Washes compost off hands.

Jun. 8th, 2025 12:36 pm
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[personal profile] ranunculus
Saturday and Sunday were spent in Martinez judging. While there I started to get sick.  Slept about 10 hours Sat night, on my non-functioning camping pad.  Need to fix air leak.  Came back and slept for almost 3 days. While I was undoubtedly "under-the-weather" it is difficult to tease out how much given that there was also caffine deprivation and I quit taking an otherwise almost daily dose of Sudafed at the same time. I've given up and gone back to 1/2 mug of coffee (dark, strong and black) plus Sudafed (12 hr) as needed.   So that knocked out almost a week of activities.  Sigh.  I'm hiring a guy to weed whack for me tomorrow so I can get the electric fence on. Cows are due around the house tomorrow.  I did more than half of the work around the house, but the horse pasture boundary still needs to be done. 

Small jobs are finally getting done in the garden.   There is drip irrigation in the back of the garden; two small barrels and in the 6' bed.  Still need to do the new 8' bed in the walkway.  In Room 1 the east ends of beds 2 & 3 are now empty of bolting lettuce and garlic.  Tonight I'll plant them.  Those beds already have drip.  YAY more little plants out of their tiny containers.  On a much sadder note, several of the zinnias under the white rose had their lower stems munched on by pill bugs (AKA rolly-pollys). At least 5 zinnias are dead and will need to be replanted.  I'll add pill bugs (members of the crustacean family) to my list of nasty bugs to check for daily.   

The garden has been completely overwhelmed by beetles.  One is a tiny black beetle that seems to be native.  The other is cucumber beetle. There are far fewer cucumber beetles than there were last year, but.  For the past week I've been walking around with a really big yoghurt container (60 oz?) partly filled with soapy water and knocking beetles into it. This works better in the early morning when the beetles are a little cold and slow.  The first couple of days I got hundreds of beetles. Now I'm getting 50 or so.  I assume that is partly the cyclical nature of bugs, and I'll have another hatch to deal with soon, but it is encouraging.  Both beetles feed extensively on callendula flowers. It is pretty easy to knock them out of the flower and into the water.  The black beetles especially like onion flower heads, burrowing in among the unopened, tender flower clusters.  Very satisfying to clean out. They also love the yellow hollyhock.  Only a few have actually tried to chew on the cucumbers or squash.  My goal is to reduce the population by hand and then spray nematodes again to help with any larva in the soil.  

My friend Phoebe left some very large, self watering, pots of plants with me. The hole into the reservoir is big enough to stick the hose through and have plenty of room around it.  Here is what I wrote to her: 
I was just filling the reservoir on your red pot, and 1/2 way through  decided to turn it 180.  As I bent over to resume filling it, out squeezed a very large toad! It took him at least three wiggles to get out. I apologized profusely for disturbing him, though it is unclear if he understood.



White Rose

Jun. 2nd, 2025 08:12 am
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[personal profile] ranunculus
The white rose (ok, pale yellow center) has new buds!!  While it was struggling away trying to stay alive in it's old, shady location; battling oak tree roots for moisture; it could barely bloom at all. Some years it didn't bloom. This year, in its new, sunny location with plenty of water, it has sent out a second pair of buds {Edit: There are four!!}.  This further confirms my suspicion that it is a climbing rose, not a rambling rose, especially since the roses are on new growth.  After nosing around the internet I'm pretty sure it is a Lamarque Rose.  Bred in 1830.  It will be fun to see how it does, and whether we are a tad hot for it (in full sun) or not. 

ETS Martinez, Shade Cloth

Jun. 1st, 2025 07:27 pm
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[personal profile] ranunculus
Thursday and Friday were spent doggedly trying to get shade cloth set up for the garden.  Last year the shade cloth undoubtedly saved the garden from burning up.  My rule of thumb was to put the shade cloth up if it was over 103F.  The shade cloth was stored on pipes, or pieces of wood that were attached to 7' or 8' t-posts.  I would reef them up like sails when they weren't needed and then haul them out and hook their ends up to stretch them. Very labor intensive. This year I installed a new system.  Each section of shade cloth gets shower curtain rings on each end.  New, 10' tall t-posts have been installed with electrical conduit pipes as horizontal cross pieces.  Here is a picture.


I need to spend a little time fine tuning the system, but it seems to work really well.  Friday it got to 100F.  I worked in the heat finishing the project and then loaded the car for the trip to Martinez.  It was a quick trip, out Sat morning early with just one overnight but it still required a lot of stuff.  I jammed the car full of camping equipment and 5 flats + of spare plants.  Chena was quite miffed that the only space for her was in the front seat. 
Donald met me at Martinez, did several nice walks with Chena and at least one with Cole, Susie's dog.  It was hot in Martinez, 95F, and I got terribly hot and tired. Slept for 10 or 11 hours.  Sunday was cooler and altogether nicer.  We had a great group of riders with a number of new riders, all of whom seemed nice. 
On Saturday night I was disappointed that  only a very few plants had been taken.  Sunday was another story entirely. Plants flew off the picnic table.  I said they were free, though I would happily take a dollar donation to cover pots and soil costs.  I think I collected $42.  All of the plants I brought went to new homes.  I'm so happy not to need to water them!!   
I'm home now, tired.  Need to remember to fix my camping mattress which has an air leak, or possibly a leaky valve.  
Tomorrow or next day Firefly comes back. I will be glad to see her. 

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