My husband finished the flower planter which extends my growing another 24 feet. Good thing as there is NO way I would have fit every annual flower in the existing beds that I have. I also tucked them in tighter than I have ever planted by using minimum spacing requirements. This bed is going to be filled by the Fourth of July. There is a long list of things that I put in here for cut flowers which I have published here before. Most everything was prime for transplanting with my later start date on most of them. I worked continually to finish before my 5 o'clock deadline last night and did it. There were a few packs left over which are going to be tucked into the other bed of reseeded annuals. I watered everything in to settle the soil with the hose from my rain barrel nearly emptying both with watering.
It rained last night. I wasn't expecting it as I hadn't followed the weather. Most of the night storms rolled in and poured out. Several times I was aware of a new round coming through. I awoke at 4 am and decided to get dressed and watch the sun come up. The rain drops on everything was just beautiful! I walked through the yard with a cup of hot coffee and was pleased to see that everything was standing up and well settled with all the rain that fell around the new plantings. The rain gauge red 2.1 inches. The rain barrels are both full again.
A good drenching means something else to me. Weeding. With the ground so moist they pull right out. I went through the oldest beds and pulled weeds for half an hour. It is a meditative activity for me. Most jobs need to be re-framed to remove the unpleasant aspect that makes me want to just scream. For instance, I really do not enjoy driving around for my job. This is a big part of my job, going from address to address rechecking violations and work. I had to re-frame that activity in my mind. Now I enjoy seeing changes in the neighborhoods, new businesses opening, kids playing in the park, parents walking their babies. I don't think about the driving, if I do, I fall into the old habit of exhaustion. I digress.
So much soaking rain also meant that I could break out the Weed Dragon and zap the dandelions and other weeds coming up in the wood mulch. When it is dry, you start the mulch on fire. When the mulch is this wet, only the weeds wilt at the hand of the propane flame.
It was also time to bring the dehydrator upstairs for frequent use. I have found that drying herbs in spring is the best time. They are fresh and perfect, not beaten or chewed up by the summer elements and bugs. A quick cleaning and a spin in the salad spinner makes them ready for drying. It may also be time to salvage the last of the chopped peppers and such that slowly have fallen to the bottom of the freezer. Time to use them or dry them if there is too much left. I also found a couple of sad looking jars of apple pie slices (canning is not kind to them but I ran out of freezer space). I put those in the trays and came up with some delicious apple candy instead. Bananas are turning fast and I can't use them up in smoothies fast enough. I dried the last batch and took them to work. They did not make it through the day.
I picked up a book at the library on dehydrating that has some different ideas in it. See if you can get your hands on a copy of Food Drying With an Attitude by Mary T Bell. It has been good reading so far. I also picked up Mel Bartholomew's New Square Foot Gardening. I would highly recommend this book also, especially for beginners. He has revamped his way of square foot gardening to make it easy and appealing to more people.
It is time to take a cold beer out to the back yard and read a little bit, nap a little bit. I am going to use up this Sunday as much as I possibly can.
No comments:
Post a Comment