Saturday, May 31, 2014

Last Day of May





It's the last day of May and so it's time to evaluate the Spring so far. Growth has not been especially booming this Spring to be honest. I think we ended up falling short of my lamb estimate by two, I only got one new raised bed added to the mix and bee growth has been slight as well with only one little swarm, a trapout and one new Nuc that may or may not make it.

Our rain storms are already acting like it's late June or early July instead of late May and some of the bees have already started hitting the hummingbird feeders. That really perplexes me too because there is plenty of Sweet clover that somehow came up in my little Alfalfa field and they normally kinda like that stuff.

The battle of the Weeds continues. That last big rainstorm we got that kept me out of the garden for almost four days really gave the weeds a head start. I have been rolling them up pretty good though and I figure I am getting about 10 to 15% of the garden weeded and mulched per working day and am now setting at about 40% finished. I start with the ground vines first of course because they need space to grow and mulch to lay their fruit on. Once the ground vines are spread out it becomes impossible to till the weeds under before mulching too.

At this point the Melons are done, the Squash and friends as well with half the Cantaloupe bed finished this evening. I also got two trellis of cucumbers mulched in as well. Next step are the four trellis of beans and two rows of Bush Beans. I leave the Tomatoes until last because even though they are already choked with weeds they have enough of a head start they can hold their own for a while. I also don't mulch the Corn and will just till between the rows. This does allow some weed growth and I am thinking about taking Corn completely out of the garden and setting it up in it's own space somewhere else next year. I have such lousy luck with Corn anyway.

A late evening thunderstorm ended my outside work for the day although it only rained long enough to just get everything wet a little so it shouldn't give the weeds too much of a boost.

Looks like I start the lawn mowing cycle again tomorrow.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!




16 comments:

  1. I need to examine my cover crop areas more closely but from what I have seen they seem to choke out most weeds. I will let you know how it turns out so that you might be able to work it into your situation if I have some success.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sf - I should do cover crops more but I don't. The weed I have the most issue with is that Red Root Pigweed but I do always let a patch of it grow big to keep the bad bugs off my plants. One year I got rid of it totally and the bugs almost destroyed everything I had planted. The pigweed is easy to pull but it grows soooo fast it will overcome everything in a few days.

      Delete
  2. No weeds here other then dandelions, which are everywhere even out in the hay fields. Everyone is trying to keep caught up with the mowing. We are under a flash flood warning due to 2 to 3 inches of rain yesterday, with more coming today. I decided to pass on any kind of garden this year. Our trees just got leaves over the last week it seems like. I wasn't sure about shade until now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rob - We still need a lot more rain. It isn't a noticeable drought here yet but it is very dry and very hot.

      Delete
  3. What is with the bees? Our hives are under blooming black locus trees and they are chasing the humming birds away from their feeders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Soinner - I don't know the bees are chasing everything away from the feeders right now here too. I have to let em go completely dry in order to refill em and there are still plenty of blooms for em to work.

      Delete
  4. Blackberry just started blooming here. Several weeks early. All the plants are flowering earlier than normal. Except my garden of course, it's still in the just sprouting stage. It looks to be a strange summer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MV - The bloom dates were all out of whack here this Spring. I never saw my bees working the Walnut or Honey Locust this year either. Weirdness..

      Delete
  5. I went out and mowed twice yesterday, but the first time the grass was too wet from the rain the night before. The second time it started raining on me. I got about two thirds of it done. I also go the most horrific cramp in my leg later that night. I sure wish my land was not so steep so I could have a riding mower or , dare I say it, even a tractor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Harry - If gas gets much higher my rider may just get parked and I may put fencing over more area and just use a push mower around the house. I can mow a lot more with two gallons of gas and push mower than I can with that rider.

      Delete
  6. My husband takes a potassium pill when he works and sweats a lot, his leg cramps have been greatly reduced.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spin - I used to take those in the Army. I used to get leg cramps bad back then but these days I don't allow myself to sweat that much :)

      They do work though.

      Delete
  7. Got the little bit of barley that made it last night. I picked up a couple more pepper plants at the nursery today. I am going to try for corn as well but, as with you, I seem to have not good luck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TB - I think my issue with corn is I never plant enough of it to fully protect it from the storms and winds. Then again if I planted that much corn I would need a garden twice the size. I been thinking about just plowing up a separate area just for corn and moving it out of the garden actually.

      Delete
  8. Look up sheet metal mulching. I just read an article on that from Rural Revolution's blog roll, don't remember the name of the blog. But I am gonna do this, especially when there is nothing in the garden.

    ReplyDelete

Leave a comment. We like comments. Sometimes we have even been known to feed Trolls.