Soaker
Send your happy thoughts this way today, please. They tell is it’s going to RAIN, for the first time in weeks. This part of the country is currently under “exceptional” drought conditions — the only part of the country that is. Our Secretary of Agriculture has already petitioned for seventeen counties here to be declared disaster areas.
It’s dry as hell.
Every day driving from Smallville to Huntsville and back I pass field after field of stunted corn and cotton. The corn’s new this year, planted with the thoughts of converting it to ethanol for higher profits than soybean or cotton, but it’s turning into a huge failure because we’ve had no rain in so long. Most of the corn I see is about knee-high (for reference, the corn in my garden, where there’s plenty of water, is between 5 and 7 feet tall and loaded with ears) and very spindly. The cotton is even shorter, maybe five inches tall. It’s terrible.
But they say it’s going to rain today, for most of the day, so please, send some positive thoughts towards north Alabama if you would.
I’ve lived in Smallville for about six weeks now, and sometimes I feel like I’m swimming in mud. During the week, every day after work I hit the ground running at home and don’t stop until around 7:30. On Saturday and Sunday, I work around the house from 7:00 or 8:00 until about 8:00 in the evening.
Weeding, hoeing, watering, painting, building, repairing, switching, picking, mowing, raking, prying, tilling, hanging, climbing, crawling, scraping, digging, wiring.
This past weekend, I: mowed about an acre, ran an electric zapper fence (including crawling around under the house for an eternity) for the cats, built a frame for a cat house for my mom, did some painting on our shed/shop, weeded in the garden more than once, replaced the screen door, picked green beans (trust me, that’s time-consuming), made sure the garden got watered (using a soaker hose, which involves getting the hose under every plant), and went to Lowe’s twice.
I feel like I’m forgetting something in that list, but you get the idea.
I enjoy what I’m doing, but sometimes it seems a little overwhelming. For every item I check off that mental list in my head, I seem to add two or three more. I’m not used to having so much to do, and I’m too close to having OCD to just let some of it go. All I can do is prioritize it, I guess. There’s no way I can do it all, or at least not all at once. God knows I throw myself into things 100% when they catch my interest (see: hiking, jigsaws, sudoku, roses, kayaking, etc).
You didn’t think I realized that about myself, did you?
Sunday afternoon it kind of came to a head. I was working on the cat house frame for my mom and I bonked, hard. For a little while, I thought I was going to pass out, sitting out there on the tailgate of Jezebel screwing pieces of wood together. Fortunately, I’m smart enough to stop when things like that happen, and I immediately put everything away and went inside for a nap.
Everything managed to survive without me for the rest of the day. I spent the afternoon lounging around, reading and surfing.
I have a hell of a time getting out of bed these days. Back when I did nothing but work out first thing in the morning and spend the rest of the day sitting around (with the occasional hike), getting up was a piece of cake. Now, I have to force myself to get up at 4:40 during the week. Well, Tuesday through Friday, anyway. I’ve altered my workouts a lot in the last few weeks. For one, I don’t work out on Saturday or Sunday, figuring I’ll get enough activity in during the day. Monday is my official “rest” day, even though I generally do a lot after work.
Most nights I sleep like a rock for about five hours, which kicks ass. I also have a pretty stunning farmer’s tan, since I spend hours outside every day.
What kills me is that I feel like I’m far more tired than I should be. No, I’m not sick, and ever since I lost weight I haven’t needed a lot of sleep. It’s just, from a mental standpoint, things like weeding (crawling down a 75-foot row pulling, then coming back along with a scuffle hoe between the rows) don’t seem like they should take a lot out of me, but they do. Maybe it’s the heat. Hell, maybe it’s my old age. I’m not complaining, I’m just not used to it.
Come to think of it, maybe my body’s reacting to all these vegetables.
I asked Robyn the other day if she thought Smallville was my mid-life crisis. New house, new boy toys, a desire to accomplish something tangible, and a whole flock of young women following me around — all the classic symptoms are there.
She said that if it is, it’s a good one so far.
If you’d told me one year ago that I would enjoy crawling around in the dirt, running my hands through plants in search of food and weeds, I wouldn’t have believed you.
But I do.
