Gardening 2023

[cineater]

The pantry team gets their plants this week, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.  My garage will be empty!  Decided we would wait on the seeds until next week.  It will be a whole new freak out for me with squash plants in the ground.  Del says they don't do well out there with the squash beetles.  We may have to sign up for bug patrol.

I have 5 people signed up for a tour of the gardens for new trainees and tour guides.  Phebe said something about reworking the tour scripts.  No, you're not doing that.  Each garden wrote what they wanted to say about their garden and I went in and underlined the important points to make there.  Nobody is memorizing a script.  We're teaching how to garden and I need her to make sure I didn't leave out any major points to make.  The scripts are on a sign to each garden.

The coleus bouquets have rooted and are ready to be planted.  I think I'm going to put them right in the ground.

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To earn your Master Gardener certification, you have to volunteer 20 hours.  The new girl had 5 spine surgeries in December.  She can't bend over.  She's great at making signs so that's what I've been having her do.  She's really good at it.  Membership though wants to count it as administrative and not count it towards her 20 hours.  We've been allowing this for years for disabled people.  We're not changing it now and we aren't arguing about it.  I just bumped it to the state guy.  Spells liability to me.

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We had a cooking class today.  Pick stuff right out of the garden and throw together lunch for the crew for the day.  Worked out really well.  And, shouldn't talk to me, talked Joann into doing a class on making salsa.  She got carried away and went into dips too.  Her idea, can't blame me there.    Locked her into the afternoon of our monthly meeting in August so everyone can sample the stuff at the meeting.  Maybe have them bring in what they make.  We'll just eat our way through that meeting.  

Two in ground native bee nest were found in the bird garden.  The lead says they aren't bothering her weeders.  They don't bother her, visitors or the mowers, they can stay.  The first person they sting and I'll be out there in the dark nuking their asses!  After the ones at my house last year, the yellow jackets, I'm getting them before they get me.

I left the house with 5 flats of plants this morning.  None left in the garage.  And came home with 5 flats.    It was from the tomato round up.  Everybody was bringing me extra tomatoes for the pantry beds.  Mark dropped off with no tags on his plants.  Can't use those if I don't know what they are.  I'll hold them and give them away at the monthly meeting.  And he was suppose to give me squash seeds, instead he started them.  Shit, we still have the cool season crops in.  We can put them in but they are going to be bigger then what we want while we're finishing up the onions.  We did get a nice variety of tomatoes.  Some I'm not real sure about.  People were growing them because of the name.  These rainbow ones don't look very appetizing, fucking hippies.  

How could I forget, I'm tending the pot plantation this weekend.  I start my training tomorrow morning at 7.  Apparently that's when they get watered.  They are on a schedule.  This was a lot easier when pot was just a weed.

[cineater]

The parks department went to pick up our free leaf mulch for us and them.  The place sold it to a contractor!  Can't get any more until the fall.  Can't blame them.  They usually have mountains of it but I guess the word is out and somebody is making a business out of it.  Just tell me who, we're buying. 

I'm not babysitting the pot plantation this weekend.  He found out I have aphids at my house (as does everyone) and he doesn't want to risk his crop.  Lets see, I can't inspect hundreds of plants in the greenhouse because I can't see the eggs.  And now I don't have to get up at 6 to water the pot plants because I've been around aphids.  Handy little bug to have around. 

[cineater]

Like herding cats.     Lots of confusion over what mulch we are getting next.  A couple of key people didn't want to call a meeting to discuss this so it went out on email.  And now I'm having to explain a bunch of stuff.  What we all want is more chain emails.   

I don't want anything with wood chips for our beds.  There's the whole argument about them depleting the nitrogen in the soil, might not be true.  Aside from that, they look like shit when they dry up.  Don't mix up in the soil well, we are always digging in it.  You can get splinters in your hands when working around it.  And if they get out in the grass, they become projectiles if the lawn mower hits them just right.  I'm a big fan of leaf litter.  It breaks down a lot quicker and isn't noticeable in the soil.  Looks pretty natural out there.  Really good at holding in the moisture as it doesn't absorb it like wood chips.  Move that stuff around with your hands.

