Garden Clean-Up

Saturday was another productive day on Wilsons Farms complete with lots of sunshine! After all the rain we have had in the past week or so, the plants were soaking in the sunshine like no tomorrow. Hubby kept telling me that the plants were growing before our eyes... and how they were bigger in the afternoon from when we first got in the garden that morning.

As you can see there are little squash coming in...



The cilantro is double in height now!



Most of our day was spent working in the garden. Hubby and I both spent a lot of time off and on hand weeding and hoeing the long rows. Again, with all of the rain we had, it is no surprise the amount of weeds we have too!







We also strategically dusted those plants still showing evidence of worms or bugs. We re-applied the deer/varmint prevention liquid to the plotsaver perimeter fence. And we set up our strings for the cucumber plants to "run" up!





Next up was thinning out the corn stalks... we planted 3-5 seeds in each hole back during the planting weekend in early May. They all seem to have made it to corn stalks! So we cut out the smaller ones to make more rooms for the best 1-2...





"BJ" came over to pitch in and he bush-hogged the overgrown lower bottom plot for us... this is where our honey bees are located. The white clover was pretty much dried-up so it was time to cut it.



Later in the day, "BJ" and Hubby did some scraping/leveling of one section of our driveway... This section was pretty eroded from all of the vehicles going over it in the past year.



We also planted more sweet corn... picked up a dollars worth at the local feed store. This will come in a month after our current planting.





All in all, the garden is looking fabulous!

The Back-Up Plan

Did I mention that we have a back-up plan? Back when we first planted the garden on our farm, we also planted 5 more tomato plants and 2 jalapeno plants in large pots on the back deck of our house. Ya know... Just in case the big garden failed. Here's to hoping for a plentiful harvest bounty from all of it!

Bee Check-Up!

Last night we painfully (because it is so dang hot and humid these days!) suited up in our heavy lined canvas shirts, netted helmets and long gloves to go visit the bees. We had not checked on them in a couple of weeks so we were overdue for a visit.



The bees just are not building their honeycombs like we think they should... so we were checking them to makes some notes for our upcoming bee keeper's meeting next week. Not sure if the heat or what is making them a tad less productive than the norm.



Next, we checked on the garden... looks like a few strawberries are coming in.



And the raised beds are rocking and rolling too!



We have gotten quite a bit of rain since Sunday so the garden rows are pretty muddy... but, the overall growth from the rain is simple amazing!



Last, we hung up a few light colored grocery bags around the garden... Hubby heard that the white bags whipping in the wind will deter animals. I said why not? We only have about 200+ of those at the house!

Showers Showers Bring June... Blooms?

After my prayers and rain dance yesterday, we had over 1/2 inch of rainfall during the thunderstorm that came through around 5pm. I was so glad to get the much needed rain... and it meant that I had to get to the farm as quickly as possible this evening after work to take care of some garden needs. So I left work shortly after 5pm today to rush home only to find out that we got another 3/4 inch of rain earlier this afternoon during a freak 20 minute downpour! My garden was super giggling when I got to the farm today...



It seemed like everything in the garden had grown at least 2 inches! Rain is so good for the plants... no amount of well water can grow the plants the way rainwater does!
My pumpkin sprouts were much bigger...



My week old okra was moving on up too!



The pole beans are almost up to the baling twine!!



After a thorough examination of the happy garden, I loaded up the "dust-mizer" contraption of my Grandad's and sprayed some sevin-dust on a few plants that had evidence of insect damage (i.e. bugs, worms, etc.)... The humidity in the garden was so thick it made it hard to work fast. Next, I re-applied the plot saver liquid to the deer/varmint prevention fence around the entire perimeter of the garden. By this time, I was soaked with sweat and Hubby had made it home.

And after all my hoping for rain yesterday (and after getting 1-1/4" already between yesterday and today) wouldn't you know the bottom fell out as soon as I finished the dusting of the plants and the fence re-application?? It poured for over 30 minutes!



So during the downpour we utilized our time in the barn by Hubby sawing my recycling container tops... I get these great 5 gallon buckets w/ screw on tops and carrying handles from the aquatic center at work. They make great recycling bins for me to carry our recyclables to the drop-off center in town.





Once the rain stopped, the garden was giggling in the sunset again.

Driving Posts & Cutting Bamboo & Work Bench Construction- Part 3!

One of the things us farmers do is check the weather. And we check it often. The local forecast has been calling for storms on this day since mid-this-past-week. As of this morning, the weather forecast was showing thunderstorms starting around 2-3pm. So the whole day is planned around that event happening in that time slot.... We started out heading to the closest metropolis, LaGrange for garden supplies and workshop materials... plus a trip to the grocery store. Home by late morning, on farm working by noon hour.

First off, Hubby went ahead and drove some new posts for me into the ground in/outside the run between my 2 rows of cucumbers. I am eventually going to build a tee-pee formation rack system up to these posts for my cucumbers to run up. But, the cuke plants are not quite big enough to starting "running" yet... so we have a little time before we have to construct it.





After all that manual labor of post-driving and once "BJ" arrived, Hubby retired to the barn out of the blazing hot sun... And Hubby and "BJ" were nice enough to start off by making me some stakes as requested. 18 inch long rebar pieces heated up and bent into a "J" formation for me to drive into the ground. I could tell they really enjoyed this task.











Once the stakes cooled down, I took them out to the garden and drove them into the dirt to pull the baling twine down closer to the pole bean plants. This will get them close enough in hoping the rain today would help the plants grow up and grab onto/run up the twine!





I did remember to pick up a few more tomato cages today while we were at the home improvement store... so I set those up on my five large tomato plants.



It was blazing hot today, but the boys still continued on with their welding and cutting today on the work bench.







This is going to be one heckuva work bench I tell ya!

I forgot to mention that "BJ" brought me some bamboo today. I am very excited to make some posts, stakes, etc. out of this natural homegrown plant/tree!
Here is what it looked like BEFORE I got a hold of it:



And this is the AFTER photo... after I ninja-fied it w/ an old dirty machete!

Pole Beans Stringing and Work Bench Construction- Part 2

Saturday was another productive day at the farm... Hubby and "BJ" spent all day cutting, grinding and welding up the support legs/arms for the new work bench/shelves. Hubby is an excellent layout man and "BJ" is a grade-A welder!!















All the while the boys were playing with their tough toys in the barn, I was working in the garden. It was time to wire up the racks for the cherry tomatoes to run up. I used my old wire racks from yester-years cherry tomatoes (grown on our back deck up in the City) and tied them together into a continuous rack for our four cherry tomato plants. Then, cut up pieces from our spool of light gage wire we got up at the feed store.





Next up was stringing up the cables for the pole beans to run up too. Boy, this project of zig-zigging the baling twine seem to take forever! The twine had a putrid stench and felt like prickly insulation... plus factor in the baking sun.









Hubby even came out at one point in the afternoon to help/get in on the action!



The final product looks great!