Very early in the morning while DH does his farm chores, I worked in the backyard garden. I hoed the cabbage, pepper, and purple hull pea rows. Then decided to tackle the overgrown south fence. It was full of weeds and a salvia that self-seeds rampantly. I have planted a few cherry type tomatoes along that fence too. I soaked the tomatoes and mulched most of the fence. I also watered the sweet corn. I need another sprinkler for this garden so I can just leave the good one out back in the new plot. I will water again today.
By now DH is back to the house and we clean up and go to town to buy a lot of cattle panels. He came up with the idea of fencing the new plot with cattle panels. They are 16 feet long. I hadn't thought of that but the electric fence worries us......if it went out and the cows discovered that.........they would feast. I thought it would be too expensive but he pointed out that to hire it fenced traditionally would cost way more; I think he is right. We ended up buying 20 which should be enough to fence and have 6 left to stake the two tomato rows. I hope to get the tomato ones up this morning. I plan to make him a hardy breakfast of his choice first! A little bribery never hurts.
I love these panels bent hoop-house style for growing pole beans. It is lovely to stand in the shade inside and pull handfuls of beans. They make wonderful trellises, greenhouse frames, and I am sure lots of other things I haven't discovered yet.
We lucked out; they were on sale $3 off.
I will take pictures when we get all done.
To Do:
Stake Tomatoes
Hoe sweet corn or till.
Water
Plant more cucumbers (bought seeds yesterday at farm supply)
Plant pole beans on OP corn (they are about 12 inches tall now)
Water strawberry bed preparatory to re-working it.
Mow yard and inside gardens
Clean flower Beds
No. l
Make bread this afternoon; we are out.
I know all this will not get done in a day or even in a week, but I am a list maker. I love lists. It seems to keep me motivated.
Picked up another Dennis Lehane novel at the library yesterday.
Oh, I almost forgt. I made FlowerLady's Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Frosting for Sunday when we celebrated Father's Day and MIL's birthday (next weekend, but I cheated and did both at once). It was a great success and we all loved it.
Thank you FL so much. You can find it on her Blog
Pictures for the day:
When I call the chickens they come running. They are headed for me in this one.
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| From Chickens |
and almost at my feet. They are expecting a handout.
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| From Chickens |
I caught this dragonfly on the astilble next to the smokehouse. They don't flutter like butterflies and are much easier to capture.
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| From Chickens |
Ah, a friend of mine uses cattle panel on his farmette. I never thought how they could be bent into a hoop for tall trellises and instant shade seating. Wonderful idea!
ReplyDeleteWe've had no rain since 1/2" a week ago sunday, but at this moment a line of storms are just upon us this morning. (Ooops, just starting to pour now. Yay!) I got the lawns all mowed yesterday so I'm happy happy to sit inside with coffee this morning and watch all my transplants get a good soak! Hope you catch some wet weather soon.
You've got me interested in cattle panels now. I look forward to seeing pictures of how you use them and how wonderful that you can pick green beans while standing in the shade of beans growing over the top.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you get some rain.
I'm not always a list maker, but after making one last week and doing six out of the seven things on it, I just might try to make them more often. It is motivating and it does remind you of what it is that you 'wanted' to do. I need to get out and mow, possibly this morning, since it didn't rain yesterday.
So glad you loved that cake. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
Have a great day and week ~ FlowerLady
Love the chicken photos-they are well trained!
ReplyDeleteWill check out the cake recipe as I have some oatmeal that needs to be used before it gets too old. Will be having company later in the week so they can help eat it.
We live in MN and our chicken coop and greenhouse is built with cattle panels without a ton of bracing. I will try to get pics up tomorrow on my blog. cattle panels (this is a great motivator, I have been trying to get a post done about these structures for awhile
ReplyDeleteI use the hog panels with 4x4 squares, still 4 x 16. I'm using them as lattice inserted into wood and galvanized tin
ReplyDeletefencing. When I lived in San Antonio, Gardenwille used to sell tomato cages very similar to yours, except the edge squares
were cut in half and rounded into a circle and each panels circles were brought together with a 18 guage wire going down
the center of the side circles to hold together.cattle panels I bought for of them and have had them for years and are
still in great shape. They fold into one piece for storage.
good idea. I never thought about the metal grate damaging teeth. I have a slow feeder too and Jetta gets mad at it, so I'm sure she ends up biting it, lol.chicken coops Might have too look into replacing it with a nibble net!
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