We've got another big rain here. It started raining lightly yesterday (Wednesday) and then Wednesday night it really started to come down. Poured most of the night. This morning, around 7:30 a.m., it finally stopped. I haven't been out to check, but I'm thinking at least an inch.
On Tuesday, before all this rain started, I got the metal edging installed around the new red raspberry bed. That was a bigger job than I anticipated. I really thought I could just set the edging in place and use a piece of 2x4 and a mallet to tap it down into the (very soft moist) earth. Na-uh. I had to dig a trench the whole way around the bed (50 feet total) and set the edging down in it, then backfill. It wasn't backbreaking, but it was irritating. I've got the edging about 6-7 inches into the ground and 3-4 above. That ought to stop the red raspberries from running all over the place.
Later on Tuesday I went ahead and lifted 12 nice young red raspberry plants from the old bed and transplanted them to their new home, one long single row. I dusted them with sulfur powder and I placed a crushed up zinc tablet in each planting hole. This last is an experiment. I'm working on the idea that since zinc is a proven anti-viral, and since I have strong suspicions that zinc can halt and possibly reverse rose-rosette disease, I'm trying this method to see if I can prevent viral disease in my raspberries. (Back story: We had a terrible outbreak of rose-rosette disease here many years ago and I realized that any roses that grew through a galvanized (zinc coated) wire fence weren't affected. I tried hammering galvanized roofing nails into some affected roses and it seemed (seemed) to halt and in one case reverse the disease. This wasn't a controlled experiment, so I'm not saying I discovered a cure, I'm just saying that zinc seemed to help. I noticed the same thing with blackberries...those canes leaning on a galvanized wire were much healthier than those standing free of the fence.)
So, anyways, the new red raspberry bed is established, except for mulching. There are still a good number of plants left in the old bed and I'm not sure what to do with them yet. I'll definitely re-home some of them.
****
I got tired of having to detour around that one very long "telephone pole" of a downed pine tree in the Woodland, so went at it with a hand saw. Got it sawed into 3 sections that I used to edge the path through the Woodland. There was another very very long silver maple branch down in the Woodland as well; I got that trimmed up and used it to edge the Top Border. So that was another pretty big job done. I really like the looks of these long "log edgings" and they do a good job. Of course, they won't last forever but at the rate we're going here, I don't think I'll run out of tree trunks anytime too soon.
***
Harvested more tomatoes and got 3 quarts of sauce for the freezer. The tomatoes are winding down. I took out three plants of Gardener's Delight that really did not produce very well for me this year and that were looking done-for. This clears off the top of what will be the new black raspberry bed, except for a very vigorous pumpkin vine that I'm reluctant to disturb just yet. It's got some green pumpkins on it, so I think I'll let it go for now. I'm going to try to work around it, cutting back the black raspberries and transplanting some into the new bed, setting up the support posts and wires, etc.
I think this week I'll start really clearing off the veg beds. Several of the beds are already empty and I'd like to give them a weeding and then mulch them with the manure-straw that came from the big hen house clean out. Then they can sit fallow until spring. I've got all the cabbages harvested, the pole beans are dry enough to harvest once this wet weather clears. There are still potatoes in one of the beds, a few carrots and beets. My fall broccoli are coming along but the harlequin bugs are chewing on it...dusted it with Sevin as a last resort and hand-picked a dozen of the bugs. The horseradish plants at the end of the veg seem to be a real trap crop for harlequin bugs so I'm concentrating my efforts (and the Sevin dust) there. I really need to eradicate these pests; they chew up everything.
My brussel sprouts plants are big and healthy, but very tiny sprouts. I cut out the top rosettes to see if that will stimulate them to start putting more energy into the sprouts.
The greenhouse roof is a shambles. I'm going to buy new plastic sheeting today and get it replaced "sometime"....it's yet another big job to add to the growing list of big jobs. I really need to get it weather-tight soon so that I have a place to shelter my tender plants until it gets too cold for them to be outside at all. Hard to believe our frost date is less than a month away...
I completely forgot about planting garlic, so will buy some heads at the grocery today and get them in the ground this coming week.
I'm still hoping to rent a chain saw soon and tackle that downed apple tree on the south border. The poison ivy twined through it is truly dead now (I sprayed it a month ago), so hopefully with long pants and sleeves I can get in there and work without getting "touched."
Discussions:
| Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| chainsaw by slowcala | Sep 25, 2021 11:01 AM | 3 |
| Path Edging by microb | Sep 24, 2021 4:03 PM | 1 |
Post a new thread about this blog entry:
