I was only out in the garden for about an hour and 20 minutes while my kid was at school, but it was a productive morning. I reburied the peas and the greens (the ones I could rebury), pulled out the drip tape from the bed I was going to mow, moved the sprinklers from the strawberry/garlic area, and mowed some other spots. This evening I got out there and weeded a bit more, hoed a bit, and located a file that T had dropped (at one point he had lost 2 – in the garden!). I also picked 3/4 of a basket of strawberries, and a bunch of cherry tomatoes and some dried Scarlet Runner Beans.
(Click on an image to see a bigger version)
Mowed Next to GreensI mowed the path to the east of the peasGopher damage?
Today I started prepping one of the former summer cover crop beds, the one that is just west of the beans. I guess that it will be where I plant either the strawberries, or the garlic. It would be faster to do it by tractor, but then I’d get less exercise! There was a dip in the bed that I was able to fill in a bit using soil that had been left in a pile after one of us had used the landscape rake on a neighboring bed.
I kept trying to assess whether or not to put the seedlings that I bought into the 2nd east bed, which is currently weeds and bell beans, or not. I think I’m going to mow that bed and then hoe out plants in order to put in the greens seedlings that I bought on Sunday. I did some more weeding in the eastmost greens today. What a mess. No sign of the caterpillar (cabbage looper?) that I saw yesterday. caterpillar on red cabbage
It’s amazing how I would never pay for greens that look like this, but I’m so proud to eat these ones!
The raccoons have been digging again. I think I lost one greens plant in the last few days, and countless peas and pea sprouts have been dug up 😦 The camera is back up tonight. The other night Z happened to spot a raccoon climb in and out on the “H” next to the gate.
Oh, I’m thinking of planting bell beans in the last 10 or so feet of the pea row, since I don’t seem to be planting any more peas (it’s past the last recommended date for my area).
On Saturday night, T and I planted some carrots and radishes. We’ll see if anything comes of that- there’s a chance that I’ll accidentally weed them out in the semi-darkness some evening. I harvested greens that night, which means that I also did some weeding.
On Sunday evening I picked about 1.75 baskets of strawberries, which was about 1.3 of the strawberry area. Ooh, tomorrow I can buy strawberry crowns. I also weeded the east side of the newer pea area, and… well, I bought like 6 six-packs of seedlings today (what is wrong with me?! well, I was thinking of maybe replacing the collards and kales that are bolting), so I looked around and tried to figure out where I can plant them. I think that rather than trying to tuck in 1 here and 3 there where other plants haven’t made it, I should use the empty bed to the left of the east bed of greens. It was prepared at the same time as the others, and I’ve kept up with the pigweed for the most part, but it is covered in bell beans and (mostly) grass. Like, it’s hard to find the drip tape. So I should move the drip tape aside and mow and then I guess hoe and put compost down before putting the drip tape back. I’ve been using just a metal file to sharpen my hoes, and I have to say that it is so ineffective! An angle grinder would be better, but I don’t have a good space for using power tools, and of course I don’t want super-sharp tools around the toddler.
Seedlings purchased 10/4/15
When/if my sprained wrist gets all the way better (and why  do I feel like when T bumped into me at one point this afternoon, I got some sort of knee injury like a hyperextension or something?) I have a lot of work to do out there- need to put compost out (I’d prefer to use the shovel and wagon, but this requires time, no kid, less pain, and no wind… but the benefit is: exercise, which I feel like I’m not getting out there these days), hoe out existing plants, get drip lines in, and plant garlic (bought seed for that, too – and can onion sets really work at this time of year?) and get ready for strawberries. Whew!
Oh, the slugs are getting bigger every day- some are over an inch long. I killed so many out there and there are so very many more. This is why I don’t want to try to grow lettuce – yet.
Last night we had one of our larger recent harvests. I picked a gorgeous basket of strawberries and Zak picked some others, as well as cherry tomatoes and beans.
Sept 30, 2015 harvest
Talk about over doing it, though – this morning I tried hoeing. We have a whole row of greens that never gets visited because there hasn’t been much of a path due to all the weeds. I think the last time I Â hoed here, I had to just focus on the pigweed. There was plenty of that, and the grass is tall, so eventually when my sprained hand started hurting, I switched to just focusing on the pigweed.
