What did you do in the garden today?

Picked a bounty! Hot already. Dolly helped and then rested in the shade with her bone. I'm trying to figure something to do with the leftover pool machinery. Before I got here the pool had been decommissioned and filled in with cruddy rocks and yellow sandy soil. This blue tank is cast iron I think and heavy as sin. No power or water on out there now. Would be handy to have that way back there, as it's over 100 yards to current closest power and water. My flowers are going gangbusters! Everything is growing great. Rainwater storage is full. Working on finishing paver extension of cement patio, currently under temporary shade cover. Next year it'll get a permanent cover. So far a wonderful day in the garden!
 

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Picked a bounty! Hot already. Dolly helped and then rested in the shade with her bone. I'm trying to figure something to do with the leftover pool machinery. Before I got here the pool had been decommissioned and filled in with cruddy rocks and yellow sandy soil. This blue tank is cast iron I think and heavy as sin. No power or water on out there now. Would be handy to have that way back there, as it's over 100 yards to current closest power and water. My flowers are going gangbusters! Everything is growing great. Rainwater storage is full. Working on finishing paver extension of cement patio, currently under temporary shade cover. Next year it'll get a permanent cover. So far a wonderful day in the garden!

I am jealous that you are getting ripe tomatoes! I am only getting cherry tomatoes. The regular tomatoes are still green and not very big yet. My green bean plants are just getting started. I love the picture of the little lizard on the leaf!:love
 
Well, I always rue the day when it comes, but today I finally had to pull out the formerly spectacular sweet peas. Those flowers were so great this year. Harvested the seeds this year for once, so I was proud of myself.

Unfortunately, when I pulled out the sweet peas, I also had to pull out a lot of grass too. When I dry stacked the cinder blocks for a "temporary" herb & flower garden (8 years ago), I forgot to put down weed barrier. A decision I regret frequently. Pulling all that was a tougher job than I really wanted to do. I stopped when I saw black widow spiders coming out of the cinder blocks.

Fortunately, my hens took care of those nasty little buggers!!! They got plenty of protein snacks and some of my strawberries too, but I figure that's a fair trade for saving my life from spiders, right?
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tee hee.... Glad it isn't just me that does that!!!

Re: plants still sitting in pots: That's me this year. Never had such a topsy turvy gardening year. I decided I have enough time to grow some 68 day corn, and some Blue Lake Bush green beans (never tried that variety.) so have the seed soaking this morning. THey will go in the orchard along with a Butternut (still in the pot) and a few miscellaneous seeds that I want to broadcast in the BTE mulch to see how they fare without moving the mulch back to expose bare soil. Also have some watermelon in pots. I've never successfully grown that either. We'll blame my failure with that on our short growing season. I will toss them in the green house, give them a "survival of the fittest, do or die" speech, and walk away.
 
Hey lazy gardener! I've got Blue Lake bush beans this year too. They've done well for me. I started picking them about 5 weeks ago. Out of about 9 bushes direct seeded in March with another 4 or so planted every 3 weeks throughout March-April-May, I'd guess I've picked 20 pounds of beans so far, and just getting started. They have certainly been good producers in a small footprint.

HE surprised me with a few seed packets in February. Wasn't on Valentines Day, but I was happy he thought of me and grabbed some. Normally I'd plant flat podded (Italian) pole beans, but he doesn't know much about gardening, so he chose the Blue Lake, as well as Hale's Best cantaloupe, California Wonder bell peppers, Rutgers tomatoes, and a few other varieties of things. I'm into open pollinated and heirloom varieties that do well here, but a gift is a gift and I'm grateful. And so far all have been growing well, tomatoes and beans producing already. The Rutgers tomatoes aren't as productive as some of my other varieties yet, but I figure they'll start hitting their stride about the time some of my early ones are quitting for the season.

Got a huge storm in the wee hours today, with thunder and lightning going off BIG every few seconds for about 40 minutes! Dumped so much rain my big smoker fell over sidewise from sinking into the soaked ground. Luckily no damage and we got it righted and moved to more solid ground. We'd moved it to have a good flat place for laying out coop and run parts on the cement. I'm still working on digging out the patio extension to set in pavers, so we've run out of paved space. So much to do!

I harvested lightly today after getting anything I was afraid the storms would take yesterday. Amazing how fast the cucumbers go from "too small"to "almost missed getting it in time"! Everything looks very happy and refreshed after all the rain.

Got the brooder materials all set up in the sun porch. Will spend some time tomorrow getting it set up in case the chicks get here early. Ship date still the 28th as far as I know. I expect they'll get from Ideal in Cameron to me in Arlington overnight. Been so long since I raised chicks, I hope I still got the touch!

Not much to do in the garden today, so I put up another small batch of stewed tomatoes. Never can have to much of that. So versatile!

Might work on the patio pavers tomorrow if the clay isn't too sticky to dig. Sure would be nice to have that extra space. I'm having to incorporate a French drain there too, so it's a bigger job than just throwing down some paving blocks. It will help take the runoff away from where the coop & run are to be and put the excess water somewhere it's more needed. Worth the trouble to do it right. And it's going to be so pretty once the pavers are done and we put the permanent cover over it all next year! I can hardly wait to sit out there sipping sweet tea or margaritas.

Hope y'all are having a beautiful bountiful weekend.
 

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