Today was a combination of direct sowing and clean up in the garden. I’d gone out earlier to do finally clean up the cat mess in the dirt floor of the garage around my mother’s car, only to get rained on, which was fine. It meant I didn’t need to water, and we didn’t get the thunderstorms other areas were getting warnings for.
After the rains were done, I headed out again. First up was the newly reclaimed square raised bed.
I found I was able to lift the netting and secure it to itself with the ground staples to work under it. The netting was still a bit in the way, but nothing I couldn’t work around.
I set a collar in the middle of the bed, where I hope to transplant a winter squash at some point, but the beans went around the perimeter. I didn’t soak them first, so I made sure the furrow was thoroughly watered, and then watered some more. There weren’t a lot of seeds in the packet, having already used some in the high raised bed, but it’s a small bed so I ended up not using all of it.
Next, I decided to sow the super sugar snap peas I’d saved last year, in the remaining third of the chain link fence bed.
In the first image above, you can see how the elm seeds are germinating like crazy. I broke up the unplanted area, weeding out as many of the elm seedlings as I could, then gave a thorough watering before planting the peas. In this bed, there are two protective collars that were set up but never got anything planted in them, left for open space. The cold nights we’ve been having seems to have done in some of the melons and one of the winter squash, and none of the short season luffa have germinated, even with the protective collars. I’ll give it a bit more time before I decide if I will plant in those spaces again.
The next area to work on was the summer squash bed.
I had considered removing the protective collars but decided against it. I did move them off while weeding and thinning, but put them back again. I also ended up thinning by transplanting for the most part, shoving the thinned out seedlings in empty spaces in the wattle weave bed and in some of the retaining wall blocks that were empty.
Once the protective collars were all back in place, I grabbed straw and heavily mulched around them. Hopefully, it will be enough to keep the weeds from returning.
The next area to work on was the wattle weave bed. The netting I’d put over there originally had to be removed. At first, it would out fine, using the dollar store netting with channels to hold wire supports that I had replaced with my first hoop kit with fiberglass rods and plastic connectors. After a while, though, it got too low. The cats kept using it as a hammock, and the hoops were getting pushed lower and lower into the soil. I reset the hoops, setting the ends of the hoops inside the wattle weave. Unfortunately, the rods were thin enough that they slide through the wattle weave, flattening the netting over the peas and garlic. Cats lying on it would flatten them more. The netting also started lifting on the sides and cats would get under – then panic trying to get out. I found a substantial tear in the netting while I was removing it from the bed! It looks like we also lost a few pea plants, likely from cats simply lying on top of them.
After weeding the bed, I decided to use my remaining Pex pipe hoops, though I didn’t have enough of them for the space I wanted to cover, so one of the hoops is from what was used in the netting I’d removed.
These hoops are a lot higher, so there should be enough space for the dwarf peas and the garlic. I also had some used paracord available so I used that across the top of the hoops to keep things from sagging or shifting out of place. They’re mostly secured with zip ties, though some of the vertical posts in the wattle weave were too thick for the length of zip tied I had, and I ended up using wire twist ties, instead. With this netting and set up, I don’t think the cats will try to use it as a hammock anymore.
As for the hoop kit that was used here…
I will definitely not be buying this one again. Not only did the plastic connectors bend, but even some of the rod tips bent, too! I like the kit with the metal connectors and slightly longer rods better.
I got pretty much everything I wanted to get done today, since I don’t expect to get much done in the garden tomorrow, when we are planning to do combined birthday and Father’s day celebrating.
It’s past 9pm and still quite like out. I think I’ll head out for one more walkabout before heading to bed. A couple more days of this, and then the days will start getting shorter!
Good grief, this year is just flying by.
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 