Tending the Fields

Box one has been looking a little dry. It was the last box to be filled with dirt and we haven't planted as much in it as the other three.  Tom started some new cucumbers, squash, and beans in pots which we'll transfer to this box once they've taken root. In the meantime he wanted to test out the unfinished compost he's been cooking up for the last 3 months, to see if it will help retain moisture. He put a layer over boxes one and two (after putting some composted cow manure down around some withering plants) and he was quite pleased.

 

Haven't taken an overview photo in a while so here are a few pictures of TY's Backyard Homestead.

Now for more up close and personals shots.... Just waiting on these babies to turn red.

Here are the pumpkins in the front yard pumpkin patch. Although growing nicely, they had become somewhat overtaken by weeds. Tom weeded the whole patch with his trusty hoe, managed to gouge himself on the leg with the rusted-through wheel barrow, and finished the next day with a spread of the compost-mulch over the top.

The pumpkins are even starting to flower!

The eggplants have also started to flower. (The white powder you see on the plants is DiPel,, aka, Bacillus
thuringiensis, a naturally occuring compound harmless to humans and good insects like bees & other pollinators, but will knock out those nasties, including the devilish Yellow Spotted Cucumber Beetle and the Squash Beetle).

In case you haven't been keeping up; mystery plants were squash, then cucumbers, and as of last week, watermelons.  Ummmm.... now they seem to be cantaloupes.

Yep, definitely a cantaloupe. Of course, the plant hasn't changed; we've just been mis-identifying it. What next, corn?

We have bushes all the way around the house. They are fine bushes as bushes go. They're kind of plain, they don't flower (well, not really), they don't produce anything, so I'm sort of "eh" about them. (Maybe someday down the road I will rip a bunch of them out and make more room for more herbs.) At times I become quite frustrated with them because, well, they grow a lot. I trim them and next thing I know, they need trimming again.  I have a nickname for them but I won't say what it is here since this is a family-friendly blog.

For the last year, I've trimmed the "blank blank" bushes with manual hedge trimmers. Yes it is a pain, and I no, I couldn't lift my arms for two days after doing the job, but it had to be done and the manual trimmers did the trick.  As many of you may know, T&I just celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary. To celebrate, each year we take the day off and go buy one or two pieces of handmade pottery to use as dishware.  This year as I watched the "blank blank" bushes grow to the point they began blocking light from inside the house, I somewhat jokingly asked if I could have electric hedge trimmers as a bonus anniversary present.  Tom is so thoughtful and said, "Anything for you, baby!" 

So he got me some electric hedge trimmers and I went to town!

Here are some before and after pictures of one side of the house. I trimmed this area once with the manual trimmers but couldn't really get to the whole thing so it's been growing for some time.

Another before and after angle.

And since I wanted to make sure to give Tom a bonus anniversary gift too, I let him use all the trimmings to start a brand new compost pile.  Aren't we romantic!  :)

~Y