What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

We have 2/3 of the garden planted now most of the transplants are doing fairly good in the heat of the last couple days. They kinda get witty in the afternoon heat but perk up when it cools off. Most of the garden space this year is brand new first year growing, so I hope it does ok. We have 33 tomatoes, 3 rows of potatoes, 3 kinds of beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sunflowers,and some other things I cannot remember at the moment lol. My back is 80% better but I smashed my foot with a log at work yesterday it rolled off another log while I was bucking it up. Foot is a little black and blue but the swelling is down quite a bit so I thankful for that. When log fell I tossed the saw away so I wouldn’t cut myself with it. The log was so heavy I could not budge it at all it was super painful and I was working on job alone. I called boss to come help but he was 40 mins away. After about 10 mins of struggling trying to pull foot out I stretched out far as I could and reached the saw and cut log off of foot. The owner still has not hired any laborers and first my back now my foot. The worst part is being on these sketchy mountain side job sites alone all the time sheesh.

that sounds pretty dangerous to me, be careful out there! i have a hard enough time in the morning that i wouldn't want to complicate things with power tools...

 

[flowerbug]

@Collector , on the farms we had a rule that we never run a chainsaw while alone. That was neighbor and at home work but still! It can't be safe or wise for employer's insurance.

Finished planting the tomatoes (except for the 2 plants I forgot at home - sorta thing happens daily ). Only a few peppers this year. There is plenty of hot peppers dry in the house and we will have several in containers this year.

First planting of sweet corn! I've crowded the rows as usual. I've made a mistake by crowding the rows. Very quickly, all weeding will have to be by hand because the rototiller won't fit.

Sad note: had tried to mess up marmot residence in the rockpile yesterday. Neighbor has a bunch of old lumber up there and the marmots have moved under it, as they did about 7 or 8 years ago. At that time, I shot them.

Today, they must have decided to move closer to the garden instead of recognizing that it was the gardener up there banging on their house in the rockpile! I hit one with a rock, then hit him with my shovel ... believe it or not, he still got away. He's doomed and probably long dead by now. He barely made it down a hole under neighbors garage ... I feel bad ... I guess I should have grabbed him or done something to slow him down enough to belt him a second time with the shovel. I was too lame to catch up to him. His mate is still running free but my guess is that she has crossed the border by now and won't be back.

Steve

grabbing an injured animal would be likely way to get bit. marmot is same as groundhog? i haven't seen one here since last week when i may have shot the one large one that was trying to keep reopening the summer den that i was keeping filled in and closed back up as soon as i noticed it being disturbed again. they are persistent.

around here, sweet corn is raccoon food without an electric fence or you plant a large field of it. deer will eat it too. we don't grow it, we like it but don't eat a lot of it. favorite way is corn roast on the grill but nobody does that around here any more. i now like it just warmed up in the microwave for a few minutes. the green silk is edible and yum.

 

[Nyboy]

Steve I am very impressed your able to hit a small target with a rock. Good arm good eye, I once threw a flower pot at a deer standing about 10 feet away and missed

 

[digitS']

marmot is same as groundhog?

Both are Marmota.

Marmots are the high altitude version. My understanding is that they live above 6,000' in Colorado, down to 2,000' feet here, and at sea level in Alaska.

Yeah, too many tolerant neighbors here - mountain cottontail and marmots. I've noticed that about the only varmint they don't tolerate are the ground squirrels. It's okay but I couldn't have a garden with a den of marmots 30' away, both the rockpile and garage are about that distance with garage centrally located ...

Yeah, rodent bite ..! The neighbor doesn't want them either. His dachshund went after those earlier marmots and one tore a hole in her throat. They have a new dachshund now and seeing one would likely send her to the vet, also.

I didn't know how to deal with it. Told the other neighbor that I'd seen them in his hay barn. I could tell that he wasn't going to do anything. Plants are just starting to come up. The last time I buried one, something dug it up - skunk suspected. A skunk must have had some problem around the tractor one night several years ago, when the guy left it here. Skunk sprayed it. Ha!

Yeah, raccoons will show up for the corn and the problem was worse when there were several sweet corn fields near the garden. What I have found is that they prefer more mature ears so if I pay attention and harvest at the human-preferred stage, raccoons aren't too problematic.

Some wildlife beyond microscopic have been helpful - owls, hawks and coyotes have killed rodents in and near the garden.

Steve

 

[Collector]

@digitS', I wonder what it is eating the silks off of the ears. I always thought it was earwigs but maybe it another bug. Do you do anything to keep pests off your corn?

 

[flowerbug]

@thistlebloom , we decided last winter that I am going to stop doing roadwork , or anymore out of town work. Staying closer to home from now on out, I have a grandson now lol. So far with this new company I have managed to bang myself up a few times. They really need to get some laborers hired and have one with every operator, to speed things up and keep me off the ground so much. Right now they have one laborer and he has worked with me three days in three months. The rest of the time it just me grinding away all day. I am still in the job market if something comes up better, but I asked a high hourly wage and they did not argue about it. So here I am hobbling around for a couple weeks.
P.s a memo came out this morning , no more processing timber without at least two people on job site. I guess we will never process timber again lol.

good deal! yes, Thomas needs a granddad!

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS', I wonder what it is eating the silks off of the ears. I always thought it was earwigs but maybe it another bug. Do you do anything to keep pests off your corn?

deer will certainly do it. it's very good - tastes just like corn.

 

[seedcorn]

Deer eating silks looks like you took a pair of scissors to them. Bugs tend to burrow into the silks so you see a straggled look to them.

 

[LocoYokel]

spent the morning with @thistlebloom, sent her away with a full truck load of flowers



(Really helped clean out the bed that has to be moved! Hope she comes back soon...hint,hint!!)

 

[flowerbug]

spent the morning with @thistlebloom, sent her away with a full truck load of flowers



(Really helped clean out the bed that has to be moved! Hope she comes back soon...hint,hint!!)

love it when a good plan works out. i'm so envious of anyone who has friends/neighbors like that.