Our gardening goal this past week was to weed the veggie gardens and flower beds. After today’s carpal tunnel surgery, Husband will be somewhat out of commission for outdoor work.
Many people we know use the good old hoe to weed. That system has never really worked for us, as the weeds grow back so fast, so we are down on the ground puller-uppers and digger-outers. It is more labor intensive, but works much better. We also put down wet newspapers between the veggie rows and cover them with top soil. That method keeps weeds down all summer, and the newspaper disintegrates and can be tilled into the soil and improves the soil texture. It is a lot of work, though.
We don’t use herbicides at all, and only spray a fungicide called Daconil on tomatoes, roses, peas, peonies, and monarda to prevent powdery mildew and black spot. We use bacillus thuringiensis, an organic pesticide for cabbage worms. When the flea beetles attack the brassica veggies I will use Sevin, but most other insects are free to live in the garden unharmed. Bunnies just are kept out with fences. Our next door neighbor has threatened to get his shotgun and dispatch the rabbits in his yard. I would never go that far. We have never had problems with moles or voles.
Flea beetles are horrible, with hundreds of the tiny creatures showing up overnight devouring every thing in the cabbage family they can find. The flea beetles are often used as an organic solution to an invasive plant around here called leafy spurge. It is poisonous to cattle. People somehow catch a bunch of flea beetles and take them out to patches of spurge, and the flea beetles, who have a great love of spurge, eat it up. I think that is really cool! I just wish they would stay in the pastures and not come to town.
Would you consider yourself a scientific gardener? What are your preferred methods for weed and pest control?What are the worst insects, pests, and weeds you have encountered?
Things are happening here this week in an alarming way. Yesterday the downspout guy came and cleared out the final downspout his brother couldn’t get cleared out last week. Today the flood fixer people are coming to remove the large dehumidifier and two remaining fans in the basement. Tomorrow the roofers arrive to replace the hail damaged shingles from last year.
I am somewhat alarmed by what is happening at the end of our street. Our whole neighborhood is receiving upgraded gas lines, which means large holes in the sidewalks, driveways, and streets as the old lines are removed and new ones are replaced. They are even putting a new gas line in the backyards. The streets on either side of ours are done, and now it looks like it is our turn. I saw the utility construction trucks just a block down from us yesterday.
When the roofers are here we can’t park in the driveway. When the utility people are digging up things in front of our house we can’t park on the street. I do hope they aren’t here at the same time, or things could get difficult.
When have too many things happened at the same time for you? Did you like Hair, either the musical or the movie? Ever been followerof astrology?
We’ve got the 5 little guineas in the entry way yet, but one of them jumped to the top of the water bottle, and it’s only one more hop out of the box, so we’ll need to get them in the big tank down in the crib soon. (In fact, an hour after I wrote that, it was out) One of them has a bad leg; seems like it’s up at the hip, and it’s out sideways. We’ve tried to make splints for it, and we tried wrapping the leg up to the body. That was something; the chick sure didn’t like any part of this. Didn’t like being picked up in the first place, didn’t like being manipulated, and didn’t like the wrapping job. I got the wrap to stay on for about 3 minutes. Course I was holding onto it for 3 minutes… once I set it down the wrap was off.
Google has lot of suggestions on this. We need to try it again.
We’ve been watching a red headed woodpecker mom and dad feed their family. A maple tree with one large dead limb full of holes and the woodpeckers climb halfway into this hole and we can hear the babies chirping.
And one morning, I saw a heron flying away. It was right by the barn and it wasn’t very high yet; not sure where he came from. They’re always fun to see.
I was mowing some grass the other day down behind the barn and knocking down some tall grass that had been too wet to mow earlier this year, and one of the roosters killed a large mouse. He was pecking at something and backing off, then going in again. I’ve heard of chickens getting mice before, yet I’d never seen one. They didn’t eat it.
The lightning bugs are back. It’s fun to watch them at night over the corn fields. There’s an article in this month’s Smithsonian Magazine about a guy studying fireflies. Did you know they’re classified as beetles? They’re not “bugs”.
Bailey has finally started to shed and she loves being brushed. Except back on her hips; she doesn’t like that. Humphrey loves being brushed too and he’s got a bit of undercoat coming off, but not as much as Bailey.
The auction is happening this week where I took the fertilizer wagon. It runs through next Tuesday. I’m bidding on a few things too. With any luck, I’ll come out ahead on this deal and not in the hole. Normally it’s the last hour the bidding frenzy happens so we’ll see.
Crops:
I talked with crop insurance last week. Soybeans can be replanted, and still covered by insurance, until July 5th. Of course the shorter season varieties produce less too. And unless it rains, there’s no point planting anything. The co-op is ready to spray for weeds, which is the only thing making the fields look green right now, lambs quarter and velvet leave. Stupid weeds. The wild turkeys are out there digging up soybean seeds, and the deer are eating the tops off the corn. Stupid turkeys, stupid deer.
