I miss the rain...

One thing that people always comment about Seattle is that they think it rains too much. I don't agree and it's one thing I miss the most from there. Every time I fly into California there's a haze over the cities that a good rainfall would clear up nicely.

On Friday when we went to Montana it rained some. Not just a drizzy but actual rain and I can't describe it but it smelled "fresh". There was even a rainbow showing that the pot of gold was over the saloon in Kalispell. No, I didn't have time to go in and find it.

I'm one of those people that like it to be, at the very most, 80 with a nice cool breeze blowing. We've been getting into the 90's with the air not moving. It was so thick yesterday afternoon that it was hard to breathe and tolerate. Needless to say we've been spending the evenings up at the lake because it's cooler than sitting around the house. The good side of this is that we've been getting a lot of fish to put into the freezer for wintertime. The bad part is that Hunter gets to scale & clean all of them today and there are quite a few... 6-Bass, 5-Perch, and 20-Blue Gill (a couple of these may be Black Crappies. I'm still learning to tell the difference.)

Perch

Blue Gill (Maybe some Black Crappies thrown in)

Bass

I miss the rain...Why is it we always want the weather that we don't have at the moment? I'd even take some snow if it wouldn't kill my garden off... I finally got my first decent size Zucchini from it yesterday.

I wish these were storm clouds and it would just rain one good downpour. Even for 15 minutes and clear up the air. We don't have smog like some places but we do have dust from the dirt roads around here.  I'm sure that someone's going to have to remind me that I said this later in the fall when it's raining constantly.

Wish it was hers... but it's not...

So some of you may remember that in July I did a post because my friend's garden was totally awesome and I got to pick a bunch of her produce. I thought it was great because my garden had a slow start this year...

Here's the previous post for those of you that missed it before: Wish it was mine.. but it's not...

Anyway, after being gone for three weeks on the work trip I now wish that my yard and garden was her's and not mine... The weeds are out of control in the flower beds and the garden is just out of control. My lettuce & brussels sprouts bolted in the hot weather so I had to pull them out. Did you know that cucumbers can get about a foot and a half long? The carrots & beets need thinning and frankly all I want to do for the out of control mess is ignore it and go fishing...

I have done some weeding of two of the flower beds but the third one has grass (weeds) about 2 feet high in all the flowers but I do have to say the zucchini is looking ok right... I just keep telling myself that a little each day and I might get control.. depends how fast the new weeds want to grow if I'll get ahead or more behind... Anyone have a weeding addiction? I have the yard to satisfy your addiction galore... just come on over...

Just some of the harvest...

and some more...

This is the flower bed I actually have weeded completely... Molly is checking it out.

I almost have this one done.. just still some grass in the middle part.

See the grass?

This is the one that is totally out of control... I don't even know where to start with this bed.

Peas & celery...

Cucumbers & Squash on left... the onions had major trauma on the right.

A zucchini is growing in there... really...

I have no idea what happened to the onions, shallots & garlic...

Beans

Just a few of the yellow beans that were growing like crazy...

Beets on the left... carrots on the right... both need to be thinned very badly...

Another shot of the beets & carrots from the other side view...

Look at all the new green...

This morning I went out to uncover the garden beds and give them a bit of air since it looks like it is going to be a nice day today...

Look at all the new green that has sprung up... Sorry about some of the exposure. The plastic coverings were making a really bad glare on the camera so I was "shooting blind" without any view finder...

On the middle left is Celery

Bottom Left, Spinach - Middle left, Broccoli - Right Peas - to the right of the Spinach is the Cabbage and almost direct in the middle to the right of the Broccoli is Lettuce

Yeah... bright glare

Beets on left - Carrots on the right

Spinach

Cabbage

Lettuce in back there and Cabbage in front

Onions & Garlic

So much more green than last weeks video

Beans are on the left - Brussel Sprouts on the right

Carrots

Beets

 

My Square Foot Garden Raised Beds

I made a video tour of my new raised garden beds, that were planted using the Square Foot Gardening method, to give people a closer up view. Things are starting to grow and it's exciting to see as the weeks go by... Enjoy!

Taking Wagers On The Pile Of Dirt

Here we are, another Saturday morning where I can't sleep because I'm thinking of all the stuff I want to get done this weekend, but too early to piss off the neighbors with any noise. So I am sitting here making plans on what to do, how to do it, when to do it etc... Problem is that I'm great at plan making, it's the execution that never goes as I think it should.

I introduce you to my huge pile of dirt...

This was delivered last monday via dump truck and plopped down in the middle of my front yard (I'd say lawn but I don't really have a "lawn".... I have something that looks like grass (sometimes) and grows really great weeds & mini wild pansies all summer but not beauiful green grass.)

Hence, I now have a large pile of lovely, dark, topsoil-peat-moss-mix that everyone assures me will grow a beautiful green lush lawn even up here in the cold north. It probably will, as evidenced by the piles of dirt that you drive by at the nurseries. Their piles are all covered in wonderful green grass on the "backside" where they aren't digging it out and dumping into people's trucks.

The question is... will it grow a lovely plush grass when layed out horizontal and not in a vertical pile? That is the question I'm attempting to find out this year... I'll keep you posted with the answer IF we get as far as planting seed.

Now in interest of full disclaimer:
The garden beds (in previous posts) were suppose to be done in ONE weekend. It's now weekend #2. We still have to complete the hoop houses (I did cut them last night) and get the plastic sheeting attached.

I also had great plans to plant the Potato seeds, Asparagus crowns, Rasberry & Rose bushes during last weekend... that didn't happen either. We did get the dirt into the box & the grids laid out for the raised beds so that was something we DID get done. My plans never seem to match up to timing... it tends to be that everything takes 2 times longer than I plan or I have children that want to add their plans to my plans for the day...

With that fully disclosed, the plan for the dirt pile is to spread it out and to use the rototiller to mix it into the present yard. The next step would be to level it out nice, plant grass seed, water & hope like hell it grows...

I'm taking wagers on if we get this done:
1. In May
2. In June
3. In July
4. Between August - September
OR
5. It's still a pile of dirt to be used as a launch for the kids to sled down in the snow next winter.

Who Would've Thought That Dirt Cost So Much?

So we have now lined the beds with weed fabric and started to fill the beds with a growing mixture of Vermiculite, Perlite, Peat Moss & Compost (various types like plant based, chicken & steer.)

This is the most expensive part of the project, costing more than the beds & hoop houses themselves, but luckily one that will not have to be repeated for quite some time. I never thought that dirt would cost so much!

Hopefully we will finish filling the beds today then mark the growing squares off. For any of you interested in reading about Square Foot Gardening there's a really good website/blog I found called My Square Food Garden.

First Hunter & Dakota were helping put in a 1/2 a big bale of Peat Moss & 1 extra big bag of compost. Then we mixed that up and put on some Lime, Vermiculite & Perlite.

Just as a side note... Aren't the mountains in the photo below really pretty?

Miss Molly wanted to help also...

Once that was all put on we found it easier to just start mixing it up with out hands... 



Next step... grids & planting (that's the part I'm looking foward to!)

P.S. I'm putting the weird photos of Hunter here because eventually he may learn a lesson to not be a dork when I'm trying to take photos...