One Inch Later

 

Lawn

What would they look like if they weren't raised?

I noticed yesterday that one of my sage plants is dying from too much moisture.  I immediately gave it a rain shelter, but that doesn't matter if all of the soil around it is completely saturated.

At least the Dry Creek Beds are doing what they are supposed to do

I need it to stop.

Just Some Pollen and Stuff

We have had 6.2" of rain in July.  There has been measurable rain 12 of the last 16 days.

It is raining now.  I'm tired of rain.

When its not actively raining its usually gloomy anyway.

But yesterday morning we had a few hours of sunshine.  I spent some time watching the honey bees working on the corn pollen.  From the right angle you could see the plumes of pollen caused by the vibration of the bee's wings.

 

Another insect I am seeing a lot of this year is lady bugs.  They're everywhere.

There are four lady bugs in this photo.

The buckwheat I planted on the 10th came in well.

The last peas are looking pretty sorry, but they are loaded with harvestable seeds.

The pods and vines are almost dry enough to cut.  But not quite.

I've given up trying to keep these potato vines in the end tidy.

Based on past experience, I could reasonably expect to have fist sized cantaloupe at this point.  None have set yet, but the vines are doing quite well.

The Lima Beans are finally beginning to flower.  One vine is over ten feet long!

I usually grow Pacific Beauty Calendula which are yellow and orange.  This year I planted Strawberry Blonde and I like the color a lot more.  It is also a more compact variety.

For the most part the garden is doing fine.  I am harvesting cauliflower and summer squash.  I plan on picking bush beans when it stops raining.  I did have to remove on cucumber vine due to bacterial wilt.  It was the furthest ahead and flowering, but I just couldn't get the wilt stopped and I didn't want it to spread.  I've removed more tomatoes with blossom end rot, but it is not a large percentage and I do have some good tomatoes coming.

Harvest Monday

 Not peas.  For a change.  Boy, once those male flowers kicked in...

I've got to stay on top of them and pick the Cue Ball squash small.  Frequent sightings of the squash vine borer moth has me nervous but so far, the shredded leaf mulch seems to be discouraging them.

Soon it will be green beans

The Journey of a Thousand Miles....

 The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step.  And so, despite forecasted rain, we spent the morning moving logs.  We got seven of the largest logs out and moved to the parking lot before the rain set in and the ground began to get soft.

The forest floor is a couple of feet below the driveway and the backhoe boom has to be moved from side to side to balance the tractor as she climbs out with her load.  Sometimes backwards is the only way out.  And we found that two remaining trees are EXACTLY 12'6" apart.

This tractor earns her keep!

When it began to rain steadily, we went in and undressed straight into the washing machine gloves and all.  I feel like I've been rolling around in poison ivy.  Despite having lace-up boots, long pants and gloves I always worry about my wrists and accidentally touching my face.  I pre-treated my arms and neck with IvyX gel and then scrubbed down with Tecnu Scrub.  I've been using the scrub for years now with good results but we're going to put this IvyX stuff to the test!  I didn't "on purpose" grab any ivy, but I know a couple of times I brushed into it.

Bird's Eye View

Here are the view's from the tallest tree courtesy of Larry the Tree Guy.

Buckwheat

The peas are out and the Buckwheat is in.  For several years now I have kept a bag of Buckwheat seeds handy and every time I have an empty bed I put in Buckwheat as a green manure crop.  As an added benefit it feeds the bees.  Just in case there are any left on the planet.

Now, at the beginning of harvest season, it is fun to be able to plant something new.  This is really the part I like best.  I enjoy preparing the soil, knowing what challenges I may face and formulating a plan.  In this case we have a Mourning Dove nesting 20 feet from the garden in the Viburnum bushes.  And Mourning Doves love Buckwheat seed.  I'm not going to scatter it on her front porch and expect her to stay out of it.  So I'm covering it with burlap until it germinates.

I have some heavy wire coat hangers I use for rafters.  That will just keep the seedlings from trying to grow up through the weave.

I'm not worried about it blowing away so I just stuck some pavers along the edges.

In the other pea bed I transplanted the pickling Cucumbers.

The varieties are Supremo which I have grown twice before and Cool Customer which I am trying for the first time.  I also have two Marketmore plants for eating fresh.  I am covering them with row cover to keep the cucumber beetles off them until they get some good leaves on them and can take the damage.  I'm using the wire cloches and clothes pins to secure the floating row cover.

Except for these little guys.  They are going to have to fend for themselves.

Once I take the cover off I will put the supports up for them.

The Picolino vines are finally taking off and putting out flowers.

I also have two Bristol vines in this planting for eating fresh.

The past few years I have grown so many slicing cucumbers that I had to start giving them away.  I try to adjust my production to what we actually use.  Note to self: don't plant quite so many peas next year.

Also happening today:  I hung two Japanese Sex Beetle traps.  I always hang two.  I know people say that when you put out these lures you draw more beetles to your yard.  My belief is that these people grossly underestimate the number of beetles they actually have in their own garden.  I'd rather see them in the trap than pretend there aren't thousands in the immediate vicinity.  I haven't found any beetles IN the garden the past two days.  But there are sizeable swarms in other areas of the yard.  Its really hard to just do nothing when you see so many.  And I would rather trap them than use the chemical spray.  I did spray  the ornamental sweet potato vines in the planters around the house because they aren't flowering plants and it seems to be working on those.

Dangerous Trees 2021 - Part 4

 The tree crew came back today, even though it was Saturday, to do some clean-up and drop the last two trees.  They almost forgot to drop the trees.  They had packed up and were ready to go when they realized.... they hadn't done what they came to do.  But Larry is so casual about it.  Trees that we would be hemming and hawing over and bracing with the tractor he just puts someone on a rope and cuts through them like butter.  He did note that the Big One was quite an earth shaker.

It was also hollow at the base.  

The hollow stump looked big enough to house garden gnomes.  

Hellooooo in there !
Anybody home?

We have quite the mess to clean up.  There are at least 40 big logs in there.  Some are too rotted and will have to be discarded, but someone we know is hiring a logging truck to pick the rest up.  All this lumber will end up as rough cut barn siding.  We just have to get them out of this mess and into the parking lot where the truck can pick them up.  We tried one of the butt logs and the tractor handled it just fine.  

Our intention is not to have more lawn here.  We want it to go back to woods.  There are still a dozen dead or dying trees to the east edge which will need to be felled at some point.  There are a lot of one sided or damaged trees in there now which we will take out ourselves in short order.  Then next year we will evaluate what needs to be planted back.  Maybe some aggressive growing shrubs like Elderberry along the edges to fill in and screen the road

There are a few nice trees that have survived and have been in mostly open areas so they are decent shaped and won't sun-shock.  This little Maple is nice.  I think it is a sugar maple.  We had a larger one 50 feet away across the lawn that had to come out when the garage was jacked up.  And there are several good sized Hickory and a huge red Oak.

But then there are some more pines that are all top and dead branches.

We know what those grow into.

Tomorrow we will do some thinning and see where we're at.