It’s very peaceful out there in the garden. There’s a constant rustling from the corn, waving gently in the breeze. Over by the squash and melons, the drone of honeybees sets the world abuzz. Each new thing I find is a treat, from a hidden bunch of green beans to the pretty little okra pod to the perfect little purple eggplants (we have five now) to the first zucchini I found yesterday, every day is like a treasure hunt.
If you’ve never grown any food for yourself, consider giving it a try. It’s pretty damn rewarding.
Tidbit of information for the week: I found out over the weekend that green beans are so named because of their state of ripeness, not their color. What this means is that the black beans I thought were green beans really ARE black beans. I was just picking them while they were green. All I need to do is let them ripen, and we should have black beans, just like I intended.
Black beans make for some really stringy green beans.
All green beans can be allowed to ripen and then be shelled for the beans, which may be anything from pinto to navy to whatever. I never knew that, but it makes perfect sense.
Tom Cullen loves flirting with the girls. He thinks he’s one of them.
“Part of your wooooooorld”
Bawk!
Here’s how the garden grows today:
Lots of flowers, no little cantaloupes yet
The watermelon flowers close up early, so they’re hard to see.
Happy plants, but no fruits yet.
Scalloped (Patty Pan) squash are awesome; we’ll be planting a lot more next year.
Our first zucchini, blending in (in the middle of the picture).
Happy squash and zucchini. I didn’t know they’d get so big.
In the back is more squash, planted later and probably not going to grow much
more because of the heat. There’s also a half-row of okra back there.
The pepper plants are happy, but not as big as I’d like.
The black-eyed peas (left) are VERY happy. Hopefully they’ll start blooming soon.
The tomatoes are happy, but I’m fighting blossom end rot because (I think) the ground was
too cold when I planted them. If that’s the case, it should work itself out.
Green beans (both bush beans and pole beans) are on the left.
That’s okra in the front (right), and black beans back behind them.
The corn’s mostly happy.
It’s the weediest part of the garden because we discovered quickly that
pulling up the weeds around the stalks makes them fall over. Wimpy plant, that corn.
I like to walk down between the two rows. It’s very solitary there.
Is it wrong that I have an immense sense of pride that our garden looks about 10 times better than anyone else’s? It’s bigger, greener, and happier, probably because it’s my second full-time job (plus all the time Robyn spends in the mornings on the weeds). The fact that I don’t know what I’m doing (or didn’t when I started, other than book smarts) and yet had it turn out well thrills me.
I started working on the shed last week. First, I removed the rotted boards.
Fortunately, there were only four, all in the same area.
I went to the 1876 house across the street and took five boards for the repair work.
I was right, the boards matched perfectly, and I’m thankful the owner of the house
told me I could have the ten I asked for. I’m even gladder I only needed to take five.
Front, before
And after. I need to tape the glass on the door and paint around it still.
Back during
And after. I need to do a second coat at some point, but it looks a LOT better.
I also need to climb my happy ass up to the top and paint the fascia on this side.
So maybe I missed something, but are you watering that garden by hand? Say it aint so. An irrigation system is a thing of beauty to design, its quite cheap if you buy all the bits and bobs yourself, and put it together yourself, and it saves a whole lot of work. Not to mention you and Robyn can put it on in the late afternoon, and then sit and watch from afar
I am sure the work will peter out to hopefully a not so high constant level. Good luck!
Yes and no, Katherine. Most of the time I use soaker hoses, moving from row to row. An irrigation system would be nice, but it would also mean I couldn’t till the ground next year because I’d break things.
I’m EXHAUSTED just reading all the work you are doing around the house but I have to say…it is looking great!!!!!!
How about straw or mulch of some sort to help with the weeds? The garden looks absolutely wonderful. Part of me jealous. Most of me, not so much.
As a young teenager growing up in southern WI I used to walk through corn rows every summer…as a detassler. Not a fun job but I was rolling in dough for a 13 year old. Plus I got blisters. the rows were seemingly endless.
Hope you get some rain! We finally got some here this morning, which was a tremendous relief. Your corn is 5-7 feet tall already? Damn. The saying up here about corn is “knee high by the fourth of July” but then we have a shorter growing season.
