Punkins' world....SUNSHINE, seeds and no more drought!

[punkin]

Yep, lori, it is addictive. Although, now since it's pretty outside, it will have to wait.

Went up to the corn patch yesterday morning and hoed it out. The seeds that weren't up before all the rain started just rotted in the ground. I tried transplanting from where it was too thick to the bare spots. I'm going to check on those this morning. If the transplants look too bad, I'll just resow the bare spots.

DH got the garden tilled yesterday and my dad layed me off four deep rows for the tomatoes. That way, it will eliminate alot of individual hole digging. I'm also going to try and get the melons, squash, cucumbers and zucchini in the ground.

I picked another quart of strawberries that went into the freezer whole. When I get enough, I'll do some strawberry freezer jam.

DS was able to pick up a couple of days work with his buddies. That will give him some pocket money. His graduation party is Friday evening. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that it won't rain.

 

[punkin]

Woke up with a basket full of sore muscles today. It was such a nice day yesterday and so much needed to be done in the garden.

I set out 66 more tomato plants, that's 88 in all. (shoot me now) I hooped the biggest ones and pulled rope to tie a 2nd row. BTW, I already have about 6 little green tomatoes.

Did 30 hills of watermelons (yellow, orange and red), 10 hills of cantaloupes and 10 hills of cucumbers.

For the cukes, I got some netting from Burpees for them to run on and hang from. It is angled about 2 1/2 ft off the ground on one side and stretched about 6 ft. to the ground on the other. I want to see if this makes picking them any better.

I still need to get my squash, and zucchini planted and replant some of the corn. The corn transplants that I did Tuesday are perking up a bit.

 

[Farmfresh]

Trellising the cukes in that way sounds VERY INTERESTING. Keep us informed.

I am jealous of your baby tomatoes. Mine are all still very small. This cool weather does not help at all. As for corn - I just planted THAT last night.

I have been gardening forever, but one thing I have a BAD time growing is melons.

Mine are always dinky or turn mushy. What am I doing wrong?

 

[punkin]

Trellising the cukes in that way sounds VERY INTERESTING. Keep us informed.

I am jealous of your baby tomatoes. Mine are all still very small. This cool weather does not help at all. As for corn - I just planted THAT last night.

I have been gardening forever, but one thing I have a BAD time growing is melons.

Mine are always dinky or turn mushy. What am I doing wrong?

I don't always have a banner year for melons, although I did last year. We laid down thick commercial felt that helped keep them from being wet on the bottom. This year, we moved the melons to a new field that's just too big to do that. So, we'll see how that goes.

I don't know if there are any secrets to melon growing or not. Mabey I just got lucky last year.

Anybody else have any ideas?

 

[punkin]

Last night was my DS's graduation party. My SIL had it at her house and did all the decorations, food and everything.

Yesterday, the weatherman predicted a 30% chance of rain. All morning I kept my eyes glued to the radar. Around 1:00 pm, I finally decided I had better rent a tent just in case. I got a 20x30, the very last one they had.

Darn good thing I did, because it poured rain the whole time. It rained so hard and the lightening was so bad that we had a whole string of cars down the driveway full of guests waiting it out. It finally let up enough for me to escort them to the tent with an umbrella.

Out of the 50 or so people we invited, about 30 showed up. I thought that was pretty good with the rain and all.

 

[Farmfresh]

Congratulations to the graduate!

 

[punkin]

Just catching up on a few topics:

1. DS's Graduation: Last night was Andy's graduation ceremony from high school. As you may remember he is homeschooled through a local Christian school.

His ceremony was probably one of the worst ceremonies I have ever attended. It was unorganized and extremely ill thought out. They have a beautiful sanctuary but the ceremony was held in the qym with plywood behind the makeshift stage. It started at least 20 minutes late. We were supposed to see a video of pictures from the graduate's life, but the projector would not work. "It worked in the other building just an hour ago." Well, why didn't they try it in this building?

The seating was divided into about 5 sections with isles between. The homeschool graduates sat in the front 5 rows of the middle section. He asked them all to stand and come up to receive thier diploma when their name was called. When they stood, it blocked the view of 80% of the audience. If I hadn't gotten up from my seat, squated in the isle with my camera, I would not have gotten to see my son get his diploma. No one else in our family could see.

Not only could we not see, we couldn't hear half of what was said. I was sooooo disappointed and embarrassed. I'm actually glad no one in our family who had to travel far showed up.

ETA: They couldn't even get Pomp and Circumstance to play.

2. Sewing: I have finished two lap quilts and am working on a third with a matching pillow. I'm still working on DH's large flannel quilt, too.

3. Gardening: I have picked about 3 gallons of strawberries so far. I'm putting those in the freezer to make jam. I am going to harves my first brocolli head today. I have about 6 more small heads coming on.

4. Broody hens: both hens seem quite content. I know it takes 21 days, but I can't help but look for little chicks when I go up.

 

[punkin]

Not a whole lot going on today.

Church this morning, leftover hot dogs for lunch and DH started bushhogging. At least until the rain run him in.

I'm finishing up a sunflower lap quilt with a matching pillow.

After the rain stops, I'm gonna go tend to the chickens and check on my broody hens.

I knew I should have picked the strawberries earlier.

 

[2dream]

Punkin, I know the Graduation Frustration. For some reason they are always messed up. My daughter had to get her GED years ago. Funny, that was the best graduation I had ever attended. My sons graduation from a really big school was awful. Like you I had to get into the isle and still did not get a decent picture.

Be sure to post pics of those quilts.

Are you getting lots of strawberries? My poor little 25 plants have give me a whole half quart bag. LOL I can't keep the squirrels out of them. So I would probably have a few more if not for that but not many. But then, this is my first year for strawberries.

 

[punkin]

Your strawberries sound like mine last year. We just got enough to eat a few here and there.

But, this year they are producing really well.

Just you wait till next year.