2026 garden

Our 2026 garden progress, surprise worms, and home!

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I must have been way more exhausted than I thought.

The night before was one of those nights were I just didn’t sleep. Not restless or busy brain or pain, just… awake. Until about 4am.

Last night, I decided to try going to be early. I was in bed and messaged my daughter in the hospital, asking how she was doing, shortly after 8:30pm.

I fell asleep before she answered me.

When I woke later, needing to de-cat myself so I could go to the washroom, I checked the time, expecting it to be 3 or 4am.

It was barely past midnight.

I figured for sure I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep again – and then I was awakened by cats crashing around in my room. Sure enough, it was about 5:30am, which is about when Ghosty goes into desctructo mode to wake me up and feed them.

So I did.

It was starting to get light out, but I went back to bed, expecting to not be able to fall asleep again, but I tried anyhow.

I opened my eyes and three hours had passed.

So I quickly got up and got ready to do my outside routine, which I always get done before I have breakfast. Especially when I end up going out later like this, because I know the outside cats would be quite hungry.

After feeding the cats I did my morning rounds, which includes checking all the garden beds. We had a “wintery mix” all night, and it was still raining. The sump pump has been going off, so the garden bed in the old kitchen with the vinyl cover, were I’d added the soaker hose, was being watered from below. The hose from the sump pump drains into a hole under the raised bed wall closest to the house, but it doesn’t go far, so it usually overflows into a path as well, but enough gets under the bed that it makes a difference.

When I got to the poly covered bed in the main garden area, I saw that water had collected in pools at the sides, where it’s weighted down by boards wrapped in the excess poly, again. Enough that, at one end, the weight was pushing the supportive hoop deeper into the ground and pooling more. So I was going to fiddle with the corner so that the water could rain into the bed when I noticed something odd.

A worm.

Two worms…

Ten?

Handfuls????

For some reason, all along the boards, on both sides, there were masses of earthworms in the water. In some places, I could see worms that had somehow managed to squeeze up the outside of the boards, under the poly. There were so many of them, I gave up trying to just drain the water. I unrolled all the boards and straightened out the poly, draining all the water away and taking out every stray would I could find. Amazingly, most of them looks like they were still alive, too!

Unrolling the poly required loosening the secured ends and removing the clips. When I rolled the boards up in the excess ploy again, I did it from below (which is much more awkward!) and in such a way that the poly now wraps completely around the outside of the raised bed’s log frame.

I was just finishing securing the second end when my daughter came out, asking if I could hear my phone or not.

I could hear nothing over the sounds of the poly as I fussed with it.

My older daughter has messaged us. She was free. Knowing it would take a while for us to get there, they told her to let us know first, and they would start the discharge paperwork and go over her prescriptions.

We had already prepped a back seat in the truck yesterday, and I decided to bring my walker along, just in case, which meant securing it in the box of the truck with some Bungee cords, so it would slide around as we drove, and we were soon on the road. Neither of us had eaten yet and it was past 10am by then, so we stopped at the next town to get a bit of gas, some beef jerky to tide us over, and a couple of energy drinks.

As we were driving in, I saw a gas station we would pass on the way out with gas at $1.729. We had gotten gas at $1.849, but most places in the city were $1.809. I decided it was worth getting more gas on the way back.

One of the things we asked my daughter was to find out where the pick up zone was, as I figured there was no way it was at the doors we’d gone in through when we visited.

It was those doors.

With my younger daughter to rubber neck for me while I was driving, she spotted the curb cut that passed as the entrance. Once we pulled in, I still couldn’t figure out where to park; at the doors was a fire lane, so no stopping at all. My daughter spotted some parking spots that looked like part of the patio, but the signs on the back wall said “permit only”. There was a truck sitting in what looked like the middle of the patio area, surrounded by several large, kidney shaped raised flower beds. That turned out to be where only 3 drop-off zone parking spots were, which I had to back into, because there was no room for me the truck to turn in. Thankfully, the “permit only” parking spaces were empty, because I had to pull into one of those to have room to back up.

Half hour only, paid parking only.

At least this time, I could use a machine in the lobby to pay for parking, rather than use a frickin’ website.

My daughter went ahead to get her sister while I took care of paying the parking, then waited in the lobby area for them. My older daughter was looking so much better! She was walking normally again, and she looked so happy to be leaving. She’s been stuck either sitting or lying down for the past week, with tubes and wires hanging off of her, so just being upright and moving made her feel better, too.

Once we had her settled into the truck, we headed out of the city, stopping to fill the tank at the one gas station with the lower price that I’d seen. Our next stop was going to be the pharmacy in town, so she could get a file set up and fill her prescriptions. Most of it will be vitamins.

I forgot, though.

Today is not Sunday. Today is a holiday Monday.

It wasn’t until I saw the empty parking lot at the pharmacy that I realized that. They were closed.

Which means my daughter won’t get her meds for the rest of the day.

We’re going to have to get back tomorrow, as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, my daughter was absolutely craving a meaty burger. The hospital food was good, but had no seasonings. Especially lacking in salt – and we don’t normally use a lot of salt in our cooking at home!

So we stopped at the DQ and got her a triple burger. Red meat, fat and salt – all the things she needs right now! 🍖🥩🧂🥓🍔

Actually, we all got triple burger meals to bring home. Can’t leave my husband out of the treat!

Once everything we settled and done, and it was time to feed the outside cats again, I stayed out to check on things and see what I could get done. Which is when I realized we had completely forgotten to turn on the shop lights over the seedlings (to make up for where the LED lights can’t reach), so I headed down to the basement, where I found a lovely surprise.

Our very first bi-colour pear gourd has emerged!

The second picture is the early White Vienna kohlrabi I started, just in case the ones outside don’t take. So far, only the chamomile has not sprouted yet.

That done, it was time to head outside.

It had stopped raining, though everything is still very wet, so there was only so much that could be worked on after the cats were fed. I was able to get back to that raised bed at the chain link fence, first securing the vinyl strips protecting the back wall that got pulled up by the winds. Then I started laying out the deadwood I’d stripped of bark along the front wall. It turned out I had enough stripped pieces to cover the bottom from end to end, so I no longer needed to strip any others.

Here is how it looks, as of now.

I actually went into the spruce grove to try and find more long, straight pieces, and found a few poplar that weren’t too wonky. I still have a pile of what we collected in the fall, but they are too short to set between the stakes.

I need more stakes. If I’m going to use skinny, short pieces to fill in the gaps so the soil won’t fall out, I’m going to need a lot more stakes.

