done by the time I got back inside.
It was at only 53%.
???
What the heck?
I left it running as I had my lunch and checked again.
56%
My husband came by around then and I expressed my frustration. It’s only a 26-27 minute long video. I’ve uploaded videos, with the same quality settings, before and had no issue. I even did a speed test, and saw no reason why my upload would be taking so long.
He asked about the file size, which I didn’t know exactly. I figured it would be about what my other videos were. I did some looking and comparing.
It was 20 gigs.
The last garden tour video I uploaded wasn’t as long, and it was just over 1 gig.
I exported the draft again. According to the software, the exported file size could range from 740 mb to 2.7 gigs, based on the default settings I use.
It saved at 20 gigs again.
So I’m trying again. This time, I went into the advanced settings and lowered the quality. The software now tells me the exported file should be between 530 mb and 1.89 gigs.
I’m trying to think of reasons for this. About the only thing I can think of is that I used my current phone to make the recordings that went into the video. When doing videos where I set up the tripod, I use an older phone of my that is currently being used just for recording on a tripod. The newer phone allows for higher quality images and video, hence larger file sizes. Which would make sense, except that I use this phone to record hand held video. Plus, the software goes by the file sizes in the draft video, as well as the quality settings, when it gives an estimate for the finished video being exported. The size range it gives is pretty wide, but the final file size shouldn’t be almost 10 times the high end of the estimate!
I also deleted, rather than overwrote, the previous file this time. It’s now taking longer to export than when I tried it earlier. The export is taking longer this time, so maybe that will also make a difference.
Well, we’ll see what we get this time.
I hate having to reduce the quality of a video like that, though.
If this worked out, I’ll set it to upload again, and hopefully will actually be able to share a video with you, soon!
The Re-Farmer
(oh! It just finished exporting. The new file size is just over 3 gigs now. Time to actually watch it and see how much quality was lost!)
I put together a garden tour video last night, then set it to upload to YouTube and went to bed. This morning, I was expecting to be able to include it in a blog post – but it was at only 59% upload! The video is about 26 minutes and “good” rather than “high” quality. This shouldn’t happen. Plus, we’ve got StarLink, which means we should have the same upload speeds as anywhere else.
Which means the problem is local.
I closed my browser to stop the upload, then tried again.
My browser opened the upload at exactly the same place.
I’ve never had that happen before!
I ended up closing it again, and am now trying to upload it with a different browser. It’s already at 12%
I don’t think it’s the browser that made the difference.
Ah, well.
It’s just past 7am, and a lovely 12C/54F out there right now. I’m planning to do my morning rounds, then stay out to get back at working on that garden bed, so I’m having my breakfast now (I don’t usually eat breakfast until after I’ve done my rounds, at the earliest). I can monitor the upload at the same time.
We’re supposed to hit 20C/68F today, but not until about 3pm, so I should have a few hours of decent temperatures for manual labour this morning. It’s supposed to start raining again during the night, no raid during the day tomorrow, then rain during the night again. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be only 17C/63F! That’s going to be awesome to work in!
Best of all, the winds have died down.
We might actually have some productive days over the next while.
The Re-Farmer
The winds are still blowing like crazy right now. I headed outside to check on things. I hoped to do a bit on that garden bed, but the soil is still just too wet to sift.
The plastic on the box frame was starting to blow loose and I was trying to find ways to fix it when I heard a cracking noise.
The dead tree by the back of the garage was blown over, right on top of the outhouse!
Thank God the wind wasn’t blowing the other way, or it would have landed on the garage!
Looking at the base, there’s basically no roots left! I don’t know how long this tree has been dead. Just that it was already dead when we moved here. My guess is, many years of water pooling behind the garage and around to the outhouse simply rotted away the roots until there was next to nothing to hold it in the ground. At least, not with winds like we’re having right now!
My younger daughter came out to see what the noise was and we talked about it for a bit. There’s nothing we can do about the tree right now. Once things have dried up enough, we can tie a rope around the trunk and pull it off with the truck. Waiting for the ground to dry is going to be important, since we’ll otherwise just be spinning tires in the mud and tearing up the yard.
Dragging it off will totally demolish the outhouse.
Well, so much for our “second bathroom”. We won’t need to patch up that roof and give the outside a paint job anymore, though the inside looks real nice. 😄
We still plan to build an outdoor bathroom with a composting toilet, rather than a pit, and it was going to go in a higher area. An area we are now having to walk through standing water to get to. The spot I was thinking would be good to build in is basically in an open area leading into the spruce grove, near where the compost pile is right now. It is very wet, but the plan had been to build up a pad of packed gravel, first, so it would be build on a raised and level foundation that drains real well. I didn’t realize at the time I was considering this, just how much that would be necessary!
