Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Weeding, the never ending job for gardeners

 Tuesday, May 22, 2012

 at least for this gardener.
 My Iowa sis buys bags (truck loads) of mulch and weeds and then mulches but I am too cheap to do that so it is a never ending job for me.

It was so cool this morning, 43° that I had my little heater on in the kitchen.  Today is supposed to be another cool day so I plan to take full advantage and do more weeding in the berry patch.

Yesterday I got about 2/3 of it done and see I have a few ripening raspberries already.  They are tiny things; our lack of rain hasn't been a good thing for them.  When I get the weeding done, I intend to soak the ground there thoroughly.

I also chopped some tree seedlings  growing from the middle of the abelia shrub by the front door and cut the Awakening rose  (a sport of New Dawn) way back.  I am pretty sure some branches have RRD!  I try to cut them out for as long as  I can before  giving up and digging out a rose.  While out front, I also  watered the little curved bed in the front shrub border again.

I makes me so sad to see the thick beds of daylilies turning yellow due to the lack of rain and way too hot temps!

We still do not have the riding mower back from the shop.  I am  trying to talk DH into a second back-up mower.  I would love to have a heavy-duty one that I could use to mow the smaller lots near the house.  The bull pen and calf lots are so small it is difficult to cut them well with the tractor and the 7-foot cutter.
They are so darned expensive though.......

Farm

Hay is always a big item when you have cattle.  We have had our fields custom cut; we have bought hay.  Trying to find good, dependable custom hay men is about as hard as finding good, dependable people to do anything!  The first man we used back when we moved over to this farm quit doing it and for several years we tried first one man and another....nothing we were every really impressed with. Then we decided to just buy our hay.....we did that for  3 or 4 years.  We never got what we thought was outstanding hay...then the high prices hit last year and paid $70 per bale for some just so so hay.

Our on  again/off again farm helper mentioned that the first man we had ever used was back  doing custom hay work again. Their farms are adjoining. We called; he was interested.  He went over  the fields with DH last evening and was happy with how they looked and said he would cuts as many fields as we wanted.  We are just delighted.  We didn't fertilize this year,thinking we would be buying again but the cows have been fertilizing it so that helps.  We will lime this fall and fertilize next spring and be ready!  I  figure we will have about $30 in each bale if we fertilize  and that will be cheaper than buying and we will  know  what we have and when it was cut.

Farm life is nothing if not  challenging. You have  to stay on top of things.  Nothing is every static and you have to be ready to go with the flow!

Lauren's Grape Poppy (somniferum )is back to her true colors this year.

 

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful poppies. Will they continue to stand on their own, or do they fall over from the weight of the bloom (or lack of rain)?

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  2. I love that poppy.

    I can only imagine all the work it entails to run a farm. I get overwhelmed with just our 1/3 acre, us and our 4 felines.

    I am going to try mulching with the leaves from the oak tree that is our neighbors and our own melaleuca leaves. I have weeds, weeds and more weeds.

    Have a great rest of the week Glenda ~ Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

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  3. Omigosh, that poppy is gorgeous! I've never seen one that color. Bee-yew-tiful!

    Even though it's still a little early to plant much out in the garden way up here in the Northwoods, that doesn't stop the weeds from growing. Doesn't seem fair to have to weed bare ground, but that's the way it is right now.

    We have been very blessed this week with some steady rainfall. The forecast right now is that we "might" get up to 3" by tomorrow night. That's a bit much, but it sure will take care of the forest fire danger!

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  4. I don't know how you make a profit at all with cost of hay that high. All the food companies, Tyson included, struggle with the high cost of production yet the consumer has a fit when chicken/pork/or beef go up in price. We are lucky to have the abundance we do, in all parts of our life! Have a great Memorial Day weekend Glenda...

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  5. Oh what luck for you to find your old guy to mow your own hay. I'm happy for you!

    I don't care at all for bread poppies, but your upright beauties in the pic are making me think again. But those aren't bread poppies, are they? They don't look furry and floppy.

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