They won’t need to be as tall as the ones that will support any hoops or whatever we use to hold protective covers, and I won’t bother charring them. That will have to be a job for another day, though.

I will also need to make stakes for the ends. With how narrow this bed is now, it will be a lot easier to do those, and I can use the shorter, but much more flexible pieces we collected in the fall.

One that’s all done, I can finally return the soil I removed.

Which will need to be sifted, because the cats have been using the pile as a litter box.

*sigh*

Once the soil is returned, that bed it doing to need to be covered with netting immediately, or the cats are going to be all over it. Not just to use as a litter box, but they love to roll around in loose soil.

I’ve actually ordered another hoop kit with fiberglass rods. A different kit from last time. This one doesn’t come with little gardening gloves (well… little for my simian hands), but it does come with ground staples – ground “nails” they call them – with “gaskets”. The fiberglass rods are 16.5inchs long, and this kit has 60 of them, plus the connectors. These connectors are metal instead of plastic, so I’m curious to see which ones last longer.

I had been trying different materials to make hoops, and things like the Pex pipe work well, but for the price, I’m getting a lot more hoops out of these kits than out of the Pex pipe. Plus, the lengths can be adjusted as needed; just use the connectors to add more rods. Whereas once I’ve cut the Pex to size, that’s it. I’d have to get pretty creative if I want more length.

Once I have more of these hoop kits, I will be adding them to the bed along the retaining all in the old kitchen garden that I finished last year, and probably just keep the hoops on the bed, even if any covers are removed. With this bed, I want the supports to be permanent, while also making it easy to work in between them. I’ll try it with these hoop kits first and see how it goes. Since they are fiberglass, they’ll handle weathering well.

As it is right now, that front wall is pretty much the same height at the back wall. Once I accumulate more stakes to better secure it, I might increase the height a bit while also filling in the gaps with thinner material. We’ll see.

I was debating what to plant in this bed. With the chain link fence right there, anything that climbs would be ideal. Maybe some winter squash. Once they are big enough that any protective cover can be removed, I won’t have to worry about the deer eating it, like they do with things like peas and pole beans.

Looking at the forecast, we’ve got one more cooler day, with a couple more nights of frost, then thing things will warm up substantially – but we are now getting rain forecasts starting the day after tomorrow and continuing for the next 5 days! At least, that’s what the weather app on my phone says. Not so much the one on my desktop. Hopefully, it’ll be nice enough that I can get the last beds prepped that weren’t done in the fall. I don’t mind the combination of heat and rain. Better than the usual drought!

Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get our seed potatoes into one of the main garden beds that were prepped last fall. They could have already gone in by now, but it can still wait for a while longer. At this point, other than things like other varieties of peas I’d like to try, and seeing if I can get some onions transplanted, most things can’t get done until possibly the second week of June!

Weather willing.

Little by little, it’s getting done – and this year, we really need to have a good gardening year, because the grocery prices just keep getting worse.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: more direct sowing, cuteness and an update

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First, let’s start with the cuteness!

Today has been a chilly day, with the possibility of rain – rain that has held off until just now, as I can finally see drops hitting my window. When I was done outside and coming in through the sun room, I spotted this cuddle puddle. Havarti, Gouda, Flopsy and Curtis, all crammed into one cat bed!

I didn’t get outside to start anything until mid afternoon. I had expected to be going into the city today, to bring my daughter home from the hospital. They weren’t sure of a discharge time, but said they’d know by 11am. Then they suggested my daughter stay one more day. She said no. 11am came and went. At one point, talking to my husband, I suggested they were delaying letter her know until it got too late for us to drive in.

Sure enough, well past 1pm, we were informed my daughter was staying another day.

She has been chatting pretty continuously with her sister, and they have a theory. While talking how she would continue treatment at home, she said she preferred oral medication – not because she had issues with injections, but because she would have to travel to get them, and we tend to get snowed in, in the winter. It seems they didn’t quite get it and she had to explain that there are times when we literally cannot get out of our driveway, and that we are in the boonies. She now thinks they believe we are far more isolated than we are, so they want to keep her at the hospital as long as possible. They’re not too off base. We’re not in a fly in community or anything, but getting places is simply impossible at times, so having to do something like travel to the city for injections when she can get meds delivered, or get 3 months worth of meds at a time, the choice is easy.

Whatever the reason, they’re not saying she will be coming home tomorrow.

Again.

So there is that.

Since we were no longer going into the city, I decided to head outside and do as much as I could before the predicted rain. Thankfully, the rain held off.

I started by working in the garlic bed.

In the first picture, the protective netting has been moved to the top of the hoops. Once it was secured, I checked the rows and did actually find some little sprouts, trying to grow. More chard sprouts than spinach. Which turned out to be a good thing, because I didn’t have a lot of the yellow chard seeds left. I used my bamboo stake to make furrows between the sprouts I could see, then sowed the seeds. I ended up grabbing a different variety of spinach than I’d originally planted, but that’s okay.

Frustratingly, as I was sowing the seeds, I had two cats show up among the garlic, checking out what I was doing!!

Once done and well watered and I was setting the netting back, I made a point of giving the ground staples a bit of a twist before pinning it down, so make sure it was extra snug, lengthwise. The cats can’t get under the netting, but they can still jump on top, and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any slack. Which is in the last picture, but with black netting over dark soil, you really can’t tell.

So that’s two more things resown.

Next was the rainbow carrots.

I removed the protective boards and took a close look. There wasn’t a single carrot sprout, anywhere. Other things were trying to grow under the boards, but no carrots.

The number of seeds left in the pack was not as much as I expected. I suddenly can’t remember if I bought more or not. No matter. I still managed to fill the row, though a few spots might be a bit sparse. The seeds did not want to fall evenly, and it didn’t help that the wind was picking up!

After a solid watering, the boards were set back, and that was it for resowing the winter sown seeds that didn’t make it, or only partially made it.

The pea seedlings are looking surprisingly good, considering they did die off, but are recovering. I’m going to have to find a way to cover this bed with netting to protect them for the first while, or the deer will eat them all.

The first image above are the peas. The second one was taken through the 6mm poly over the bed sown with white turnips and daikon radish. The image is of daikon radish sprouts. Most of the plastic is covered with condensation inside, but there were a few slightly cleared spots, and I could see sprouts in both rows.

