Today we are expecting rain, off and on, with possible thunderstorms, until tomorrow morning. After that, we are expecting a break in the rain for at least a week. For the past while, more people are sharing images and information about damage in the region. This morning, I learned that an iconic building, known for a cheerful message to drivers on the highway passing by, is gone. Just… gone. Blown away. The highway that runs nearest us, with a second closed off due to a sinkhole, is now washed away clear across the lanes with a raging river running through it. The electric company has restored power to many places, but others will take longer to repair. They shared photos of sections where the cedar power poles were snapped like twigs, lying on the ground.
All of this is to the south of us. In our immediate area, we were very fortunate. There was some wind, hail and water damage in places, but nothing like what’s been happening in other areas.
There wasn’t any rain while I was doing my morning rounds, and everything seems to be doing well. The dwarf Korean lilac is coming into full bloom, and has a much more intense scent than the earlier varieties.
I also spotted a friend in the flowers. Always happy to see dragonflies. They eat mosquitoes.
I’ve got sunflower seeds emerging, as well as corn. The summer squash is getting big enough that I will soon be removing the protective collars, though one variety still has no seedlings germinated yet.
After doing my rounds and grabbing a quick breakfast, I headed into town with my brother’s car. My first stop was at a local greenhouse by a hardware store to see what I could find to replace some of the things we have lost. There’s just one place selling transplants locally, and there isn’t a lot to choose from, but I did find a few things.
I got two trays with a dozen green cabbages. I also got three pots of muskmelon, two of butternut squash and one of watermelon, all of which have two transplants in them. Not in the photo is the new watering can I got, just like the one that cracked over the winter, at a remarkably low price compared to where I’ve seen this style elsewhere. I probably should have got two.
All the transplants were 25% off, so that was a nice little bonus.
After that, I made a quick stop at the grocery store next door to get some basic fresh stuff, plus I was able to get a few extra items for stocking up because they were on very good sales. Then it was home, where I pulled up to the house to unload. It had started raining again, by then. After my daughter took care of the grocery items, I tucked the transplants into bins and set them in the portable greenhouse frame.
For something that lost its cover, it’s still getting a remarkable amount of use!
By the time I put the car back in the garage, it had stopped raining again, so I quickly changed into my grubbies and rubber boots to head into the main garden area. Between the weather and my pain levels, I haven’t been able to get to that area with the weed trimmer. There is one bed in there that was still covered with plastic, and that’s where most of the transplants will go.
The first photo is after I’d removed some things I’d had resting on the plastic to keep them out of the way, but hadn’t removed the various things weighing town the edges. Once I moved everything off the sides and at the far end, I used a garden hose to pressure wash the elm seeds and debris off the surface, first. Then the whole thing got rolled up and set aside.
You can see in the next image that the bed is pretty clear. There is one spot with a weed where there was a hole in the plastic, and weeds pushing up around the edges. I will need to clear those out but, before I do, I wanted the bed to get watered by the rain.
Unfortunately, pretty much as soon as the plastic was off, there was a cat going for the fresh dirt! Which meant I had to get it covered right away. Which I could do, now that I’ve got another hoop kit and a couple of 10′ x 20′ sheets of insect netting.
You can see that set up in the last photo. This is temporary and will be redone when it’s time to do the transplanting. For now, it just needs to keep the cats from using the bed as a litter box!
It started and stopped raining several times while I was working on this, so I was pretty wet by the end of it!
I really like this insect netting. The mosquito netting we have been using, which my daughter bought for us years ago, is great mosquito netting, but not as good for what we needed to use it for. The weave is so dense, it catches on the wind like a sail quite a lot for netting. The weave is also tight enough that, when I water through it, there needs to be enough pressure to push the water through. If the spray of water is too gentle, most of it drains right off. This new stuff is slightly more open, so both air and water will flow through more easily, while still being fine enough to keep the bugs out. It’s also got quite a lot of stretch to it, is more flexible and easier to work with in the wind.
I might be buying more of this insect netting. It’s also available at a 10′ x 40′ size. At some point, I’ll be making moveable cover frames, so having more that can be cut to size would be useful. For now, the 10′ x 20′ size is sufficient length to cover hoops over our 18′ long garden beds. The width is almost double what is needed, depending on how wide the hoops are set up.
Once that was done and stuff was put away, I did some harvesting. I picked a whole bunch of rhubarb (I got the missing ingredients for the rhubarb upside down cake my daughter likes to make), then cut some herbs.
Across the middle is lemon balm, and there is oregano at the bottom. On the left is chives, with blossoms and buds, and on the right, near the top of the photo, is walking onion greens with developing bulbils. I don’t actually want the walking onions to walk any further than they are now, so we’ll focus on trimming the bulbils more. We have so much chives and walking onion, we can start dehydrating them.
Looking at the weather radar, it seems we’ll be getting one more rainfall soon, but the main part of the system will be passing north of us. Which means that, tomorrow, I should be able to get those transplants in the ground.
Oh, I almost forgot, and neglected to take a photo. While doing my rounds, I checked the bed where I’d broadcast the giant poppy seeds in a small bed that got rolled on and dug into by cats. Much to my amazement, I actually found some poppy seedlings have emerged! Basically just one cluster of them in one spot. I don’t know if poppies can handle transplanting well. Otherwise, I’d thin by transplanting. I’ll have to look them up to see, first.
Meanwhile, I just realized that I went to the post office too early in the day. There are now parcels waiting to be picked up! I’ll have to go get them soon because, if I don’t get them today, I won’t be able to until Monday.
Time to head out again!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 