The Digging is Nearly Done - July 11, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

in homesteading •  5 years ago 

V garden - cleared out crop July 2019.jpg

We were out early again this morning and finished the V garden. Gardens look like a war zone.

Big garden - geranium, sedum, veronica, lamiums, cleome crop July 2019.jpg
Geranium in its new home in the Big garden, lower center

We didn’t have to dig up all the geranium, so we left a good part in place. We didn’t find all the remaining bulbs.

V garden - bulbs crop July 2019.jpg
Bulbs from V garden

Big garden - lily of the valley and bulbs crop July 2019.jpg
Lily of the valley, complete with almost all the bulbs, in Big garden

What was left was the things like violets, thyme, spiderwort, and lily of the valley. Of these, the lily of the valley was most important. There were bulbs imbedded in the roots that didn’t grow anywhere else. I’d never be able to get them out. So I planned to dig the whole mass where they were and move it.

It dug up well, and only a few of the puschkinia bulbs fell out. I put some of the black plastic edging that had been around it back around it in the Big garden.

Old North - spiderwort dug crop July 2019.jpg

Next we dug up some of the hybrid spiderwort. It is pretty invasive and I found my last 2 large pots to put it in. Then we put them into the garden.

Walkway - violets and thyme dug crop July 2019.jpg
Walkway after violet and thyme removal, another war zone

Big garden - spiderwort, violets and thyme crop July 2019.jpg
From bottom: spiderwort in 2 pots, violets, thyme at top

By this time, it was nearing the time they had threatened us with thunderstorms. My helper friend had arrived earlier and had done the foliar feeding.

Thunderstorms at 11AM crop July 2019.jpg
Does this look like thunderstorms to you?

We were supposed to get rain Thursday and Friday. But all we got was a bit in the night. So I am watering again…

As we’d finished digging, my husband went up to put a new rear wheel bearing in his “new” 2014 Subaru. This kept him busy until well after noontime.

Big garden - bulbs crop July 2019.jpg

My helper friend and I tackled the job of protecting the bulbs in pots in the ground my intern and I had done yesterday. This consisted of packing dirt around the pots up to the lips, finding and laying out more hardware cloth, and finding large stones to lay on top of it.

It all still needs mulched, but I still have a lot of tiny bulbs to put into pots and pots to bury. Maybe tomorrow….

Big garden - comfrey crop July 2019.jpg
Comfrey in the weeds of the Big garden

Small garden - sunflower crop July 2019.jpg
Volunteer sunflower in the Small garden

Small garden - sunflower and calendula crop July 2019.jpg
Volunteer calendula and the sunflower in the Small garden

So that’s what we got done on Thursday. I need to finish the bulbs, and start clearing a place to put the azalea and the quince near the gate in the Big garden. Once that’s done I can turn my attention to the other gardens.

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Gosh you guys must be so fit for all the hard work you do in your garden. I am still sore from our day of wheelbarrowing wood!

Posted using Partiko Android

No, actually we're far from it. I only manage between 2 - 4 hrs in the morning, and I am cooked for the rest of the day. Husband much the same. Because we've both been dealing with being sick for so long, we just work through the soreness/pain. It's the exhaustion that stops us...

Today I am taking off because:

  1. I'm wiped from this week
  2. Husband's b'day and we're doing a roadtrip (which will wipe me out more...)

Both of us wish and dream of being thin and fit like we were 40 years ago, but neither can manage that and the work...

Still, you get a lot done in two to four hours! Ah, to be young again! Ha, dreams of being fit and thin? I've had those for the last 48 years! Lol.