We dropped to -3C/27F last night but, from now on, our days are supposed to be hot, and our overnight temperatures are expected to drop no lower than 7C/45F for the next while, though in the first 10 days of June, we’re supposed to have overnight temperatures barely above freezing.
I just realized. Today is the 20th. My day to do a garden tour video. It was still light out, so I quickly did that. I hope the videos turn out all right, because I won’t be able to try again until tomorrow evening!
With the next few days finally being hotter, my priority was to take off the plastic on the two raised beds and replace them with netting, so any seedlings under there won’t bake.
The first one to do was the smaller bed in the old kitchen garden, with the beets, bok choi, onions that will probably go to seed and the last minute addition of parsnips where the transplanted onions didn’t make it.
This time, I took the mosquito netting from the chain link fence above the blocks with transplanted strawberries. I knew this one was shorter than one of the lengths I have been using previously. It had been rolled up and secured with ground staples for quite a long time, so I took the time to unroll it and get rid of any accumulated leaves before dragging it part way into the old kitchen garden.
That netting is irrisistable to the cats.
Especially to my escapee, Bug.
The netting had been cut into narrower lengths from the original, the first year we used them, which meant this piece was the perfect length – but not quite wide enough to cover the raised bed cover. This cover is quite a bit higher than all the others, to accommodate for taller plants, but it means quite a lot more width is needed to completely cover it.
After removing the vinyl covering the frame, I made sure to give the bed a thorough watering from the rain barrel. I’ve left the soaker house, but laundry was started in the house, so I didn’t want to use the hose. Especially now that we know for sure that the pressure tank needs replacing. Thankfully, I had a nice full rain barrel, so everything got a thorough watering.
It was windy, so I had a bit of a struggle to get the first section of netting on and secured enough to overlap with the next section of netting I had ready. I was able to use garden clips, clothes pins and the one safety pin my daughter could find, to keep them together and close off the ends. The cats like to use this cover like a hammock, so it needs to be really secure. Hopefully, it’ll hold.
Before I started on this, I remembered to grab the soil thermometer from the basement and set it in the short side of the L shaped wattle weave bed.
The second picture shows the reading just before I went inside at the end of the day. The soil there is about 7C/45F. Tomorrow I will set it in other beds and see what they are at, too. Higher raised beds like this one should be warmer than lower ones, but this section of the wattle weave bed also gets a bit more shade than the lower raised beds in the main garden area.
Once this bed was done, it was time to move to the main garden area, and I brought along the hoop kits.
The first picture is of the new kit, which did end up coming with garden gloves. The weirdest feeling stretchy things we’ve ever tried on. 😄
The second picture compares both sets. The new kit’s rods are a half inch longer and a touch thicker, so the clips and connectors will not be interchangeable.
I haven’t even tried on the gloves that came with the first kit. It’s highly unlikely they will fit my hands.
Even the wire that came with the kits are different.
I was definitely looking forward to seeing how those gaskets would work with the ground staples.
Once in the main garden area, I double checked to make sure the roll of netting I had brought out a while ago was long enough for the 18′ bed, plus the height of the hoops, and it was. When it came time to deal with the poly and setting on the netting, though, it was a two person job, and my younger daughter came out to help.
This is how the bed looked, after I’d reworked the poly to make sure rain no longer pooled where the rolled up boards weighted the sides down, so no more worms would get stuck. Once we got the ends unsecured and the boards freed, we carefully shifted the poly over, then walked it to an open area and laid it out flat, using some of the boards to keep it from blowing away. Then I got my daughter to help me lay the netting over the hoops and secure it just enough that it wouldn’t fall off or blow away, before going back to the poly. It took both of us to fold it in half a few times, and then I rolled it up around the board the netting had been rolled around, and set it aside.
At that point, I no longer needed a second set of hands and continued on my own.
The netting didn’t have a lot of extra length but, even folded in half, there was quite a bit of extra width. I don’t want to cut it, in case we need to use it for something higher in the future.
I spent the next while making the netting fairly snug with clips before securing the ends and adding more clips to hold it in place. Then I tested out the new ground staples and gaskets.
