Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks - I'm pretty happy with how it's coming along. I hope to get some decent harvests before it burns up!

 

[Mini Horses]

That is beautiful garden picture!!!! Lush growth...hope mine can be like that in a couple months. A goal.

Like WYO---strange with all the different growth zones and we "feel" more together online than we are. You really have to shake off the feelings of "slacker" when it isn't time in your area. LOL

We have a fairly long season here, but, shorter than TX.

Has retirement made a big difference in this yr garden?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Has retirement made a big difference in this yr garden?

Absolutely! I spent two weeks toting wood chips into the other garden section...one shovel full at a time, lol. No way I would have 1/4 of it done if I were still working. Or I would have killed myself trying to get it all done in a weekend. I spend hours outside every day and I still feel like I'm behind on some things, but I know I can get it done - it's just picking priorities.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The other half of the garden contains two varieties of corn. One has a shorter growing time and the other will take several weeks longer

. There’s a row of okra in between and several winter squash varieties around the edges. This is where I’ve been putting wood chips.

 

[Mini Horses]

I've moved and slacked so much work this week that I FEEL I may have retired. I'm at least thinking I want to. Have gotten things done here that were needed -- been reinforcing fence that hold growns fine but, maybe not a kid wanting back with mom to nurse! It's that dreaded weaning time here -- you need a fortress! The brats can get thru tiny spots. I swear they vaporize & reform on other side.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We had a drought. Then we didn't. Got multiple inches of rain today. Isn't supposed to start raining until tomorrow - guess who was wrong again? Starting overnight we're forecast to get extremely heavy rain...up to 2 inches per hour. Oh yay... Hope my garden doesn't drown. I did sneak out and checked on things during a lull and discovered that all the wood chips that I shoveled into the garden were floating. I really, really hope they settle right back down into place instead of running off.

 

[Mini Horses]

Forest Gump chips? Hey, only to end of the row …. not too far to re-shovel. We're getting rain Sun-Wed. Sorta puts garden on "wet hold".

 

[baymule]

Looking at the NOA radar, you are getting hammered right about now. Those chips may float off to the Gulf of Mexico!

 

[flowerbug]

your wood chips reminds me of something that Mom wants to do. take a bunch of wood pieces and put them on some black plastic to cover it up, but if we ever get a flash flood that high again they'll all be wandering off/around.

i hope your gardens do ok with the rains. i've found that they usually can recover if there is enough of a break.

if the garden is always subject to such events then you have to start perching the garden beds higher and leave a few good trenches for drainage. the fun with that is when you live in a hotter climate you have to make sure the perched beds are big enough that the plants won't fry from the heat.

where we are we do get flash floods so i have to perch the gardens inside the fenced area out back.

if i'd have known they were going to garden i'd have had them bring in some more dump trucks of topsoil to get above the flash flood stage, but also, not put the gardens so far from the house. gardens are much easier to care for where you see them and can keep an eye on things.

now to bring in topsoil it would be a wheelbarrow or bucket at a time. which i did start doing one year but ran out of energy and $.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Gardening here, with our general tendency to get large amounts of rain at a time, has taught me over the years to make big rows and deep trenches. It's a lot of work and is probably the most physically demanding of all the gardening chores I do. I hope that I won't do any more tilling in this area and that the work I put in this year will last a while! I have put pigs in that area for the last two winters - but don't plan on doing that again. (best laid plans, right) I've got more woodchips and the plan is to continue to use them (or replace them if they run away from home, lol).

Spent a few hours last night listening to thunder and watching the light show. Here it is after 9am and I haven't even been outside. My milk doe is probably exceedingly annoyed at me. But, coffee seems more important right now. She'll get over it!