Gardening With The BeesWatch our garden (and knowledge) grow!

If you haven’t heard, the water pipe leading to the outdoor spigot on the “barn” is leaking.  Tonight Ryan and I attempted to fix it.  We’ve installed a water softener – this should be a piece of cake.  The bad news is that the CPVC pipe that was there originally did not really line up with the metal pipe coming out of the ground.  We had to cheat to get it to work.  The good news is that the project is done.  If it stays dry, it’s good enough for us, because that will mean we can turn on the water to the exterior faucets and use a hose!

Since the plumbing project took longer than expected, we only had time to plant the 11 Arbor Day trees in pots before dark.  We plan to assess each tree’s will-to-live later this season to determine which are ready for planting.

After dark, I started a jar of alfalfa sprouts and another of mung bean sprouts for fun.  I enjoy watching them grow each day, on my own kitchen counter.  We’ll have to plan a stir fry next week.

Tonight I tried to attend a Home Depot Do-It-Herself clinic on Outdoor Water Conservation (appropriate, I felt, during a month where we are 2 inches under average rainfall).  Apparently I registered too late or was the only person interested, because there was no one there to give the presentation.  Bummer.

Upon arriving home, my unproductive evening was made up for when I found my Mom had dropped by and left us goodies at our door: A Twizzler’s box full of garden seeds, 2 trees from our wedding (yay!), and 11 assorted baby trees from The Arbor Day Foundation.

Thanks Mom!

After the garden was seeded, I resumed work on the Shade Bed back near the lilac. My goal was to de-sod the entire area and get the shade perennials in that have now been sitting in pots for a week.

I think it was a total of 7 wheelbarrow loads of grass that I removed and hauled over to help fill a low area around the back yard pine trees. Ugh. I thought my back was going to give out. Ryan helped lay the sod pieces during times of rain when he wasn’t running the chainsaw. Unbelievably, the job was FINALLY done.

About 7:00 pm I finally got a chance to start preparing the bed for plants. We hauled over 2 wheelbarrows of compost and mixed it in with the top soil of the bed. I planted shade geraniums, lamium, day lilies, catmint, asters (summer and fall versions), sundrop, forget-me-nots, and some lilies of the valley. (If I remember the others, I’ll add ‘em here later.)

Ryan topped it off with a garbage can of mulch, and we were ready to call it a day. We watered everything and headed out to eat by 9:00. What a day!

Today was a very productive day, but I don’t think the tendons in my thumbs will be functional for a few days. And my back… doesn’t seem very healthy.

I spent the morning putting the fencing onto the fence posts. It’s like wrestling a metal spiderweb into submission. I’m so glad it’s over! I now have four 14′ areas for climbing things. Yippee!!

Planted seeds for: Red and White Popcorn, Sunflowers, Pole Beans, Climbing Peas, Bush Beans (first sow), Cucumbers, Beets (first sow), Carrots (first sow), Radishes (first sow), Swiss Chard, Acorn Squash, Zucchini, and Yellow-Summer-Squash-Thing.

I also started an herb garden with some perennial herbs from my Mom: Oregano, Thyme, Chives, and Garlic Chives. Getting better!

(Day is continued in next post under “Flower Beds”.)

Made a trip to Home Depot and Menard’s tonight.  I picked up beautiful new fencing and 12 metal fence posts for my pole beans and climbing peas.  Yay!  Note to anyone who cares: the fencing was less than half the price at Menard’s compared to Home Depot, and just the right weight for gardening.  (Bendable with hands)

I also found perfect little posts for the chicken wire fence too.  On sale!  So we’re all set.  I managed to get all 12 posts in before 9:30 pm.

Happiness is: Hearing cows moo and birds chirp as you work in your garden until your body casts moon-shadows.

The good news is that I got all the tomatoes and peppers in tonight.  

Tomatoes: 1 Roma, 1 Sweet 100 Cherry, 1 Yellow Pear, 1 Big Beef, 7 Early Girl, 7 Better Boy (I love it when you get doubles in the pack!).  Peppers: 1 Mild Jalapeno, 1 Yellow, 2 Keystone Giant Green, 5 Red, 6 Chile.

The bad news is that I spent about 2 hours selecting and preparing thick branches for fence posts, and then after I had 4 of them put in (deep into the clay, in perfect straight lines guided by a string), decided it looked messy and cheap, not to mention weak – would it blow over in a storm?  So I stomped through the moonlight into the house frustrated… with my mind made up to purchase real metal fence posts.

Tonight Ryan and I loaded up the old truck with 2 garbage cans of wood chip mulch and the entire bed full of rich compost from the local compost dump.  Yay!

We moved the dried (thank goodness) clumps of manure from the garden to our compost area for use later this fall (because we just love hard work!), and spread the new compost onto the garden.  Ready for planting on Thursday!

We need to find more posts to hold up the fencing before the seedlings are in.

All my excitement quickly faded tonight upon learning horror stories of Salmonella/E-Coli and tomatoes so green and vigorous they produce no ripe fruit.

USDA requires uncomposted manure to be incorporated into the garden soil at least 120 days before harvest of a crop that touches the soil (carrots, lettuce, melons) and 90 days before harvesting a crop not in contact with the soil (peppers or tomatoes).

It’s disappointing I did not know this BEFORE I shoveled the s@&t! So tonight I will move all that I can from the garden to the compost pile.

I did learn that one can start their seeds safely in 100% raw cow or horse manure. Who knew!?

I found a handy chart on the fertilizer stats (nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash) of manure from dairy cow, beef steer, horse, swine, sheep/goat, rabbit, and chicken here: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/manures.html

Today I had the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day with my Mom and Grandmother, along with the rest of my Mom’s family.  

The weather was cold and rainy, but that didn’t stop my Master Gardener Aunt Lisa from sharing her wonderful perennial garden with us all.  After a full tour, she split and shared over 25 types of perennials with the family.  Needless to say, I jumped at each offer… eager to fill our flower-deprived yard with color and delight.

A stop at my Mom’s house on the journey home filled my car to capacity, including the passenger seat! What a day. I guess this means more digging in our future.  :D

After 3 days of work spreading the dirt and mixing in the decomposed wood and compost, it’s ready for the final preparation step… manure from the neighbors.  

A big thank you to Ryan’s Aunt Nancy & Uncle Chuck for their help in spreading the huge pile of top soil into place.  (And they brought over dozens of raspberry canes too!)

Once the exhaustion passed, we still had enough daylight to put a chicken-wire fence in place.  Still can’t believe it!  I keep looking out the windows to make sure it’s really done!