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Post by Clipper on May 11, 2023 12:17:54 GMT -5
I was out early this morning. I built a trellis for the cucumbers to climb on, cleaned up the sawdust, put away the tools, dropped the dog off at the groomer and got out the big tiller. I tilled about half the garden before it got up to 83. That is a bit too hot for an old man to be wrestling with that thing. I will finish tonight after supper when it is cooler. I just got out the small tiller. I deep till with the 6 hp 24 inch tiller and then go back with the little tiller that I use to cultivate to till in some garden soil, and composted cow manure before I plant. So much for not planting a garden, haha. It is a lot of work, but I enjoy it for the most part. It looks like we are going to plant 8 bell pepper plants in containers outside the back door, summer squash in a raised bed, 8 Better Boy tomato plants, 6 hills of cucumbers, 4 hills of butternut squash, and I may build a another small raised bed to try growing cantaloupe. I am heading out to get a haircut. Summer is here and it is time for a crew cut with what hair I have left.  We made reservations yesterday to camp at that campsite along the river for 4 days beginning the day after memorial day. We stopped there last evening and paid a deposit and to check what dates they have available. There was a guy fishing along the bank near the campsite we are going to be staying on and he caught a 14 inch brown trout while I was chatting with him. Now I am getting the fishing bug. Have to stop at Walmart after my haircut and get my fishing license. $5 for senior citizen fishing and small game hunting combo. That is a tad cheaper than I used to pay in NY. It was 15 or 20 bucks when we left NY. I guess that 70 is the magic number. NY also charges only $5 for anyone over 70. |
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on May 11, 2023 16:29:51 GMT -5
If you enjoy a garden then go for it. The exercise will be rewarding. Just pace yourself. My grandfather enjoyed gardening all vegetables and did so up to the age of 90,LOL. Enjoy the camping after Memorial Day and by all means bring an iron fry pan to cook the fish on a outdoor fire. My Mom would do that when we all went camping in the summer always near a great fishing place.
I also got my summer haircut and decided to get rid of the 18 strands of hair left on the top of my head. The temp is supposed to hit mid 80's on Friday.....
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Post by Clipper on May 11, 2023 18:46:51 GMT -5
So much for the 76 degrees they forecast. It was 83 when I shut off the tiller and moved on to other errands and chores. It actually got up to 88 at about 4:30. It is still 78. I put off the tilling until tomorrow and got out the mower and mowed the back yard.
We have a cast iron skillet in the camper. I love a good shore dinner with fresh fish fried in butter and home fries with onions.
I just hopped out of the rain locker and am hitting my recliner here in a minute. Have a good night PB.
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 12, 2023 7:56:40 GMT -5
Does your recliner have a massage feature?
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Post by Clipper on May 12, 2023 10:38:02 GMT -5
No massage feature CB But Kathy rubbed me up with Theragesic and I was feeling pretty good by bedtime. I woke up at 6:30 this morning, had my coffee, read the paper and went out at 7:30 to finish the tilling.
I am heading out in a few minutes to wash the dirt off of both tillers so I can spray the exposed metal on the blades with WD40 before I put them away. My neighbor asked me yesterday if I had bought a new tiller. Nope, it is 5 or 6 years old, but still looks new. All of my outdoor equipment is washed and cleaned after every use. That alone is why my last lawn tractor lasted 20 or so years before needing replacement. Kathy says I am obsessive compulsive when it comes to taking care of my tools and equipment. It is a habit learned from my gramp and my dad. I still have some of my gramp's wood working tools that I still use that are close to 100 years old and still serviceable. I still use his rosewood 4 foot spirit level as well as two smaller mahogany levels.
We are supposed to have rain and thunderstorms starting sometime this afternoon so I won 't be able to work outdoors. We are going to go to the greenhouse and buy our plants, then to the produce stand to buy cantaloupes, and finally to Zaxby's for a huge Cobb salad for supper.
Enjoy your 75 and sunny day in beautiful upstate NY. This is that time of year when I yearn for the fishing and camping in CNY and the Adirondacks. We will soon be seeing the sweltering heat and humidity many afternoons here.
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Post by clarencebunsen on May 12, 2023 14:30:15 GMT -5
We had some 50 year old yew shrubs cut down. They were geriatric and slowly dying. The stumps are 8" in diameter. Now we need a stump grinder and Barb has already been shopping for new stuff to plant. The plans look great but the dollar signs are spinning in my head. We will see what happens. Very warm here today.