Re the exhaustion thing–my husband started a very physically demanding job a couple of months ago after having sedentary jobs for a long time, and for the first six weeks or so it absolutely kicked his ass. After that he adjusted to it, and now he isn’t finding it as hard to get up in the morning. So maybe with any luck once your body adjusts to the new activity level you’ll feel better.
Lynette - Thankya. It’s definitely rewarding.
Anonymous - the weeds shouldn’t be so bad next year. I tilled up field for this garden, so the ground was loaded with seeds already. At least, that’s what people are telling me. We’ve mostly gotten them under control now. Also, part of the reason they were so out of control before is because I didn’t know what was weed and what was good plant back in the beginning. Now I do, so I can be on top of the weeds from the start.
Amy - why do people de-tassel corn? Does it make it grow better?
Daisy - Our season here is so long I actually think I’m going to try planting a second crop of corn once the first is gone. I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but it can’t hurt to try, right?
Also: the rain has started. Here’s hoping it soaks us good over the course of the day.
Fred, get a grip! Getting up att 4.40 is freakish in and of itself. Sleeping for only 5 hours is not normal. Seriously. Not for any age. If your new activities makes you “sleep in” to 6.40 for - gasp! - 7 hours - so what? Don’t fret: that is still freakishly early.
Everything looks just great Fred. I’m very impressed with how well you’ve kept up with the hoeing and the day-to-day upkeep a good garden needs. We kept a vegetable garden for years … but I finally gave it up. I got frustrated with the variety of pests that kept ruining plant after plant. I would regularly use pesticides, but it still got infested with cut worms, vine borers, weevils,aphids, moles or gophers, and a variety of other pests. Those were at least somewhat manageable. But after we got root-knot nematodes, I just finally gave up. I did enjoy it in the good times.
If you ever expand your garden … you might consider adding some perennials like strawberries or asparagus. Those were easy to take care of.
I’ve been really enjoying reading about y’all’s gardening adventures lately. We just bought our first house here in Texas, and it came with a (much smaller than yours) fenced in vegetable garden! I’ve been turning dirt, and I planted a short row of peanuts yesterday. It’s very rewarding, but I already wish I had more space for planting all the things I want to try!
Ebba: If I want to work out, I have to. Plus, the chickens need to be let out at daybreak (5:20-ish right now). Heck, I’m awake anyway, might as well drag myself out of bed. As for the 5 hours thing, I don’t have a lot of control over that; I don’t use an alarm clock, I just wake up.
Martin: So far the Sevin has helped with the bugs. But, it’s also been really dry, which probably kept them down. I’ll be interested to see what July and August bring. Those are usually the really buggy months. I’ve already decided to make the garden bigger next year — I want more of everything, with a little more space between the rows.
Rachel: be warned, it’s addictive. You start looking at seed packets, thinking I’ll bet I could grow that. At Lowe’s (or wherever), you find yourself drifting over to the seedlings to see if there’s anything interesting you can plant to augment your garden (like I did with eggplants and habaneros). You start thinking I’ll bet I could grow a winter garden, too, and keep that land busy year round. It (literally and figuratively) grows on you.
I’m not Amy
but I recall reading somewhere once that de-tasseling is used to produce hybrid corn, keeps the corn from self-pollinating.
Fred,
I have perhaps the stupidest question of the day. Why does the garden need to be weeded so often? I understand that the weeds grow quickly, but why not just let them grow. Do they get so large as to take over the plant? I guess I just have no idea, the weeds in my yard never get too big, so I just don’t worry about them!
Hannah: the weeds here will quickly outgrow the plants, but more importantly, the weeds take water and nutrients that would be better (more productively) used by the plants.
Fred, you haven’t mentioned your blood sugar lately. I wonder; could you be hypoglycemic?
Sammi
I recommended a book to you in an earlier post (can’t remember the name of it) about no-weeding gardening. My husband, in his former life before we were married, kept a HUGE garden each year and didn’t have to weed. The secret is layering hay/straw throughout the garden (farmers always gave him old hay for free, too). It really works, he says. He had huge, productive gardens and he says he wouldn’t go back to the old way. If you’re interested, I’ll get the name of the book for you. Unfortunately, we have a tiny yard and nowhere to put in a garden, but we’re saving and dreaming and hope to have a place like yours someday.
