the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

uhg, i hope the groundhog i buried the other day was the one that dug the burrow in the SE corner garden that i found yesterday after checking the tomatoes and i started watering and noticed how beat up that SE corner garden looked and it didn't look like that last week when i went through it and weeded it. so then noticed the burrow and no new dirt had been moved and no new chewing of any tomatoes had happened either. so perhaps...

i left the hose to run to flood the burrow while i came up to get the shovel and some mud shoes and then i filled the hole back in and got back to watering all the rest of the gardens.

i kinda don't want to go back out there today to see more to do but i have to get back to weeding again before a lot of crab grass seeds start scattering. it will be fun to try to get those untangled from the bean plants, but it could be a lot worse. i could have a ton more weeding to do which already got done. (i'm trying to be positive here... )...

ok, it could be 90F... that's an improvement to be back to more moderate temperatures.

 

[flowerbug]

no new critter action in the fenced gardens today so i'm being hopeful that the groundhog is already gone.

weeding for a bit today going through all the gardens again.

 

[flowerbug]

there are no minions i could send out to pick fresh beans, so this morning i just went out and did it. which means now we have some sitting there waiting for minion-me to get them prepped and ready for steaming. of course i snacked on a few as i was picking...

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday morning finished some weeding inside the fence and called it a day.

ISP was having connection issues in the afternoon so i decided to call our excavator friend to see if he had any driveway mix i could get to fill in the holes at the end of the driveway (with rain in the forecast for today). so it worked out that he did have some and came over and dropped it at the end of the driveway and i had to spread it out and compact it down. i asked him what he wanted for his materials and transportation costs and he said some of Mom's molasses cookies and if we needed any more to let him know. sounds good.

rain did come along this morning and wetted everything down and then a bit later it rained hard enough to show up any bad mistakes or puddles. looked ok. mission accomplished. Mom baked today (since it was raining). so he can pick up cookies this weekend or next week... Mom can move the world with cookies.

 

[flowerbug]

looks like deer or groundhogs topped my bean plants that were put out back in the unfenced garden. alway a risk of that happening so it isn't a surprise. it still is better to have them there than grass and weeds.

maybe get some onions lifted today and to start them curing/drying even if they won't be around that long into the winter months. they aren't super long keepers. weeding the onion patch and the north garden is first up after that.

once it dries out today enough perhaps i can get some staining done that needs to happen. it's been sunny and dry enough days in a row that it might be possible. the doors also need to be painted but that's for some other time. next year seems always likely... or how it happens anyways...

 

[flowerbug]

some of the onions were mushy so i'm not sure i'll be able to use or rescue parts of those for cooking as they are being left out there in the garden for now and perhaps a few more days.

today is the usual. more weeding and puttering in the gardens. nice enough to get out most of the days, but the temperatures are heading up for the weekend.

 

[flowerbug]

i ended up burying the onions, if i get really hungry any time in the next few weeks and really want to i could go back out and get them and clean them up to eat some portion, but really, i'm quite happy to let the worms take care of them. if anything i have a spot in the onion garden next year which will grow from these onions and some of them may flower. i always like onion flowers (and so do the bees ).

tomorrow morning we need to check the tomatoes and perhaps i can also bring in some peppers.

mostly finished weeding the north garden. verified that my previous best weeding method was still the best one as i tried some new things and wasted time. that's ok, it was a beautiful day outside and when it got too hot i took a break and then went back out later to finish up. even did some extra that i wasn't planning on doing but that is how garden tasks usually go. start out with one thing and it leads to another right down the garden path... (and maybe a good reason to remove some pathways... )... lead me not into temptations but deliver me from weevils...

 

[flowerbug]

the first batch of tomatoes sealed up ok, so i still have the touch. they can go into storage this morning. then i need to get out and bury the scraps and start watering. almost all the gardens can use it as it has been really dry and sunny. i'd like to also get some work done on some edging i need to redo or replace and transplant some more creeping thyme. the first round i did some weeks ago looks nice, but it may get too hot outside for me to do such a heavy task, plus the ground itself might just be too hard... we'll see how it goes.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

so i still have the touch.

Yay!

 

[flowerbug]

i did get about 10 more feet transplanted and watered in (it's compacted clay soil with some gravel mixed in, and it's not really rained or been watered much the past few weeks) then i watered all of the gardens to make sure they were ready for the hot weather coming up.

noticed as i was watering that i have a lot of dry beans that are close enough or ready now to be picked so that will start going on my daily schedule. which is good as i love to pick and shell out dry beans and so the mad scramble of late season gardening comes all at once. pretty much normal.

what i tend to do is get patches of gardens picked through and weeded and cleaned up and ready for w*nt*r...

the happiness of a bean grower is when shelling them out and seeing what new things may have happened plus if any projects worked out or not and... well, tomorrow morning i should also spend some time and pick some fresh beans so we can eat them. it seems like i always grow a lot of beans that we don't eat, but they were meant to be eaten, so this year if i can increase my harvest and eating that will be good. i can pick enough in a half hour to feed us a few servings, but i have to avoid the 'oh shiny!' that happens when i see a pod that i can open up and inspect...