Gardening 2023

[cineater]

I couldn't stay awake for most of the class.    They carved out the center of wood sculptures because the wood drys at different times and it can cause cracking.  Spain imported silk caterpillars and mulberry trees and made a business out of it.  They had these books called herbalist, actually listed a mandrake, Harry Potter movie, and said it would kill you because of the scream when you up rooted it.

A little help and Kevin wanted to organize the tool shed.  Still working on it but he was more than happy to throw shit out.

10 people have signed up for the From the Ground Up project.  Where the trainees renovate one to three of my beds.  Beka's really excited about teaching these.  You know, I may just do most my beds this way and adopt them out.  I'm kind of over planting and maintaining and more into growing plus I'm swamped in administrative, education projects with the gardens.  Not suppose to carry beds when you're the overall lead.  I've got 9, containers, on the pantry management team and helping out the mowers.  It would be okay except it's hot and I've got grandma duty going on.

Kicked fall tours to the front burner.  Social media and newspaper stuff ready to go out.  Adding a lawn class and tree tour to the program.  I've got till the end of the month to put it all together.

Talked to Marsha.  She's going up to the Mayo Clinic for a second opinion.  Feeling guilty she's not at the gardens and making plans for fall work.  Shit, that adds to what I'm doing.  She's going to make tomorrow nights meeting with the Extension Counsel.  Hate going to those meetings.  Can I just go first and not sit through all their stuff?

[cineater]

This is a good class on cover crops.  It's only up until the end of July.
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I did not know that spring annual weeds need to be exposed to fall light to know to germinate the following spring.  I generally mulch my beds in the fall so I don't have to do it in the spring and I have very few weeds.  Wonder if that's why.  I'm going to have to research that more.  I'm asking Justin what about how we plant veggies.  We do a spring, summer and fall plantings all in the same bed.  Don't know how we get a cover crop in there.  I did like that field radish for keeping your weeds from getting light to germinate.

Fay was delighted with our dedication of a tree to her.  Turns out she has a connection to Pawpaw trees.  She teared up and we all teared up.  She needs a cane to walk but she wanted to go see her tree out on the property.  The Counsel approved the location of the kiosk.  Don't think anybody even read my 6 page report.     We did a quick oral presentation.  Don't think they care, just wanted a decision on where it went and trusted us to make it.

[cineater]

Okay where did the grasshopper go?  It's missing off the top of our main sign.  Marsha reported it.  She's hated it since it went up and she is up there with a drill driver.  I had asked Ken to do something to fancy the sign up.  My idea, some butterflies and vines but he's the artist so he gets creative licence, thus the grasshopper.  We don't have any particular connection to the grasshopper.  Don't know that I've even noticed them up there.  But he was really proud of it.  I didn't hate it and it gives me a chance to go into my speech about every bug has a place in the food chain.

Had her check and see if he installed the new pantry bed sign.  The grasshopper could have been blocking his latest artwork.  Also not what I had in mind when I commissioned the work but once again creative licence.  No new pantry sign.  Maybe he took it home to touch it up.  It's been up there a while but I hadn't noticed it looking poorly.  Don't really notice it now since it's been up there so long.  I was there last night but didn't look at it.  Who would steal that?  It's pretty big and kind of freaky looking.  You have to have a drill driver to get it off.  I'll have to check his other works we have around the garden.  Hope they aren't missing.  They are pretty big pieces and installed in the ground.

Not going to say anything for now.  Could check tape but not sure what day it went missing.  Not going to spend hours doing that when we wouldn't do anything about it anyway.



Now that I'm looking at it, that grasshopper would block his latest creation.  The sign is going to block it too.  I bet he came up to install it and saw the problem.  Wonder what he is going to do about that?  I have a feeling what I thought I was getting isn't going to be that.  And where is he going to put the grasshopper now?  I paid for that and it's going some where up there.

[cineater]

So Marsha calls to tell me one last thing before she leaves town.  I tell her my theory about the grasshopper.  She goes off that he can't just take that away, I paid for it.  And finally she came to the conclusion it could go on her fence in the Fruit Arboretum.    I did not say but you hate it!  Okay seemed to be the best way to deal with that. 

[cineater]

The trainees decided to renovate all three of my beds yesterday!  Weather has cooled off for a few days and I want to be out there.  Busy, busy, busy.  Except the slightest turn of my back and pain all across the middle it.  Not a spot I normally over do.  Doesn't yoga out, trying drugs.  See if those work before I get to mom's to get her place in shape.