Once that was done, and the rain hadn’t started yet, I had time to sit down and continue debarking the deadwood that will go on the bottom of the new wall in the chain link fence garden bed. For lengths we cut last fall, they were remarkably viable. Not sprouting new leaves, like the maple suckers I’d gathered last year, but they’d definately start growing if they have long enough contact with the soil under the wall they will be part of.

I didn’t finish all of them, but got most done before it started to get too cold and I headed inside. Hopefully, I will have a chance to work on that again, soon, and finally continue working on that garden bed! At least I got a bit of progress. Every little big helps.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: direct sowing four beds

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So May has been just all over the place, this year. This morning, it was snowing. We have frost advisories for tonight. It’ll be almost a week before things really start to warm up again.

This has had an unfortunate affect on our winter sown beds. Most of what germinated did not survive the temperature fluctuations, after the mulch was removed.

What was sown in them, however, was all cool weather crops that can be direct sown before our last frost date, as soon as the soil can be worked. Which means, we still have time.

I started off in the old kitchen garden, with the bed that has clear vinyl over the wire raised bed cover that my daughter helped me move aside.

The first picture in the slide show above was before I stared doing anything. You can see a row of onions along the south wall that are doing well – but the ones along the north wall are pretty much gone! I think the one on the south were partially shaded by the wall, keeping them slightly cooler, while the ones inside the north wall had no respite. I should have propped up the cover to allow air circulation on the hotter days, but there was no real way to do that.

Which is why the first thing I worked on was the walls of this bed.

There were a number of stakes that were high enough that the cover got hung up on them, and I spent some time hammering them deeper. The top logs aren’t particularly straight, and one of them is quite a bit narrower at one end than the other. I secured them better, while also using straw to fill the gaps under them, as well as to make everything more level. I ended up using leftover pieces from the stakes I’d cut for the in-progress garden bed at the chain link fence and most more stakes to further secure the walls.

You can see the end result of that in the second picture.

Once that was done, I spent some time removing more of the leaf mulch remaining. Even with the vinyl over the cover, wind got in and blew things around.

After clearing the rows, I re-sowed the Hedou Tiny bok choy and the variety mix of beets. I had considered getting one of the snail rolls of onions from inside to add along the north edge, but changed my mind. I had picked up a packet of parsnips at our local general store – because I just could not resist buying more seeds! – and sowed some of those, instead. I think I’m the only one in the household that likes parsnips, so we don’t need a lot.

That done, I watered everything from the rain barrel right away. Then I grabbed the soaker hose I’d brought over and hooked it up to the garden hose to test it out. It was working fine, so I laid it out between the rows, making sure the right end was set up at one corner, where the hose could be screwed on without having to take off the cover.

This soaker hose is quite long, though, so after pegging it down between the rows. there was enough length left over to go along the walls around the entire bed.

Once it was set up and pegged down, I hooked up the hose and left it going while I worked on the next area.

In the wattle weave bed, I’d planted some Tom Thumb dwarf peas along the back, and transplanted garlic and a few onions along the front. After removing most of the mulch when things started to warm up enough, I made sure to set netting over it, to keep the cats out.

I don’t know if any of the peas germinated or not, but when I moved the netting aside and cleared away excess leaf mulch, I saw no sign of pea sprouts at all. The package has only 25 pea seeds, so I planted the entire package. I do still have an extra of this variety, though, that could be succession sowed somewhere else, if I want. We have other varieties of peas, though, so I would probably go with something different.

The garlic was doing fine, and most of the transplanted onions are showing growth. In the green plastic collar, the mystery flowers I found and transplanted into this bed are coming up nicely, too. Once the peas were planted and watered, I just needed to slide the netting down the hoops and peg them down again. Those fiberglass hoops I used in place of the wire the kit came with are working out really well.

After that was all done, I messaged my daughter to help me put the raised bed cover back on. I turned off the water and moved the garden hose first, to remove the tripping hazard! The last image shows both beds, all covered up again.

The cover fits a LOT better now. No hanging up on stakes, and no weird gaps under the frame that I had to fill with boards or rocks or pieces of brick, to make sure no cats got in, and to keep the wind from flipping the whole thing over. I was better able to tuck the excess vinyl under the edges, so nothing should catch on the wind. The boards I’d used along the edges before were no longer needed, so they went on top, to weigh down the vinyl and keep it from billowing in the wind. The pieces of wood I used before kept getting blown off!

I will keep that vinyl cover on for a few more nights. Then I will replace it with mosquito netting, so it doesn’t get too hot under there, while still protecting the bed from cats.

That done, I moved to the garden beds in the East yard. I worked on the cabbage bed and the kohlrabi beds at the same time.

The first thing was to remove their covers. As you can see in the first photo, the leaf mulch got blown all over the rows I’d planted into. I cleared away excess leaf mulch and, in the process, did find a few tiny seedlings.

In the second image, you can see I also found a friend!

When it was clear enough to start sowing (which you can see in the third image), I used a bamboo trellis stake to create a furrow, and did my best not to kill off the few seedlings I found in the process. Hopefully, they will survive.

Once the kohlrabi and cabbage were all re-sown, they got a thorough watering from the rain barrel, and the covers were set back on.

I debated whether I should find some plastic to cover them for the night, since we are expecting frost, but these are meant to be sown before last frost, so they should be fine.

At this point, I was done for the day. The next things I need to re-sow are the spinach, chard and carrots. I’m pretty sure the daikon radish and white turnips don’t need to be re-sown, but I’d have to lift the poly to be able to see just how many have made it. The greenhouse poly is semi-transparent, with condensation on the inside, so it’s really hard to tell.

This will wait for another day. Hopefully not tomorrow, as I would love to be making the trip into the city to bring my daughter home from the hospital!

This weekend is the May long weekend – Monday is Victoria Day – which is when a lot of people traditionally finish getting their gardens in. Not where we are, though, and certainly not this year!

I’m happy with what I was able to get done today, though. It feels so good to be working in the garden again!!

The Re-Farmer

Wind storm, and an update

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We are getting one heck of a windstorm right now.

Thankfully, though, we are far enough north that we are not getting the brunt of it. We’re “only” getting winds of around 35-45kph. The bulk of the system is passing to the south of us, crossing across the prairies from the north west. The weather group I’m on posted a satellite image, where you can actually see a mass of brown – dust – moving across Saskatchewan in into North Dakota.

Saskatchewan is looking a lot of top soil right now.

Even here, everything is looking like there is a brownish grey fog. We did get a slight amount of rain early in the day, but not enough to make any difference.

We drove in this.

