stubbed toes and mud pies

flowerbug

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mushroom season. :)

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digitS'

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Hey Hey!

I used to have morels in my community garden! It was Park Department property and they had a storage yard nearby. They hauled in lots of Willow tree chips and I asked if I could use them on the periphery paths in my garden. Up and down the hill with my wheelbarrow.

The next year, morels!

Unfortunately, I couldn't hang onto that garden and wait for what might have been bountiful crops in following seasons for a couple of reasons. The other gardeners abandoned the garden on a wholesale basis - only 2 of us remained for the final season. The reason, Marmots! The mountain version of groundhogs and, since it was park property, we weren't supposed to do anything about them other than try to fence them out.

Steve
 

flowerbug

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today is the 3rd garden club meeting. i'm going to bring some things to work on and seeds to give away. with the forecast for rain today at least i won't be thinking i could be out gardening. :)

i do need to keep at the weeding and am pretty much ready for planting in quite a few places so all is as on schedule as it can be, just have to work around the weather and other family things as it goes along.

the culvert did get replaced at the end of the driveway. we'll need to figure out what else we'll do out there (along the edges). the old culvert was completely rusted out along the bottom after 26 years. the end of the driveway looked nice for about 4 days and then we had rains and the dump trucks ran over the end making it back into a mess again. it really needs to be cemented or asphalted and we don't really have the $ for that.

yesterday's tree trimming was unexpected. the ISP contacted me last week saying that they needed to do a check on the alignment of the small dish it uses. no problem with me. yesterday morning they showed up and after a bit they said that the signal was too weak and that they'd like to move the dish. well, er, not really going to happen so they suggested trimming some trees that were blocking the signal. so i told them i could have them trimmed within the day and then they could get their stronger signal. it was quite fun and a challenge to work with substandard muscles and tools up on the ladder, but Mom was able to help and to hold the ladder. so we got it done with a few short breaks and some lunch in there. interrupted too by farm spraying for weeds, but luckily the wind wasn't blowing into the trees directly. i called them to let them know the trees were trimmed and said if they needed anything else to give me a call back. i guess the main issue was that with a weak and varying signal their tower had to keep changing what it was doing to compensate and that was making things bad for everyone else using that tower. ok. makes sense with me...

as usual we'll see how it goes... :)
 

flowerbug

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garden club meeting was fun, i talked too much. still good to talk to fellow gardeners in person and share some things about tomatoes, garlic, onions and the naked seeded squash. we also talked about fences, morels, cattle panels, groundhogs, mice, voles, moles, squirrels, deer and adventures in woodland or field living.

hope we will pick up garden plant starts today.
 

flowerbug

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Mom has been having a hard time coming up with fabric that she can use for batting in her lap quilts that she makes for vets and hospice. we used to have a good supply from a hotel up north that would donate their used sheets that they would switch out every so often. this saved her a lot of $. last fall that hotel was sold to someone else and they didn't want to keep the sheets for her any longer so that source was out.

after struggling to find anything at all at the thrift shops and places she's managed to get by the past year. over the weekend someone brought us a whole backend of a pickup truck full of gowns that can be cut up and used . the guy had been hanging on to them because he couldn't bring himself to throw them away so he was very glad to find someone who'd use them for a worthy cause.

we don't have a lot of storage space but a few years ago i redid the garden shed and tiled the walls and ceiling to get it in better shape and to keep the mice from being able to get into the walls and since then we've mostly been using it for her fabric storage space and also some things for winter storage, but now the end of this little room is stacked full of bags of fabric from floor to ceiling. :)

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flowerbug

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planted 71 sweet onions and while i was at it i weeded the onion patch. mostly. things coming along well. :)

i wanted to get the pepper plants put in today too, but i think i'll have to wait until tomorrow for that - my body says it needs a rest now.

i only have 6 pepper plants to put in and then the tomatoes. we could use a few more tomato plants. for some reason one of the tomato plants is missing. i'm not sure what happened to it and another of the tomato plants doesn't look like it is growing well so i don't want to plant it and then not have it come through. we'll stop in next week and pick up a few replacements. 12 tomato plants should be enough for us. i'm still not sure where i'm going to plant them.
 

flowerbug

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Tree Froggy came to visit the last time we had a decent rain overnight when I was staying up late reading - they like to get the bugs off the windows.

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it is past season for the crocuses but i did get a few pictures of them that i liked.

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in this one you can see the rabbits or deer chewed on the plant and just nipped the top of the flower.

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the past few years i've not been able to get a decent lilac picture and this year it almost happened again, but i'd gone out a week before all the blooms were open and tried to get one that worked. i went back out a week later and all the blooms were spotted or damaged.

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flowerbug

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the annual running of the worms is halfway done. i use 1/4 of a bucket for each tomato plant and planted sixteen plants total. it's a lot of work but for as much as we enjoy the results of the tomatoes it is worth every minute of it.

peas, early beans, onions, peppers, tomatoes all planted, squash starting to be planted should have those finished up tomorrow or this afternoon leaving just the beans and a dozen other plants to go in (once we decide where we want them).

i have to get some gardens weeded and any empty spots filled up with beans, the hard part about planting the beans will be figuring out which ones to plant and where.
 

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