[cineater]

Okay, I just made the decision and the cats just let me and are merrily going about their business.  Problem is now we are buying leaf mulch, we not longer get to take it home.  That's going to piss some folks off.  Not my decision there.

On top of all the business of actually running and maintaining the gardens, I have the task of making it more educational and get more people coming to see it.  It's really the task of the education committee but they weren't doing it so I just joined that group.  Brought in on myself and I'm a little bit of a control freak.     Anywho, I'm pulling together public tours in June on the fly.  I've got 20 tours set up, working on the social media announcements to get people to come.  "Hot as a pistol but cool inside."  Too busy to freak out.   

[cineater]

Woohoo, the educational signage I was working on went up today (most of it).  I got in the office first thing and printed, laminated everything I was waiting on the office to do.  We've been working on these 5x7 education cards for some of the veggies.  Double sided taped them to the faceplate of a plastic stake.  Stuck them in the ground next to the plant.  They look really good.  Not sure how they are going to look when the plants grow up or rather, if you can see them.  A visitor yesterday mentioned she read through my tomato flip charts and found them really helpful.  They tell you what's wrong with your tomato.  So far they haven't been good enough to steal but then gardeners are pretty cool people.  Or maybe because most of them have farmer mentality, leave it where it lays. 

Spent 6 hours at the garden yesterday getting ready for the mulch and chipping one of my paths.  Forgot my hat and have a red face.  Don't know how that happens when I'm looking down all the time.  Had to report broken tools to Kevin.  We're hard on that stuff.  Two of the 3 wheelbarrows were out of commission yesterday.  And one of the trimmers was having a hard time running.  Craig was already there and almost done mowing when I got there at 8.  He agreed to run a tree tour this fall.  Was going home to work up the bid for work he's doing at my place.

[cineater]

Mulch is in!  And it's fucking hot out there.  My beds are done but I need to go back tonight and do a couple of things.

People were checking out the signage I put up in the veggie garden.  They liked it.  I even got a wow.  But I came home with more signs to make and yes, some more plants.

Phebe is on the garden tours.  Finished up the signup genius and polishing up the social media.  All that goes up tomorrow.  And then we go to education committee and tell them what we did.  Not ask for their input or suggestions.  It's done.    It would have been next year before I got everyone on the committee on the same page.  As it is, people are not following my instructions fully.  No I wanted it my way for a reason but it's done and I can work around what they did wrong.  Let them feel like they contributed.  Love helpful people but they can really screw up your flow.

[cineater]

Roll out started early, has a few glitches.  It's okay, they can be fixed real quick.  Got a link not working.  Can't fix the glitch in somebody else's program but I can live with it.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064615452884  That's me and the pantry team taking over our first harvest.  Lady up front on the left.

https://www.facebook.com/MUExtStCharlesCo/?eid=ARCX0O6vW8HbZU3KjbL03GZv7vgadOcZk9XtogRGa6Y3BnIwPVCilwIEEN9SxooYKLcWL_gsxAcNqADZ  Scroll down to the pepper signs.  That's what I've been working on.  Didn't know this was on there.  It's all those plant I grew for the parks.

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My SIL doesn't believe in me.  He wants his nephew and brother to come over and move mulch at his house.  First off, I paid for that 2 yards.  Takes no time to move that, at least in my world.  I put it down, I won't burry the new plants we put in.  He forgets the piss poor job that nephew did mowing his grass.  I also won't damage the trees and bushes with the wheelbarrow.  He's afraid he would have to get involved if I do it.  No, stay out of my way.  With his brother and nephew, yeah he has to.  At least clean up the mess.  I've backed off.  I busy when they plan to do it.

