After today, the only transplants I will have are whatever survives in the tray that got decimated by a mouse and re-sown. At this point, I have some melon seedlings, two different winter squash and that’s it.
The first thing I got transplanted was the chicory.
To the right, you can see some garlic that showed up in the bed on their own. When prepping the bed before transplanting the Florence Fennel you can see on the left, I transplanted the garlic to the side. No wonder I hadn’t found the cloves when prepping this part of the bed last fall. They were DEEP!!
I wasn’t sure how many chicory seedlings there were in the roll, so I just started sticking them in the ground in a vague grid spacing. There ended up being 20 of them.
I was going to return some of the leaf mulch in between, but the leaves kept moving around and start burying the seedlings. Instead, I cut narrow cardboard strips and secured them with ground staples.
Before I planted anything, I had to clean up the “presents” left by the cats, which meant I needed to cover this part of the bed, including the fennel, as I could see the cats have been digging in the leaf mulch there, too. I still had some rods and connectors from the first hoop kit I ordered, so I used those. For the netting, I didn’t really have anything left that was shorter. The netting covering the summer squash bed had a lot of excess tucked under one end, so I unrolled that, cut it off a couple of feet from the bed, then resecured the end. Then I untangled the piece I cut off and managed to lay it flat on the grass. It turned out to now be wider than it is long. That meant the salvage edges would be at the ends instead of the sides. I was also still able to fold it in half and not have too much slack once tightened over the hoops.
Where the bed turns, it is narrower than the end, so that area needed shorter hoops. and one end could be secured into the higher wattle weave wall on the inside of the turn. It took a while to get it all snug and secured, and I did have to push the hoop at the end, where it is wide enough I connected 4 rods together to make the hoop, deeper into the soil so it wasn’t quite as high.
That done, I stopped to change out of my grubbies and head out. I had a package to pick up at the mail, a prescription to drop off at the pharmacy, and then a couple of water bottles to refill at the grocery store. While I was at it, I got another 40 pound bag of kibbled at the general store the pharmacy is in, along with a couple of packages of smoked pork chops, then after getting the water I picked up a few more things, most on sale, and used some of my loyalty card points money to knock the cost down more. Once at home and the girls helped me unload and they put things away, I had a late lunch, set an alarm for myself, changed back into my grubbies and headed back outside.
This time, I finished the main garden area bed I was working on, yesterday.
There was just enough red beard bunching onion to fill the one side of the bed that remained to be planted into. It was convenient to be able to lift the bottom edge of the netting and use the ground staples to secure them at the top of the hoops. The hoops and netting will be removed when the beans get big enough for their trellis. For now, the bed needs to be protected from critters!
Last of all were the bi-color pear gourds, which went into the newly completed chain link fence bed.
There were way too many elm seeds that got through the netting. There’s going to be a LOT more very shortly. The seeds on the elms are starting to turn brown, which means they’ll be dropping in their millions, soon. The netting keeps some of ti out, but not wall.
The first thing to do was lift the netting up and secure it most of the way up the hoops. Then I got out the weed trimmer and cleared the grass in the path, and the other side of the chain link fence.
I think I’ve figure out where to plant the holly hocks, but didn’t get to them yet.
After the weed trimming was done, all I could do about the elm seeds was brush as much as I could off to one side. There was no way to get rid of them.
As for the gourds, there were only 5 of them, and they got transplanted into protective collars. I had to cut one new one.
By the time that was done, my alarm was going off and I needed to head inside. For now, I’m writing this while waiting for my telephone doctor’s appointment. Which is already more than half an hour “late”. It’s booked for the end of my doctor’s day of scheduled patients, but I was warned the call might be later, if things come up and appointments run late.
After the call, I’m hoping to get back outside. I have decided the holly hocks can go into the flower bed across from the chain link fence bed, where the original honeyberry bushes are. At the end near the vehicle gate is an old grave for a yard cat stranger I found, several years ago. Things have grown up very tall around it. I will clear the area around it of as much crab grass and the flowers my mother planted in this bed many years ago, and that’s where the holly hocks will go. I will also be direct sowing luffa and sunflowers in the bed with the bi-colour pear gourds, and then I can put the netting back down. Hopefully, while I’m waiting for the call from my doctor, no cats will go into there and start digging!!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 