JULY already. The first few days were hot, with some, but not a lot of progress in the garden.
The smaller, late tomato plants are enjoying their paper mulch to help conserve moisture while smothering weeds.
They were looking a little puny for awhile, but a couple feasts of Epson salt and blood meal have perked them.
I added more papers around the marigolds on July 6. These are from saved seed, 2018 season. Last year they were VERY tall. I may have to put some guiding string to keep them up as they don’t have grass and weeds around them this year.
A new post about the aspects of organic or in-organic gardening or agriculture went live today. The Legacy Gardens is not dedicated organic. We do a few mad-scientist practices that could be considered organic and are too thrifty to spend much on in-organics
I participate in several gardening groups on social media. There are some definite strong convictions about pest control. A sizable amount of the land at The Legacy Gardens is ‘wild’. The ‘legacy’ garden area is too large for our vegetable desires. A lot of it is often too wet…definitely in 2019. We have a large patch of newly seeded to Alsike clover (white) and white buckwheat. These plants give the weeds competition and re-seed themselves. The clover is a perennial. They are intended to provide a special place for bees.
The policy here is that we have a lot of places for wild critters. If any destructive wild critters begin hanging out in the yard and garden, they are extras to the species and can be removed.
July 8 —
Will try to get some more weeds trimmed and mowed today! Have a few things to get in pots before the summer gets completely away. Many things are late, especially the tiger lilies. Even some of the usual pests seem to be coming late.
July 10
The weather people were predicting super high heat index for today. We had regional heat advisories of 90 degrees with 110 degrees for the FEELS LIKE temperature.
Sandy and I went out before 7am to water and do some other things. Even that early , the humidity was condensing on me. And the dog was making it clear to R that she would like to go inside.
A Tisket A Tasket — Mailbox In The Heat
Before noon, we dragged ourselves to the mailbox to send a birthday card! Our pretty new mail boxes look great and make the journey a pleasure!
Surprise of surprises — afternoon clouds and rain north of us. The predicted cold front was preceded by simple cool from the rain. By 3pm we could see significant cooling when we walked to the mailbox. The red flag was down, the card on its way and our paper was waiting for us.
At 5:30 we got my push lawnmower started so I could take down some weed patches! There are some places in the garden area that were too wet to do anything with this year. The weeds were having a great time. I’ve been able to mow one spot, but not some others. It felt good to mow off the smart weeds that thrive where my seeding of clover and buckwheat drowned out!
July 27 Good Grief!
My ‘excuse’ is TRAVEL again. We went away for over a week to visit family and friends in Indiana and Ohio! Worth every moment of neglect that has hit the garden!
There is a patch of horseweeds, smartweeds, brush honeysuckle and pokeweed which is too rough for the mower. I’ve been ignoring that patch, but now they are approaching seed stage.
The simplest way to get them from the very beginning is to use the power hedge trimmer! I can just cut their ‘stumps’ and not get involved with rough ground or snakes who may have set up housekeeping in the weeds.
The weeds that are in seed stage will be topped because I want to stop the seed. If the long stalks are not chopped, the plant will retain enough energy to get those seeds to maturity. We will be able to burn the tops and the chopped stalks.
The smartweed plants are an attraction for the Japanese beetles. If one should appreciate their potential as pollinators, the bugs who hid in the smartweeds will guarantee the survival of the species and I will eliminate others that get in my way!
July 30, 2019 Grass Fed Pork
Rendered lard from grass-fed pork today. I took the easy way out. The crockpot on low will simmer the lard all day with a nice result. I was able to do other tasks (multi-tasking again) to help the house recover from the traveling!
The lard has become healthy fat in our point of view. My kids consider extra lard for pie crust a worthy gift from The Legacy Gardens.
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