When I say I garden, people have no idea the physical labor involved.  I'm not strong but I've got endurance.  That is until the heat comes on.  Ran me out of the garden at noon today.  Back when the sun started to go down.  Mosquitoes are abundant and my bug spray clogged up.  Tomorrow is a scheduled sleep till I wake up but I have a tour at 3 and meetings there until about 9.  We're having a pizza party!

[cineater]

Roll out of the garden tours in their final run, perfect!  It's only been out a few hours but 44 of the 180 slots are filled.  Excited to see that but it's not great.  I need a little patience, give it a few days.  The announcement was made to the group to share the facebook post.  They were excited we had this all planned out.  When I'm doing something like this I like to keep it quiet.  Too many cooks in the kitchen not working when you tell folks and I am the head chef so we're doing it my way and getting it done.     Presented it to the committee it's coming out of as a done deal.  Reminded the committee it's something I said I didn't have time to set up, pulled it off at the last minute.  It's why all bases weren't covered but I've got a game going on.  Really I only missed on getting it in public news and maybe some TV coverage.  We'll see how sign ups go over the weekend.  May have to do some of that other stuff.

Gave a tour for the Ladies of Leisure today.  The one woman explained they were a group for widows.  Obviously, older women but she leaned in after saying that and said something about they really could drink.    Wasn't sure if she was joking but they had went to lunch and didn't show up to me until 3.  I would say they floated around the gardens.   

I left the house with all the plants I had on the driveway heading to the monthly meeting.  People added to the freebies and what was left went to the picnic tables for giveaways next week.  But yeah, somebody brought me more plants to put in the garden.  They are still in the trunk.     I'm taking them back tomorrow and planting them.  I'm done taking care of plants not in the ground.  I don't start growing again until August.

[cineater]

Up to 56, patience.  And stop looking, "line of cars go down real slow".    Twenty shares on Facebook and that's half the people who were at the meeting last night.

Home today working my own yard.  Pulled all my lettuce.  It was starting to bolt with the heat coming on.  Got up at 4 and started working on the plant sale containers.  My last group and they are out of here.  How badly did I want to be done with that?  4 o'clock.   

[cineater]

State asked us if we would consider hosting the state convention in 2026.  Really can't say no.  We are the third largest chapter.  Turns out they narrowed it down to St Louis and somewhere down south.  Oh, thank god for that.

57, almost a third of the way there.  My damn it point is on Monday with the numbers.  As with anything I do, I'm expecting it to turn out better than I thought.  Generally does although this failed last year because the library had staffing issues and it didn't get advertise.  Didn't really care because June turned out to be extremely hot.

My white garden chairs were pretty dirty covered with some little growing something that is gray.  Maybe algie?  Sprayed them with diluted pool shock and sprayed them off, byond clean enough.  Those chairs are 25 years old.  Decorated the yard for Memorial Day.  I have Grateful Dead bear yard signs.  Put a flag in each of their hands.  Call it, 'letting my freak flag fly".     You have to be really old to get that joke.

[cineater]

77, native tour sold out.

I'm not liking the new triple grinned leaf mulch.  It's too fine.  Bugs aren't going to make homes in it, no air/water flow spaces and it's going to wash away with the first flood.  It's so fine, it's going to break down really fast.  It's not going down very thick so if something tries to grow in there it's not a very long way to get to the soil and get its roots in.  With leaf mulch you should be able to see parts of leaves in it.

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82

Marsha stopped by.  A week and a half after her chemo treatment and she felt like leaving the house today.  She lost her hair.  Came out fighting.     Arguing with something somebody else is doing.  Doesn't concern me.  But that's more of her being her.  She plans to come work her garden and make the leads meeting.  Must mean her shell shock over all of this is wearing off.

Mulched all the trees and the rose beds tonight.  Prettying up the place for the tours.  The beekeeper stopped in to trim the stuff growing in front of the hives.  When that grows up the bees are more protective of the backside where we are.  Two of my beds look like shit.  The one the mowers mowed down my milkweed and I don't think it's coming back.  The other I adopted out and they didn't take care of it and it's been a mess ever since.  Really need to redo the whole bed.  I'll work on them tomorrow morning.