There’s a path!Z walking down the “new” path
After I took these pictures, I did some more hand-weeding around the individual plants to the right of Z. Then I planted some more peas (maybe 15 row feet?), since they’d been in T’s bucket for 2 days. T started digging up the whole area of the garden bed and was eventually taken inside. They were the Green Arrow shelling peas. My hand hurts. I spent a lot of the day without my ace bandage, since it was drying on the clothesline while I was hoeing, and I take it off to wash dishes and bathe. Tomorrow is another day.
This morning I picked about a basket of strawberries. Then I spent about 45 minutes weeding and setting up the drip tape for the next section of peas. This evening I planted a packet each of Oregon Sugar Pod II and of Sugar Snap peas. T
“planted” a packet of Sugar Snap peas (I had 2 packets, total) somewhere. When we went in to get more seeds, I got him some of the Green Arrow shelling peas from my 1/2-pound bag. He mostly didn’t try to plant them. I also tried to plant some old Scarlet Nantes carrot seed, but it’s hard to see what you’re doing with about 20 carrot seeds on an extremely muddy hand.
This thing of buying single seed packets needs to stop. It’s too much money for too few seeds. That said, one can’t always find the seeds that one wants in larger quantities, or from the vendor from whom one wants to get them…
I need to be hoeing instead of doing all that ridiculous hand/Cobra weeding. The thing is, there are all these perennial weeds, so a scuffle hoe’s not quite going to do it. A sharp hoe can’t be used along the drip tape without cutting it at least once. So what to do? Keep weeding by hand and trying to not use my sprained hand!
Z checked out the sprayer and it worked fine for him and T. At least it’s been rinsed now.
It’s amazing how different the afternoon light is now – it has really changed to fall in the last 2 weeks.
I thought I’d chipped a bone in a finger on Thursday night, but by Friday afternoon it became clear that my wrist got sprained when I recoiled from the thing that hit my finger (just a bruise, no break). I’ve had to take it a bit easier this weekend.
Last night I picked 2 baskets of strawberries, and I picked another this morning. I also did some weeding in the greens, as usual. Then, since I had some time to myself while T and Z were at the park, I organized my seeds a bit- I had 2 boxes that hadn’t been added to my seed storage. I picked out seeds I’d like to get planted asap (peas, carrot, radish).
This evening I planted 2 10-foot rows of shelling peas!!! T took the bucket from me, dumped out the peas, and put a bunch of dirt and gravel in so he could make “soup.” Took me about 2 hours to weed and plant those peas :/. Need to get better at using the seeder tool we have.
Z mowed the old cover crops, unleashing several clouds of dust as he ran over mounds of soil that had been  left by the gophers. He also picked a bucket of ears of corn. The kernels ranged from still-whitish yellow to purplish. There is a ton of corn earworm damage! Half of many ears have been eaten. The corn will still be yummy, though!
I didn’t hit all the areas I wanted to apply Biomin 153 to last week, so I felt it was important to get out there with the fish/kelp mix today. Last week I ran out of time to clean out the sprayer, and I paid for that this week. I started to spray and a little bit came out nicely, and then stopped. I’ve twirled knobs and pressed levers, and I can’t get it to work! So I ended up pouring like 3/4 gallons at a time into a bucket (with a handle) and using it to apply the stuff. I refilled with some water here and there, and I think I still only got to 1 side of the okra.
Need to get on the corn-harvesting thing. And pick strawberries. And beans. And plant things!!! I also need to mow the old cover crops so we can get ready to plant strawberries and stuff in them.
Sorghum-sudangrass
Some of the sorghum-sudangrass is heading out, so that’s interesting. We’re wondering if either our mowers can handle the sections that are 5 feet tall… Also, those spots tend to correspond with leaks in the drip system.
We found one whole row that has sunn hemp in it. I scattered it along with other seeds in some of the other beds, but it definitely was not able to compete with those other cover crops.
There’s definitely pigweed mixed in with that sunn hemp!
He had found the golf ball that our friend who was cleaning out her storage gave to us earlier this summer, and he was content to sit in the wagon (after a brief tour of the garden) and roll the ball around. I picked some snap peas and brought them to him, then snuck away to pull weeds in the newer planting that’s a bit further down the bed. Then it started: “Mummy! Mummiah!” Argh! I would go over there and he’d show me something he could do with the ball, or he’d demand more peas. Then I’d head back down the row and it would start all over again… I got the grass along the drip tape pulled on one of the two rows, so that’s something…
farmingmum 