I must have been quite wasted last night, because I slept hard all night. Well. The remains of the night after I went to bed.

Both my younger daughter and husband were up all night, so they were awake to get the messages my older daughter sent, over the span of about 6 hours. She was transferred from the ER of the main hospital, to the ER of the Women’s Hospital, which is just across the street. There is a pedestrian overpass joining the two buildings.

My daughter described the trip through the halls of the old hospital as “creepy”. It’s the sort of place that you would find being used as the set in a horror movie.

Then they crossed the overpass and suddenly everything was open and bright, quiet and modern!

Once there, they admitted her and she got a room.

I was planning to go into the city to visit her but checked to make sure she was up to it.

She was.

There were a few things that she didn’t have with her – like her glasses, and her phone charger – that we brought along, plus a proper travel bag to put the stuff we’d quickly packed when I first took her to the local hospital into. I knew my younger daughter had been up all night, but I also knew she would want to visit her sister, so I asked if she was up to coming along as my Nav O.

She happily agreed.

As expected the drive in and the city route to the hospital was very straightforward. The problem was what to do once we got there. I’d already been forewarned against using the parkades. It may have kept the truck out of the weather, but they are so tight, we would have had trouble getting in and out.

Once we reached the Women’s Hospital, we went looking for outdoor parking, but all the lots we saw were private parking for other buildings. We drove up and down some streets, which were just as broken up as I was expecting, navigating the poorly marked one way streets, looking for street parking. All we saw where signs saying “permit required”. Block after block, it was all “permit required”.

Finally, I saw a spot that I could pull into, near one of those signs, got out and took a closer look.

They didn’t say “permit” required. They said “payment” required.

The city has taken out all the parking meters.

There were three options. One was to use an app, which I didn’t have and was not going to get. The other was to pay through a website. The third was to phone and 888 number.

That was the one I wanted to use.

I couldn’t connect. Several times, I’d try the number and it would just say “calling…” but never called. After a while, the call would get dropped.

Finally, I tried the website, which required registering, which I did not want to do, but had not choice.

It was so frustrating. Basically, the city has made it so you can’t park on the street unless you have a Smart phone (which I have been very tempted to get rid of, in favour of a dumb phone), and no cash payment allowed.

By the time we managed to connect and pay for parking, it was starting to rain a bit harder, but not too bad. The wind was still the main issue.

I had brought my walker along, just in case, and I’m really glad I did. I know I could get away without using it, and using a cane if I had to, but once I started walking along with the walker, it just hit me how much easier it was on my body to use it.

Plus, my daughter would finally get to see it.

Once in the building, we had to go through the reception/security desk, first. Did I mention this hospital is downtown? They had signs saying things “like no knives or guns allowed”.

We were directed to go to the top floor, but were not given a room number. For that, we had to find which doors to go to, and finally just decided “that looks like a reception desk through those locked glass doors” and went for it. There was a collage of signs on the wall, with one of them having an arrow pointing to a button to push to get someone to let us in. It was one of those portable door bell buttons, taped to the wall. My daughter pressed it, and we got a voice on a nearby speaker asking what we were there for. When I told them we were there to visit my daughter, she asked the age. ?? I told her, and she was “oh, and adult” Then let us know we buzzed the children’s ward. Turns out there was another button somewhere. I think on the panel next to the speaker, but I’m not actually sure.

She let us in, anynow.

We then went to the reception where we got wrist bands confirming we were processed, got the room number, and directions.

Of course, she was at the far end of the ward. 😄

We were all very impressed with the room she was in. It was a single room, plenty of space, with an arm chair and a couch with storage under it available. There was also a little round chair with a small round built in tray that my daughter was using. After unpacking and setting up the stuff we brought for her, I repacked her clothes into the travel bag; in our rush to get her to the hospital, we had just grabbed a soft sided grocery bag. I went looking through some doors to see if there was somewhere to put the bag besides a little counter and found all sorts of spare pills, a fridge and even a drawer with a combination lock on it.

We then had a good visit and bit a bit more details on what was going on. There was a possibility she might come home tomorrow, if she improved to a certain point. Happily, she did look a lot better than yesterday.

Overall, we had a very good visit until we had to leave before our parking ran out.

While walking back to the truck, the wind almost blew my walker away!

Since it was along the way home, we stopped at a Domo to get some gas; today is Thursday, so it was their second 4¢ off per liter day of the week, so we paid $1.809 instead of $1.849

Neither of us had had lunch and we were starting to get very hungry, so we stopped at our usual Walmart along the way and had some McRaunchies, before doing a bit of shopping before heading home.

We took a different route as we left the city, crossing over to the highway that goes straight to our little hamlet, so we could stop at a gas station just outside the city and use their washroom before the hour long drive remaining. When we parked, we found messages from my daughter. She’s not where they want her to be and was getting some more treatment, so she is definitely not coming home tomorrow.

Which I’m actually okay with. I really don’t want her coming home too soon and relapsing.

For the last leg of the trip, the sky cleared it was looking quite nice and sunny out – but the winds had not died down.

I drove to the house to unload, which didn’t take long. It was well past when the outside cats are usually fed for the end of the day, so I took care of that while my daughter took care of the rest. I made sure to mix up some cat soup for the isolation cats. They seem to be doing okay in there, though they all run out of reach if I try to pet any of them.

Once the cats were all fed, I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it. Then I went around to take care of various things that were blown away. The heavy crochet blanket on top of the kibble house roof had been blown off, along with the fan rake that had come apart and I’d set on top of it until I can fix it. The giant black tarp I’d pegged to the ground until I could fold it up was blown loose and into the West yard, near where the chick coop still sits.

I made sure to look for and remove the metal tent pegs that failed to hold it down, first.

Thankfully, I was able to spread out and fold up the tarp where it was.

Then I watered the pre-sown garden beds and perennials. Which was interesting, with the wind! I don’t know how much rain we got here, but with the wind, everything was already dried up.

As I sit, writing this, there is still enough light out that I can see the big maple branches swaying. Earlier, I’d walked around the spruce grove and actually heard cracking sound. I suspect we might lose one of the dead trees tonight. Thankfully, with the wind direction, any trees that fall will fall away from the house, not towards it. The only real worry is the tree in front of the kitchen window, since part of it overhangs the roof.

We are still under dust storm and high wind alerts over our area, which is expected to continue through to tomorrow morning. While I was working on this post, I went into the kitchen for something and heard a noise I didn’t like. Looking out the window, I found the wind was trying to tear off the roof panels on the isolation shelter! I went and found several bricks and pieces of bricks to weigh down the edges that were catching in the wind. !!!!

