Garden: What's Growing in Each Bed This Year? Mid June 2019

Garden: Mid June 2019

Just a few pictures of how our garden is coming along.

Bed One and Two

Bed One: Primarily a Herb Garden--Oregano (2 kinds), Sage, Basil, Rosemary (2 kinds), then some Strawberries and Asparagus.  In the terracotta pot (hardly see it in this picture) is catmint and also a small Lemon balm in a plastic pot.  I also planted a row of baby Basil seedlings along the front of the bed.

Bed Two: This year I planted 10 new asparagus plants between beds one and two...the sticks are marking where I planted them.  Then there are chives, parsley, a different kind of Rosemary, fennel, and in the terracotta pot is more basil.  In a plastic pot in the middle is Cilantro--I've got a few pots of Cilantro around.  I keep finding Cilantro in every.single.bed. so this year I am putting it in pots to prevent it from taking over.

I've planted some green bean seeds along the back, that is what the metal bars are for, for the green beans to climb up to that pole with training strings (yet to be put in).

Bed Three

The biggest plants are volunteers---on the left, just like last year we have a volunteer potato plant, then Swiss Chards, and a Romaine lettuce.  You can see the Green Beans coming up nicely along the back row.  In the blue pot is some Basil babies.  In the background, you can see a lot of the potato plants coming back potato beds.

 Bed Four

Lots going on in here---I planted carrot seeds in the back, which haven't come up yet?  Then some pepper plants, on the left side is some green beans, in the middle are a few San Marzano tiny transplants, and then finally two rows of flower seeds to see if they come up---hollyhock and poppy maybe.

 Bed Five and Six

You can also make out the right side of the grapevine---it is doing really well and adjusting to life on the metal supports.

Bed Five: Swiss Chard
Bed Six: Kales (2 varieties)

 Bed Seven

 Bed Seven is Turnip Greens and Spinach

I've been picking from the Spinach bed a LOT!

Bed Eight: Greens, Lettuces

Island Bed:

The main Purpose is Green beans, but I have some lettuce (volunteered) and one side has Black Prince Heirloom and the other side has San Marzano Heirloom Tomato plants.  On the back side of that are the flower seeds that Heather L. and Giz gave me.

Flower Bed (aka buggy, wet spot)

Iris, Black-Eyed Susan's, Hosta's (2 varieties), Sunflowers, Ferns, and Milkweed...so far!

Potato Beds: 1-4

You can't see it, but to the left of the potato beds are two beds for corn.  Dd wanted her own beds and wanted them for corn specifically, but she has yet to plant her corn herself.  I'll give her a little more time before I go ahead and use the beds myself.  


Grapes: 
This year I've tried to pull the grape vines off our garden fence.  The grape vines were putting my garden plants in shade and hindered growth.  Also, when the grapes did arrive it was really difficult to get to the grapes to pick.  I put up a line of metal posts on both sides of the main vine and put up wool string for the plant to attach to.

Compost beds:
Dh built two wild looking beds beside the compost bins this year.  Last year we just planted extra plants there and they did fine so this year we improved the bed a little more.  Can you see the tripod?  I've planted peas to grow up and around it.  The peas are coming up well now, although this picture is an early one.  I've also planted a bunch of squash too.  We will see how well this bed does since it is right under the tree line and in too much shade for most plants.

The new grass area I've been working on--I planted new seed after working up the soil and then added mulchy straw to keep the seedlings hydrated.

Overview Pix:

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June 2-8, 2019 Dd to Indiana, Poppy, Fence

June 2-8, 2019 

Dd to Indiana, Poppy, Fence Stripping

Hello, Friends!

I'll keep this a short post this week.  Dd was invited to spend the week with our friends, the "L" family in Indianapolis, Indiana, and I stayed home and worked.  She left at 8am on Monday and didn't get back home until around 4pm on Saturday; so quite a long visit!!

Foxglove getting ready to bloom!!!!

Highlights from Dd's trip:

Dd drove the five hours to their house without incident!  We bought her drinks and snacks so she wouldn't have to stop any more than necessary.

Zoo:

Dd went to the Indianapolis Zoo!  She had a great time and saw so much---orangutans, lots of snakes, sloth, Macaw's, walrus...  We used to go to the Indy zoo a lot when she was younger so this was another special place for her to visit with lots of memories involved.  

Butler University:

Like our last trip, she went to Butler University for David's cello lesson.  It is always fun visiting a university!

Children's Museum:

It had been years since Dd had been to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis!  She was so amazed at how much it had changed.  We use to go there all the time and it was something for her to visit there again after not seeing it for so long.

Pool:

Dd went swimming at the community pool in the "L's" neighborhood.  She really relished the immense sunshine and heat mixed with being at the pool.  It was like getting to re-live a childhood memory she said.

The grapes are forming on the vines!

Kayaking at Eagle Creek:

They brought a picnic and had a lovely visit.  The group took a paddleboard, a canoe, and a kayak and went really far to the spot they decided to have their picnic at. It sounds like they really had a great time on the water.  

Visiting Friends:

Dd met up with Shiloh at Starbucks.  Dd had never been to Starbucks before, so that was an extra bonus besides getting to catch-up with an old friend.  Dd hadn't seen her since we moved to Michigan, but they have texted and wrote letters over these years.

Hike:

The last day they went on a three-mile hike before Dd had to get in the car for the long drive home.  They walked the same new trail to Eagle Creek Park that we did on our last visit.

Physical Exercise:

I'd give this week at least 10 hours of P.E. credit 

Dd's Reading:
While driving Dd listened to an audio:
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

My Week:

It was kind of a hard week and not because Dd was away from me for the longest amount of time yet.  I knew she was having a great time so that made it so easy to not worry about her.  Some of the problems/challenges this week:

Truck:

The truck broke---which is huge since we spent over $10 grand fixing it last summer.  Dh has finally seen the light, that this truck is needing a new home and he needs to find himself a better one instead.  

