The Backside of August

 It finally rained!  Not a lot, but it wasn't a gully washer thunder boomer that just ran off the packed, dry ground either.  It was an overcast day with multiple rounds of light but steady rain, and the gardens drank it up.  I wish I could say they're back to their former splendid glory, but that won't happen until next spring.  The brief dousing did, however, stave off a certain death for some.  

Not for all.

Somehow, a very large wood rat managed to drown in the mule's water bucket.   I have a photo and it's an impressively large rodent, but I'll spare your eyes.  

How about those hornets?  I found yet another nest in the back tube gate of the paddock and had to foil and tape those over.  Going out the back door the other day something caught my eye and I discovered a thriving nest in one of the outdoor electric receptacles.  

 It's so creepy when I open the door and they pour out onto the cover, then all turn to stare at me.  I can't get those covers open quickly enough to spray into them, and I'm not sure that's the wisest idea seeing as there's electric components involved.  I've taken to going out through the garage during the daylight hours for the time being.  My mother discovered a massive yellowjacket nest in one of her gardens, as well. Drought years are the worst for ground nesters - they seem to congregate toward the houses.  I won't mow or cut back brush until autumn this year because I'm deathly afraid of hitting a nest.

We continue to haul in water for the gardens despite that rain.  It wasn't enough to sustain anything for more than a day or so, unfortunately.  And it didn't do much for the well.  We're still only showering when necessary, limiting laundry, and I'm recycling grey water for my houseplants.  I'm not really digging my baby wipe "baths", but it is what it is.  

I was hoping to spend the holiday weekend finishing the bank mulching project, but the landscape company closed for the long weekend.  Can't say as I blame them - we all need a bit of R&R now and again.  So what's a gal to do if she can't shovel yards of mulch?  Well, I started a new small fence project in the wildflower meadow.  Some of the plants have encroached on the path and are covered with stinging pollinators.  I'm happy to provide them sustenance, but not so happy to get them riled up as I try to brush past them, knocking into plants and forcing them to drop off.  At this time of the year, even the docile bumblebees are getting testy.  I wanted something tall enough to hold some of the goldenrods back, but not so busy that it would block the view of the garden.  I thought about doing a grade stake fence as I had in the past, but then saw a rope fence, and decided that's what I'd try.  I'm learning some fancy knotwork from a YouTube video and this is just the first pass.  I'll need to do minor adjustments all the way around, but so far, I think I like it.  I may replace the grade stakes with sapling stakes next year.

 I'd love to say I'll have this done in a day, but again...bees.  So. Many. Bees!  Trying to work around thousands of bees, hoverflies, wasps, and the occasional angry hummingbird is exhausting.  I've been picking away at it during the cool hours of the morning or evening.

Since I'm not going to plant fall crops, I decided to take advantage of a sale on Amazon and purchased a tabletop hydroponic system.  I've been fascinated by this method of growing, and thought this would be a great way to grow some greens and get to know these systems. 

My unit arrived on the 22nd and I set it up on the 24th.   This system has 16 planting holes and holds 7 liters of water.  There's a small pump in the reservoir that cycles on periodically, and it comes with little removable plastic domes to increase humidity for germination.  One of the reasons I bought this particular model is that not only does it have the grow lights above the planting holes, but also below the reservoir, in a space you can use to start other seeds.  I think this will come in handy when I'm starting my flower seeds this spring.

I planted mesclun mix seeds into the conical sponges that slide into removable holders that keep them sitting in the water.  I was amazed to find the seeds had all sprouted within two days, and one week later I have some healthy seedlings chugging along.

 I'm supposed to pull all but one seedling from each grow cone, but since these are leafy greens I'm going to leave them and see what happens.  I did purchase some other seeds that are supposed to be ideal for hydroponic grow systems; dwarf tomatoes, peppers, and more greens like lettuce and kale.  I may be addicted to this already...