But first, we need to cut down the dead trees, as some of them need to be felled into where the outdoor bathroom will eventually be.
Now I’m wondering if we’ll be losing any more trees today!
The Re-Farmer
We had short, fast downpours throughout the night. It never really cooled down, though. I was hoping to get out early again but, at 5am, it was already 18C/64F, and still blowing like crazy. Things have calmed down a bit – still very windy, but the sun is out. All the areas that had finally become just wet, rather than filled with standing water, are once again filled with standing water. I’m glad we got as much mowing as we did. It’s going to be a while before we can try again.
When I came out this morning, there were plenty of cats eager for food, at least. The poor long haired cats are just soaking wet. I didn’t see any kittens at the time, though. When I finished my rounds and was coming around the laundry platform, when a single, wet little kitten climbed out from under the platform and onto a step. I’d left a bit of kibble there, and it seemed to be sniffing for it.
This is the kitten that has been the most willing to be cuddled, so I picked him up and did just that, so warm it up. He was a bit nervous about being carried around until I set up a small bowl of kibble in the cat cage and put him beside it, at which point he started chowing down!
Over the next while, I kept looking for the other kittens. Yesterday, it seems the litter was down or 3, so I was concerned it was now down to one. He was okay with running around and playing in the sun room, at least, and I kept an eye open for any others.
With the soil being far too wet to continue working on the garden bed, I decided to make recordings for a garden tour video, in spite of things looking a mess and being half done. After I finished that, I paused to pull some burdock coming up from under the cat house – and startled a baby! The two other kittens were inside the cat house! That makes me so happy. The cats haven’t been using it much, lately – it probably gets pretty hot and muggy in there at times like right now. The kittens were happily playing in the entrance, though, so I brought the other one over and they immediately started all horsing around together.
As I write this, we’re now at 21C/70F, with an expected high of 22C/72F. The winds are supposed to die down this afternoon. We should get a break from the rain for today and tomorrow, though we’re supposed to get more the next evening. Hopefully, that will give use the time we need to finish those beds and get the last transplants in.
Either that, or I’ll have time to put the garden tour video together, at least.
Looking out the window right now, we definitely aren’t getting the break from the wind, yet! I’m honestly amazed I found only a couple of fallen branches. The box frame over the eggplant and hot peppers is tied down and holding, but even the plastic around it is still there, though the bottoms keep getting pulled loose and need to be weighted down again. I’ve given up tacking down the mosquito netting at the chain link fence. They are well secured at the top, to the fence itself, but the ground staples keep getting yanked out, and most have disappeared. Bricks used to weigh the bottoms down just get flipped off. This netting lets water through, but the weave is still fine enough that they are more like sails than nets. They still do the job of keeping the elm seeds off. Those, at least, are almost done their season.
On the plus side, our water table may finally be recovered from all those years of drought that started before we moved out here! I’m not sure where to find that out. Plus, this is normally fire season. I’m quite liking not having to deal with smoke for weeks at a time!
There’s always a trade off of one kind or another, both good and bad. We just hope to have more good than bad!
The Re-Farmer
When I headed outside to see how much I could get done in the heat, I had quite the surprise, hissing and spitting at me!
The sun room babies are back!
Except, one is missing.
They are hanging out on and under the laundry platform right now, which is next to the rain barrel. They weren’t too happy with my going back and forth to refill watering cans, but they didn’t leave the laundry platform.
I replaced the coupling on one of the broken hoses and was able to do some watering further away. I’m not sure if it was necessary, as I was hearing thunder by the time I was heading inside. From the looks of the weather radar, we should get a bit of rain, but nothing substantial. Enough that I should probably bring the transplants inside, I suppose. I don’t want the pots to get all blown around and knocked over.
I didn’t make it back to the garden bed, unfortunately.
Okay, that was one heck of an interruption.
I decided to look up old posts to see how far along we were at this time, last year. As I was doing that, the trees outside my window suddenly started swaying like crazy. So I ran to the sun room to bring the transplants in.
We were in a downpour!
There are only 6 trays left to bring in, so it didn’t take me long, but I got completely soaked!
Now that I’m dried off and changed, I look out my window, and the trees are barely moving. The rain has already moved on!
