Garden Gab
Beans, Greens, And Mooing Things
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Pardon me for just a small moment, but I just want to wax somewhat poetic about how gloriously beautiful it is outside on my farm right now. Imagine a balmy eighty-two degree day, the sky is agate blue, and not a cloud is to be seen. Your nostrils fill with the sweet scent of spring from the lofty breeze that is swirling gently through the air. Hmm...there might also be the scent of that digested hay that you stepped in permeating that sweet spring scent, I mean, I did say try to imagine the farm on a spring day.
Anyway, today was a very industrious day for this Kat (that seems to be the general theme around here). After reviewing adding fractions with different denominators with my burly fifth grade Bobo, I went out and proceeded to delve into garden land. After spending about a half an hour repairing my deer netting, I got to the fun part of the day, transplanting!
I had a bunch of broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and lettuce seedlings that needed to be plunked into my compost-ridden garden soil of gloriousness. I made quick work of that chore, and I must have been exuding some spring elation, for every spider, bee, and beetle in the entire acre patch of garden decided to pay me a visit, and by visit I mean land on various parts of my sorta sweaty form. It's nice to be admired I guess.
Speaking of admiration, Moo-Bear, my daughter's 4-H steer has become quite attached to me. His pen adjoins the garden, and I cannot enter the darn place without him singing a Moo-song of "Pet me now woman!!" I probably sealed my own bovine adoration fate by picking big handfuls of dandelions and vetch for the beast as a treat, but dangit, now he is like a toddler on a road trip! Instead of singing "Are we there yet?" in irritating monotone, he instead bellows incessantly while I'm out there trying to work. No human on the planet could resist his sweet pleading bovine face, so my garden work is now punctuated with the sing song melody of my one-sided dialogue with the mooing beast. Sigh.
Next I wandered around the farm looking for my t-post pounder. I don't know about ya'll, but my biggest pet peeve ever is going to get a tool I need and it's not where it should be! ARGH! My t-post pounder is AWOL at the moment, so I grabbed a very large hammer out of the forge and proceeded to drive a couple of t-posts into the garden with some good old fashioned frustration energy. Guess I should be thankful to the derelict that can't be bothered to put the dratted pounder away, for I made quick work of that chore.
Why pound t-posts into the garden? Well, I needed a trellis for my pole beans that I was about to plant, and I really like using cattle panels for garden trellises. Cattle panels are plentiful on my place, and like baling twine, get used for many things that they were probably not intended for by the manufacturers. I baling twined a chunk of cattle panel to my two angst pounded t-posts and proceeded to plunk my pole beans into the ground.
I've written before about just how much I adore Pinetree Garden Seeds. They cater to gardeners, and I utilize them when I want to try a new variety of plant. This year as I was perusing their new offerings I got a gander of a new pole bean cultivar, Carminat. They are PURPLE! I love green beans, and purple is my favorite color, so ordering a packet of the purple pole beans was kind of a no-brainer for me.
Beans planted, I moved on to planting over a 100 row feet of sunflowers. When my husband made my new strawberry bed he tilled the patch a bit longer than need be. "Sunflowers must belong there!" my brain quite literally screamed at me as I pondered the section of dirt. Mission accomplished. I think there are a mixture of Autumn Beauty, Tall Teddy, and Mammoth sunflowers planted in the twenty by thirty section of Earth next to the strawberries. I know where I will be laying at with my iced tea this summer!
Finally, I spent a couple of hours weedeating. It is amazing what just a week or two of warm weather will do in plant growth land after a couple of months of rain! I don't want my friend @haphazard-hstead to worry though, I always leave big swaths of weeds for salad utilization:o)!
And now here I sit, freshly scrubbed and my toenails painted fire engine red because the notion struck me. Dinner is in the oven (Cheeseburger Pie!!), and in a little over an hour about fifteen kids and their parents will be showing up for our shooting sports 4-H meeting. There's nothing quite like a spring day on the farm!
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I like to plant and harvest many things live in a country where there is no snow or anything like that so practically here is planted all year round, then in your city are you coming out of winter?
Oh wow! A year round growing season sounds lovely! How lucky you are!😊 We have snow 4-6 months of the year, so it's definitely coming out if winter time right now.
