We made the decision a few weeks ago that the garden in it's current size was too much to take care of with the two of us. Our commutes to work are long (ie. mines at least one hour each way), leaving us not very much time during the weekdays to do too much, which leaves our weekends filled with chores. After a while we got burnt out and said "enough is enough." We are downsizing other aspects of our lives since our youngest will hopefully heading out on his own adventure towards the end of this year, and the garden is downsizing with us. We've finally decided on 8-10 raised beds, which will be built in the same locations as the current ones, but out of block instead of wood. I'll be tearing out the current beds and have a bonfire this fall. I also plan on replacing the soil with new and tripling the landscape fabric and adding plastic, and maybe cardboard. The wiregrass we have here is crazy strong. Crap will grow on a rock. With our new size we'll be growing only the basics that we want and I'll have to keep a good eye on placement of crops to make sure I get the rotation correct.
Well with the downsizing in mind I mowed down everything in the field. No worries as the beetles had done some damage to most of the plants. I didn't lose any sleep over it. The remaining plants in the beds were under attack too so they weren't doing too well themselves. And the cucumbers had their run and were drying up. So I pulled all of the onions and left them out to dry and called it a year. Sad to say but we have other things that need our attention and gardening isn't one of them.
My harvest Sunday. Some small and medium Copra onions and two green bell peppers.
What we have now. I'll clean everything up this fall.
Since my last post my wife traded off her jeep on a Honda Civic which she likes alot, I was hit in the rear end of my truck turning into our office parking lot so I've been waiting to get it back, my annual golf trip is coming up this week and we lost a few guys (they didn't evacuate deciding to ride out the storm; they're alive just stupid) since they live in Clearwater and didn't leave, I managed to strain my back (again) at the gym last Monday so I've been taking it easy to make sure I can go on this trip, our son was medically denied for the Coast Guard so now he's focused on the Air Force, my in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and we got Roku Saturday since we don't have network TV. That and with the west under fire and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma hitting the south, things are definitely interesting.
Happy Monday.
September 11th. Never Forget.
You can grow a lot of food in 8 or 10 beds, enough to keep you busy for sure. I hope your back gets better soon. My wife hurt hers (again) last week, so I know how that is.
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