Dishwasher:

Then the dishwasher broke and Dh tried to fix it.  He took it apart and found a bunch of grease clumped inside clogging it.  He cleaned it out and tried to get it going but it still won't drain.  He tried running it with ammonia and super hot water, but that wouldn't drain either.  Bless his heart, he really tried to fix it.  For now it sits abandoned! So, I've been doing all our dishes by hand once again.

Raccoon:

I literally walked in on a raccoon beginning to walk down into our inside/nighttime coop that was full of all of our chickens.  They would have been trapped.  Thank the Lord, I was there that very second and was able to close the door and prevent him from getting inside.  It was pretty epic.

Power Spraying Fence:
I've been using a power sprayer to blast off all the old paint so I can re-paint our fence.  The fence has looked awful since before we bought this house!  Long-overdue job!  How many hours have I spent these past two weeks spraying our fence with the high-powered pressure spray?!  This has been a very tedious job that has eaten up most of my past two weeks of working time. 

 Oh my.  I fill it up with gas and go until it runs out of gas.  

I'll give it a little break and do a few other chores then refill it back up and start again. 

 I usually only did two or three cycles of that as each tank would last around an hour and a half or two hours. 

 By the end of the week, I had finally finished the whole back fence--don't forget I spent even more time the week before on this job!

There is a lot more fence, but I don't need it all sprayed right now. 

 I just needed to get all the paint off the fence before we can open the pool.  

It would be such a pain in lots of chips of white paint was in the clean pool.  

So, we put off opening the pool again this week. 

 It is still in the forty's each morning, so it is still really cold and the pool would be freezing if we were to open it now.

Now that I got old paint off we can work on opening the pool and I can start painting!

It was really hard spraying the fence while not injuring the flowers all around the fences.  Some iris leaves were injured in the process, but I think they will recover.

Garden: June 4th

New Compost beds doing well---The Peas are just popping out of the ground and I've planted some cucumber seeds (not coming up?) and squash.  My tripod for the peas to climb is being held in place with some branches to give it weight since it kept falling over.

New Grape Tressiss doing well

Grass Repair:

Planting Grass Seed:

Back when Giz and Grampy were here we cut down a bunch of trees and cleared some areas in the back drive.  I raked down all the dead wood, bark, leaves...and there was a big section of our yard, by the clothesline, that had no living grass.  We bought some grass seed and I worked up that soil and planted new seed and covered it with chicken-blessed (dirty) hay.  It will be nice having that area looking good again.  When you plant grass seed you have to be prepared to water it at least twice a day to keep it always moist, if it dries out once time it will die and all your hard work would be in vain.  Lots of watering ahead!

Red Poppies:

June 7th: First poppy bloomed!

I just can never get over how amazing poppies are!  These poppies I started from seed back in Indiana and brought them, with many plants, here to our new home and am so appreciative they've decided to continue blooming here.

Chickens:

Last week I might have worked the hardest I had all year and didn't get much bible study done.  So this week I decided to incorporate my chickens and my bible study by getting my books on a little tabletop and outdoor camping chair and set myself up down in the bottom run where all the greens are.  The chickens get to eat up all those greens and bugs and I get my Bible study done!  It worked out well; except for the mosquitoes that arrived in force this week.

Ms. Lemon and Charlotte continue to brood (won't get off the nest--all day, all night) so I continue to put them outside each in a chicken tractor.  Charlotte seems to be starving and is happy to get in and eat, eat, eat!  But, Ms. Lemon still doesn't seem interested in eating.  She is just in a neurotic mood and not happy.

The egg production this spring has been really low---like five eggs some days!  I know they are laying more, but the shell is so thin that they break by the other chickens coming into the nest.  I give them oyster shells and lots of greens, but the shells continue to be too thin.  

Migraines:

I had a migraine on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  I really fought my body this week.  Migraines are a full-body problem and my whole body felt run-over.  I was able to work every day but Thursday.  Thursday was so bad I spent most of the day recouping in bed with a migraine.  I told myself if I cleaned the kitchen and tidied up I could go to Strings Group in the evening. Next week I have my first appointment with "Kristi" at the Headache Specialists section of our medical group.  We are going to discuss if the Botox shots in my head have helped or not and assess if we continue with that or not.  

The hummingbirds are around throughout the day!  Love it!

Church:

I really want to share what is going on with that issue I mentioned last week( "You sing off-key" ), but I don't know if anyone besides Christie, Heather, and Chelle read my blog so I will not share what has been going on to avoid perpetuating any ongoing problems...but would ask for prayer.  

(Henry being happy!  Such a transformation for this Rescue Dog that didn't know how to wag his tail to the spunky pup he is now.)

Strings Group:

We had practice on Thursday night.  Sunday night we are scheduled to perform for our church and that will be my first time playing the auto-harp publicly.

Next Week:

Since Dd got home on Saturday she has been really down and low.  I'm hoping she will be able to rally and be able to begin her summer studies---at least start her Apologia Biology! Praying she can come out of her slump and dismay at being back home.

Dh has been having a lot of doctor appointments the past few weeks due to a mass behind his knee.  It was diagnosed as a Baker's Cyst after MRI's and ultrasounds.  He has two pieces of bone floating around in his knee, from previous knee surgery.   The bone pieces are causing problems!!!  This week he was told the next step is to call the orthopedic surgeon and work towards surgery.  SO, our plans on putting down flooring have been up in the air.  We only have a very short window of opportunity to get this done (warm weather in our area is around 3-4 months) so I am chomping at the bit! Keep us in your prayers!

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