I’m at a point, I’d almost rather it didn’t rain until mid-July. By then, we could skip the expense of spraying the beans, declare them a loss and plow it up. Just be done with it. If we do get rains this weekend, Then I will need the co-op to spray so I’ll have that expense, and we’ll see what kind of stand I get going. Replanting in July is tougher as it all depends on the weather this fall. PHOTO
I just read an article from the University of MN Extension service, saying you can tell how stressed the corn is by what time of day the leaves curl up. The sooner they curl, the more stressed it is. Here’s my corn at 10:00 AM.
Here it is at 4:00 in the afternoon.
I noticed on Friday, the corn was curled up at 11AM.
The oats is all headed out and we’ll see how that does. I haven’t heard much from the food oats people since spring.
My shop project progresses. I sure do have a hard time focusing on any one project and getting it done. I have my weekly ‘to do’ list, plus a general ‘do this summer’ list. And something like ‘replace tractor light’ gets more involved because the connector isn’t the same between tractor and the new light and I ordered some connectors which fit the tractor, but not the light, and so I had John Deere find the right ones and I’ll pick up. And the tractor cab roof light bezel I did get replaced. Took me about 6 trips climbing up on top of the hood as I had the wrong wrenches the first 4 times. (brain fart) then one of the wires had come loose inside. They work now.
When I write down an item like ‘Install window’ it is a lot more complicated than that. I have built all three rough opening frames. But now I need to mount them on the wall, cut out the steel, frame up the opening, and then figure out how we’re going to get this 250 lb. window up there outside. I need some strong young men or women. 🙂
I also need to remove a lot more stuff in the middle. I move something every day and it’s getting cleaner. I predict the first snow storm in December and I’ll be scrambling to finish some part of this to get machinery in the shed. I’m telling you right now, that’s what’s going to happen.
I reserved a scissor lift this morning to pick up on July 7. There, now I have a deadline to work towards; I need the floor area mostly clear, I need the walls mostly clear and with the lift I can install ceiling joists and steel and seal off one rafter, and then I can call for insulation on the walls and above the ceiling.
I made sure I dressed the part before I went into the rental place. Sometimes when I take daughter into her programming I just wear my crocs. It’s a rule, you can’t wear crocs into an industrial place like this and order big boy toys. I made sure I was wearing my boots, and a dirty enough hat, my sleeveless shirt, and I dropped enough names so they know I know what I’m doing.
I haven’t had to buy any new tools for this project. Yet. I may pick up something at this auction, but that’s not directly related to this project. I’m still using the worm drive circular saw Kelly gave me for my Birthday back in about 1992. It’s a great saw!
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE BLIND MAN THAT PICKED UP HIS HAMMER AND SAW?
It has been a long struggle adjusting to gardening in the cold and dry climates in Winnipeg and western North Dakota. We managed to find the plants that worked the best for the soil and the weather, and just persevered. The discovery of Morden roses, really cold hardy and beautiful roses from the Morden, Manitoba Agricultural Experiment Station has allowed us to have a beautiful yard of very low maintenance roses.
I am inordinately proud of our backyard for defying the odds and allowing us to grow things like hazelnut bushes, rhododendrons, ligularia, bleeding hearts, and ostrich ferns. There are very few trees on the western Plains. I believe that North Dakota has the fewest trees of any US state. It is windy. Our climate is semi-arid. The people who owned our house before us did extensive landscaping that made for an unexpected microclimate in the backyard.
We have a cool, moist, and shady backyard because of one Amur maple tree, a large and unruly lilac bush that goes along the entire back yard on the west, and the wooden privacy fences on the north and west sides of the property. That fence, with the lilacs, keeps much of the wind out. Here is our fern bed under the maple tree.
Plants like ferns, ligularia, rhododendrons, and bleeding hearts take a lot of babying and water, but if you are persistent, they will establish themselves. We also planted grapes to grow on the deck to keep the deck and the west side of the house shady. You can see in the lower right hand corner of the photo a small Red Hazel, which we planted not knowing it only can winter over in Zone 5. We are Zone 4 on a good, day, and usually Zone 3. The hazel is small, but we have had it for 30 years.
It is amazing what luck, water, and perseverance can accomplish. Our yard is relatively small, but it is a joy to nurture.
What microclimates are you familiar with? What joys do you derive from gardening?
Went out on Saturday morning and discovered that two of my iris’ are gone! Not eaten by some little critter, but gone – as in pulled up and removed. I water these things every day so I know it happened between 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 9 a.m. on Saturday morning.
One was a brand new Red Raptor (the deepest reddish purple you can get without it actually being black) and a lovely shade of orange call Savanna Sunset, which I planted last year. Both of these are colors that are outside the iris norm and that I really loved.
