I got the cold frame frame built:
Decided there's no sense mounting the windows till this fall. When I do I'll also get one of these (or maybe I need to strap a board across the windows and use one that screws in so the wind can't take it?):
automatic opener.
It's a compromise...it's pressure treated, but my research says the leachate will predominantly go down, and crops like lettuce won't pick much up. Lot less and easier to find than naturally rot resistant lumber. I am sort of pushing it with my first crop in it -- I did include Carrots and Radishes since the soil is some of the deepest and best screened I have. Also Chard, Spinach, and Walking Onions. I'll put up some deer fencing to keep the deer and wabbits out.
Come this fall, that'll be my winter lettuce bed :D
Under the "Floating Row Cover" are Bush Cucumbers, Zucchini, Yellow Squash.
I'm hoping this, though more work for weeding and I'll have to hand-pollinate, will be the fix for the combination problems of Squash Bugs and Squash Vine Borer on the squash, and Cucumber Beetles and the bacterial wilt they carry on my cukes. I've *never* had a decent cuke crop...I'll get one or two and the plant dies. The squash do OK until they succumb to bug pressure of SVBs.
The only problem being a mouse had chewed a hole in the center of my roll of FRC...ruined (or at least made half-width) half of it or more. Grrrrrrr. Just lucked out what was still good was just the right length. I have a couple other rows with vine squash that I'll need to buy another roll this weekend to cover.
To the right is the Potato Row. I rototilled in 3/4 of a pickup load of leaves into it :D (The other 1/4 is in the covered row.)
Corn is planted towards the front of the pic (with space to get the tiller into cultivate in the main garden), and along the driveway are lots and lots of flowers. The car had to come down to jump start the truck...guess since I don't use the truck that much now, bee-bopping around the yard it doesn't get charged up. It's loaded with about 1/2 the stones I pulled out this weekend (I used to have a small wall, that was a pain to weed/mow around.)
I wish I had more organic matter...I'd have to radically downsize the garden to match what I can get. The tiller helps a lot to keep up with the weeds.
Between the fence posts will be the tomatoe, eggplant, pepper plants in a few weeks when I buy transplants.
And now that I'm done with that...I get to weed and plant some more "inside the perimeter" in the area fenced to keep deer and wabbits at bay:
Looks like that's it for this week with rain and showers predicted.
Going through my seed packets and such, planted since Saturday:
Veggies:
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Superior (?) Potatoes (can't remember what the other variety was!)
Silver Queen Corn -- 88 Days
Early Girl Corn -- ??
Cocozelle Zukes -- 50 Days
Spacemaster Cukes -- 60 Days
Early Prolific Summer Squash (Yellow) -- 42 Days
Summter (? tore label) Cukes -- 70 Days
Patty Pan bush scallop squash -- 54 Days
Flowers (all of these bought for 50-75% off at the end of last season and stashed in the fridge over the winter):
Aster "Crego Giant"
Aster "Early Charm"
Bachelor's Button -- Azulejo
Cosmos
Lupins "Russel Perennial"
Marigold -- Lemon Drop
Marigold -- Rusty Red
Marigold -- Cracker Jack Mix
Zinnia "California Giant"
Zinnia "Whirlygig"
Larkspur "Regal Mixed"
I haven't put any new bark mulch down in a long time -- I will probably end up using three loads over the course of June in order to get all the flower beds I want to do be done.
One of the beds before:
And after...once I get caught up I should only need one load a year or perhaps every other year:
Then in the afternoon I hauled four loads of grass clippings from the dump. Had to use the hay fork to load it all in, and then unload it.
I had wanted to finish weeding and fixing up the asparagus patch before taking pics...but after the work on Saturday with the mulch and a 15 mile bike ride on Sunday I was too tuckered to do anymore in the garden this weekend.
This is the end of the garden I'm letting be mostly fallow this year...and hope to haul in copious amounts of grass and leaves to help boost the organic matter dramatically.
Didn't quite know what to plant in this area, so I threw in a couple six packs of strawberries.
The brush/weeds in the rear are on my shortlist to cut down this year, and I want to remove the stones and pile in plenty of organic stuff from the dump to help build up the soil. Next spring I'd like to extend the fence to include this area within the fence line (which requires cutting back more brush and removing some stones so I can mow around what will be the new back side).
Really poor germination on corn again this year; last year I had a near total failure. This is an early variety of corn (the Silver Queen was an almost total failure). I plan to till up the Silver Queen bed again and re-plant with a second batch of this stuff.
I <3 my Scuffle Hoe...made real quick work in the nice soil in these beds.
Taters will need to be hilled this weekend :)
Blueberries are starting to really mature:
Working from a home office sucks. Olive oil up the grill, light it, throw on meat, run down to the garden to pick some veggies...it's a tough way to make lunch :D
