What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

...
I may have gotten a little bit of heat exhaustion, even though I took breaks in the shade and drank a LOT of liquids, but I had no appetite, so good for losing weight. Today will be only 83 so I can get some more planting done.

heat itself will help kill the appetite. which is why i think that people running the AC all summer is why it is too easy for people to put on a lot of weight. i try to talk Mom into letting it get a bit hotter inside but she has a hard time with the humidity so the AC helps bring that down. i can lose 10lbs during the summer if i watch what i eat a bit and drink a lot of water and sweat it all out.

however, today certainly did not count in that regards as we had some ribs and cake and nothing got done in the gardens other than some watering earlier...

saw the first bean sprouts!

 

[ducks4you]

@seedcorn , I made sure to reread some articles before planting my corn. They pretty much agreed ~12 inches apart. The one article that suggested hilling was also suggesting using ornamental corn for that. I made one row of 12, staggered the second row with 7, then the 3rd row has 12. I was a little bit generous and planting a few seeds in most of the holes. By staggering in a triangular pattern, all planting Was 12 inches apart from the others. Even though I tilled in all the December used horse stall bedding, I will probably make some manure tea to amend them this summer. I will plant the next set of 3 rows in a week, and the next set of 3 rows in 2 weeks.
Guess we'll see how I do. In 2019 I planted in compost and had a really nice harvest. Problem was that it ALL came in for harvest at the same time, so I couldn't keep up.
The compost really helped with weed control, not that there were no weeds, just easy to remove them.

 

[ducks4you]

On Wednesday night we had a torrential rain. ALL of my horse feeding buckets were full, including the one that is 12 inches deep. I had a water bucket (5 gallon plastic paint bucket) that had 6 inches of rain in it. I had moved it to mow and had it sitting on top of my Rubbermaid plastic garden shed. The official total is 5.5 inches.
DH called and the gun he paid for was ready for pickup. He decided to take back roads. We had to turn and redirect 6 times bc of flooded roads. I even saw a farmhouse across from ponding in the fields with a car partially submerged, presumably bc somebody tried to drive through the water.
We have enough vegetation that it was soaked up. I wanted rain bc I had just planted corn. My tomatoes and peppers got a good soaking, as well as my annuals in the beds north of the garage.
I finally planted my beets yesterday, after adding ash from Wednesday's big burn, although there wasn't as much ash as I expected. No matter. I worked it in well, the soil was wet and all seeds are covered. It was 2019 seed, so I will be checking and buying a little bit of beet seed to plant where any seeds fail.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I finished up the last of the new garden beds that we made yesterday, the extra load of mulch came so it is finished and ready to go. I planted starts of zinnia, hollyhocks, strawberry spinach, cilantro, parsley,chives, savory, two different kinds of basil, six different kinds of peppers, some late cabbage I found hiding in a hanging basket, marjoram, cumin, lemon balm, bee balm, rhoselle hibiscus, hyssop, edible chrysanthemum, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, butternut squash, and a couple of dahlias mom didn't have room for in her flowerbed. I moved my potted tomato from its pot into the garden because it didn't have enough room and was super stressed in the pot. I also planted green beans and pumpkin from seed. There's half a tray of alyssum to go out between plants once they establish themselves a little, but it looks like rain.

In hopes of making it rain, I watered everything in. My yard is so dry right now there are cracks big enough to stick my fingers in.

 

[ducks4you]

In hopes of making it rain, I watered everything in. My yard is so dry right now there are cracks big enough to stick my fingers in.

HOW did the Wednesday night deluge pass you by?!?!? We had nearly 6 inches of rain and severe flooding here.

 

[Prairie Rose]

HOW did the Wednesday night deluge pass you by?!?!? We had nearly 6 inches of rain and severe flooding here.

We had a lot of wind here, but no actual rain. My mother works over in decatur and said it absolutely stormed there, but we didn't get a thing.

 

[TwinCitiesPanda]

In hopes of making it rain, I watered everything in.

Usually does the trick for us. Husband spent hours watering some of the new trees yesterday, thunderstorms brought us a half inch of rain overnight. Not that any of it went to waste - I'm sure the plants all made the most of it.

 

[seedcorn]

@ducks4you With your soil, you should be able to plant 6-7” apart with 24-30” between rows. Just keep them watered.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I finally got the weeds out of the spot for the pole beans. It took 2 hours to plant two 20 foot rows of beans. I think my tomato plants are looking rough, but I just realized how many nights we have had in the 40s, so I am feeling better about not having cucumbers and squash planted yet. It is raining now, so I will have some easy weed pulling tomorrow. Mentally and physically I am returning to myself. It has been 5 years now since DH was first diagnosed and given his terminal diagnosis. I have a drawer full of vitamins and I have my blood work redone in August, and really I am a different person than when I went in March.

 

[TwinCitiesPanda]

I finally got the weeds out of the spot for the pole beans.

I hear you. I put up a bean trellis months ago before beans could go in. What do you know, that whole bed was a huge patch of Snow on the Mountain that came up about a month later. Since the weather got nice I've been avoiding addressing it because it's such a pain. I finally ripped it out yesterday, removed as much root as I could, and got the beans in.

I am glad you are feeling more yourself. I have always found gardening to be a great mental health booster. Putting my hands in some dirt and watching birds and butterflies flit by helps me see a bigger picture that centers me. I hope it helps you too.