Ducks4you for 2022

[baymule]

You have been busy! Lots of tomatoes! I make lots of stuff from tomatoes and Cherokee Purple is my favorite. Last year I had so many that I canned spaghetti sauce, plain tomato sauce, pizza sauce in half pint jars, salsa, and BBQ sauce. I’m on board with grow and put up all you can! No garden for me this year, but I’ll be back at it next year!

 

[ducks4you]

So...I have a 5 page signing south of me on Wednesday. It is 15 minutes drive from where I attended college and the Very BEST pizza place is there. I Offered bringing back 2 pizzas for the family dinner, but DH declined.
FINE!!
I will Finally get my own personal ANCHOVY PIZZA on Wednesday.
I plan to eat on it for 3 days.

 

[ducks4you]

Yesterday I took the time to clean up the 2nd fenceline in the big garden. Fortunately the worst weeds dug out by the roots. 2 didn't, but I have my plastic cup and paintbrush to use on them Later.
I hand tilled, threw away weeds into the grass to be mulched by my mowers, and I planted:
2 more rows of corn (south of the fence)
lima beans and purple pole beans, under the fence
Old flower seeds north of the fence, including African daisies and asters
The flower seeds were from 2-3 yo packages, so we'll see about the germination
Last weekend I did a similar planting amongst the wax begonias, vinca, geraniums and a 4 pack of rosemary, basil, thyme and sage. I emptied out ??onion seeds, red onion seeds, bunching onion seeds, African daisies, cinnamon basil (from seeds that I had saved,) genovese basil, and maybe something else---forgot.
My goal is to direct plant my old seeds in 2022, and see about their germination.
IF I am lucky and keep these garage beds watered, they may fill in nicely to enjoy.
Gotta wait, I believe at least one month to find out.
DD got me this and it has been a Lifesaver! Plus it stores nicely in my Rubbermaid garden shed and I can store bottles, etc above and below it, though I wouldn't recommend heavy items on top bc they depress the rubber seat.

 

[ducks4you]

FINALLY got my new 6 ft fencing done and 24 tomatoes in the ground!!
I took my 50 ft long 6ft tall horse fencing, folded it in half and cut and pounded in six 8 ft tall fenceposts on the bed on the south side of the garage yestereday. I had already weeded and tilled it up. I had dumped there from the stalls this winter to help the bed,
It was quite the workout, and my shoulders are still feeling it. The fencing was heavy, too, but it's all up now, despite my inability to really keep it tight.
No matter! With my studies I realized that I needed 6 ft tall for indeterminates and my plan is to tear it up early November, after the first real freeze, cut the two pieces into four and move it to the south part of my big garden, which is 12 ft wide (and about 35 ft long, north to south).
My plan is ALSO to dig holes where the fenceposts go First, let them freeze and harden and then attach the fencing to them. They won't be tight, but I won't have as much pounding to do.
Ah, to be the gardening who preps beds the year before...
**Ducks musing about a perfect world**
24 young beefsteak (I am Sure hybred) Better Boy tomatoes are in the ground, buried to their tops. I surrounded them with decaying used straw.
THIS week we will approach 100 four days in a row started tomorrow, and I don't want to lose them to the heat. I lost 3 (from these purchased plants), 4 of them are pretty small, but I have 16 spares which are crying out to be transplanted to pots today bv they are terribly potbound. Got them at Menard's where they will plant 4 seeds/cell and most live and get leggy and thick stems.

 

[ducks4you]

I had bought a new 50 ft soaker hose which fits perfectly to reach all of the tomatoes!! 😍😍😍
Soaked the tomatoes for 2 hrs last night just to be sure. I intend to leave the soaker hose there until it looks like all have sufficient roots to handle to summer. This is water from my cistern by the house, so it only costs me electricity to run the pump.
We have a 2nd cistern, 25 ft deep, that we haven't accessed for years, in front of the barn.
DH wants to buy a new pump for it this week, that I will store in the basement during the winter.
I cannot imagine that I would ever pump it dry.
I Need it bc I am trying to save my oldest cherry tree. It lost leaves 2 years in a row from the summer drought and I need to put one of my 100 gal Rubbermaid water tanks on a rootline drip this summer. No cherries from the flowers this year, although the other one is begging me to harvest at least some before the birds take them.
I am going to try some comets in this tank to see if the water is good for the horses. Fish are sensitive, and if they thrive, then I will stop using the house water, that I Pay for, to fill Their tank.
I'll get back to you on that one.

 

[ducks4you]

I have 17 Cherokee Purples that I started from 2021 saved seeds, and they are in less of a hurry of transplant, happy in their 5 gallon fish tank that I keep an inch of water in. All of my weeds were burned yesterday. I still have 8 boxes of closed and past date--attys only need keep the last 7 years worth of their files--to be burned, but I burned 2 boxes yesterday. DH wants them burned up asap.
Good thing I looked at the first box!
DH and I had gone through the boxes to remove useful items, but this one was neglected and I separated:
--2 binders
--2 sets of notebook dividers
--1 dozen hanging files (for filing cabinets)
--4 docket report covers in good shape
--many plastic coated large and small paper clips
--many alligator clips, including the really pretty iridescent ones that I remember buying for the office
We didn't take out staples or remove metal paper clips bc they just rust anyway and will break down eventually with the ashes when I remove them from the firepit. I also burn wood with nails in them bc I dump outside of the horses pastures.
In This economy I don't want to waste, and I have plenty of storage space in my home office for the law office in the future.
Anyway a storage box full of paper burns a long time. All of the weeds are burned up and the rain last night put the fire out. All a win-win.

 

[ducks4you]

2022 is my year for throwing old flower seeds out in the vegetable beds. This morning, dodging raindrops, I scattered cosmos, sunflower and saved firecracker okra between the tomato fencing and the south side of the garage, and threw lupine and delphinium seeds on the north side of the 2nd row of fencing.
ALL seeds were over one year old.
We'll see what comes up!

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Cistern? Its like a naturally filling well?

 

[ducks4you]

@Rhodie Ranch .
Yep, it naturally fills up, but is limited in how much it can hold.
I Have drained this cistern before.

 

[ducks4you]

Beans are up and 2nd row of corn is also up.
I watered everything today, but with 99-100 degrees outside with a dewpoint in the mid 70's, it's Really hard to leave the dogs again to enjoy the AC by themselves!