Here in northern Minnesota, the growing season is short, and we only have a small window of time in which to get all of our crops planted in the 5 acres of garden we use for our seed business. Yes, we’re turning Seed Treasures over to our friends, Lynn and Jesse, in August. But we want to ensure they have plenty of all varieties of seed as this is their first year doing the business. And, like everything else, there’s a huge learning curve. We want the business to thrive as it goes forward.
I’ve got most of the beans planted now and quite a bit of the corn. Lately, I’ve been setting out melon, squash, and pumpkin plants. But boy, has it been hot and dry! Not the best planting conditions, for sure, especially for me, who hates the heat. On Saturday, we took a break and drove down to Moose Lake to see our grandson, Mason, graduate with high honors from high school. It was a beautiful day and not hot. I will admit that sitting for two hours on hard bleacher seats really got my back and knees singing an unpleasant song, not to mention my poor butt! Oh well, it was sure worth it. How exciting. Afterward, we went to a local restaurant to have a nice lunch and visit. We enjoyed the day but were sure pooped when we came home.
Will saw the first baby fawn yesterday, barely able to walk. I haven’t seen one yet, but I keep looking. This afternoon, we had another calf born. A heifer this time. She’s already bouncing, drinking milk, and trying to run. They are so cute! Five more to go this year.
When I get off the computer, I’m headed out to till the North Garden for the last time so I can start planting pumpkins, squash, and corn from seed. Boy, those gardens sure look huge when you just start to till! We’re praying hard for rain, but nothing is in the forecast for the next couple of days. But I noticed some of the first planted beans are starting to come up. How exciting! — Jackie
So far there have been no deer messing with the garden this year. In fact, we haven’t seen many at all since Hurricane Helene came through in Oct ’24. She blew down a lot of wooded areas so maybe the deer have moved on to better areas.
Here in east central Georgia we only got .75″ of rain during all of April. So dry! Then we had the most wet May in ages as it rained 10 days in a row the second half of the month. Our drought category has now gone from severe to moderate. I checked my collected 22 year weather data for April rain and surprisingly found that very dry Aprils occur regularly, like every 3-4 years. Nothing new there then.
This week I cut the last broccoli and cauliflower heads and now the first beans are ready. Yesterday we picked just shy of 4 lbs from the Contenders/Providers. We’ve also been getting zucchini and yellow squash and this morning I need to cut another mess of kale. Lots of flowers on the tomato plants with the first greenies setting.
Congratulations to Mason! You are stepping into adulthood in fine fashion so keep up the good work. :)
🌷💚🌷
Congratulations Mason! What a swell photo of you three! Potatoes are blooming as are peas. Corn and tomato really took a growth spurt after last week’s storm. Pepper s are hesitant as temperatures keep plummeting and the winds are harsh. Fortunately the soil has a good retention on the 1 1/2” rain. Hopefully you get gardens planted and knees are doing okay
I too am planting like crazy. Each night a grandchild ballgame- day time high 80’s evenings 50. We’ve been very dry SW Wi. We’re behind 2 plus inches of rain. Only 3 more cows to calve (out of 33). We’ve had a ground hog infestation. These beasts like to dig under foundations. We’re catching some with live traps. Never a dull moment. I have a mother deer and twin fawns that visit me while I’m in my garden. My 6 foot high fence is critical. Great to be outdoors and hear the birds. Congratulations to the graduate.
That’s so cool to have a doe and fawn come watch you in your garden. Yep, without our 6′ fence, we wouldn’t be able to raise a garden at all. Been there/done that. It’s too bad about your ground hogs. They are sure awful. Thank God we don’t have them to contend with. Yet. We still haven’t had any rain and boy is it dry. Our lawn looks like shredded wheat!
Dad had a “chuck” trying to dig under his foundation. Dad ended this with a .22. At our old house, we’d have “chucks” when the adjacent field was planted with soybeans. Plus we had apple trees. Better half came home one day and saw “chuck” napping on our deck like he was a family pet. He too was dispensed with a .22.
Starting to heat up here in Central MO. We had 5 inches of rain last weekend and another inch or so predicted for early next week. We FINALLY planted the tomatoes and peppers….in the mud. This is the latest we have ever planted in 30 years of gardening. No doubt we will have a freak early freeze in September before harvest.
