4/23: Another glorious day in the yard! Moved almost all of the plants from the solarium to either outdoors or into the greenhouse. Still got a shelf full in the solarium, but looking a lot more clear! Clear enough that I left the access for all kitties open for a while.. and of course Ocelot still managed to get into what was left and barf up a garlic leaf... silly kitten.
Cleaned up the front porch today.. then realized I was out of bleach and oxiclean, so no spraying the deck today. Got the porch furniture out of the pole barnt- didn't set it up yet since the porch hasn't been sprayed yet. It needs to be wiped down anyway.
A bunch of mowing.. the first round of the season!! The ole gal fired right up and I cut out the garden paths area first.. Then asked sis if she would like to take over- of course the answer was yes! So I was free to dink around with other outdoor stuff while she got some Zen on.
And yum, outdoor stuff... We have already strung up the new clothesline and been using it for a few days. It's one of those greatgrans cleaning secrets- the magic of outdoor fresh and sun on stuff. Of course rounds of frocks and bed linens have been first up, along with a couple of the hubbies stinkier coats, lol. As long as the weather is nice, we will be heavily using the lines for months now. A few things still go into the dryer- undergarments and jeans just are nicer when tumbled in the dryer. But heck yeah to all that other jazz going out on the line to dry. It not only saves a lot of money, but just no fabric sheet can match actual outdoor drying. Experimented with the neem oil spraying under the line area- I refreshed the half gallon or so that's left with an extra dash each of the lavender, rosemary, teatree and peppermint oils and sprayed heavily all along the line and well up the trunks of the three maples. It might help ward off some of the bugs in the area, lol. Once it gets nicer, I'll plant out some of the pelargoniums around the tree bases. I got a crapton of cuttings waiting.
And shit.. warm weather means tick season is on. I've found a couple so far. Gross on a gross stick. But hey, it's not like I don't have a bunch of fabu homemade soaps, conditioner, and other oils on hand to start using right now. I think I might try out the dry ice traps soon.
Dry ice traps: http://www.scout.com/outdoors/hunting/story/1411042-tick-experiment-that-ll-blow-your-mind
https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/alternatives/factsheets/Tick%20Control.pdf
And speaking of nasty critters.. looks like so far the coon repellent action has been working. I've been putting out little dairy tubs with a big wad of dryer fluff and a goodly splash of ammonia in them in strategic places around the outside of the house. And liberally been sprinkling out hot pepper flake all over the general path areas and under feeder areas.. no coons. Even the drown buckets inside the perimeter have been showing zero critter sign. Good deal!! And nope, the birdies don't care one whit- we got masses of finches like no tomorrow providing all of us with OMGFinches!! TV. Next up is to start putting out "scent baits" of the cats litter boxes around the further outsides of the area. Ward off critters and perhaps start attracting a few ferals back into the area.
4/27: been some nice days of pulling stuff outside, hardening off, and all that jazz. More mowing and cleaning up stuff while the weather was nice. Porch is ready to go for when it is nice again..
Because yeah, open windows and almost 80 yesterday has crashed into "chilly" 50's and overnight into the 40's again.
Cleaned up a goodly chunk of and planted in a bunch of seed yesterday on the north side of the kennel. Colorful. Detroit White, and Detroit Golden beets, and a checkerboard of Little Finger Carrot and Helios Radish. The Brussels and Beer radish look like scrap, so those areas are going to be yanked out. Not sure what is going to go into the BS spot, but I think I'm going to plant in the whole west side of the kennel strip with the toothache plant. I've got 72 plants to set in, and it is certainly nothing like what's been in that area ever. Another good round of sitting out and resetting that section of the bed yet to come- I still need to do some serious shaking out of gravel in the area, the greenhouse drainoff has done a great job of sifting that shit up to the surface. For whatever reason, the softneck garlic has come up profusely and is plush as hell after sitting into a second spring- still zippo sign of whatever happened to the hardneck. So I'm going to let that softneck just keep growing till it's normal late summer harvest time and then pull it. They should break up into goodly mother cloves with yummy sproutling bits to hold till next winter and fresh greens growing time :)
I still have a boatload of garlic from that bucket I got last fall. The small heads have been getting used up with fresh green eating tubs and some of the bigger smalls and some mediums have been getting tossed into the bomb buckets.. But I still have a nice box of big mother heads to plant out. I think I might use them out on the back 40 to mark off spots of where I want to grow some trees in a few years. I also have 3 pots of "ditch irises"- you know, the oober common purple ones the way Fulva Lillies are ditch lillies.. I want to plant in some Black Walnuts and American Chestnuts along the back line for some future nut and lumber investment- just 2-3 trees of each. And since I know regardless of what baby trees I might get in the next year or two, they are likely to get grown up a bit for a year or two in pots before planting out way back there. I think I'm going to use some of that garlic and those iris pots to plant in around the center spots of where those trees will go. In a year or two those mothers will grow out nicely and be left alone by critters- and perfectly mark the planting spots.
Started most of the last of the crapton of indoor started seed today- squashes, cucumbers, melons, and long season beans. Yep, seems early- but I like pre-sprouting seedlings to plant in and still keep some seed back for direct sowing at the same time if needed. Although this year I need to concentrate on the Tonda- I had 5 seed left so I started 3 today for regular growing, and reserved 2 seed to special container grow for seed growing- with the way the greenhouse is holding up, sis and I plan on just tearing down the current tarp/plastic roof and replacing the porch roof and sides section and capping over the enclosed runs with something light that don't let the insects in so I have a few breeding chambers through the summer.
4/30: more transplanting done.. and not much else. It's been rainy and wet and rather chilly. And it's the end of the month, I should post this.
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