Sunday, May 29, 2011

Everything is better without a pressure regulator!

I am still coughing and sound like a seal, but I was out in the garden this afternoon with my sister and Mike (thank you guys so much!). I mostly stood around blankly while Alexis and Mike installed the drip irrigation system for the apple trees, a couple of blueberries, the hazelnut and the entire annual vegetable garden. I've been under the weather with what I call the epizootie, Will calls a summer flu followed by bronchitis, and my friend Sarah randomly characterized as a stomach bug. So Alexis and Mike saved the garden from a summer of hot dryness with my occasional input.

And they saved it with style! Water guns and weird shoes ensured that they had a blast and I had something to stare at when I felt like I was melting.

Once we got it all hooked up, the misters were kind of weak (my garden is really big, so it gets hard to keep the pressure up once you put in a few hundred feet of tubing). So....I took off the pressure regulator and everything got better! I am so excited to start using the misters combined with the awesome 1700 gallon cistern! Thanks again to the garden heroes of the long weekend, Alexis and Mike!



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Spring. Like the Energizer bunny.


This spring just keeps going and going. It is cool and rainy for yet another week. While I adore hot, my greens and peas are loving the weather and are showing their love with a bumper crop of tasty food. I had no idea lettuce could get so big!

We had some hail last weekend, but it didn't do much damage. The flat, orange bugs have showed up and are infesting bolted greens and radishes. I don't know what they are and will try to remember to look it up in my bug book. We are reinvested with voles. This has made adopting Vole Cat Jr. Look pretty good.

All of the seeds were finally planted this past weekend. Now it is time to wait for them to sprout. And by wait, I mean weed, finish installing the irrigation system, build the cedar trellises for the cukes and melons, put a bird net over the peach tree, and weed some more. A farmer's work is never done! And thank goodness for that!