Weed

Dude! Or Dudette! Weed....... :)

No, not that type of weed. It the damnable Bermuda Wiregrass that invades everything around the properties in our area. If you've read any past posts you know of my hatred for it. I don't believe I have met a sane individual that likes it as well. I almost would rather have the illegal kind.

So I spent Saturday pulling weeds, pulling weeds, and pulling more weeds. I started with all of the raised beds and decided to go one by one; pulling the weeds, turning the soil over, pouring Preen all over, and installing to water line for the drip emitters. After that I installed some cheap netting between a couple of posts in two places for the peas. They were starting to grab hold of each other and I needed to stop that.

Then on to the potatoes. In my infinite wisdom I planted one row closer to the next so I couldn't get the tiller between the safely, so that meant hand- hoeing one row in each bed. After that fun it was on hands and knees pulling weeds. Everywhere. And I also got lucky and found a few fire ants to. They were so happy to see me that they climbed on and gave me a kiss. Damn things hurt. At the end of the day my back hurt too.

Sunday meant the Boys and I went to the driving range to practice (I seem to be getting worse so I may actually see the Pro for a few lessons myself) then came back for a much to do nothing day. I like days where you don't do anything. Need them every once in a while. Amy did some planting of flowers and cleaned up where the trash cans go. Looks much better around. Grass needs mowed but I am going to Thursday mow schedule. I was going to wash the truck but pollen is still floating about so that can wait. As you can see I averted two jobs with my common sense approach, the same approach I use for everything.

Some of Amy's handiwork.

The peas are now trellised.

Timer all ready to go and you can see the new spigot I put in. Now need a hose holder. 

You ever had rouge tomatoes? I swear I have some in a few of the beds. They look and smell like tomatoes. I don't know. 

Potatoes, onions and such.

Garlic is doing good too. 

And the usual end view.

I re- tilled part of the bean bed and we planted a second row of beans and filled in the first where some beans didn't sprout. 

That's a couple of the four new houses their building in our subdivision. After they finish the block foundations they'll have it framed up and under roof in about a week. They move fast. I really didn't want to see these being built. Oh well, new neighbors I guess. 

Well, sitting here watching House of Brian on TV. Good show. I like his other show he does also but it is fun watching him build his own house. Until next time, say Hey to Mr. Hand and be righteous.

Plants In, Watering and More To Go.

Ok. i will not complain too much about the cold and warm spells as long as it stays below 40 mph wind speed. This past Saturday was like being in a wind tunnel! 20 mph with gusts upwards of 35-40 mph. Needless to say, not much got done except some minor planting and great buys (more in this below.)

Sunday was my official planting day as the weather was cooperative, 70 degrees, winds light and variable (always wanted to say that with the voice of the Weather Channel guy.)
Saturday- Went to ReStore and got (10) 2x8s x 8'-0" long for $25.00 and they had a section of micro drip irrigation pieces on sale! This is my deal.....

A Rain Drip timer. Believe me it's worth the $15.00 we paid for it when you forget to turn off the hose! Also got some parts and pieces I needed like elbows and plugs for the tubes for a buck a box. We also went to the Mortex Outlet and a few other places we probably didn't need to go. After we got back I went ahead and planted my green beans, thinned the carrots out, and planted peas (probably too late) and radishes. 

Sunday- After my compulsory Call of Duty Black Ops session, I went ahead and did some sharing of my transplants as I always grow too many, and got the Roma, Big Boy, Better Boy, Cherry (almost forgot btw),  squash and eggplant planted in the beds. I do hope we do good again this year. The tomato plants were about 6'-6" last year. I also plugged and rerun the irrigation system which took some time in itself. If you do not have one of these, you need one.

Front porch with my overgrowing obsession with plants, This is just a minor shot of what i have going on. I planted some Alyssum (Carpet of Snow and Royal Carpet) together on the side of the house. Those pics next time.

Bed 1- Onions doing real good. lettuce and cabbage so so. 

Bed 2- Tomatoes and that's all. 

Beds 1 and 2. Bed 4 is going on the far side of #2, at the top of the picture. The only room I have left.

Bed 3- Eggplant, carrots, beans, peas, and in the buckets are MM76 and Bush Cukes. I may move these to the new bed once I get it done this weekend. You can also see the Nasturtium on the lower right. I planted some more of these seeds throughout the beds. 

The watering lines look a mess I know but I have found that you have to let them be long just to make some tight turns you may have to do. You can't put too much pressure and bending on the connections or they'll leak. Plus it's easier to move a head around to somewhere else if you need to. I have it set up to water at 6 am everyday for 5 minutes until it starts getting hot outside. Then it will be 10 minutes. Always in the morning though. 

WOF of the week....

Sadly the dog gets more photos of herself than the rest of us combined. As you can see there's nothing going on inside.