Fred - you might want to look into the do-it-yourself irrigation systems that Walmart sells. You run one regular-sized rigid hose along the end of your garden, and then (using the small tool they provide) you can puncture the rigid hose wherever you need to, running small 1/4 inch soaker hoses (as many as you need) down each row. The small soakers are easy to weave in between plants and to weed around. The system is relatively cheap (although the size of your garden would certainly make “cheap” relative) and easily put together/taken apart so you could remove it at the end of the season and even reuse it in a different configuration next year, if need be. There might not be as much bang for your buck when you compare this to a more permanent system (in terms of longevity/quality), but it might just fit the bill. God knows I feel like it’s worth it in terms of time - I used to spend 30-40 minutes watering my (rather small) garden, and now I go out, turn on the main hose, and let it do its thing while I make dinner or the like.
In any case, I covet your garden (but not the work involved in it)! You guys have done an awesome job.
)
I might have missed this but…any eggs yet?
Lorraine: Nope, the girls are still too young. Hopefully in late July or August.
Crap! That reminds me that I had planted Green and Red peppers and we had let our garden go while working on Mom’s house… well we waded in the weeds the other day, cleaned it all out and got the garden back in order and we pulled the peppers thinking they were weeds! I forgot that I had even planted them until I saw yours. Blech!
Our tomatos did wonderful leaving them alone and you and Robyn have me HOOKED on Fried Green Tommytoes!!
Fred, your garden looks beautiful! I’m full of envy– we always had a garden when I was a kid, but right now I’m in [suburban hell] a development, with no space for a garden. [We also have an HOA, which makes me grind my teeth in frustration. Hate!]
We almost always got two plantings of corn in– and we’re up in PA, with a shorter season. Your season is a lot longer than ours, and I’m sure you’ll be able to get a second planting. Yay!
Fred! Just run the soaker hoses along the garden rows and LEAVE them there! Buy another if you need it. Just run them along the rows, leave them attached to each other and hook/unhook from the water source only. It makes life much easier I promise! and you can still move them indoors in winter and still till the ground next year.
As long as all your seeds have sprouted you can apply a weed product (like granules) and it will prevent new growth as you eliminate the stuff growing now. You can even buy organic weed preventer if you like (that’s what I use)
Your garden looks great!
Tomatoesssssssssss !
Here’s my 2 cents: drip. tape. It’s an irrigation system, but not as annoying as a hose and lessens the evaporation rate. We use it on the 7 acres we have in production for our produce business. Beats soaker hoses hands down. In our application, we use it under a plastic mulch, but you don’t necessarily need to go that far. The drip tape (www.dripworksusa.com)is left in the field for the year and removed at the end, so I guess you could call it semi-permenent, which is good because you will want to rotate your crops from year to year.
Otherwise, you have a damn nice garden, Fred.
Joy - Robyn made that same suggestion. Given that the soaker hoses are only $15, it’s not a bad one. There’s one under the tomatoes that’s just for them because it took me 30 minutes to thread it through all the cages. The other one I move around, but I’m thinking next year I may just buy a few more so I don’t have to move them. Moving them is easy, but I’ve broken some plants doing it.
PattM - Thanks for the suggestion, I’d never even heard of drip tape. Boy, you guys have a nice-looking setup. I bought a 2400′ roll of black mulch to use in the garden, but then started thinking that it would probably burn up all the roots in July and August when it gets REALLY hot (it’s already in the 90-95 range here most days). If I do any strawberries next year (not likely) I’ll probably use it.
You sure have the know-how to be a first timer. Just wondering, maybe I missed it somehow, did you plant any type of potatoe or cabbage? Thanks for the photos.
Ooh, you need a big metal star on the side of the newly painted shed-or an old Co-cola sign or something like that. Your garden is beautiful; I only have 8 tomato plants this year (Its the Year of The Toddler of Terror….) May I suggest for next year? Landscape fabric, landscape fabric, landscape fabric! I fought my husband about putting it down because I like to see the dirt but am ever so grateful that we did. I’ve put straw down over it to make it less noticable and hopefully after adding manure and newspaper over the winter, we shouldn’t have the same problem with weeds. It is a lifesaver!
Man, I’ve been gone a long time. The last time I was here the chickens were still just chicks under the heat lamp. I gotta get my ass back here and catch up!
I love the pictures of Tommy laying with them, very cute.