I rather like them, though this bed had some issues. You can see them in place in the second image, where it’s holding rather well. On the other side of the bed, however, they pulled up very easily. The problem is the leaf mulch along the edges inside the bed. They add too much bulk for the staples to push through, and they tend to just pop up again. Later on, though, the mulch will be removed. Most if it, anyhow. Down the centre of the bed, I plan to plant pole beans. Along the outside, I will be transplanting some onions. The pole beans will need a trellis, so the netting and hoops will need to be removed completely. Hopefully, interplanting with onions will keep the deer from eating it all, after the protective netting is gone!
In the next image, you can see a little turnip seedling. There are quite a few radish seedings in the other row. It doesn’t look like any re-sowing will be needed at all.
The last image is the completed bed, seedlings no longer at risk of being cooked under the poly, and protected from cats.
Which led me to the next area. The high raised bed.
This bed had been prepared in the fall but, of course, it was catted. They love to roll around in the dirt.
It needed a bit of weeding, plus I grabbed a bucket of the compost my brother brought for me. After using the hand cultivator to loosen the soil and pull the weeds, I incorporated the compost into the top couple of inches.
For this bed, I used the new hoop kit. One of the big differences is the metal connectors, while the other kit has plastic connectors. I have a bit of concern that the metal ones might rust.
In both beds, I made hoops 4 rods long, which means there is a connector right in the middle. You can see the metal connector in the next image. The image after that, you can see a plastic connector from the other bed I’d just finished. It’s a bit hard to tell at that angle, but the plastic connector is slightly bent. In fact, all down the row, the plastic connectors are bent enough to make it look like the hoops almost have a point in the middle. So… definitely a point for the kit with the metal connectors, and a point against the kit with the plastic connectors.
Before adding the netting, I needed to add a length of twine across the top to keep things in place. The problem was, how to secure the twin at the ends? With the lower raised beds, I use a ground staple to tack them down. That is not an option with this bed.
Bonus towards having a raised bed made of logs.
I found some short lengths of broken bamboo stakes and jammed one between logs at each end. That gave me something to secure the ends of the twin to.
They also came in handy, to hold the netting in place while I set it out. This netting gets stuck on EVERYTHING. I could at least take advantage of that to keep it in place at the ends, while getting the things set up and snug. Ground staples are holding it in place on the sides, and I was able to use the twine to secure the gathered ends, which you can see in the last two pictures.
I had enough energy left to do one more section.
I’d already cleaned up the section at the north end of the high raised bed, where we grew flowers last year. I even tried direct sowing some nasturtiums, in the off chance they’d grow.
They did not.
I failed to protect the bed.
So… Some more clean up, and then more hoops, twine and netting.
The netting that had been over this area last year was now on the high raised bed, so I needed to find another short piece. I took a quick look in the garden shed, disturbing a raccoon sleeping on the wheeled garden chair seat. It woke up and groggily moved away. The only netting in there, though, was a huge piece that we’d set around the entire trellis bed last year. So I let the raccoon be and looked elsewhere. I found a piece that was the perfect length and used that.
This time, I tried something different to secure the sides of the netting. I had a couple of full size bamboo stakes handy, and I rolled them up in the netting, then used ground staples. The bamboo isn’t long enough to reach end to end, but it’s long enough to make the netting more secure than the staples alone.
Now I don’t have to worry about the cats rolling all over the bed and messing in it. I’ve got cosmos and nasturtiums that will be transplanted into here as soon as the temperatures allow.
By this time, I was starting to hurt pretty bad, so that was my limit for the day. Hopefully, I’ll get more ready tomorrow. Specifically, I hope to get the potatoes planted in one of the beds that is already prepped and still under plastic. I’d hoped they would be solarized somewhat but, from what I can see along the sides, it’s more like a greenhouse, even though the plastic is flat against the ground. I can see dandelions blooming in places, under the plastic!
Tomorrow, I need to get my husband to the lab for some blood work (he wasn’t up to it, today), then I plan to visit my mother, since I’ll be taking cats to the vet on Friday. With our longer days, I should still be able to get more garden beds ready in the evenings. I also checked on the stakes for the chain link fence garden bed and they’re feeling nice and dry under the sun, so I hope to get points on those and that bed finally ready and covered, before the Chinese elm seeds start to fall!
Little by little, it’s getting done.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 