Tomorrow, I plan to visit my mother. The last couple of times, I’ve been going on Saturdays, but I want to keep that day open for working around the yard and possibly a dump visit – or possibly bringing my daughter home from the hospital over the weekend?

I will NOT be telling my mother that my daughter is in the hospital. That would just get nasty, and my daughter made it very clear she does not want her grandmother to know. From past experience, we know how my mother would be, and that is the last thing any of us need to deal with on top of everything else.

While I’m in my mother’s town, I’ll have to remember to stop at the feed store and ask about the chick order status. I know they’ve got me down as sharing a minimum order of 24 chicks with two other people. For me, I only have room for 10 chickens in our coop, so 10 or fewer chicks is good. I don’t know how many the other two people are after. We might just split it evenly with 8 chicks each. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I need to pick up supplies for their brooding period. I want to have everything ready well before we pick up the chicks at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, there is lots of garden related stuff that needs to be done, besides finishing that garden bed. As long as I get that done before the elm trees start dropping seeds, it can wait. Other things are starting to become priority.

We’re having a couple of hot days and warm overnight temperatures, but we will soon be dropping, with freezing overnight temperatures for a couple of nights, before slowly warming up again. This weekend is a long weekend and a lot of people finish putting their gardens in on this weekend.

Not us. But there are some things that prefer colder soil that can be direct sown, and I’d like to re-sow some of the winter sown items that look like they didn’t take, or very little seems to have survived. Plus there are the remaining seeds to start indoors.

For now, I think it’s about time for me to crash into bed. It’s just past 9 as I write this, and both my husband and younger daughter passed out, hours ago.

My turn.

The Re-Farmer

Medical update and Our 2026 Garden: more seeds are in

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Two things were supposed to happen today, and one was a “hopefully will happen”, and one shopping request, taking advantage of my being in the city..

The “hopefully will happen” thing was for my walker to come in. I kept checking the tracking and it just said it had arrived in the city on Friday. No “in delivery” or anything like that. I hoped to go to the mail before they closed over the lunch hours to pick it up, but started to think it might not happen.

The other thing I was waiting for was for the septic guy to arrive. He had said he would be here around 10, but couldn’t say for sure. We were prepared in case I had to leave before he got here, with one of my daughters set to do the cat watch while the tank was open, to make sure none came to close. Having a cat fall in would be disastrous.

The main thing that was scheduled for today was my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city, in the afternoon.

The last minute request was for a stop at Walmart. I had forgotten a couple of things the last time I was there, so my older daughter requested I pick up a few things for her. She has not been well at all lately, and needed some health related items. When my husband found out I was hitting the Walmart, he let me know he was on his last bottle of distilled water for his CPAP humidifier. So I had a short list to take advantage of the trip.

I made one last check on the tracking and found, lo and behold, the walker was in and ready to pick up! Yay! So I left shortly after 11 to get it, before heading to the city. The septic guy had not arrived yet, but everything was ready for him.

When I got to the post office, I had two parcels to pick up. One was the walker, and the other was my seed order from MI Gardener! More on that, later.

Once everything was loaded in the truck, it was off to the city.

The first thing I noticed when I drove in was a gas station on the outskirts with a price of $1.489/L Local prices rare $1.889/L Driving through the city, I saw $1.889, $1.629 and $1.559, so the prices were just all over the place! I was definitely going to get gas before coming home.

Then I drove right past the clinic.

I did that last time!

I found a place I could turn off and park to double check the address, then headed back again. I was too busy looking at gas prices and completely missed it, even though it is right net to a gas station!

One of the higher prices ones, though.

I’m glad I left early, because that gave me plenty of time for doing things like this. 😁

I was still almost an hour early when I checked in, but that was okay. They had one comfortable armchair in the waiting room. One that was far less painful to sit on than a regular chair! I didn’t get much sleep last night, partly because of the pain in my hips, so I took advantage of the situation and drifted off for a bit.

When the doctor called me in, we talked a bit about the last time I was there, when I got the cortisol injection to my left hip. This time, I mentioned that my right hip was also starting to bother me, so it was decided to do both.

As for the rest…

My Xrays were not in yet. There was nothing we could talk about or do, without them. He marked the file so that they will call me when they come in, and we discussed whether I should go ahead and make an appointment for next week. In the end, I suggested they call me, and perhaps even have just a telephone appointment, depending on what the Xrays show.

As I was telling him about my fall before Christmas, explaining my injuries, I brought up the walker and asked if I could get a note or something, to submit to the insurance company. When my husband got his walker, it was in another province and done through home care, which also covered the cost of the walker, the bath chair and arm bars in the tub/shower of where we were living at the time. It turns out that here, they write a prescription. Which he did for me, after asking questions about the style and type of walker (4 wheels with a seat), and included in the notes why it was needed. Which is pretty much just for when I’m working around the yard, for the most part.

When we were done, I didn’t need to make another appointment, so I just headed out, saying good bye to the receptionists as I went by. Once in the truck, I paused to message the family, when there was suddenly someone at the window.

It turns out there’s a fee for the cortisol injections – and they only take cash. It was only $20. I asked her where the nearest bank machines were, and she mentioned one that was near the Domo gas station I was planning to go to, next. So I told her I would go to the gas station, then the ATM and be back.

When I got to the Domo, the line was quite backed up. Today is Monday. Monday and Thursdays is when they have a 4¢ off/L deal, and a lot of people were taking advantage of it! So I filled that tank at $1.449 It still cost almost $85 to fill, as I dropped below half a tank by the time I reached the city.

That done, I parked and got the cash, then headed back to the clinic. I asked, just in case, and they don’t do direct billing with any insurance companies, but they always give out receipts. So I got that to include with the prescription for my husband to send out, after getting the invoice for the walker from online.

Every little bit helps.

Finally, I headed to the Walmart, where I had to stop to eat. It was about 2pm by then. I hadn’t had lunch and was starting to get dizzy. It was a quick McRaunchies meal, and then I did the shopping. One of the things I’d forgotten before we nowhere to be found, but I got everything else on my three short lists lists.

That done, it was time to head home. By then, it was starting to rain a bit, but not much – until I got closer to home. At which point, we were getting real, solid rain! An absolute downpour of much needed rain! I was so happy to see it!