[cineater]

So nice I did a few extra things at mom's.  Five hours worth.  My sister hates me.    She was determined to help, ie get in my way.  She's a neat person, wants to clean up as we go.  I'm good with that but the area I'm working is the whole front yard and I have not begun to mess it up.  They kept wanting me to take a break and eat something.  I don't eat when I'm working, no appetite.  I stop long enough to light a smoke, take a swig of coffee and assess what I'm doing next.  Cig in hand and I go back at it.

Mom has bitch weed.  If you're not familiar with it, it's a vine with lots of thorns.  You cut it at the bottom and put poison on it to get rid of.  Generally involves you rummaging around through the bottom of a bush to find it.

My sister says it will take her days to recover.  I was thinking I got my muscles warmed up, the back is feeling fine, I'm going home and getting the grass mowed.  I did and cleaned house.  If it wasn't dark outside I'd be up at the gardens working on my beds.  Tomorrow at 7.  This weather isn't going to last.

[cineater]

I did get up there my 7 and got one bed done and half of another.  I'll go back tonight and finish it off.  Full sun and I got run out of there at noon.

Beka showed up.  Good thing, I was going to call her.  Thought about the chocolate box garden design.  With the shelves for the wood cleaned out, I could store the large pots there.  There's no reason for me to keep the same storage structure that is there.  It's rotted and has to be replaced any way.  We could use the whole area.  We discussed using individual boxes for plants, putting a chocolate fountain in the middle (double tiered bird bath with the chocolate vine planted in it), maybe french it up to look like a chocolate cafe with a little table and chairs.  Apparently there is chocolate shrubs.

[cineater]

Oh god damn it.  The city put up a violation sign on the drain basin for weeds over 8 inches.  They fucking approved that seed mixture!  And told us to mow it once per year in the winter.  Probably just one department not knowing what the other department is doing.  I sent a long ass, rather nice, email to code enforcement basically saying they are wrong.

Heat is back.  I got the bed done.  Then we get a good rain for 3 days and I can tackle the other side of the building.  The wild violets were starting to look like shit.  They've gotten out of control so I wanted to dig them out is why it took so long.  Normally that one bed I just mow down when it looks like shit, throw layer of leaf mulch on it and let it grow back.  I'm hoping with all this rain we don't flood like we did last July and lose all the produce in the pantry beds due to contamination.  That would suck.

Still no grasshopper.

[cineater]

I was over at the pot plantation helping trim the buds, look down and there is a leaf attached to my foot.  Further inspection, the bottoms of my feet are covered in pot clippings.  Won't come off either.  It's like glued there.  Slipped on my flip flops to come home and my shoe was kind of stuck to my foot. 

Trying to fall asleep last night and I realize my hand is moving.  Check in with the brain and it thinks it's pulling dead daylily leaves.  Go back to sleep and realize my hand is moving again. 

Looks like rain isn't coming till tomorrow afternoon but we've got cloud cover!  Have lots to do in the gardens.

[cineater]

No rain, not even a cloud.  Doesn't look like we are getting any this afternoon either.  They've had us hyped up for days that this would be a big storm day.  Maybe tomorrow.

Asked Jim if he brought his drill driver with him.  No but he wanted to see where I was going to use it.  Oh, he'll take care of that.    I kind of wanted to do that.  It's mostly rotted wood and I was looking forward to kicking it down.  It's the structure where the Chocolate bed is going.  It's a sand pile there and Jim wants to know what to do with the sand.  He's going to dig it out too.  Kevin comes along and he's fine with removing all that.  He doesn't want to mow between there and the back of the tool shed any more.  Increases the size of the chocolate bed to the side and all down the front.  Sssh, wait for the plan to be developed.  Wouldn't want anyone to know my bed renovation is about to grow into a new garden.

Really too hot out there to do much so I ran around lining up the fall projects.  Got Kevin to take charge of the brick project and a few people to help him.  Got everyone to agree the later part of October, on a Wednesday, we were taking everything out of the big tool shed and reorganizing it.  Reminded my fall tour people I needed shit from them.  Kevin declined to build back the 4 pantry beds that we turned into berms.  Good I need the money but he agreed some of the wood out there needs replaced.  I need the money to finish up Marsha's project.  Warned all the leads the money is about to dry up for a few years since we are doing the convention so get their projects done this year.  That's enough for now.