Because I used the rain barrel earlier, I left the diverter off so it could refill. It was about half full. I’ll have to check it and see if it needs to be put back. There was a LOT of water pouring into the barrel as I brought in the trays!
Wow.
Now… where was I?
Ah, yes…
Looking at posts made in June last year, we didn’t get the last of our transplants – the melons – in until June 24th. On the one hand, that’s a bit encouraging. On the other hand, around the same time, we already had tomatoes and Sweet Chocolate peppers formed. We were already harvesting spinach by now, and about to pull them to be replaced with the last of our onion transplants, but this year, the spinach just isn’t doing well at all, and most are still just tiny little things. A couple of them are bigger, but nothing that can be harvested from.
So we’re not “behind” when it comes to getting everything into the garden, compared to last year, but we were further along in the things that did get into the ground by now. Even our shelling peas, last year, were blooming and starting to develop pods. This year, I just got the shelling peas planted a few days ago!
However, our focus was very different this year. We didn’t do as many tomatoes – we will have lots in the freezer from last year – but instead went with a lot of winter squash and melons. We aren’t doing a lot of peppers, but do have at least as many varieties. Much of our attention has been directed towards getting the existing low raised beds shifted to their permanent positions before planting in them. That’s been slow going, but not shifting them would not have been any faster, since they got so thoroughly invaded with weeds, despite our best efforts.
Well, we’ll see how things work out.
As much as all the rain we’ve been having this spring has slowed things down, What we do have planted is certainly the better for it!
Though, after this downpour, I’m going to have to check the squash and melons, in particular, to see if they were damaged.
Well, we do what we can, when we can.
Little by little, it’ll get done.
The Re-Farmer
Well, I got the shopping done, with extras. Along with the cat food (three 9kg kibble bags and one 32 count case of canned food: $132.92), my daughter sent funds for a few things. I went to the Canadian Tire for litter pellets and found a box fan for the girls to use upstairs, along with 20″x20″ furnace filters. They attach the filter to the back of the fan to keep the dust and cat hair down – or smoke, if there are fires in the area. I also found the trellis netting I need for when the peas and beans are bigger. I needed netting with wide enough openings to reach through to harvest. I even remembered to pick up couplings to repair a couple of hoses. My daughter transferred extra to cover some groceries while I was at the Walmart, too, which was nice.
One thing our truck has that our van didn’t is a temperature display. After I loaded up and was ready to come home, it was reading 26C/79F. Here at home, we’ve reached or expected high of 25C/77F, with the humidex at 26C/79F, but I would not be surprised if we get higher. We now also have a 54% chance of showers tonight.
I’m still going to water the old kitchen garden out of the rain barrel. Between the house and the ornamental crab apple trees, it doesn’t get the rain as much as other areas, so it’s pretty dried out.
(update: it’s just after 3pm, and we’re now at 27C/81F with the humidex at 28C/82F )
After I got home and my younger daughter and I unloaded, she and I moved the mini greenhouse out of the living room, and moved one of the shelves over, so we can hook up the AC. I had to fuss with it for a bit, as the duct from the AC is larger than the vent pipe to outside. As I was McGyvering a secure fit, I was literally dripping with sweat. The thermometer in the living room was at about 22C/72F. The living room almost never gets hot, so this is really unusual!
Now that the AC is running, I’ve also got a fan on the piano, blowing the cooler air into the dining room. This should help quite a bit!
When the truck was unloaded, I gave the outside cats a feeding to make sure none were under the truck, and I could move it to the garage. As I was leaving kibble under the shrine, I saw a little fluff ball!
We knew there was a litter in the junk pile, only because we could hear meowing while working nearby – but that was a while ago! I was wondering if the mama had moved them or something. Now, we know there’s at least one surviving kitten in there.
It’s getting to be that time. However many litters and kittens there are out there, we’re going to start seeing them, and the mamas will start bringing them to the food and water by the house as they get older.
Meanwhile, I’m going to see how much more I can do outside, before the heat and humidity force me indoors again. I suspect I’m not going to be able to finish that bed today. We’ll see.
Maybe I’ll get to see more kittens, though!
The Re-Farmer
Okay, so yesterday was a bit of a blowout, and I got very little done on the bed that needed to be shifted to its permanent position, before it can be planted in.
This morning, the goal was to get out there by 6am, and I almost got it! We discovered some cat destruction and cleaning that up delayed things a bit. My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, made me a hearty breakfast. She has fully switched over to sleeping days and working nights, so this time of the morning is when she and her sister usually share a meal before she heads to bed for the day. I’m usually not up this early! At least, not on purpose.
