What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

Some fertilizer went into the big garden, yesterday. A 7% Nitrogen organic fertilizer has been hoarded for years and there isn't much of it left. I don't know where to buy something comparable, these days.

Mostly, I think some of the plants are just hung up from the cool growing conditions and transplanting shock. Early transplanted cabbage, for example, now look to be growing just fine. More recent cabbage set out there look the same as when they went in. Oh well, with some fertilizer side-dressing, they have a little more N to build proteins for growth.

@Zeedman @flowerbug , I worked at a concrete block company when I was 19. Probably a foolish choice for someone with preexisting joint problems but, at least, I hadn't been diagnosed with RA, yet. Some of the blocks that I was handling weighed over 50#.

I sprained my back one Friday morning. I remember thinking that I hoped no superior noticed how I was just cruising through the afternoon, waiting to go home. Ya know, that 19 year-old felt fine by Monday morning. Just one of several work related back injuries over many years.

Steve

i never reported any work injuries but i wish i had. family business though. i hauled stuff around, a lot of lifting, the heaviest things were bags of marble chips (for making terrazzo floors), between 100-150lbs each. the drums of ground up slurry from wetvacs sucking up the stuff when grinding the floors to polish them was a real major pain in the butt. we had to truck them to the landfill and dump them, often they'd be hard or slippery to handle so you'd have to get off the truck and empty it and then get it back on the truck. horrible mess of a job. go to the drive through car wash to power wash the truck and you'd still stink and be a mess anyways. did not miss that job when i left. moving bags of cement, bags of sand, boxes of tile, rolls of carpet or flooring, buckets of glue, big buckets of epoxy cement. bags of various colored sands and pigments, etc.

by the end of summer i was in really good shape, but then go back to school and lose all that muscle again by the next spring. that was really the worst part of it all. if you constantly do a tough job your body and back can take the stress because your muscles and ligaments are strong and they support the bones and joints. when you are just coming back to it after being away is when your joints and bones take the worst of the punishement. oh, and back then they didn't really teach you how to lift or how to warm up in the morning before doing stuff so you could really do a lot of damage to your body and not know it (because some of the injuries won't cause problems until years later)... um...

work injuries. yeah... i've had back issues since i was 15yrs old. very glad i found a chiropractor several years ago who could help out because surgery was seeming likely and i already have one brother who's disabled by back injuries and failed surgeries (and i fear for his life every day because the pain gets pretty bad and no meds work for him any more).

for high nitrogen organic fertilizer i think blood meal would do, but i don't usually use it, alfalfa or birdsfoot trefoil pellets should give a nitrogen boost. i used to sometimes top mulch with either of those for the worms to chew up and turn into fertilizer for me.

 

[flowerbug]

picked almost four boxes of strawberries this morning so i'll be making some freezer jam from those today.

 

[digitS']

@flowerbug ,

I'm afraid of blood meal.

Does that make any sense? Even the idea of wearing a mask doesn't do it. It's very dry, powdery stuff. I'd need goggles. Change clothes and a shower. I know ... vegetarian tendencies.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug ,

I'm afraid of blood meal.

Does that make any sense? Even the idea of wearing a mask doesn't do it. It's very dry, powdery stuff. I'd need goggles. Change clothes and a shower. I know ... vegetarian tendencies.

Steve

i understand, i much prefer other things instead...

 

[Zeedman]

what beans?

yeah, getting older where the body takes less punishment can be hard to accept and to take into consideration.

mornings are the toughest time for certain back issues. go slow and make sure to stretch and move around so the discs can soften up before doing any heavy lifting and bending...

I interpret the term "beans" loosely, as any member of the family Fabaceae that is not a "pea".
Common beans:

• Berta Talaska, pole, from @aftermidnight (trial)
• Canon City, large pole shelly, 2013 seed
• Champagne, pole Romano-type snap, 2012 seed
• Czechoslovakian, pole purple snap, 2012 seed
• Emerite, pole snap, main crop snap for freezing, 2018 seed
• Garafal Oro, pole Romano-type snap, 2014 seed
• Giant Red Tarka, bush shelly, main crop shelly, 2015 seed
• Madeira, pole dry, large seeds, good soup bean, 2013 seed
• Mr. Claude Parker, pole, trial, very early dry seed when observed on SSE's Heritage Farm
• Schwarz Witwe, pole wax, 2012 seed
• Nunas, from @aftermidnight

Limas:

• Cave Dweller, bush, medium-small red seeds, trial, from SSE
• German Butterbean, pole, large white seeds, 2015 seed

Runner beans:

• Gigandes, huge white seeds & white flowers, 3rd generation of adapting them to my climate, 2015 seed
• Insuk's Wang Kong, purple and/or black seeds & red flowers, heirloom from Seattle, 2014 seed

Cowpeas & Yardlongs:

• Bush Sitao BS-3, cowpea bred for snaps, straight firm pods, from Philippines via SSE, 2012 seed (for dilly beans)
• CES-18-8, cowpea, also from Philippines via SSE, 2015 seed
• Green Dixie, semi-bush cowpea, round green blackeye resembles soybeans, 2014 seed
• MN 150, true bush cowpea bred in Minnesota, to trial against my MN 157 (which may really be MN 150)
• Sierra Madre, pole yardlong, long thick dark green pods, 2016 seed
• Taiwan Black, pole yardlong, originally from Baker Creek, 2013 seed

Soybeans:

• Besarabka 724, yellow grain type
• Crest, yellow grain type
• DV-2371, brown & black striped, high protein / high yield
• Fledderjohn, brown edamame
• Gardensoy 12, large edamame bred by U. of Illinois
• Jaune de Desme, early yellow grain type, high protein
• Jewel, yellow w/glossy black saddle, high oil
• Kosodiguri Extra Early, small-seeded early edamame, very high protein
• Krasnoarmejscaja, gray, high protein
• Ohozyu, yellow grain type
• Pando, early edamame, very similar to Kosodiguri above
• PI 603698 E, gray-green, high protein
• Rouest 117, black, high yield for its maturity group
• Ta Li Tsao Shen WE Tou, black, very early, very high protein

Adzuki "Buff", 2012 seed
Black gram, 2012 seed
Hyacinth bean "India Bush"

And one pea, "Shiraz", purple-podded snow pea, from @aftermidnight , 2013 seed

@Zeedman @flowerbug , I worked at a concrete block company when I was 19. Probably a foolish choice for someone with preexisting joint problems but, at least, I hadn't been diagnosed with RA, yet. Some of the blocks that I was handling weighed over 50#.

I sprained my back one Friday morning. I remember thinking that I hoped no superior noticed how I was just cruising through the afternoon, waiting to go home. Ya know, that 19 year-old felt fine by Monday morning. Just one of several work related back injuries over many years.

Steve

Pretty much the same story here @digitS' ; several back injuries over the years, all of which healed eventually. In fact, I have a back brace in my work locker... which was, of course, little use to me when I hurt myself at home. (where's a head smack emoji when you need one). I'm feeling better after a day of rest, so it appears to be nothing more than aggravating an old injury, which will once again heal without medical attention. I'll just grimace occasionally for the next few days.

Both of my sons worked briefly in concrete work while in their early 20's, pouring foundations. The steel forms being used are very heavy, one son injured his back while moving one, and has a bad back to this day. He resisted all family advice to claim Workman's Comp until it was too late (after several more employers) for him to do so.

 

[seedcorn]

Today, planted 9 more pepper plants and 6 snap dragons. Local place had 4 pacs for $.25. Couldn’t pass it up.
Weeded 60% of garden and bedded with straw. I’m whipped.

 

[flowerbug]

picked almost four boxes of strawberries this morning so i'll be making some freezer jam from those today.

well i didn't get any jam made, but all of the berries are cleaned up and mashed and ready to go for tomorrow.

about 320 fl oz of mashed berries.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I too have a new back injury. I think from lifting the granddaughter in and out of the carseat and shopping cart. I have been barely getting anything done, but I got the cucumbers and squash planted. Today, I felt better and I fertilized the sad looking peppers and tomatoes that have been sitting in the cold ground waiting for summer. I planted 4 more cherry tomatoes and 4 pepper plants and some Swiss chard. I cut some lettuce for supper.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I pulled some more weeds, thankfully it rained enough I'm not going to have to water for a few days. I am slooowly collecting enough cardboard to fully smother some of these weeds this fall. The paper I put down isn't strong enough to get anything but the grass...still pulling bindweed and dandelions that have popped up through it.

 

[flowerbug]

I pulled some more weeds, thankfully it rained enough I'm not going to have to water for a few days. I am slooowly collecting enough cardboard to fully smother some of these weeds this fall. The paper I put down isn't strong enough to get anything but the grass...still pulling bindweed and dandelions that have popped up through it.

yeah, paper isn't likely going to last long and once it gets wet and gets stepped on it will have holes which weeds/seeds will exploit, but it is at least better than nothing at all. even with cardboard you may want to use a few layers (to make sure holes and seams are overlapped enough).