[cineater]

Heard back from the city on the drain basin.  Basically, the guy threaten us that we needed to set up an HOA or bad things could happen.  I responded, nicely, that I knew he was talking bullshit.     The city already told us the responsibility fell back on the developer and he was dead with his will long since settled.  Didn't address this.  Gives them the advantage to do whatever they want as long as we don't form an HOA but also makes them responsible although they can bill us.  Leaves it wide open that we could sue them if they fuck up, like we'd ever do that but it's a possibility.  I made it clear, I was happy with the area and was not doing anything about an HOA.  According to the other neighbors it's that other subdivision that's not happy with our weed patch out there.  The guy said something about it was made clear to the other subdivision 2 feet of that was there responsibility.  We'll see what happens.  Connie is going to contact them.  They are suppose to do something after 10 days if we don't comply.

[cineater]

I just didn't think about the Bulb Garden being on the fall tour.  I thought I would approach them next year for the spring tour, that's when they really shine.  But I also didn't think they had that much to say and was thinking who I could match them up with.  Oh no, the lead approached me.  She can take up an hour and has lots to say in the fall.  Okay, the little garden that could, you can be a special interest garden tour.

Could the leads be getting jealous over the gardens that get featured?  I always feel like I'm begging people to do shit.  So far nobody has said no and they don't half ass it either.  They really put a lot of effort into their tours.  I think I can relax about that and let them run with it.  But now the pressure is on me to get the word out about the tours.  Maureen was so disappointed when she had 8 people sign up for her tour and then nobody showed up. 

On the average 50 percent of the people who sign up, show up.  If I increase the number of slots, I run the risk of too many people showing up.  Guess I could give the lead the option of how they want to handle that, make a few suggestions, it's doable.  My only real limit is parking spots.

And I got Marsha.    You know, we talk so much about stuff sometimes I'm only half listening.  She was talking about who on her team could talk for 10 minutes and who would do what and who had a problem with public speaking.  Wait, what, tune back in, when are they going to be doing this?  Don't want her to know you weren't really paying attention so I just faked in and said the nervous person could practice during a public tour and Marsha agreed.  Okay so, she didn't want to do a public tour of her garden but she just agreed.  Was she talking about that in the beginning or teaching a public class?  I'm a little confused but not busted on only half ass listening.   

I'm still amazed the senior leads are coming on board with all this shit I'm trying to do.  It was a ignore me in the beginning.  The new leads followed right along.  The senior leads found all kinds of reasons not to but I did it anyway.  Now I hear them parroting things I was saying back to me.  Totally forgot that was my idea and now they think it's theirs.  They even contribute to the plans, good stuff too.  I'm really loving the team development that has happen.  Such a change from in the beginning when they pissed me off and made me feel like I wanted to walk away from the whole thing.  Now, they want to play with me. 

[cineater]

So apparently when I took a shower, that didn't wash all the little pieces of pot off the bottom of my feet.  I pulled my bed covers back tonight and there are little pieces of pot all over my sheets.   

[cineater]

Son of a bitch.  Someone came out and mowed down the ridge in the drain basin including the new tree line that was growing back.  My experience last year, the more you tried to mow that tree down the more seedling it sent up all over the place.  It had settled down when I quit trying to mow it down.  They scalped it down pretty good.  We'll see what happens.  The bowl is still standing.

Walked around with the new maintenance guy at the gardens and pointed out the drainage problem areas.  Says he had to drain 3 feet of water out from the crawl space under the building.  He thinks the vents for the AC are messed up down there and they have been cooling the crawl space.  I just thought the cool air that came out from behind the roses was ground air being pushed out from there.     There goes my secret AC spot.  Nice guy, he's retiring next year and if Craig doesn't get around to doing some work at my place, he says he can do it.  His full time job is insurance.  Not sure how that qualifies him as a handyman, must be more on his resume.

[cineater]

It was the city who mowed it.  Connie talked to the storm water management people and they are not happy they had to do it.  It's because of complaints from the neighboring subdivision.  They aren't going to cut in the bowl.  In the process of cutting the rim they went on Connie's property and cut her internet service.  Apparently got several house's cable/internet.  This problem just keeps getting bigger.  Connie is going to ask the city to set up a meeting with those of us who are interested.

I'm allergic to tree pollen.  Found this interesting:  Ogren points out that perfectly flowered trees, which are generally insect-pollinated, pose few problems, allergy-wise. However, many monoecious and most dioecious species are wind-pollinated, and it's their light, wind-blown pollen that triggers allergic responses. Male cultivars of dioecious trees are the worst offenders.

[cineater]

Never occured to me.  The Cottage Garden lead suddenly developed this skin problem or autoimmune thing.  She's been sick for months and they can't figure out what's going on.  We had another lead a few years back who always had poison ivy and even a case of shingles who worked that area for several years.  I know my allergies just keep getting worse.  Something about being in an area with three rivers your allergies are just worse and keep getting worse in my opinion.  I leave the state and the water bags under my eyes totally go away.