So it was about 6:30 before I finally got started on the bed and, my goodness, what a difference it made! The morning was still wonderfully cool, making the work so much easier. Especially since this part of the main garden area is already in full sun at this time.
The first thing to do was finish breaking new soil inside the area the bed will be shifted to. The only think I could really do at this point was turn the sod over, root side up. I was able to pull out the largest of the tap roots, and some clumps of sod just got tossed towards the trees. If this were just a lawn, that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but this is all crab grass, dandelions and creeping Charlie. Simply flipping the sod wasn’t going to be enough.
Once the new ground was broken, I have to figure out what to do with the soil in the raised bed. Most of it is in what will be a new path. It still had some mulch left on it for the winter, so I took as much of that off as I could. It won’t be useable as a mulch anymore, though. Too much creeping Charlie mixed in with it. I ended up spreading it near the end of the bed that was most recently planted in, where it will eventually be covered with cardboard or landscaping cloth, if I can get some, and wood chips.
I decided to just clear the soil from marker to marker, moving it aside to make room for the boards that will be laid down where the log frames will eventually go. The sod was just piled on top of the rest of the bed for now. The soil on this side of the bed is clear of creeping Charlie enough that I will actually sift it, later on, and salvage as much as I can. We’ve spent years amending this soil. It’ good stuff!
At this point, I finally had a 4′ x 18′ rectangle of turned soil, full of weed roots.
I had been collecting cardboard intended to be used for the paths, but this bed needed it more. I used every scrap I could, and just managed to cover the area, though not to the edges. The cardboard got a good soaking, tromped on, then soaked some more.
Once that was down, I used boards to mark the boarder of the bed, where the log frame will go.
Then I soaked it all again.
I had a bit of clean straw left from something else available. “Clean” being a relative term. Everything as those elm seeds all over. I scattered it on the carboard, then got some grass clippings to cover the cardboard completely.
Then I soaked it all again.
By this point, about 2, 2 1/2 hours had passed, and it was time for a break.
We are looking at a high of 25C/77F this afternoon. I’ve decided I’m going to let that soil piled on the side bake in the sun for a while, then sift it and start moving as much of get bed’s soil over the grass clippings as I can. Hopefully, I won’t need to get more soil from the pile to top it up.
I’ve decided to take advantage of the time and make a trip to get more cat food, and possibly a few other things. My daughters need to replace their box fan upstairs. It’s unfortunate there was no way to set up the air conditioner my brother gave us up there. It’s needed up there way more than anywhere else in the house! The heat is why my daughter has to work nights; otherwise, her computer and drawing tablet overheat and start randomly shutting down or glitching out. During the day, they set up the box fan in the south window to blow the hot air out. They have other fans, but that one in the window makes the biggest difference.
So that’s the next thing on my to-do list.
Time to get changed and head out.
The Re-Farmer
ps: I almost forgot to mention. The kittens are gone! I saw them in the sun room in the morning, but by the afternoon, they were gone. They are still gone. The mama has moved them somewhere pretty far afield. It’s a shame. The kittens were really liking the run room!
As for Broccoli and her babies, I don’t see them when I bring kibble to the shed, but yesterday evening, I saw Broccoli chilling on one of the old benches, while her kittens played nearby. This morning, the kibble inside the door was gone. They may not be inside the shed anymore, but they might be under it.
Man, I just can’t handle heat like I used to!
We did get one thing done this morning; the Dwarf Korean Lilac is kicking into full bloom, so we finally got our group picture done. By the time we finished that, it was coming up on 9am, and that’s when I finally started on the next garden bed.
As an aside, though, it looks like the kittens in the sun room, and the old garden shed, have been moved. I saw the kittens this morning, at feeding time, but by the time I was coming in from the garden, they were gone. I’m hoping they’re just staying cool under the cat house. Unfortunately, we’ve seen both skunks and racoons going for the kibble today, and that might have been just too much for the mama. As for the garden shed babies, I left food inside the door, but saw and heard nothing from the back.
We shall see if they’re still around somewhere.
The main thing I wanted to work on today was that next garden bed.
I’ve been really dreading this one. In the end, I decided all I can really do is work on the area that was path, first, and just flip the sod. There’s no way it can be properly weeded. It’s not even worth trying to sift it.