By the time I got home, it was around 5pm, and the downpour had stopped, though it was still raining a bit. I drove up to the house to unload, then fed the cats so I cold safely drive the truck out of the yard to park in the garage.

We have a bit of a conundrum with the yard cats right now.

Furriosa and Bug have gone into heat.

Both are ridiculously tiny, and they didn’t want the attention, but the boys have been after them. The boys are twice their size and many times heavier! I contacted the rescue about it, and we’ve sort of worked out a plan. Bug, Furriosa and a little black and white female like to hang out in the isolation shelter. We can’t approach them, but we can close the ramp door and keep them there. That would also keep the boys away! From there, we can make arrangements for spays. We’ve been trying to focus on getting Slick who we barely see these days, but the larger adult ferals are not the same sort of concern. If the littles get pregnant, they are so small, they won’t survive.

So the goal right now is to catch them when all three are in the isolation shelter and close it up, even if they are with other cats. Unless those other cats are intact males, of course, but we can remove them once the ramp door is closed.

Anyhow. I digress.

Once the purchases were put away, I assembled the walker. I love it! I didn’t get a picture, though, as I had to hide it in the old kitchen right away. Otherwise, the indoor cats will crawl all over it and piss on it, or use it as a scratching post. I expect to be able to work outside tomorrow, and will be able to get a picture then.

Finally, I got to open up my envelope of seeds.

Starting from the top left, yes, I got more coffee seeds. These are for my daughters, and any successful tree would be a house plant, with some time outside in the heat of summer.

Below the coffee seeds is another packet of Blue Berries. The packet we got before had only 8 instead of 10 seeds. It looks like they all germinated, but I wanted to have extra of this variety, just in case.

The Marsh Mallow is something I’ve been interested in trying pretty much since I discovered I could get seeds for it. It’s a plant I’ve read about in my herbals, long ago, but didn’t know could be grown here. All of the plant is edible, except the seeds/pods, as a vegetable. Sap from the root was used to make the first mashmallow confections. The leaves and flowers can be used as an herbal tea, and has medicinal uses both when ingested internally, or used externally. They do require more marshy and damp conditions to grow, so that part will be a challenge. It’s worth a try!

Below that is a fresh Purple Savoy cabbage packet. I probably still have some left, considering there’s 150 seeds in the packet, but I’m pretty sure the ones I winter sowed did not make it. I might try starting some indoors, just in case. Either way, I now have extra seeds.

The Tom Thumb Dwarf peas are because I haven’t seen any sign of them germinating in the old kitchen garden’s wattle weave bed. There are only 25 seeds in a packet, so I don’t mind planted extra, even if the winter sown ones do end up germinating.

I got more Spring Blush peas because I was sure the winter sown ones had been killed off by those cold nights we got after I removed the mulch. Now that it looks like most of them have survived and are sprouting, I will happily use these for a second sowing.

Then there are the sunflowers! Both varieties, Black Russian and Mammoth are supposed to be good for eating. When we grew sunflowers before, it was partially to create a privacy screen, what with our vandal going around and doing things like shouting at us or giving us the finger from the road as he drove by. We didn’t get a lot of fully mature seed heads. I want to try them again, this time in hopes of being able to have seed to feed the chickens we’re getting, as they should be adult size by the time the sunflowers are mature.

Weather willing, and if the deer don’t get them!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: survivors, cuteness and clean up

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Happy Mother’s Day to the moms out there!

Today, my daughters took care of the morning routine, so I could sleep in, though “sleeping in” is rather different as the days get brighter so early now, and breakfast waiting for me.

I headed outside to take care of something and ended up staying out to get a few things done. One of those was to clean up under the green house frame, move it out and tiny up.

I think the cats are okay with losing their winter shelter.

The first image above is Fluffy (spayed), sleeping in the straw under the mock orange, which has become a favourite napping spot for her. We have huge progress with her. Yesterday, while I was coming around the north side of the old kitchen garden, she actually came running towards me, coming to a stop on a retaining wall block and waited for me to come over and pet her. After I got the picture above, I was able to walk up to her and pet her, and she stayed all curled up. Until recently, while she would sometimes allow pets while eating, she would otherwise not allow us to approach her. I would sometimes manage to sneak pets, but that was about it. Now, I can just walk up to her to pet her.

The second image is Sprig, in what seems to be a favourite napping spot for her. I have a giant crocheted blanket I left on the kibble house roof over the winter as extra insulation. I’ve left it there because it’s heavy enough to not be blown away by the wind, and the cats enjoy sleeping on it.

Sprig is more feral, though not as feral as her mother. Sprig hangs out close to the house and in the sun room, whereas her mother goes elsewhere until it’s feeding time, and runs off if we come to close.

While I was watering late this morning, I heard a cat fight that was a real surprise for me. Judgement, who is neutered, was violently attacking Sprig, who is intact and has not gone into her first heat. (We really need to trap her!!!) He is about twice her size and probably more than twice her weight. Why he would attack her like that, I just can’t understand!

The third picture shows where the portable greenhouse frame was, and you can just see part of Sprig, on the kibble house roof, in the photo. I had to wrestle part of the frame loose from the tall grass draped over one end before I could move it. For now, it’s set up next to the shrine, against the chain link fence. It barely fits between the shrine and the white lilacs there, and blocks one end of the path, but it will not stay there permanently. I just had to get it out of the way. Once the frame was clear, I raked up the straw and dead grass that was under it, into the wheelbarrow. It’s been pooped in by cats, so it can’t be reused as mulch or go into the regular compost, so it went to the cat litter compost pile. The pots I’d tried growing luffa in were also thoroughly pooped in, so I emptied the soil into the wheelbarrow, too, and it went into the litter compost, too.

One of the pots somehow ended up with a hole cracked into the side, with a chunk missed. I’ve no idea how that could have happened, in that location!

The rotting wooden bench that I’d had against the back of the tarp to reduce billowing in the wind is now set up against the back of the kibble house. The wire mesh frame, now leans against it, resting on broken pieces of brick so it doesn’t have contact with the ground. That was made to be a summer “door” for the old basement, so we can keep it open for air circulation in the summer, and no cats can get down. Once things get warm enough, we might do that again. For now, it’s nowhere near warm enough.

Last of all, I move the folding table up to the kibble house, and all the pots and bins, and even the black garbage can I was using as a heat sink, fit under the table.

That scrap yarn crocheted blanket on the table is even heavier than the one on the kibble house roof!

