Post by Lannie on Jun 24, 2011 17:06:32 GMT -5
We had the most horrible "Spring" this year. Cold, windy and very, very wet, so we weren't able to go out and do anything in the garden until a couple weeks ago. Meanwhile, all the seedlings I started in the house were getting bigger and bigger, and I wasn't able to plant ANY of the stuff that had to be direct-sown.
Finally, over the last 3 days, I got it all done, including building raised beds for some of it. I HELPED build the beds, I didn't do the whole thing, but we used concrete blocks and that was backbreaking labor in and of itself. Rich then brought me wheelbarrow loads of compost and I raked it out and leveled it.
So Wednesday I got 34 tomato plants in, and 14 cucumbers, plus building a large raised bed. Yesterday I transplanted all the squash (10 or 12 total I think), 8 jalapeno plants, about a dozen cabbages and 8 lettuces, and we built 2 more raised beds. I have more lettuce sprouted in the house and I'm going to TRY to keep succession planting so we don't have to eat nothing but salad for a week and then have no lettuce left for the rest of the summer.
Today I got all my seeds in, and it only took about 3 hours. Rich made the last raised bed today by himself while I was doing seeds. I planted bush beans, sweet and mammoth basil, dill, sage, French marigolds, summer savory, giant sunflowers, green onions, and two kinds of carrots.
While I was out there I noticed that SOMEBODY (probably a WABBIT) had bitten off and uprooted one of my butternut squash plants and one of my pickling cukes. And two of my tomatoes didn't make it. I think they're dead. I didn't get a chance to properly harden everything off because of the freaky weather, so I just put them out there and I'm hoping everything survives. They got a few days of hardening off, but then we had severe storm warnings every day for a week, and I had to take them back in the garage under lights. Then out to the garden for a couple days under cover, then WHAM, into the ground they went. Poor things.
I AM SO SUNBURNED, even I can't believe it. I kept trying to take breaks in the shade, but being out there every afternoon for the last three days (and of course, me RUSHING to get everything all done at once) has taken its toll. It's a good thing I don't have an outside job.
I'm headed for the shower now, while I still can. When that burn "matures" like by tomorrow, I won't be able to stand being in a lukewarm shower, so I'm gettin' while the gettin's good! LOL!
Everyone please keep your fingers crossed that the thunderstorms they're saying MIGHT hit us tonight, miss us. OK? Man I'd hate to have wasted all that labor. Once the plants are in the ground a few days or a week, they'll be better, but right now they're all still shell-shocked. Kinda like me.
But at least the garden's in now.
~Lannie
Finally, over the last 3 days, I got it all done, including building raised beds for some of it. I HELPED build the beds, I didn't do the whole thing, but we used concrete blocks and that was backbreaking labor in and of itself. Rich then brought me wheelbarrow loads of compost and I raked it out and leveled it.
So Wednesday I got 34 tomato plants in, and 14 cucumbers, plus building a large raised bed. Yesterday I transplanted all the squash (10 or 12 total I think), 8 jalapeno plants, about a dozen cabbages and 8 lettuces, and we built 2 more raised beds. I have more lettuce sprouted in the house and I'm going to TRY to keep succession planting so we don't have to eat nothing but salad for a week and then have no lettuce left for the rest of the summer.
Today I got all my seeds in, and it only took about 3 hours. Rich made the last raised bed today by himself while I was doing seeds. I planted bush beans, sweet and mammoth basil, dill, sage, French marigolds, summer savory, giant sunflowers, green onions, and two kinds of carrots.
While I was out there I noticed that SOMEBODY (probably a WABBIT) had bitten off and uprooted one of my butternut squash plants and one of my pickling cukes. And two of my tomatoes didn't make it. I think they're dead. I didn't get a chance to properly harden everything off because of the freaky weather, so I just put them out there and I'm hoping everything survives. They got a few days of hardening off, but then we had severe storm warnings every day for a week, and I had to take them back in the garage under lights. Then out to the garden for a couple days under cover, then WHAM, into the ground they went. Poor things.
I AM SO SUNBURNED, even I can't believe it. I kept trying to take breaks in the shade, but being out there every afternoon for the last three days (and of course, me RUSHING to get everything all done at once) has taken its toll. It's a good thing I don't have an outside job.
I'm headed for the shower now, while I still can. When that burn "matures" like by tomorrow, I won't be able to stand being in a lukewarm shower, so I'm gettin' while the gettin's good! LOL!
Everyone please keep your fingers crossed that the thunderstorms they're saying MIGHT hit us tonight, miss us. OK? Man I'd hate to have wasted all that labor. Once the plants are in the ground a few days or a week, they'll be better, but right now they're all still shell-shocked. Kinda like me.
But at least the garden's in now.~Lannie
Much better in mid to late Sept. Hope all that rain goes around you this time. 
)
But the wind was bad. I haven't gone out yet this morning because I KNOW everything will be flattened, so I'm going to wait until after milking and chores and see if a little sunshine makes everything stand up again. Hopefully nothing actually got broken.
I hate it when I spend so much time planting seeds and nurturing the little seedlings, then I put them out in the big bad world and they get smashed. I only have one yellow squash plant left, and 5 butternut. I might have to pick up some more seedlings, if there are any left, at the nursery when we go shopping. Good thing we didn't go last Thursday when we normally would have, or I wouldn't even have the opportunity to replace them.
) and Rich made me some metal collars for them. He just snipped lengths of "tin" (steel building scraps) and bent them into semi-circles, and I pushed a pair of them in around each of the new squash plants. The old ones that I had started from seed got a stick pushed in the ground next to the stem, as well as all the cucumbers.