I started at the north end of the bed, where it has been extended to 18′, but only got maybe 2 1/2-3 feet of sod turned. Around then, I got a message from my husband, asking when I was planning to go to the post office to pick up some parcels. I had originally thought to do it after I’d turned the bed, but it was already 19C/66F, and I was baking in the sun. My app said the “feels like” was also 19C/66F.
It lies.
So I stopped at that point and picked up the parcels. I now have my tips for my new impact driver! A really good range of shapes and sizes, too.
After I got back, my daughter made us lunch – cold chicken salad sandwiches, because no one wants to cook in this heat! My daughter is still recovering from arm damage, trying to mow the lawn with the push mower. Yesterday, her grip strength was so non existent, she actually had to ask me to finished changing the toilet roll for her, because she couldn’t squeeze the stretch spindle enough to fit it back into the holder. Today, she is much improved.
Which is great, because I needed her help with the riding mower, after lunch.
The last time I used it, last year, it was only the second use after my brother had fixed and upgraded all sorts of things on it and brought it back, when I stopped the mower to move something out of the way, and then it wouldn’t move. The engine was still running. There was just no go, forward or reverse. I didn’t want to bug my brother about it, so we just used the push mower for the rest of the season.
The challenge for us was how to safely look under it to see what was going on. When this happened before, there was a chain that fell off. My brother got that replaced and adjusted a number of things to ensure it would not happen again. I figured, that must have somehow fallen off again.
With the truck, however, we now have a way to get a look under the riding mower. We opened the tail gate and set up the ramps my brother gifted to us. Then we pushed the mower onto the ramps, then blocked the wheels, so we could safely look under it.
Well. Under the front of it.
After not finding the problem from there, we reversed it, so that the engine was up the ramp. That was rather more difficult to manage, because of the weight distribution. Even blocking the front tires didn’t want to work as well, since they wanted to turn and roll off, anyhow!
We got it secured, though, and my daughter ended up crawling under it to see. She found a loose belt that the pedal at the front should have been engaging. After fighting with it for a while, she asked me to fight with the pedal, to see if I could get it to lift up more, rather than push down. Which I was able to do, and that gave her the slack she needed to get the belt on. We tested it out (after charging the battery!) and it worked!
I started some mowing while my daughter put stuff away and went back inside, but not for very long. It was just too hot. So I parked the mower in the shade and took a hydration break. When I came back out to continue, I made sure to have a wet towel to drape over my shoulders to help keep cooler. It really helped a lot.
The poor riding mower was really struggling. The grass is so tall, it’s going to see, but there are some types of grass in the driveway area that is different, and more fibrous. This old mower just doesn’t have the juice to handle them. Sometimes, if I go just a couple of inches forward at a time, I can get through without it getting too overworked, or getting clogged. In a few places, I would have to go over the same patch several times, and even reverse over it, before getting it properly cut. It seems counterintuitive, but it seems to work better when I have the blades set lower, rather than higher. You’d think I could go over it at the highest setting, then lower it for another pass, then lower it again for a final pass, but nope. When it’s higher, the blades just bend the grass, without cutting anything!
Meanwhile, the grass is still pretty wet and not trying out, because it’s so tall, so things clog up, too. After my second mowing session, I parked the mower in the shade to cool down, then used the hose to try and wash off anything stuck around the blades. I’ll head out again to try and mow a bit more. There’s no way I’m getting more done on the garden bed today. We’re at 24C/75F, and the humidex puts it at 28C/82F. It’s not going to start cooling down until about 8pm – three hours from now – and won’t reach reasonable temperatures until maybe midnight. If I’m going to get progress done on the beds, I’m going to have to be out there, digging, at 6am.
Which means I’ll be doing a bit more mowing before putting the riding mower away, then heading to bed early. The problem is, even if I head to bed early, that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to sleep! I tried that last night, and had all sorts of disruptions keeping me up. 😢
Meanwhile, I am totally behind on visiting blogs, so if you’ve got a blog that I follow and you haven’t heard from me lately, I’ve just not been able to spend the time online for it! I’ll have a lot of catching up to do, when I finally get the chance.
I started getting messages from the Cat Lady while I was writing this. There’s a cheap spay day coming up, and she wanted to know if we have cats to do. Of course we do, but the ones we can catch are all male. She will contact the clinic and see if they are good with a group of males. The rescue will cover the costs completely.
Oh, and her youngest daughter has a birthday coming up. The Cat Lady asked her if she wanted cash, or a new bike, for her birthday. She wanted neither.
She wants the Wolfman!
They’ve already got so many of our cats, permanently! We were afraid this would happen!
