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