Sweetness! A new (to me) seed supplier! The weather has been incredible and it looks like your rhubarb has been doing really well. I love the autumn beauty sunflowers, they throw such cool colors. I have them coming up randomly around the farm after having planted them 5 or 6 years ago. They have morphed a bit from crossing with the other sunflowers I have grown since.
Oh I so hope you got to be outside in our glorious weather today! I just finished an excellent game of park and rec league volleyball, was a nice way to end the day! I love how you've got your own blend of sunflowers now, I got my own blend of colored yarrow flowers in much the same way😊 And you sound like me, I totally get excited about seed suppliers too, lol!
The weather has been outstanding! I am out in it everyday, "It's a moral imperitive!" as it's good for my head. I find that I end up with mutts in everything. All my saved seeds are crosses since squash cross, beans cross, cucs, sunflowers, amaranth, etc.
There is just something about a good seed supplier. One that has the good variety, quantities, and prices is enough to make me a bit giddy. We have to be so cautious in this area for the varieties we select, but there are some serious diamonds in the rough. Like Pear melon, it is a football shaped musk melon that is native to the NW. It grows amazing here.
Ha ha ha! I have a whole bin of mutt seeds too! LOL!
Oh man, you are so right about variety selection in our extra special micro-climates. I seriously tend to err on the side of caution and often find myself saying, if it grows in Montana or Minnesota then, lol!
I haven't ever grown Pear melon, but it sounds amazing, I will totally give that a try! I don't know about you, but I am enjoying this good growing rain we got today, got the day off from watering:o)! Hope you are having a great afternoon!
It was silly weather. I was watching it DUMPING on the other side of the valley as the storms moved south, but not a drop on us a mile away. Then it finally gave us a token down pour for a while but I think there might be another bout on the way. These springs storms can be so erratic.
My wife is from North Dakota so i think of there for my "if it'll grow there...".
I have a bunch of pear melon seeds from my champion from the fair if you want.
Yep ... I've decided; you should have a reality tv show. Your life sounds wonderful and full of delight and positive vibes. I'd watch you over the Kardashians any day. Of course, I don't actually watch the Kardashian.
Cheeseburger pie sounds amazing:)
Ha ha ha! That show would be a hoot, especially if we got my parents and brother involved! You are so sweet my friend, you'd have to have a guest appearance, karate showcase!
My nephew lives in Beverly Hills with the Kardashian kids' preschool teacher, there's nothing about that life that appeals to me at all, I'd rather have dirty fingernails and cheeseburger pie for realz lol!
Hope you are having an excellent evening!😊
The money might be nice but how they get it doesn't appeal to me. We need better role models for our young people ... says I. I am having a good night. Just got home from Kung Fu and about to head to bed. Hope your night was great too:)
Hola amigo, están muy bonitas tus plantas espero que sigan así :D
Buenas Noches! And thank you so much for the kind words!!
Para eso estamos amigo :D
I declare that weeds seem to enjoy the rain more than plants by the extent that they grow. 😄
I've been known to utter a lament to my food plants about the awesome growth habits of weeds, 😜😆
Oh, Lord! What a beautiful life!
Thank you @dswigle! I do quite love our life, although sometimes I get splashed in questionable substances, LOL! Hope you are having a splendid night!
Oh I am such a sucker for animals. When I was on the farm, I never could get a mooer. Nope I had the pasture, perfectly fenced and electric fenced even, but I knew my limitations. My buddy is a farmer down the road and raises cattle. He kept trying to convince me, but I knew I would get attached to that and we would have a new pet.
Sounds like a prodigious crop is in your future, Kat. I cannot wait to see some sunflower pics.
Ooh! For some reason I am thinking that a few of those sunflower pics might make it into a monochrome Monday tagged post:o)
And I know what you mean about fondness for animals. I have this mental thing I do when a beast comes onto the farm, they are separated into a pet or livestock category, but it's still hard. I could never be a butcher. When it is necessary I am competent, but that part of life is most definitely not my bag. If were a 1%er, Moo Bear would be spending his life with us here:o)
Glad to know I am not alone in that sentiment, hope you are enjoying your evening!
Hahahahahahaha!
😄😇😄
Somehow I missed this post 'til now. It sounds like you had a very productive day. I'll be interested to see how your purple pole beans do. We've planted purple beans before, but I think they were bush beans. We've used cattle panels for climbing veggies, too, like peas and beans. They really do work well!