Today’s watering has finally included the main garden beds, as I now have enough hoses set up to reach them all. I found a lovely surprise. High winds had blown the leaf mulch over the onions and the row I’d planted peas, so I gently removed it as I watered, and made the discovery.

The Spring Blush peas have survived!

They had already sprouted when I first removed the mulch, looking rather blanched from being buried by mulch. Then we got those ridiculously cold days and it seems that they had all been killed off. I even ordered more seeds, since there weren’t a lot in the packet of this variety, so I had no extra seeds to try again. Now, it looks like the peas have recovered and sent up new shoots!

Still no sign of the rainbow mix carrots, though. Under the boards was still damp, but the only sprouts I’m seeing are a few tentative weeds. With those, I do have more seeds, I believe, so it can be resown, if it turns out they didn’t survive the spring.

The garlic is looking good!

Their tips were blanched when I removed the mulch, and those tips did get damaged by frost, but now you can’t even tell where the damage it. A couple of them needed a bit of help, though. Their leaves were suck in a membrane that would normally have been the cover of the stem at the base, just above ground. It was already starting to split, just from the size of the leaves, but they were getting all twisted out of shape, so I carefully got them free. They’ll be standing straight in no time.

There’s no sign of the spinach or yellow chard, but it may be too soon to tell. It’s been too dry. Now that I’m able to, I’ll be watering them daily, so if anything survive the temperature lurches we’ve been having all spring, we should see something soon. There’s no sign of poppies yet, either, but I don’t expect to, yet. The plot does show evidence of cats walking all over it, though, so that might be a problem. I was also able to water the Albion everbearing strawberries that have survived the winter.

I’ll need to hook up more hoses, so I can fill the water barrel out by the plum, gooseberry and haskap. the gooseberry’s leaf buds are starting to unfurl already, but I can barely see the haskap at all. I’d be concerned they got eaten by deer during the winter, but I never saw any tracks around there. The snow was too deep. Hopefully, if I can start watering them, they’ll perk up and start budding leaves. The plum seems to be okay and is starting to show leaf buds. The plum still has chicken wire around the tall dollar store tomato supports I set up around it, after the deer got to it a couple of times last year.

I intend to get more of those supports. They are really handy. I might even use them for tomatoes at some point. 😄

According to the forecast, we might get some rain in a couple of hours, but only a 35% chance of it, so I’m glad I did the watering. What rain we got yesterday really wasn’t much at all.

After moving the portable greenhouse frame, I noticed that the white lilacs are starting to spread into the path, toward the chimney block planters, quite a lot. Normally, I’d prune them back, but I remembered that the renter’s wife had said she would like to have white lilacs, so I messaged her today, telling her she can gab as many suckers as she wants. She accepted the offer. Once she has an area prepped, she will come over and dig them up. I just asked her to let me know when she’s going to come, so I can water the area the day before, to make it easier to dig them up and transplant them. This is the perfect time of year to transplant them, since their leaf buds are just starting to form. Once she has taken as many as she wants, I’ll prune away any other suckers remaining.

Yesterday, I’d been hearing heavy equipment and the sound of cattle and thought they might have been moved to this quarter. I asked about it, since our basket will are going to be shipped at the end of May, and I’ll be transplanting them beyond the outer yard. I’ll have to make sure they are protected from the cows for the first few years. It’ll be about 5 years of coppice training before they produce useable switches, but I can use any sprigs cut away and plant them. Which means that, every year, there should be at least a few more new basket willows started. There are two more varieties I want to try, with differently coloured bark. I’d hoped to order them for this year, too, but the budget did not allow for it. Too many truck and plumbing repairs!

I got through to the septic guy today and he will be coming out tomorrow morning. I should still be here, but will probably be leaving early to go to the post office before it closes for 2 hours over the lunch period, so I might end up leaving before he’s done. Which is okay; the payment is already ready and waiting for him. Tracking information shows my new walker is now in the city, which means is should get to the post office tomorrow morning, even though it still says Wednesday for delivery. A friend suggested I could get a note from a doctor about it, which would allow us to claim it on my medical insurance. I should be able to get that done by the doctor at the sports injury clinic during my appointment.

Things are looking very calm outside right now. I think, after I feed the outside cats for the night, I might get a fire going in the pit and char those stakes for the chain link fence raised bed. I probably won’t have a chance to get more done on it tomorrow, but at least they’ll be ready for when I can.

Time to go feed some kitties!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: new sprooots!

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Not the ones I expected, though.

When checking on the new seed snail rolls last night, I saw a surprising number of chicory has sprouted. Those are in the first image of the slide show above.

This morning, I spotted some French double marigold. You can see one in the second picture. The others were seeds, pushed through the vermiculite, green seed leaves not yet exposed, behind part of the packing foam holding the roll together.

I would have expected either the chamomile or the kohlrabi to have emerged first, for some reason. I’ve never grown caraway before, so I am not sure what to expect from that roll.

Over the next week, I plan to start the 3-4 week seeds. I’ll be doing a few winter and summer squash in a seed tray, rather than snail rolls, just because of their size. Large seeds would need more seed starting mix or potting soil, and the more that’s added to the snail rolls, the harder it is to roll them up and the more gets lost from both the top and the bottom.

I’ve been out for most of today. It has been cooler, and it’s tried to rain off and on all day, so I decided not to water the pre-sown beds with the hose today. Last night, I spotted some turnip seeds under the polytunnel, but it looks like all the daikon radish that had already sprouted when I took the mulch off have died off. I wish I had enough to cover all the beds with plastic, because I don’t think the kohlrabi or purple savoy cabbage survived the cold May we’ve had this year. The garlic is doing okay, but I see no signs of the chard or spinach in between. The purple blush peas in the first trellis bed also seem to be gone, and I see no sign of carrots germinating under their protective boards. I never saw any of the dwarf peas sprouted when I removed the mulch and covered that section of the bed with mesh to protect it from cats. The protection seems to be working, but still no sign of peas. Peas are the one thing that should have been able to handle the cold spells.

Well, I’ve ordered replacement seeds for some things, and have more seeds left over with others, so I can try again when the soil warms up enough.

I need to remember to bring out the new soil thermometer I got and set it in various beds to see how cold things still are.

Until then, I need to finish off the bed at the chain link fence, then move on to the few others that weren’t done in the fall.

It’s been a much colder May this year, but there’s still time to see if the winter sowing survived the spring or not.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: raised bed progress, and it’s nekkid now

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Well, I got some progress on that troublesome raised bed by the chain link fence. Not as much as I’d hoped, but still, a decent amount.

