I picked a small handful of the Alpine berries. M-m-m-m! They tend to ripen before the big guys are ready, although, the large strawberries are showing tinges of color. I'll probably need to put a row cover over the berries to keep from having fruit with one bird-bite in each one.
Wellp, I did a lot of making bean cage/poles. 35 feet or so of my 100 foot roll. (Third roll). Got them in and tied down too.
I stayed busy all day out there in the sun. Didn't die off either! Big news for me since my thyroid has usually made me sick hot to be in the sun in 80 plus degree weather, and it got to 87 degrees today. That means my anti thyroid medicine must be working.
Raked the Madrone leaves around my cabin. Those fall when the weather gets hot. Evergreen broad leaved trees in the Ericaceae family.
Then I got all my leaves and the dirt that got raked with them, and piled it in my still empty Bed #11. Know what I did next? I mixed up 5 gallons of real strong fish emulsion and poured it on them.
THEN, I got 2 wagon loads, adds to about almost a yard, of clay soil and spread it over the pile of leaves. I'm gonna compost them there. Next year that compost will go into the Berry Bed. Since it does not look like I'll have bed #11 ready for this year. It's made, but I really don't want to remove forest compost while things are so dry. Hard to tell the litter from the compost when it's dry. Hard to separate it too. But I may get some for the other end of the bed and compost it there for next year.
One of my Bean plants up and died. Dropped dead during the course of hours. I'll do an autopsy tomorrow. I suspect a grub of some sort got its roots. Maybe a Potato Bug.
Didjaknow Potato Bugs are related to Grasshoppers?
I suppose I may have physically damaged the bean plant. It might have been me. Walking up and down the row it might have caught my pants and got yanked. I try to be careful moving those cage/poles around in there, but it could happen. Tomorrow's autopsy will hopefully tell. Better it was me being a klutz than bugs. Want to do the autopsy before I replant a seed. I might have to remove some of the plastic and dig with my hands to root out some grub.
I have finished my protective frame and netting for my patch down the bottom garden, all recycled materials!
I have to protect against rabbits, pheasants, pigeons, deer and cows! (Amongst others). There were fresh deer tracks again this morning..
Most of the dahlia garden is clear. Some beds have quite a few bok choy plants and they are doing a pretty good job protecting the dahlias from the weeds. Now, we will have to protect the dahlia from the bok choy!
Moved on over into the shady corner, unfortunately, at just that midday moment when there was no shade there. Most of the sunlight is in the early morning hours but there are those 45 sunny minutes, sometime after noon . . .
The onions over there don't have to contend with purslane but the chickweed could be nasty competition, if allowed to go too long. Bunching onions and leeks and they have now made enough growth to be distinguishable, one from the other.
What wimpy weak things the onion family seedlings are. What are they? Nearly four months from seed and they can't trump chickweed!
@MIchael Hibberd there are deer in the UK? What do they look like?
Looks like the garden is going well. Very nice view in the background of the top right picture also. I might move there if I had the chance, a very nice place.
I transplanted some volunteer pumpkins today, four of them. Other than that I haven't gotten much time into the garden today, other than doing some other small things like twining the peas into their trellis or dusting everything down with diatomatious earth.
@MIchael Hibberd your garden looks good! And what @TheSeedObsesser said, what kind of deer do you have? Here we have Whitetails, named for the white underside of their tails that they raise up like a flag when alarmed.
I pulled weeds. Picked some eggplant and ate it for supper.
There are many deer in the UK @TheSeedObsesser & @baymule. They are normally beautful Red or Roe deer who are a pain in the bum and are very tasty!
Here's a pic of one at the bottom of my garden.
Also, today I finally started uncovering the pond. It was so overgrown! I'm not sure what to do with it, but for now I''m cleaning it up, recycling the water and such. It is teeming with tadpoles and the like.
Interesting to find that several of your deer varieties were transplanted. LOL Here in Texas we have exotic game ranches, where all kinds of deer and antelope are 'farmed" for hunters that pay big $$$ to go shoot one. I have only gone hunting for our native whitetails.