 

life in a dry, brown place

 Still no rain.  Well...a five minute spattering of water doesn't count, does it?  The ground is so dry that it may take a month of rain at this point to saturate it again, and most of New Hampshire is now in a moderate drought per the US Drought Monitor.  The cottage gardens are horrid to look at.  Other plants around the property are beginning a slow death, as well.  The little water feature is going dry, and even the bog garden is starved for moisture. Now that the weather has at least taken a turn for the cooler, I need to get out there and deadhead and cut back as much as possible, which will stop the plants from trying to grow or flower, and send more energy to the roots, where it's needed. 

I've been forced to harvest the onions, shallots, garlic, and some of the potatoes.  It's a mixed bag of NICE! and ....what the heck happened here?  (Imagine my surprise when I dumped out a bag of potatoes and found...yellowjackets.  Will the hornet invasion never end?!?!)  But there's still enough of a harvest to share and some to store for winter.  I won't be doing any fall sowing, except maybe carrots.

garlic, cherry tomatoes, Hungarian Hot Wax and Shishito peppers

And it's not just the gardens that are suffering.  Our lawns are crispy crunchy, leaves have begun to drop from trees, and even non-garden spieces of plants are showing signs of distress.  Well, except for weeds, that is.  Grrrrr!

All is not lost, though.  Our generous neighbors have given us access to their water, so we've been putting tubs and tanks on our trucks and hauling water in to save what we can.  I've been concentrating on the beans, cucumbers, what's left of the tomatoes and peppers, and the squash.  Some plants continue to flourish, so I've begun to note which still thrive despite the heat and drought.  Coreopsis, gaillardia, tall garden phlox, black eyed Susans, and yellow toadflax are glorious.  The tall prairie coneflowers are drooping, but I can't tell if that's from being top heavy in an area without support, or from thirst.

 In the hot beds, the blackberry lily that survived bloomed, and it's so beautiful!  I definitely need more of these, because like daylilies, the bloom only lasts one day, then shrivels up.

 Even in the toughest of times, there is beauty if you look for it.

hoses, hornets, and hillsides

 And you thought triple H was hazy, hot, and humid.  

It actually is those things right now; I'm cloistered in the house to avoid yet another heatwave.  What a shame, it's been glorious sleeping weather the last five or six nights!

The watering is still precarious.  I can't remember the last good rain we had.  At this point, we need three or four days of gentle, all day soakers to replenish the groundwater...maybe even more than that.  After that insanely wet spring, you'd think we would have water to spare, but not so.  I used the water in the 75 gallon stock tank that I collected from roof runoff earlier this year in one watering of the hillside and cottage gardens.  The soaking tub in the back yard was emptied into watering cans to water the tomatoes.  My onions are dying off quicker than I would expect, and some never even got past gumball size.  I dumped a bag of spuds to see how they were doing, and they were still like baby potatoes.  I had 6 baby Japanese maple trees that were coming along well this spring, but one has shriveled and died, and two don't look very happy.  Despite being a variety able to tolerate sun, they can't handle the baking conditions of my holding beds without consistent watering, so I'll need to pot them up and move them into a shadier area for the time being.  I have assorted perennials and shrubs that are in pots right now that need to be planted, but without a way to water them daily as they adjust, they'll stay where they are.   The beds that I had weeded last week are full of self seeded perennials that should be dug up and transplanted, but they're in the same boat.  As if that wasn't bad enough, most of the hoses and sprayer heads I have on hand have given up the ghost.  I went from heavy, awkward rubber hoses to the lightweight expandable cloth ones years ago, and they just don't last.  I can usually get two or three years out of them before they spring a leak.  The sprayer heads are just cheap plastic junk; I need to invest in some good ones that will last more than a season.  I gritted my teeth and laid out the money for a new lightweight, kink-free rubber hose for the back yard.  Hopefully that one will last a few years.  This morning I was watering the veg in the hillside garden and yet another cloth hose split, so I'll need to order yet another.  With all these water woes, I'm hoping we'll get cooler, wetter weather soon enough and I can be done with it.  