The first photo was taken after I finished weeding, removing more soil, then leveling it off. There’s a short video next.

The remaining photos are of the stakes I prepared, to hold the deadwood walls in place.

I decided on doing half the stakes at about 24 inches. Closer to 23, really. I’m not too concerned about the length, since I’ll be driving them into the ground and can more or less level them just by hamming them in until the match. The hoops or whatever I decide on to support protective covers will be attached to these stakes. The other half, I went with about 18 inches. After cutting them to length, I used my handy dandy draw knife and a vice to create points. Then they all got de-barked.

I had gathered the materials for these in the fall, and they’ve been frozen in the garage ever since. Now that it’s warmer, they are very green, and some of them even have sap trying to run! It did make it easier to remove the bark, but these are really damp.

Because they are so damp, the ideal thing would have been to char them all over a fire. This would dry and harden the wood, and make them less prone to rotting.

It was too windy to get a fire going in the fire pit, though. Tomorrow is supposed to be even windier. So, I have them all laid out on the bench to dry overnight.

You’ll notice in the last picture there is a single piece of wood that’s different. I needed 18 stakes in each length, and I ran out of gathered materials while doing the shorter length. I was one short. I had a scrap piece of wood from another project that was about 19″ long, so I will be using that.

I will need to gather the materials to get the same number of stakes for the front wall, plus the ends.

Not today.

Having done as much as I could for the raised bed today, I got a few other things done. I’ve been watering the old kitchen and East yard beds, plus all the strawberries in the chimney blocks, and will be trying to do that daily, for now. Despite the fact that we have open water in low lying areas, the soil surface is incredibly dry. I should be watering in the main garden area, too, but I haven’t got enough hoses set up, yet.

After watering, I set the hose to start filling the rain barrel, so I can use a watering can and ambient temperature water, instead of ice cold well water. There was just a few inches of water in the rain barrel, and we won’t be getting any real rain for quite some time.

While that was filling, I finally got the tarp off the portable greenhouse, and removed the torn up original cover.

The frame is now nekkid.

I had left the pots the luffa had been growing in, and discovered that they’ve been used as litter boxes.

*sigh*

The frame, despite being knocked half over and nearly told apart in one particularly bad wind store, is completely undamaged. It just doesn’t have a cover any more. If we’re going to cover it again, it has to be done in a way that can handle the weight of cats jumping on top of the roof.

Until then, I might end up moving the whole thing to a different location to get it out of the way, and to clean up under it.

The giant tarp that was covering it for the winter is now laid out and pinned to the ground. When I have someone to help me, or the wind dies down, I’ll fold it up and put it away properly.

That’s it. Garden progress for the day. Most of it was spent cutting, sharpening and debarking the stakes.

Tomorrow, Saturday, the dump is open for longer hours, so I plan to do that in the late morning, then I’m planning to visit my mother in the afternoon. The weekend is supposed to be cooler, and then things are supposed to warm up again on Monday, which is when I’m heading into the city for my appointment at the sports injury clinic. Somewhere in between that, I’ll need to go into the spruce grove and harvest more materials for this garden bed’s walls. I might have to go further afield to find enough material strong enough and relatively straight enough for the stakes.

Hopefully, it’ll be done soon, and I can focus on the remaining beds that need to be prepared for planting.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: let’s try this again

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Today was a much nicer day, and I finally got some work done outside.

Today, I decided to work on the bed by the chain link fence. Mostly, because I want to use the bricks that are lining it for something else. Once we figure out where the chicken coop is going to go, I want to put the bricks under the coop frame, so that there is no contact between the wood and the ground.

Here are the progress photos, so far.

The first image in the slide show above is the “before” picture. I’ve started nothing at this point.

Before I moved the bricks out, I went through the pile of maple lengths I gathered in the fall and cut a couple pieces to roughly 2 feet in length, then put them in the vice and used the draw knife to create points at one end, before debarking them. I set one at each end, inside the row of bricks. They aren’t all the way to the ends, though. The posts for the chain link fence are set in concrete, so I worked out how far the concrete extended, first, and used that to determine where to pound in the stakes. When the deadwood walls are built, the stakes will line up, front and back, so they can be used to support hoops or whatever I decide on to support future covers for this bed. Once the two stakes were pounded in, I removed the bricks and took them to where I am thinking the coop is going to go.

The next job was to remove the bulk of the weeds in the bed. It’s mostly crab grass, but there were also dandelions and – or course – elm tree roots.

*sigh*

I also found a bunch of shallots and a couple of onions! I planted shallots and onions along the edge of this bed for several years, but they’ve never been able to mature. Either that cats rolled on them, or the elm seeds smothered them. Yet they still survive!

I transplanted them into the winter sown cabbage bed.

I was able to get 2/3rds of the bed cleared before my body started to give out. I did remove a couple of wheel barrow loads of soil onto a tarp, and will remove more as I finish weeding the bed. This will make it easier to reach the back of the bed. There are currently boards all along the bottom of the chain link, to keep the soil from falling through. I’ll be adding pairs of stakes on either side of the boards, then adding deadwood on top of the boards to make a higher back wall. Once that’s done, I’ll do the front and ends to match the back in height, before returning the soil. I still have some sulphur granules, so I will probably mix some into the soil before returning it, to try and increase the acidity.

Once it is done, I need to decide on how I want to add supports across the bed. I could use hoops, but I’ve only got so many of those. I could also add wood cross pieces at the stakes, permanently attached, but do I want something permanent? Even if it’s likely to hold the weight of cats better than hoops? Whatever I use will be supporting either netting or plastic or frost protection, depending on the time of year and what ends up grown in here. I need to protect the bed from being smothered by elm seeds, to keep the cats from getting under any cover, hold the weight of cats on top of any cover without collapsing, and be able to protect from deer.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer than today. After that, it’s supposed to cool down for a couple more days, but it should still be nice enough to get work done outside. I hope to get it mostly done tomorrow, but I know I will need to gather more materials for the dead wood walls before I can finish it completely.

Once this is done, I’ve got just a few other beds that need to be cleaned up and prepared for planting, that didn’t get done in the fall.

Then I need to pull back the black tarp/landscape cloth/whatever it is, that’s over where we had winter squash a few years back and prepare it for the corn I will be planting there, this year. It’s been laying there for a few years, now, so any weeds and crab grass under it should finally be dead!

Lots of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it. I can’t believe we’re already a week into May. I can hardly believe we’re into May at all!

Still, little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer