Gardening all day...can you dig it? :)

The earth is a wonderful bounty of pleasure and joy.
Simple treasure.
Dove desired to do a worm race.
I had to get out into the garden to get the foods in the earth in a timely manner.

Dash had Pie , Long John, Davey Jones.
Dove had Pinkie,Speedy, and Slippery.

Steve dug up a row for me that needed tending too.

While he dug in the sand and compose, I was tending the birds.
That is the carrot /garlic row.
Planting certain things together help provide a natural deterrent to pests.

After working in the coop and getting it all mucked (raked out and clean).
It was time to tip the compost.
Steve (yes I have permission to use his name now) well Steve worked the two plots of earth and then they were planted and the mulch scattered. Lots of work.
the children had worm races which instilled a bit more of a drive for Steve to keep digging up the carrot row.
We put sand in. I checked my soil PH in several places and it looks like we are doing pretty good at 6.5.

Steve was a bit concerned about adding the straw to the compost. We are getting way too much green though and needed to add a lot of brown.
I tip them over and get the older stup out of the bottom.
Works great. The chicken coop cleaned, the greens and the browns all in one big day.
Compost has to have a good balance.
Ours has not yet made good black earth, but in time and with a better heat in the bins it will get better.

Steve and Dash dug this up for me and we put in a lot of sand.
That is the lettuce plot. In the corner will be a cucumber soon.
Green onions between butter lettuce rows.

Compost mulch place all around the plants.
This will keep moisture in and the compost will feed the soil.

The Strawberries are very Happy!
There are several fruits on the plant.

We set in straw yesterday.

Today it was a good mulch covering.
The nice lettuce is now guarded by some stakes.This is the big "dig" of the day.
Steve turned in sand.
The earth was turned last week and then it was amended with compost and sand and bone meal.
the four hills are for the "Moon and Stars Watermelon".
It is an heirloom verity. $2.69 for 9 seeds! They better be as amazing as I have read about. It was originally found in Africa.

The other hill is cantaloupe, also a heirloom.
I am doing my best to keep to exclusively planting Heirloom varieties so that I can save my own seeds. It is also a duty to me to keep these alive and growing. The big seed companies have turned all our seeds into mules. That is that they can not produce seed that will live.
On the very end near the fence wall the old beans were removed and the wall line planted with a different type of pole bean.

It was fun to make a little river trench and get the level just right to soak the hills . Melons do not like to get wet but, they like a lot of water and heat.
The black plastic was a gift from FILove last month. He thought I might make use of them .
They sure were handy today.

So once I got the slopes right to have a good flow.
I love doing that!
Fun to flow water where you want it to go...
The straw will keep the water from evaporating as fast and keep the garden free of the all sticky mud.

The radish is happy and behind them the pole beens are up.

Behold a bean bush.
I was getting very concerned about them, they took several extra days to come along.

You can see all the newly sprouted beans up today. Nice treat for allthe hard work delights in a bit of encouragement.
Speaking of that the straw bail tomatoe crop is doing very well.
There are three of four varities up now.
This is one that is for slicing.
There is one plant with Roma's on it for sauceing.
This is the cherry tomatoes plant It has a lot of fruit and flower on it.
I spread him out a bit with a nice rap around trellis. Cllo trellis.
It is opend flat, then it is just brought back togeather at the ends. I altered it a bit. I have to keep these plants screened. My lab will eat them he did so to four plants, tomatoes and all!
My Lab decided to eat the newly planted cayanne pepper plant, dove witnessed it.
She said he quickly ran over and drank a lot of water.
Perhaps it will dissuade him.

Well I am rested now (I made Lamb burgers for supper with fresh picked lettuce. )
It is off to the hot shower!
I can dig that!