Watering the Front 40.

We are so very thankful for the blessing of rain today at the farm. Our gardens and raised beds just drank it up! About the only set back with our massive garden plot (you know the one we call the Winter Patch these days) up on the front 40 is that there if no natural (or man-made for that matter) water source in the vicinity. So what does this mean? It means we have to haul water up there is there is no rain for an extended amount of time... Now we did not have this issue during the summer time with the Pumpkin Patch.... but, the rain showers were a lot more frequent back then. So after planting the Winter Patch last week, the new seedlings and baby plants were withering away by this week.... so what did we do? We hauled!

Hubby decided to employ our nephew to help water the patch...

It was slow going at first...

Then Hubby decided to speed things up by bringing two large garbage cans and my 7 gallon recycling bins full of water up to the patch... he then rigged up something using a water hose.

And we managed to give all of the plants a nice drink before dusk... Just hope today's rain helps for a few days!

Rain Is A Good Thing.

We are living in a mud world... there must be squishy red clay mud everywhere I tell ya!

That is the thought that repeatedly runs through my mind as I trek out into the garden these days and into thick soft squishy mud for rows. Now don't get me wrong... I love the rain. I am even talking about dropping some dollars on plastic barrels to catch rain for watering the pumpkin patch when we don't have rain later. (Hubby finds this amusing since he seems to think it's going to rain forever and we will Never need to trek water to the pumpkin patch) But, my love for rain is suddenly hindered by my worrisome thoughts of plants getting root rot or the insects taking over because I cannot keep the sevindust on them. As we speak, the heavy weight of the fruits ever-growing on the plants plus the ongoing beating drops of rain and wind is knocking all of them over each day. By the time this rainy season moves on, we will have staked every plant in the garden! I ran out of bamboo to make stakes out of and Hubby had to start sawing the 2 x 10 drop pieces left over from making his work bench. Hey, at least we can improvise!

I am having to make myself go out and pick at least every two days just to keep the ripe (or halfway ripe) veggies from laying in the puddles of rain any extended amount of time. They will split or burst from the water exposure if not.

I switched over to my duck boots and wear canvas pants now since it's so muddy and I don't have to swat all the insects from my legs.

At the end of the day, rain is still a great thing in our book!

Few highlights since the last post:

Guess what's sprouting up in the patch??! That's right Pumpkins!

Last of the bamboo stakes on the heavy bell peppers.

Staked up banana pepper plant.

One big ol' zucchini! Biggest one out of our garden yet!

Little plot fence repairs... Gotta use much larger diameter stakes thanks to the soggy ground conditions!

Overall, the garden is still looking great! Just needs a little Vitamin D to go with all this great rain...

Rain Rain Rain...

It's been raining since Wednesday night. Not sure how much rain we have gotten at the farm though... finally ordered a rain gauge off of Ebay yesterday during all of this downtime hanging out inside the house. But, I did make a quick trip over to the farm (yes, in the rain no less) to pick veggies so they would not get waterlogged and split open being so close to the ground. Couple of photos of the garden:

Lots and lots of peas to be picked and shelled soon!!

Can you see the okra? It has jumped up in height this week... especially to the right of the purple eggplant in the photo... Why do you ask? The okra plants on the right are planted in more top soil than the okra plants to the left of the eggplant! CRAZY, isn't it?

How Does The Garden Grow?

Just a few photos of the garden from Thursday night before another hellacious storm came in and dumped even more precious rain water on the garden!

Look how high the beans are reaching up!



The blue berry bushes have a few berries...



Baby corn sprouting up from the seeds planted just last Saturday!



The sweet potatoes are spreading like crazy!



And even though we had so much rain up until last week, the garden was dry as a bone on Thursday... so watering from the well helped.



All the while Hubby has been diligently working on his man cave work bench...

Rainy Sunday

Sunday was a wet and windy having rained off and on most of the day. There was not a lot to do in the garden when it is so muddy.

Hubby did sample the cilantro though... look how high it has grown in the past week!



And look how much the pumpkins have taken off!



Hubby did try a little hoeing in the not-so-bogged-down-with-water areas...





And our garden help will hang out/lay around just about anywhere! She seems to be particularly fond of the okra!





Overall, it is still a stunning beauty!

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.

Rain Is A Good Thing

Quick check on the garden Monday afternoon while meeting a fence installer to discuss our perimeter fence options around the plot. We got another two inches of rain on Sunday and from the looks of my three rows of peas, they are happy, happy, happy! (See the staked rows in the photo) Way too muddy to do anything... but, I did score some pumpkin seeds over the weekend and okra seeds at the local feed store yesterday. Just hope I can get them in the ground the next couple of days!

Rain = Sprouts!

This Saturday morning we woke early to the sounds of rain and thunder. That's good news because the garden is getting some much needed rain water! That's no so good in that we will not get much done today on the farm. So as the rain kept up for most of the morning, we took a drive into town (LaGrange) to run some errands. By mid-afternoon the rain had stopped and we decided to head on over to take care of some stuff in the barn.

And when we made the drive around the garden heading in, guess what we saw? So many shoots or sprouts of peas and corn!!! Long rows of green sprouts of each! And a few of the pole beans = So excited!!!





I was ecstatic! After only a week in the grounds from seeds came the sprouts... Thank you Mother Nature for your wonderful rain today! Amen.

Rain Delay

Saturday was a bust for us with all of the rainfall we had over the course of last week. We got over four inches on Saturday alone. So what do farmers do when it's raining? We headed to the metropolis of Columbus to pick up our new tiller attachment that came in earlier in the week!



I am sure the folks at the Deere dealership were not too excited about having go out in the pouring rain to load her up...but, we drove a long way to pick it up! Hopefully, we have everything we need now to keep us going on the farm!