Rain Day

I got sent home from work today because of rain. Then it turned into a pretty nice day for a couple hours; now it's all doom and gloom again.
So I gardened.

This wont be a long winded post.  I'm looking after the baby tonight to let Tammy off the hook. We are staying home to watch a movie but every cry, feeding and diaper is mine till bedtime.

I've been obsessing over plant related activities lately. I think its really important and this is the season to start it all. After this its water and wait.

I've got a lot of tomato's this year.
This is a La Roma 3 I'm growing in a container. I made a bamboo trellis.
I have made 2 of these so far and am getting the knack for it. I'll post a how too some time.






I also made some small raised bed's for a grape plant as well as a lower area for contained invasive plants (in this case Peppermint and Spearmint).

I am going to need two of these to go at the east side of the hop beds.
This will allow me to grow the grapes on the same trellis as the hops.
This box cost about $5 in materials.

The hop beds are beginning to take shape...

I started out digging a 1 foot deep hole and filling it in with good quality soil.

 


Then I hammered in some cedar shingles to make a border.

Followed up with mulching it up with 'sunset red' cedar chips.

:)

 I'm really hoping it keeps the cats from using it as a toilet. Also the mulch will keep the dirt moist for the hops.

I don't know why I went with red. I guess because it compliments the green of the plants.

Chives have flowered next to the catnip.
Catnip attracts bees and butterflies so it's good to have near stuff you need pollinated. It also keeps certain insects away.
I haven't seen the neighbours cats near it; or around much t all since I got better with the sling shot.
Heh.

More to come as it gets done.

Summer Hate

Ok. So it hailed yesterday around 4am. Killed a lot of the plants. :(
By 9 am it was +26.

30 foot hop trellis

The seedlings survived. I had to take them out of the greenhouse and put that in the shed because we had such high winds and tornado warnings the other day. But the tomatoes and hanging plants got killed off by hail. :(
14 tomato pants in all. 7 green pepper. 7 hot pepper. 2 melon.

So its time to replant the replant. 3rd time!!

So I've added more grapes this time. Walmart had 'em on sale for $6. I think I might plant 'em near the hops so I can use the same trellis.

13 foot hop trellis

But for that trellis I'm going to need some wood. Hops are a vine that can grow 30 feet a year; up. I really can't have a 30 foot high trellis in my back yard.
So I'm going to build a 13 foot trellis instead. I really don't need 30 feet of hops from 6 plants. I couldn't use it all.
I might have enough to sell to locals in a couple years anyways. These need a season or two before they really produce.

I'll need to pick up a few more plants maybe today or Monday. Stores around these parts are closed Sundays.

Speaking of closed. There is a Postal Strike in Manitoba. I wanted to order some books from amazon but will they get here...?

• Gaia's Garden (good book for permaculture)
• Herbal Medicine Maker Handbook
• The Sustainable Vegetable Garden
• Seed to Seed

I've heard good things about all these books and they have good reviews too.

Tammy and Kayden are in Steinbach with their friend Mel; she's coming home with more decorative plants; Hostas for certain. We have a huge shade area at the front of the house we are still working on.

I also got another 50 feet or garden hose!!! I can finally reach my whole garden! That's right. I could only reach half my garden properly. The rest I had to fill a bucket. :(
Now I can even reach the orchard area!

Kiwi's! Yes. There is a variation on the Kiwi tree that can grow in my area! I found some bushes and meant to buy them but forgot. They produce hairless grape size fruit that can be eaten whole and it is sweater than a grocery store kiwi. They are also self pollinating but I'd like to have a couple in case one dies. 2 is 1 and 1 is none. Walmart $8.

In case you needed another reason why you need to grow your own food... there is a growing fear of another E.coli pandemic in Europe. It is deadly. 1800+ infected so far, in 12 countries; even USA.
It is resistant to antibiotics! You really don't want to get it - it won't be fun.
It is caused, in part, by poop. Usually wild pigs will poop wherever they good and if it ends up in fields of human food it doesn't bother them. Then you eat the human field food and if it wasn't cleaned properly and all the wild pig poop is still on your food you can get E.coli.
Yum. It's always the good foods too, eh. People that eat salads and try and live health... BAM - E.coli.
But what can ya do eh?

Alright. I've done enough writing. I need to go plant another tree.
-Joel