Finally, the first rain. Misty and light rain all day...added up to almost 1/2 inch.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Working on another food or medical hedge row. Another layer going in.
This row's bones are three saskatoon tree's, two blue berry bushes, two clove current bushes, one smoke tree and two black chokeberry bushes, the next layer that is already in are three comfrey plants, then in the next layer, we have spearmint and bee-balm and milk weed and a few golden rods so far..
The cut from our land, log edging, with 4 to 6 six inch prepared half rotted already old hay that will surpress anything growing. today we will haul a mix of dirt and compost and cover it and fill up the back planting, when done.. it will be a new food-medical-bee pollinator friendly hedge row.
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Well, got the new food hedge row soil in and the first main row planted, still need to do the side yet..
Also found out that I will need to do a lot of pruning and cleaning up on my plum bushes as they are currently effected with a fungal issue that is called plum pocket.. total plum crop failure this year.. one fruit done.. Never count your fruits before they are harvested!
A few of my older bean types have had VERY poor germination rates, while others are up at 90 plus percent, replanting will be required today. My Early started peppers and tomato plants are thriving and are already setting fruit.
I don't think I have ever had tomato's setting fruit before the elderberry bushes have bloomed before.. such a odd garden year so far!
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
June 9th total rainfall so far at .5 inch. This is becoming bad. When my hop plants don't get spring rains they start to suffer. I can roughly tell when its been a below average rainfall year by how far along my hop plants have climbed. We have had lots of very hot days as well.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Stay safe today, I see there is a major storm warning coming your way.. Hail, and possible twister maybe as you are in the edge of it, you will get some rain instead.
.5 inch is indeed bad.. if the hop plant with its deep roots is having trouble then that dryness in the soil goes way down..
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
I am hoping for a good pour but it looks like everything is well east of me, north east I think.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
I am hoping for a good pour but it looks like everything is well east of me, north east I think.
I'm NW of you by ~100 km or so and we've received a nice 6/10ths of an inch today in nice easy and steady rain. I guess we'll get over an inch by the time things are done. It was much needed. In the meanwhile, I have about 700 Gals of rainwater collected. I want to add another 250 Gal "tote" as soon as there is another one listed for sale in my neck of the woods.
Its coming down here now, very lightly, wont know how much until I get up in the AM and check the rain gauge..falling like a heavy mist
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
According to our rain gauge, we got just over 1/4" of rain yesterday. Was mostly a drizzling type, which was okay so it could soak in, more would have been appreciated. Its quite dry around here.
So far we have had a good amount of rain this spring and I have about 700 gallons of rain water in storage at the moment but as it also does the livestock it goes a lot faster then if it was just the garden.
Everything is exploding in growth since our four days of light rain.. a very good thing to see. I have a really good looking crop of currents and gooseberries coming along. A smaller crop of haskups coming ready soon.. Rhubarb is always the staple at this time of the year and the first of the strawberries are starting to get a blush of red on them.
I lost my whole plum crop to fungal issue and had to pretty much brutally trim down my bushes.. it was a big job for sure. The heat is kicked up over the weekend and into this week which is going to really push the garden forward. Something took a lot of my bean seeds and they had to be replanted again.
A number of the planting signs are off this year.. Got all my late season potato's planted this weekend, the early planted are already up and will need their first hilling soon. We are having a major catapiller issue this year.. they say the next three years will be bad out of their 10 year cycle.. Thankfully I have not been hit nearly as bad as other area's in the valley and they are providing lots of extra protein for my flock of fowl!
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
All of the currant bushes have flowered and can see all the currants going to be coming on them now. The honeyberries are ripening now. Strawberries are flowering and looks like we might get a decent crop off them this year. One plum tree has fruit coming, as do four of our cherry trees (Nanking, Romeo and Juliet), the Valentine cherry tree didn't make it over the winter. Raspberry plants are growing, not sure yet if any fruit will be one them yet. The grape is growing very well and has clusters on it. The two apple trees and crabapple did not flower this year, so there will be no apples. Heard there were quite a few around town here that didn't flower for some reason. They are all leafed out and look wonderful, but no fruit, so hopefully next year will be better.
The garden is growing, will be able to cut some chard and beet greens this week. Have added the soil to the garbage can potatoes, so they are pretty much as full of soil as they are going to get, so now they can just grow and produce potatoes. Have been using the green onions for awhile now. So mostly it is somewhat a waiting game for everything growing, just have to weed and water (specially if we don't get much rain). We have seven 50 gallon rain barrels set around our house, so have on a good day 350 gallons of rain water. We also water with a pump from the creek that goes through our Village as our place is next to it, as long as the creek has enough.
Again this year, wicked winds whip sawed my potatoes. Some broken right off level with the dirt, unbelievable. I had them hilled right up.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Winds have been howling for the past 48hrs here too. No damage to the gardens, but the trees on the shelter belt are suffering. I have lots of broken branches all over the yard, ranging from twigs to 2" diameter limbs.
I heard you guys got some wild winds for sure.. we are under a warning, but its not going to hit my farm and area till 5pm to 9 pm on weds, I am in pretty high warning zone.. hail, winds upward of 90 km and possible twister. At least right now its just nicely hot with a cool soft breeze.. its been a good working day outside.
http://livingmydreamlifeonthefarm.wordpress.com/
Even my Kale looks like someone stomped on it, leaves pulled right off the poplar trees.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.