Sunday morning I was up at 4:30AM even though I’d gone to bed late due to afternoon napping. I got my post up, cleaned up the kitchen, and went out and harvested all the cauliflower that was ready.
There were a few worms on it and slugs, so I cut it up and got it soaking in cold water. The plates keep it submerged.
Then I went out and opened the hoophouse as it was to hit high 80’sF by afternoon. I finally got out to the garden at 7AM. A BuyNothing person coming to pickup seedlings offered to help me clean out a garden, so of course, I said sure! She arrived at 8AM.
I’d decided the North Corner garden needed attention soonest, so I got started pulling out anemones and digging up their roots, and the roots of the lily of the valley.
This is how it was left after the electric cable repair in December and the anemones had no problem with growing unencumbered in subsoil. The lily of the valley also took advantage of the lack of competition.
So I sat and weeded and had her get the standing jobs done: tying up the ferns, digging out the lily of the valley, and then digging out the roots in the back of the garden. She also helped to get the edging back in place wherever needed.
The Dutchman’s breeches, euphorbia, lovage, marshmallow, and primroses all survived the construction. There had been a nice stand of wood hyacinths in the middle, but they were mostly decimated.
I have to hand it to the guys doing the electrical work. They really tried to not trash the garden. We found the edging for the anemones in the back still in place, just pushed down. Most of the markers for the bulbs were also still there, just flattened. The curved edging was ruined, so I had to cut a new piece.
So we’d gotten it cleaned out and amended with FlowerTone and went to find plants to put in it. We would also be selecting whatever seedlings she wanted from the left cold frame.
This big old frog had managed to get into the right hand cold frame. There are plenty of slugs and bugs for him.
We selected to plant:
6 Lobelia ‘Crystal Palace’
1 Begonia
3 White Impatiens
1 Lavender
I could really only select things I thought would do well in mostly shade, as this is the north side of the house.
So we got finished right around 9AM. The humidity had hit me hard when I had walked out the door at 7AM but I would be working in shade on the north side, so I persevered. So we were both glad to clean up, load the plants and daffodil bulbs she selected and head over to her house.
These 2 photos are ones she took. This is her chicken area. She has 9 chickens. I miss my chickens! She has really nice looking ones, just under a year old.
And she was given this hoophouse in the last year. I am so jealous! They did a nice job putting it together inside and out. And their plants are doing wonderfully!
Their tiny .39 acre yard was built on an abandoned sand pit, so the soil is abysmal. They have put in lots and lots of raised beds all over the yard. Lots of different kinds of raspberries, 2 grapes, asparagus, comfrey, lots of berries like chokeberries, juneberries, etc. They have pear, apple, and peach trees. It’s amazing what they have done in that tiny yard.
They were wondering how to safely run the chickens in the yard, as they’d had a bobcat jump the 4’ electric netting the other day. Fortunately the birds were safely in the run.
I suggested using their netting (and getting another one even longer) and making a snake fence like we used to do. The birds can’t fly out if the poles are angled to each other, and the bobcat can’t jump in.
So she brought me home about 11AM and the heat and humidity had wiped me out. I got a shower and rested a while, contemplating doing the cauliflower. But I just couldn’t face the standing involved and went to bed for a 3½ hour nap.
My brother got home about then and he headed out to do the weedwacking in the front sections that he usually does. He finished exactly as the storm hit and he got soaked.
I was finally awake enough at 5PM to tackle the cauliflower. The right side is the heads that formed nice curds. The left side are the heads that didn’t. I found something called cauliflower rice and it’s just broken up curds until they are the size of rice. I figure the left side will work for that.
I pack larger size vegetables in 1½ pint containers so I got 5 meals. I finished about 6PM.
On Monday I have no helpers and plan to go into the Big garden to do the small amount of weeding, pull up the cauliflower plants, sucker and tie up the tomatoes, tie up the comfrey off the onions, and generally tidy up the garden. I have a BuyNothing person coming early afternoon to take away more seedlings, I hope. And I really should make an effort to do some of my PT exercises if I’m still alive…