It was quite disheartening and I feel like I’ve joined the ranks for crime victims in the Twin Cities. Obviously this isn’t on the level of car theft or having your house broken into, but it still makes me a little sad. At least both of them were just past their bloom glory for the season.
I got a farm magazine the other day and one of the headlines is: “Baby kangaroo poop may hold the key to reducing cows’ methane emissions”. Huh. I googled ‘baby Kangaroo poop’ because I was curious about how many hits there would be on that and how much research has been done on baby kangaroo poop. 2,070,000 hits. I didn’t venture past page 1, and most of the sites are what it’s like inside a kangaroo pouch and how to they stay clean? Which is a good question that I hadn’t thought about before. (The mama ‘roo licks it out to keep it clean. Plus, she produces antimicrobial substances which helps it all stay OK in there.) The things you learn.
And in regard to cows’ methane emissions, “… previous studies had already shown that instead of producing methane, the kangaroo microbes produce acetic acid. Further research revealed that the bacteria only occurs in baby kangaroos, not adults.” *
And the acetic acid prevents methane from producing. It’s been tested in the lab. The next step is testing in live cattle. And the hope is to add it to the diet of cattle. Hmm.
When does a dog start to shed? What triggers that? Bailey still has her thick winter coat and she’s not shedding yet. We’ve been brushing her, and she hasn’t lost much yet. I know other years, it was hot and well into summer before she started to shed. We should just take her to a groomer and get her a haircut.
The crops need a rain. We’re at 770 GDU’s; +245 over normal.
Oats is shorter than we’d like considering it was planted April 14. Corn is doing OK yet. And the soybeans… well, they need a rain to get going. If a seed is sitting in dry dirt, it won’t sprout. It’s hard to believe just a few weeks ago I had wet fields, but the top 3 inches are dry now and the fields are rough looking.
They always say to get seed in the ground ASAP. Beans that were planted two week before mine had the moisture and look good.
This year, just for the heck of it, when planting soybeans with the drill, I left two rows open, plugged one, left two open. That makes 2 rows 7.5” apart, then a 15” gap, then 2 more 7.5”. Why not try it I figured.
We had a baby chick hatch in the incubator last Sunday evening. (S)he was a week early! I wasn’t expecting any until next Monday, the 12th! It’s usually 28 or 29 days to hatch baby chicks or guineas. Guess the mom had been sitting on this one a few days already.
Well, s/he did fine and it’s in the pen with the mail order chicks which arrived on Tuesday. Everyone is doing well so far.
Other projects at home this past week, I got the corn planter and drill cleaned out and put away, outside for now. The concrete guys are here working on my outside slab. I am VERY excited for this outside slab!
I’ve also got the new pump for the pressure washer, I’m rebuilding the fuel sediment bowl on the old 630 tractor, I’ve cut grass, I’ve ordered lumber and picked up some ‘re-stock’ windows for the shed project. I returned my extra seed, and I hauled that fertilizer wagon to the auction site. Normally, you can’t really exceed about 25 mph when towing a wagon. They don’t trail very well and will sway left and right. I could do 26 mph with the fertilizer wagon and only have a little sway. Any faster than that and it swayed crazily. Get that sway bad enough and it will flip the wagon over on it’s side and mess up your day.
I was 15 miles from home with 5 miles to go and in the mirror, I saw a mouse climbing up the wagon frame. Wow! I thought, 1) Where did he come from; where had he been hiding?? And 2) he’s going to be so confused when we get there! But about then he lost his grip and fell to the road. He failed to scamper away for the few seconds I could still see him. Yeah, some trip.
We had one guinea chick hatch on Wednesday, I could hear it cheeping before s/he even got out of the shell. Number one, he’s a crazy chick! Kelly calls him ‘Speedy’. I think s/he, the chick, really just want’s a friend.! Thursday another started to hatch, but s/he didn’t get out very fast, and that membrane dries up and gets hard and I finally cut him out. He took a long time to come around, but he’s doing real well now. And Friday morning we had 2 more. They’re all crazy!
And at the theater, we finally have working AC in the theater! It took 10 months from when we first moved the seats and painted ductwork.
Volunteers painted that in August and it got hung up, got beams on the roof in January, the rooftop unit arrived in May, and then it was just finishing the ductwork connections. And I’ll tell ya, that was far more complicated than I expected! It was really interesting observing the guys doing it.
But now it’s so cold in the theater, I may need sleeves!
We took the grill out on Monday and fired it up! For many years, when YA was younger, we had an old kinda-grill that we inherited when I bought the house. It looked like it had been cobbled together from parts found in the garage and was so rickety that I wasn’t sure I could get it to the boulevard to give away before it collapsed. I felt a little guilty that somebody stopped and took it before I’d even had a chance to go in the house and make a “FREE” sign.
