Work or Fun?

I pulled out my new electric tiller today and tackled a job I haven’t done in the garden in several years-double digging!  I dug as deep as the tiller would dig (and that little baby can really turn up some soil), tossed the loose soil to the side, then dug as deep as the tiller would dig a second time.  Then I put the first soil back in the hole.  It wasn’t too hot out there this morning, but I still came in the house without a dry stitch.  Of course, part of that was due to running under the sprinkle in the flower bed to cool off.

After I got it dug, I put in cabbage plants, then covered the plants with bird netting.  Hoping this will keep the cabbage moths from getting to them.  I’ll have to keep an eye out and spray them with BT if I see caterpillars.  Wouldn’t it be awful if they have already laid eggs and I just trapped them inside with my cabbages!  Later I’ll cover the plants with a frost blanket, and I should be harvesting cabbages til February!

Tomorrow, I’ll repeat the process for the spinach bed and another rutabaga bed.

Then Scott is helping me put in trellising for the thornless blackberries.  They have sprawled and rooted to the ground, so I clipped and dug the rooted plants and potted those up for the plant sale.

Tomorrow we’re also estimating the size of the greenhouse I want to build (since I already have the windows, cement blocks and bricks from various other projects).  It will probably require our dismantling and moving the arbor Scott and I built several years ago and transplanting the native wisteria.  That may cause me to wait for cooler weather.  I would sure hate to lose that beautiful plant.  We’ll also have to dig up the  bird feeder pole we cemented into the ground.  Not sure if I’ll put it back up or not.  I do love the birds when they feed, but sunflowers are so messy, and I’m not about to buy the preshelled seeds.  I already spend a fortune on those silly birds.  We’ll be digging out lots of yellow iris and some Phlox Davidii (which was supposed to be resistant to powdery mildew, but is absolutely not!)

I’ll be adding the first super to the brood box of my honeybees, so that’s a big job for another day.  Those silly bees are eating us out of house and home, but since I got them so late in the spring, I’m having to feed them to be sure they have enough food to get through the winter.  But they are doing a great job in the flower and veggie garden as they collect pollen and nectar.

Sounds like a good night’s sleep tonight will come in handy for tomorrow.

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