I planted 3 extra hills of acorn squash after seeing the prices and quality in the stores. We do have an Amish community just 20 minutes away. Their produce is always good and vine-ripened, although pricey, too.
I keep a bar of soap by the back door. I run my fingernails across it when I go out to work in the garden. It helps keep the nails clean.
Happy gardening to all!
Clean nails?? Boy, I don’t even have nails. Ha ha!! Yep, the prices keep going up and up with everything, including food. No end in sight, either.
Can you send some of that rain up here? We are so dry I can’t even spit when in the garden.
What type of fencing do you use (North Garden)? Does it keep out the deer?
I planted 80 fruit trees (apples and pears) last year with 50 more to go in this year. I make a concentrated hot pepper oil extract spray that is effective in keeping the deer from browsing. Haven’t sprayed this year yet but will have to to teach the young ones to stay away as the older ones have learned.
We fence our gardens with 6′ high, welded wire fencing on 8′ T posts. We also reinforce that with 16′ stock panels as the cows have pushed through the welded wire fencing. An electric wire 3′ out from the stock panel fence in the Wolf Garden also works great. I tried all sorts of sprays, from hot pepper to human urine and the deer eventually got the plants. The fence is the only thing that works for us.
Apollo, interested in your concentrated pepper spray. Ratio types of peppers. Thanks. Garden is fenced but all my flowers and shrubs are being deer pruned! Thanks Mary
Drizzle & spotty rais in our part of NE today. Garden is as in as it’s gonna be. And mulched. Lettuce is done. Peas and a few tomatoes are blooming and I’ve been picking fresh chard to saute in olive oil. So good! Jackie, how do you deal with cabbage worms? I’ve been hand picking them and using BT on broccoli, cabbage, etc. Have you ever tried row covers?
Congratulations again to your grandson and prayers for him & all military.
Yes, I have had good luck with row covers in the past. Now we’re too busy to do that so I just spray with Bt weekly when they’re around. We’re just getting our tomatoes in now and the only thing we’re eating out of the garden is asparagus and soon, rhubarb.
How great you are there to guide the seed business to the new owners! Sure they will benefit from your hard earned experience!!
We want the seed business to continue to grow and thrive. It’s become like one of our children. We love it so much|!
lol – it is usually fingernails for me. Most of the time washing my hair cleans them out but not always.
Roofers got here at 6:10 am – yes that is right. Tore off shingles on the house and the detached garage, shingled them both and did a very good job of clean-up. Better half and I walked the driveway a couple of times and found *maybe* 4 nails.
They worked 12 hours today – high was 81 and there was shade available. Thankfully no humidity, just a few gnats, and all workers stayed well hydrated. One of the roofers spied the firewood and asked what kind of wood. Better half told him what he’d split and gave him a couple bundles of hickory and oak.
Tear off/shingle the roof was in my retirement budget. Now just paying the higher deductible for wind/hail damage is. Deductible used to be a flat $1K. Now it is 1% of the insured value of the house.
Climate change is resulting in larger hail
https://apnews.com/article/hail-climate-change-damage-storms-warming-8573b10ae336f3705865466e5bc986ef
Yep, and the cost of all repairs and materials keeps going up and up, resulting in higher insurance costs too. No end in sight! I’m sure glad you got such a good crew to do your roof! What a relief that is.
We still have rain in the forecast – of course when the roofers are slated to tear off/shingle our hail damaged roof. Not their first rain rodeo so will be okay.
I’ve never seen a baby fawn – the does usually don’t bring them to the feeder box until July. By this time of the year, my afternoon wildlife feeding is not as much. But given the dry conditions, I’ve not cut back so much. Better to feed than have them going after the garden. Found out I can obtain 3 more buckets of corn which I hope gets me through our dry times.
Nice picture of the three of you. And yes, bleachers are for the young lol. They should supply cushions for grandparents!
I sure hope you get the rain. It seems too often come at inopportune times, doesn’t it?? We don’t see them where we feed, either. But we see them along in the woods, as we drive on our heavily wooded driveway, all mile and a half. It’s like a nature tour.
I got so dirty tilling with the tractor and then planting corn, that I had to take a shower before I ran to town. My legs were worse than dirty.