The area where that garden is has poison ivy in the woods.  It's basically a hole with a bog at the bottom.  We garden the top and middle of it, big garden.  Could it be she's allergic to her garden?  She's had that garden about three years now.  The first lady installed it and worked it about the same amount of time before these skin issues basically drove her inside.  In between the two leads that garden has not had a regular lead.  Is that area kind of a toxic allergy spot?  Air flow would be a problem in the hole plus mold issues.  Wonder how you test for that?  I guess I better read that guy's book.  I'm not opposed to moving that garden elsewhere besides it's a lot of fucking work.  The hole, my nickname for it, has other issues like the path through it that is going to cost big bucks to stabilize.

There's so much more to gardening than just the plants.

[cineater]

I was home an hour before I realized Jim removed the structure where the chocolate garden is going.     I even walked over there and put trash in the trash bucket.  He put the saved lattice behind the bucket, didn't see it.  Stood in the middle of the former structure and dug to see how deep the sand was.  Even looked at it to see where the plants were.  Just didn't take in the whole area to realize the structure was missing.

Okay, not entirely a space cadet moment.  I was covered in mud, sweat and my glasses were steamed up.  I dug all the wild strawberries out of the soon to be bee garden.  We took a picture of my mud covered pants.  It's an ad: Come play in the dirt with us.  Master Gardener classes starting soon.

I need to go back and take in the view from the bottom of the hill to see that structure is gone and get some vision for what should go there.

[cineater]

Walk into my SIL house and tell him I brought my own lunch.  I have a big eggplant.    He hates veggies to begin with.  It was okay, nothing real strong in flavor.  Probably over cooked it.  Jim kept saying it was poisonous if not cooked.  Normally I like my veggies raw.  Hate mushy ones.

Finished weeding the beds the trainees are renovating.  Marsha is really concerned about cleaning out the big tool shed.  Not opposed but her plant sale shit is in there and she has it organized her way.  I said I was taking everything out of there, failed to mention not taking that out.  I'm only taking out all that shit that has been buried in there for years.  What she doesn't know is Extension isn't planning on putting anything in there any more.  We're likely to end up with the whole shed.  All that room, she's going to be back in there un piling all her plant sale stuff we had to squeeze into the corner.  I kind of mentioned it to her, that she may have more space.  Don't want to promise anything.  But she did start making plans.  Okay by me, just sweep if you move that shit around.

Cleaning stuff up must be influencing other people.  Mentioned to my SIL today my scrap guy would probably come get the bow flex for like the hundredth time.  He was agreeable.  Texted the scrap guy and he will take it.  Told SIL and he's going to get it out of the house tonight.  Love my scrap guy.  Text him a picture and the address and comes gets it within 24 hours for free.

[cineater]

Got all the fall tour dates set up.  We're doing 16 public tours.  Sent off for the graphics for the website and fliers.  I'm ahead of all my deadlines.  I have 325 slots available.    Only had 91 people during the last round.  On average only 50 percent of the people who sign up, show up.  I'm counting on the tree tour and the lawn class to pull in a lot of people.  And I have a magazine and a newspaper ads this time.  Also fliers to pass out.  I don't really have anything upcoming to promote.  We have winter classes for a fee and the plant sales in the spring, kind of far off.

I did find a couple of gardens to rehome some of my plants that won't be staying in the renovated beds.  Don't want to but I have to start thinking about that.  I will find them all good homes.  I don't give up my plants without a little heartache.

[cineater]

What's going on Steve?     He trimmed the brush back that was growing out of the woods.  Looked good but today I go out there and he's taken all the underbrush out five feet back.  Anger management?  I really don't want to see under there.  It will grow back, no big deal.

The electric company sent notice they are coming through with the brush hog and herbicides to clean out under their lines and easement.     Don't think they are going to like Leslie's dead Christmas tree fence.  Works to keep the deer out.  You don't see it once the weeds grow up through it.  Some of our fruit trees might be within their easement but they haven't bothered them before.  We have a fence around them and the area is well maintained.  They can't get in there unless we let them.  They dropped all those trees and left the bodies so a brush hog isn't going to help in that one spot.  Shouldn't be an issue for us but you never know.  Two sides of the gardens have big electric lines running to the side of them.

Collected a cute, little, triangular trellis for maybe the chocolate garden.  The native coral honeysuckle needs a new one but it needs a really big one.

Did the hand mowing at the garden.  Feels really good to get my sweat on.