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on May 12, 2023 14:54:14 GMT -5
The crew who takes care of the plantings in Consumer Square are redoing the entrances. I like the lighter shade of green for the shrubs. They stand out nicely. I never did understand why some of the shrubs a dark almost brownish they just blended in with the dark mulch.
Everyone enjoy planting and making mother earth greener.
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Post by BHU on May 24, 2023 16:45:47 GMT -5
Tilled & planted the garden Monday. Tomatoes, longhots, Italia peppers, zucchini & basil. That's it. Went to water the plants & the garden hose grenaded. Nice.
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Post by Clipper on May 24, 2023 17:12:52 GMT -5
Tilled & planted the garden Monday. Tomatoes, longhots, Italia peppers, zucchini & basil. That's it. Went to water the plants & the garden hose grenaded. Nice. LOL! The hoses they sell in most of the big box stores now are crap. They kink and get pinholes. Last year I spent the big bucks and bought an industrial grade contractor's 100 hose. Best investment I ever made. I may buy another one this year for the front of the house to wash the car and use with the pressure washer. I usually water my plants with an old "wheeling" brand galvanized watering can that belonged to my grandfather. I am able to water well right at the base of the plants and give the roots a good drink. I helps to avoid powdery mildew fungus on the leaves that can happen when watering with a sprinkler. Especially if you water in the evening during the warm evenings of summer |
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Post by BHU on May 24, 2023 18:19:08 GMT -5
Tilled & planted the garden Monday. Tomatoes, longhots, Italia peppers, zucchini & basil. That's it. Went to water the plants & the garden hose grenaded. Nice. LOL! The hoses they sell in most of the big box stores now are crap. They kink and get pinholes. Last year I spent the big bucks and bought an industrial grade contractor's 100 hose. Best investment I ever made. I may buy another one this year for the front of the house to wash the car and use with the pressure washer. I usually water my plants with an old "wheeling" brand galvanized watering can that belonged to my grandfather. I am able to water well right at the base of the plants and give the roots a good drink. I helps to avoid powdery mildew fungus on the leaves that can happen when watering with a sprinkler. Especially if you water in the evening during the warm evenings of summer Ditto on the garden hoses. The one that split is a 50 ftr that I bought at Ace last summer. Being too cheap to buy a new one I took a short length of 1/2" pcv, cut out the bad piece & put the hose together using the pvc & hose clamps on each end. It's about 100ft from the house to the garden so I use 75 ft of hose & fill a watering can. I always give the plants a good drink at the base of the plant. Slight chance of frost tonight & tomorrow night but I think I'm safe. |
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Post by Clipper on May 25, 2023 8:57:27 GMT -5
I never gave much thought to how I watered the garden until we had powdery mildew pretty much devastate zucchini and summer squash plants we were growing in a raised bed. I had been watering them from above with a wand sprinkler on the end of the hose. Thankfully it occurred late in the season when the yield was dropping off anyway. I removed the leaves that were affected and sprayed the plants with a mixture of water, baking soda, and dish detergent, a recipe I got from our local nursery. In the past I watered the main garden with an oscillating sprinkler elevated on a post in the center of the garden. I stopped doing that also. I don't understand the importance of watering at the base of the plants when the rain falls from above without causing any problems, but our nursery guy has a degree in horticulture and teaches classes at our local extension services and the community college. He has never failed to be of assistance in successfully addressing any gardening problems I have encountered.
Kathy says I am a bit obsessive with caring for the garden. She subscribes to the theory that you should plant the plants, weed occasionally, water when the plants start to wilt and droop, and hope for the best.
I hope you avoided the patchy frost that was predicted for some of the area. The beginning of the growing season is always a crap shoot in that part of the country. More than once over the years I lost my plants to frost and had to re-plant when we lived there, especially when we lived in the North country.
I chuckled when I read about your pvc patch on the hose. When Kathy got me the 200psi 20 gallon stand up compressor for Christmas I didn't buy a new hose. The old hose was about 10 yrs old and was starting to weather crack. The old compressor only produced 100 psi. The first time I pumped the new one to 200 psi the hose developed a bulge so I put a piece of garden hose around it and secured it with radiator clamps. A few minutes later while I was using compressed air to blow the oily sawdust out of my chainsaw that hose exploded like a shot gun blast and scared the crap out of me. I bought a new hose and backed the pressure down to 150psi on the compressor. I can't really think of anything I really need 200 psi to accomplish.
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