Overdid it on the purple on my patio.  I have some yellow coming up but I need a bunch of white out there.

[cineater]

90, half way.  Why aren't the bird garden ones filling?  That was our most popular class at the library.  We're setting out the bird nest display for that.  We have a hummingbird nest.  It looks like a dirty cotton ball.  Really tiny.

Look down in the shower at my knees.  They are really dirty.  No, they are really tan.    I've gone through both the knees in my jeans.

[cineater]

I'm getting into my next gardening project for public education.  I feel like my group deals mostly with homeowners and they want design information for their yards.  Here's the list of classes I'm considering getting developed.  Would any of these classes interest you?

Designing with Foliage:  Some topics to cover:  color, plant form, contrasting textures

Gardening for a changing climate:  Firescaping, flood & excessive rain, resiliency

Gardens for Peace of Mind:  mental health support, sensory connections, water features, lighting

Creating Organic Barriers:  reduce noise and air pollution, create privacy

Vertical Gardening:  maximum use of space, enhancing outdoor living

Reducing Lawns:  Benefits, how to, design,  what to use like clover

[cineater]

Still sitting at 90.  The 40 slots for the Bird Garden only have 4 taken.  Changed the wording to say we have a hummingbird nest to show them.  I'm going to send a flier to the Audubon Society.  See if that helps.

We going into the 90's.  Got the hand mowing done tonight and hitting up the trimmer tomorrow.  Then hopefully the grass quits growing!  I need to get out the killing stuff.  I have bitch weed and a wild grape vine growing in a couple of my bushes.  Plus the Prairie Dock is taking over a place.  Bitch Weed if you don't know is a vine that is nothing but a few leaves and all thorns.  It has to die!

[cineater]

94, the first part of June is doing well and the second part is lagging.  Maybe people are waiting to sign up.

Trimmed the whole garden.  The one trimmer won't start after you turn it off.  The other trimmer throws it's string.  You have to cut your own string for the trimmers.  I need 6 sets of 3 to get around the gardens.  And then I have to blow off all the hard surfaces.  Yes, I read what I said but I couldn't think of another way to say it.   

Turned around to look at one of the beds I weeded and trimmed and there was one wild onion sticking up.  How did I miss that?!  Two of my smaller beds to whip into shape before the tours start.  Tomorrow all the summer seeds go into the pantry beds.  Temps in the 90's and no rain in sight for the next 10 days, I'm going to have to water them every other day.

[cineater]

The heat is catching up with me.  They say it's accumulative.  Plus I feel like I need a big bowl of carbs!  Pasta with alfredo sauce.  I'm guzzling drinks for electrolytes.

Just need to mulch two of my beds and somebody else's little bed tomorrow and water the seeds.  Everybody put in their summer seeds today.  Kevin says water everyday, shit.  Just have some beets and cabbage left of the spring crops.  Sweet potatoes should go in next week.  The good news is, I went to the gardens with some seedlings and came home with none.    I have one unidentified plan at home still waiting to go in ground.  I've narrowed now to two choices it could be but one is a shade plant and one is full sun.  So I'm going for part sun.

I didn't notice but one of the tours got put as the May day which in June is the night of the Dead concert.  Fortunately two other people can cover.  No movement on the numbers signed up.  Did manage to get all the fliers put together for it.  Or I should say the first 50.  More of those to print, fold and staple together.  I'm getting very familiar with the copier, paper cutter and laminator at the office.

I've met a bunch of people out at the gardens this week.  "I never knew this was here."  They almost always say that.  We're a work in progress but we grow every year.

Marsha came out for the work session today and stayed the whole time.  She brought in a load of minus for her stone path.  Nice to see everybody run to help and she sat around talking to people about her treatments without being reduced to a puddle of tears.  Stopped by my place to compose an email and talk leads meeting.  She wasn't drained.  Feels like she's getting to know the body rhythm with her reactions to the treatments.  She clogged up the vacuum with her hair that fell out.