Anyhow…
When she hears back from the vet about doing males, she’ll get back to me, and let me know how many they can cover.
If we can get Sad Face done, that would make a huge difference. Hopefully, it would reduce his aggressive behaviors! It took 5 years to be able to pet him. Getting him into a carrier right now is something else entirely.
Well, time to get back outside and to a bit more mowing, then call it a night, so I can get that bed done tomorrow. We seriously need to get those last transplants in!
The Re-Farmer
One more bed is done! Yay!
Now to stay out of the heat. We’re at 20C/68F right now, with the humidex at 25C/77F, which is what it felt like to me, this morning!
The first thing to do was mark off the centre of the bed, then space out the 7 “Wild Bunch Mix” winter squash transplants I had left. As with the others, I transplanted them by first digging the holes, filling them all with water, then planting the squash slightly below grade, to keep any water from running off.
That left fairly decent sized gaps between each plant, but was it enough for the corn I had? Or did I have enough corn seeds for the space? I had only one package of Yukon Chief corn. From the Heritage Harvest website…
Introduced in 1958 by Arvo Kallio of the University of Alaska, Agricultural Experiment Station. Yukon Chief is one of the earliest Sweet Corn varieties available maturing at just 55 days! The yellow cobs average 5” in length and the plants grow about 4’ tall. Highly recommended for cool, short season areas! (55 days to maturity) (50 seeds)
(image belongs to Heritage Harvest Seed)
Fifty five days to maturity is amazing!
But 50 seeds to a package?
I took them out and counted them. I counted about 80 seeds!
I say “about” 80, because some of them were really small and probably shouldn’t be planted, but they would be, anyhow. 😄
I decided to pre-soak them for a little while, and misted the other beds while I waited. The other beds didn’t really need a watering, but a misting would be good in this heat. I’m happy to say the melons that looks so wimpy, yesterday, have already perked up. They might all actually survive! The mosquito netting over part of the row was drooping a bit, so I adjusted the hoops in the middle, then used the weights on the sides to pull the netting tighter. The netting is there to protect the transplants from heavy rain, and won’t be there for long.
I decided to mark out three small trenches between each winter squash, then used the jet setting on the hose to drive water deeply into each trench. As with the squash, I wanted to plant the corn seeds below grade. To start, I set out four of the largest corn seeds in each trench then, at the end, divided the smallest seeds wherever there seemed to be a bit more space. Yes, this is closer than is recommended for corn to be planted, but I don’t expect a 100% germination rate, and some will likely be thinned out, later. The main thing is, they are clustered together so the wind should pollinate them more easily.
Once that was figured out, I just pushed the seeds down to planting depth, then watered the entire bed, to settle the soil around the seeds and the squash roots.
Last of all, I grabbed the wheelbarrow and brought over some grass clippings to mulch the sides of the soil mound, and closer in around each squash plant. Aside from the usual benefits of a mulch, this will help keep the sides of the soil mound from eroding down.
This bed is now finished! The boards can now be removed and used to mark out the next bed I’ll be working on.
Which is going to be a huge shift. The bed is not only far to one side of where it needs to be, but it’s at an angle. The north end of the bed is completely in where the new path will be, while the south end is about 3/4 in where the path will be. Shifting this bed is pretty much building a whole new bed from the ground up.
*sigh*
It will be worth it, in the end, but my goodness, getting these beds into their permanent positions is a huge job. The rain and the heat certainly aren’t helping any!
But, we have one more bed done and planted. Progress has been made! Once everything is planted, then we can shift over to harvesting more dead trees to frame the beds.
Looking at the forecast, we aren’t expecting rain until maybe Saturday night (it’s Thursday, as I write this), which means we might even be able to get more lawn mowed!
Ugh. Our temperature is now 21C/70F, with the humidex at 26F/79F.
In other things, before heading into the house, I checked the garden shed. This time, without knocking, first. I startled Broccoli and her kittens. She and the black and white ran off to the back of the shed, but the calico didn’t. I was able to pick her up and cuddle her. They haven’t been using the cat bed, so I checked it out and found a mess in it. I was able to clean it up and set it back, though, as well as straightening out the self heating matt and the felt grow bags they are using as a nest. The calico wasn’t happy with me but, after a while, she did seem to be okay with the cuddles! I was just happy to see her. I’d seen Broccoli and the black and white kitten outside, earlier, but didn’t see the calico. With yard cats, that could mean a lot of things!
Now, if we could just convince her to bring them to the sun room, too!
😄😄
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 