Muggy- ness

My word has it ever been muggy so far this year. Outside for 10 minutes and sweat just pours off of you. Hope this whole summer isn't like this.
Spent the majority of last Saturday weeding and there were a lot of them. Probably spent about 4 hours working on the beds. Got some mulch and mulched all of the beds except the garlic. Still have a few weeds coming up in one of the beds. If you don't get them out with the roots they come back on you. And the strawberries really needed it. Wow that was bad.

Before

After. Not as many strawberries as I'd hoped so may get a few more. May actually get some next year.

Tour.

First tomato. A Solar Flare. 

Pre- mulching. 

The Wife picked some marigolds for $0.15 a piece so I planted the around the tomatoes. 

A few apples are hanging on for this year. Hope they're good. 

My rose seems to be doing well. I planted it next to the building. 

Someone is going to be picking beans this year. 

Overall view. Lots of work. 

WOF of the Week. 

Well I cleaned the living room carpets Sunday morning so I stacked their beds in the kitchen. Princess here isn't laying on the floor like a common dog. 

Until next time, stay inside.

May Days

Yes, 3 posts in May. Seems to be a new record for me this year.
Things are going swimmingly along here on the homestead. I half laughingly stated that as it's been the rainy season here this year. Not that we are complaining too much but it makes for muggy afternoons. Garden- wise everything is planted including my sweet potato slips that came in earlier this week. Had to run a fence line for them too. All tomatoes are staked out and beyond weeding there's not much more to do right now. Speaking of tomatoes I believe we didn't plant any cherry tomatoes so that may have to be fixed with a trip to the store. Let's take a tour.

Daylillies. My favorite.

Tomatoes getting blooms.

Cucumbers doing nicely.

Main garden beds. See, tomatoes are staked. Did them early this year!

Green beans in the field.

Strawberries are blooming. These are the ones we transplanted earlier this year and thought we lost most of them but they've seemed to have pulled through. I need to weed the bed. 

Wife's corner flowers and the mix. 

That's the Wife's sunflowers on the left.

That's about it for this week. I always say I'm going to blog more and I will try to.
Happy Memorial Day to everyone and thanks to all that have served our great nation.

May Showers

Yes we have had our fair share of rain this month although the past few days have been pleasant. Today we reached a high of 65 degrees which is welcomed around here, since summers seem brutal.
Seem to have most of the garden in now. I was going to say all but I just remembered that there are a few melon seeds that need planting. Tomatoes, peppers (need a few more bells), garlic, onion, squash, and green beans are set and growing. Did some weeding this weekend to, trying to stay ahead of them this year.

Banana peppers.

Garlic and onions. 

A few tomatoes and peppers.

Long bean bed. Blue Lake bush beans.

Planted three more rows of beans in the field.

Looking healthy now. Time to do some staking. 

Poor kitten locked out on the porch. She is a premadonna for sure. 

Other than that everything seems to be moving along. Looks like we'll hopefully get the pool open next weekend, which means I need to get off my butt and get the pump set up again. Poured a small pad for it and the filter yesterday so no more concrete patio blocks!

Stay cool.

Treatment

Milky Spore came in Thursday of last week so I spent Saturday afternoon using my homemade applicator spreading the stuff around. I ordered two of the 10 lb. packages but only needed one. This is good as I wanted to do another treatment later in the year. I watered in all of the spore around the garden beds but waited until the rain Sunday to soak the rest of the yard. One thing I do know now; I can't walk in a straight line. Anyway take a look.

The homemade milky spore spreader. A coffee can, two screws and a stick.

Drilled some holes in a tight grouping. 

Pre- drilled everything then used a stubby screwdriver to install the screws. 

I have to admit that I am please the way it worked. 

4'-0" apart in 4'-0" rows. I'm sure I looked like an idiot walking the whole yard hitting it with a stick. 

Garden- wise I haven't really done anything until I get these grubs under control. You can see the beans are up and I need to put a few more seeds in that bed and plant some more in the field. These did really well for us last year. Garlic is doing good and probably should be coming out within the next month or so. Have a couple volunteer onions mixed with the. I can't grow onions from seed but I can make them appear. 

Red onions are doing nicely. I got these from Renee's Garden this year as slips. 

That's about it for now, just a quick post from lunch at work. I am planning on getting everything planted out this coming weekend so fingers crossed!

Happy April 27th!

Yes, Happy April 27th.
Finally getting around to updating this blog. I know posts are few and far between but I will try harder.

Got most of the garden planted out but the plants didn't seem to be doing too good. After careful digging I found that I have grubs and beetle larvae. Ordered some milky spore and tackling to lawn and garden beds this weekend. I took a few pictures.

Green beans. Got to plant more though.

Garden bed repairs. 

Short post tonight. Hopefully more this weekend. 

April Showers

And boy did we have some yesterday. Supposed to be just a shower here and there but it poured pretty good. Aaaannnnnddddd about 2:00 in the afternoon it cleared up and brought the wind with the sun. And a continuation to today wind- wise. Got a lot of work done today.
Finally weeded the garlic and onion beds, tilled the upper field (fixed tiller, or rather oldest son did and I didn't actually till it, the youngest and father-in-law did), relocated the strawberry plants, and transferred the tomato plants to larger containers. Let's do a run down.

Redid the front flower beds.

Red onions are the only ones we got going on right now. I can't seem to grow onions from seed. I got these from a supplier. 

First garlic bed. Notice the lower left corner. Found a nice fire ant nest there. 

Second garlic bed. I get my garlic from Sow True Seed. May try to keep some this year for next years' crop. 

The Wife brought brought out some potatoes from the kitchen that had grown eyes so I cut them up and let them sit for a few days, then put them in the ground and see what we get. 

Strawberries at there new home. 

All planted out.

Looking ready for planting time. Now like to have some compost/manure. 

Tomatoes in their new home. 

Well that's it for this week. Tired and I foresee a long week ahead for me work- wise. 

WOF of the Week. Told you this was going to happen. So we'll showcase all of them this time. 

The WOF

The Dude. 

Miss Trouble.