After weeks without rain, we were so very thankful that we had two days and nights with at least a decent partial rain. All totaled, we got about ¾ of an inch. But boy oh boy, what a difference it made. Our first row of beans, Chippewa bush beans, popped up overnight. And, as we’d just kept planting seeds into dust-dry soil, I’m sure many more will soon follow. I’ve got nearly all the beans planted, as well as most of the corn, squash, tomatoes, and peppers.
In addition to the rain, the temperature also cooled down a lot, making planting so much nicer as the days were cool, cloudy, and moist. Today, I planted five flats of peppers and a big patch of Simonet sweet corn in the Sand Garden. I only have one more batch of Fisher’s Earliest sweet corn left to plant today, in the Wolf Garden. Our friend, Heather, called to say she can come out this afternoon. Gratefully, we’ll have her mulching tomatoes. Will has his work cut out for him, pounding steel T posts for all those tomatoes! Poor Will.
I want to can up some rhubarb. But first comes the planting as we only have about two weeks of planting time to get our longer crops in the ground. After all, we have a very short growing season here in Northern Minnesota. That rhubarb will just have to wait awhile.
Yesterday, on the way out to mail seed packages, a big Great Gray Owl flew in front of the car and landed in a nearby tree. He was so beautiful! That’s one of the perks of having a mile and a half long driveway though the woods. You never know what you’ll see.
— Jackie
Dear Jackie, I Loved your owl picture and the pictures of the plants. It is eye candy to me. We have Canadian geese wandering around and the babies look like small boats on our nearby lake. They are so cute. We have 3 sets of parents and a few days ago, we had 4 strangers show up. I am thinking they are looking for a mate among the older babies that are almost grown. I love to watch the wildlife, and I know you enjoy yours too. I feel blessed to live in a rural area. We have lots of blueberries on the farms nearby and the green beans are already in and being sold. I have got to get busy! Canning time is here. I enjoy every minute of it.
i am so glad you got rain!! I can’t believe your tomatoes! They are huge but look very healthy. Can’t wait to see the tomatoes!!!
Look at that owl. Very cool. I just love it when you share your habitat!
I hope you keep getting rain! We’ve gotten a little but not enough for the farmers.
Great news for the rain! Rhubarb is HUGE! Mine have already started to die back,101 for 2 days and soaking water still to harsh for em. But I’ve a few quart s in freezer. When you can rhubarb do you do find the consistency good for pies? Love the photo of the owl. Have a great horn nesting in woods a mile further away. Nice when I ride my mare there and spy him. Beautiful! Transplant s! As always, you’re Busy! Planting then catch up with your ready produce and the Weeds always arrive never disappoint that fact !have a good rest of planting season
Mr/Ms Owl is quite cool. Tis strawberry season here. Better half and I do not agree on number of blooms and number of berries. But we have enough to eat and share. This fall’s project is to get some semblance of order in my berry patch. No matter how hard I try with my barely size six feet, some berries have to die for the cause. And those *$%$ violets just will not end.
We’re due for some more rain (we got 2 3/4 inch last rain, dad got 3.8 inches, barely south of us got an inch). More on the way.
Happy early Father’s Day to Will. My dad will be 86 this year. Sister and I will be hanging out with him on Sunday (an event near and dear to all our hearts) and having lunch with him.
Looking like a second year of no garlic scapes – suspecting climate change again.
I have a band of male turkeys who are NOT behaving. Into my open to be used straw, scratched up a potato while playing turkey in the straw (need to tell better half to NOT put straw near the taters!).
Wishing all readers and/or posters of this blog a hearty harvest. We’ll all need it.
I agree with you, Selena. I know we’ve planted way more than “normal” as I’m thinking others will be needing a share of the garden as well. I think strawberries are one of the hardest things to grow! Everything seems to want to choke out the plants, from grass to strawberry runners. They are too much work for us to manage right now, so we’ve dug up the patch. Maybe later when we have more time??
I hope you and your dad enjoy your time together!
I am on a mission for weeding and “orderly”. I have two outlets for plants I need to re-home. But we do not only enjoy eating our strawberries, but sharing with others – especially those that have *never* experienced fresh picked, organic strawberries. Told good neighbor she can pick as much as she wants (white person problem – too many strawberries). She and her kiddos will be here tomorrow.
Keeping up with the not-sure-if-legal-news – better half will hit the butcher shop tomorrow. Much more not-sure-if-legal-news = I will be another freezer and better half will hit the butcher shop hard. Upside is we live in farm country. I do think better half is open to tilling another area (though *not* just to plant taters which I’d just LOVE to do. We have growing season time for a another new planting).
I work in the finance sector – pays well AND also gives me a heads up. It is *NOT* looking good. Stock up as best you can. Look into alternatives (such as TP).
Scary part is: A warning to all who have a bank account – Ms. Bowman. She stated our goal shouldn’t be to prevent banks from failing or eliminate the risk they will. Banks should be safe to fail – meaning they can fail without destabilizing the rest of the banking system. This line of thinking plus changing regulation to lower capital levels is scary.
Jackie,
So glad to hear that you finally got some rain! And that the planting is going good. Your rhubarb looks wonderful, as does the picture of the owl.
We are finally getting some dry weather, and some sunshine. Today I picked juneberries, one of our trees has a wren house in it, I thanked them for keeping the bugs off the berries but they still scolded me the whole time! Then I made some jelly after helping my dh fix some fence. This morning a good friend gave us a gorgeous head of broccoli he grew, it was so good with roasted chicken for supper. Peace, Vicki
Oh yum! Fresh broccoli. My plants are like three inches tall right now, but I have hopes. Our Juneberries have just finished flowering, so I don’t see berries in the near future. I’ll just bet your wrens scolded you but good. They’re pretty cheeky birds, aren’t they?