Our second grill was a little hibachi-type thing, but we didn’t use it much. Let’s face it, spending 30-40 minutes coaxing charcoal to just the right stage so you can heat up a veggie burger for a minute.
I finally caved and got a gas grill when YA was about 12 – got it using award credits at work. Then I splurged to get a little wheeled cart that it sits on; it was a little too big to lug around. Last year we switched from the little canisters to a big one. It works much better and saves a lot of gas.
So to celebrate Memorial Day we did grilled corn on the cob and veggie brats with all the fixins. It was a perfect day for grilling and eating at our outdoor table! And so much nicer to just turn on the gas for 10 minutes and then turn it off!
We have finally identified the bird living in the birdhouse – it’s a house wren! It took a while because she (I have no clue but I like to think of her as a her) hangs around near the birdhouse but is a little skittish about going in and out while we’re in the yard. I’m also not a whizz where bird identification is concerned.
She sings like crazy. I’m not sure how birds do it; I’d need throat lozenges every night if I gave out as much as they do. On Saturday, I was lounging about in the backyard and I thought I’d doublecheck my identification, just to make sure. She was hanging about, singing her little heart out so I figured comparing her birdsong to bird calls on the internet would be interesting. I opened the first website I found and hit play.
Her reaction was immediate. She lit off her branch and came straight at me. She didn’t get too close for comfort, but it was definitely a warning. No other house wrens allowed in her yard. I did it again on Sunday to see if it had just been a fluke. No fluke. She definitely did not want any competition and came at me again. No more bird calls off the internet for me!
Another week of life being relentless… I’m tired and I can’t keep two coherent thoughts together so this week’s blog will be basic highlights and a bunch of photos.
*I did finish planting corn. Except for about 2 acres that are wet. But I’ll get to them soon.
*Working on planting soybeans. Hoping to finish on Saturday.
*The college show opened on Wednesday and the paint was dry and it’s a good show. The set isn’t my best, but it works.
*We’ve had 4 sandhill cranes hanging around.
*The lilacs are looking – and smelling – so good!
*Every morning, I let Humphry out, and Bailey comes in to get a morning greeting and some attention for a minute. Then she’s happy to go back out.
*For the first time ever, I kinda got tired of music in the tractors. I listened to podcasts: Moth Radio hour, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Radiolab, and my frequent standby: Light Talk. (Imagine the Car Talk guys, doing a show about lighting).
*Kelly and I picked up some very large limestone rocks using an old thing called a ‘Slip Scraper’ or ‘Buck Scraper’. Clyde, you ever use one of these? This has been behind the shed for years. It’s missing some handles, but we made it work carrying rocks.
*The coop applied fertilizer for soybeans.
*Next week is all about lighting the next show in my schedule.
*My last day at the college for this academic year is May 31. I probably won’t have all my work done; I may have to stop in the next week just to finish what I don’t get done this week.
But then, THEN, the pace will slow down and I can start working on my new shed space.
Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day weekend!
Here are photos:
Planting CornTracks in the DirtTractor BuddyViewViewViewMinnesota RockKelly with RocksBuck ScraperLoaded Buck ScraperGoofballCoop SpreaderLoading SeedAnother Tractor BuddySeed Camera View
Planting corn, the tracks in the dirt, my tractor buddies one day, my view from the tractor front and back, a rock shaped like Minnesota (that was really heavy!), Kelly and her second load of rocks, the “buck scraper”, A goofball, the coop’s fertilizer spreader, loading soybean seed from the trailer, Another tractor buddy, and the camera’s showing the seed in the drill.
Where and what was the best burger you ever had?
(The first time I had a ‘blue Burger’ ((blue cheese on a burger)) was at a bowling alley and it was FANTASTIC and none have compared to that one.)
Now that the weather is nicer, YA’s inner-pyromaniac has emerged for the summer.
Years ago I inherited a backyard fire pit from a friend. At this point I think the rust is the only thing holding it together but it has provided many years of enjoyable backyard conflagrations. YA is good at sweeping the yard for twigs and branches that she piles up in the very back of the yard; she is always on the lookout for kindling. She is the initiator of 98% of our backyard infernos and is generally in charge of any arranging and poking that is needed.
It doesn’t take long after the first couple of the seasons blazes that she asks about graham crackers and chocolates. We always have marshmallows (Trader Joe’s – vegetarian). I knew this was coming so I had already stocked up; we were able to have our first s’mores of the season that day! We even used the s’mores trays that I bought at the state fair a few years ago. These are clearly unnecessary toys but I love them anyway.
We have a gas stove; we could easily have s’mores all year long, but we never make them except over the fire in the back yard. I suspect that the sunshine, the smoke from the fire, the joy of finally being outside after a long winter contribute to why having summer s’mores is just the best way to go.
Trail Baboon 