The squash plants are growing by leaps and bounds, though.  They love this hot weather and beating sun, and I think the fresh manure I covered the bank in retained a lot of moisture.  I had planned to spend the last two cool days before the heatwave either moving fence to give the mules new grazing ground, or continuing the mulching project on the squash bank.  After the mules had grazed for their allotted hour and a half, they went back to the barn to stand in front of their fans and piles of hay for the day and I reviewed the fence situation.  My plan is to create another dry lot where the downed pine sat for the last year; I've been keeping it mowed but haven't done the fencing yet, and I will need to get material in to smother the grass.  I thought, why don't I just make a short run from the current alley across to that area, and the boys can eat that down for now.  Maybe I can get enough money together to finish fencing the dry lot area and by the time they've eaten the short run, I can let them into the dry lot area and they can eat that down next.  My plan was to do one side of the short run with T-posts and no climb fence, and move the pipe panels to create the other side.  I started to take the pipe panels apart and immediately had a swarm of hornets buzzing around my head.  The little buggers found a hole where the panel weld had rotted out and built a nest inside the fence - and this isn't the first time that's happened!  You can see these photos, under the top bar is a hornet on the fence, and he goes up into the pipe through the hole.

UGH.  I didn't want to spray up into the fence because I don't want to use poison in my grazing area, so I walked away to stew on the issue.  The next day as Fargo was coming through the gate, he hit the bottom pipe with his hoof.  I heard it but didn't think much of it, but as I was swinging the gate closed I caught movement and looked up, and in the corner of the frame where it had been bent and was a little rusted and starting to separate, there were about five angry hornets looking down on me.  Are you serious?!?!?!  I can't even deal with this.  Again, poison isn't an option around the boys, so around twenty minutes to five this morning I was out there on a ladder trying to save my mules and myself from getting swarmed and stung.  I very quickly wrapped the area in aluminum foil twice around, crimped it, then quickly taped it up with all weather Gorilla Tape.  

I went around the area about five times with the tape, but for all I know those hornets are in there chewing their way through it.  I hate having to do thing like that, but it's the only gate and I can't risk the boys getting stung, especially if they can't really get away - the barn has no way to close them in thanks to Fargo's claustrophobia, so they'd be trapped with a swarm of angry hornets inside and out.  

I decided fencing will wait until after a few good, hard, killing frosts, which should end the hornet siege naturally.  I may try to fence the front pasture and create a chute from the dry lot to it.  I need to think on this, because part of the fence would need to be moveable during hay season, so trucks and trailers can jockey into place.  Electric fence would be the sensible solution, but I don't trust the mules not to bust right through it.  That's all I'd need...those two goons running amok up and down the neighborhood.

So with the fencing situation stalled, I turned back to the bank project.  Another two yards of bark mulch, as many cardboard boxes as could be collected, and I was off.

 

 

It's getting there!  I swear, every time I add more mulch, the squash plants double in size.  I would say I'm about 70% there, just a little more to do. 

 That plant in the foreground is a bull thistle, and the bane of my existence.  I spend a day every spring carefully picking through the pasture and surrounding edges looking for them as they just begin growing, and painstakingly pulling them up by the roots.  I put them in my big garden bags and take them to the local dump, where they end up on the mulch pile.  With their razor sharp thorns, they are incredibly painful if you get tangled in them or brush up against them.  As much as I love the beautiful flowers and I know the goldfinch love the seeds, I cant afford to have them near the mules (or me!).  Obviously, I miss a few here and there. The things you do to keep your babies safe...

 

The August Slump

 My life is like hearing the song Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows as it slowly grinds down to a halt and the world goes dark.  Well, that might be an exaggeration...but it sure feels bleak.  It's the time of the year when heat sets in, water runs low, my energy wanes, and a tiny bit of depression settles in.

The heat has spurred the weeds to grow at an accelerated rate and keeping up with them is exhausting.  How is it the weeds grow so well, yet my beautiful plants begin a slow, painful death?  My mission this winter is to pour through plant books and websites to find plants that thrive in dry conditions and bloom during the July through September heat.  Sounds like I need more echinacea.  Twist my arm.

But not all is doom and gloom; late July into early August is when the daylilies shine in all their glory.

 

 

 

 

Breathtaking.  I need to start begging my mother for some of her specimens, since she has easily ten times more varieties than I do.

Meanwhile, I've decided my energies need to be focused on the hillside garden.  I spent portions of two days on the right side, deadheading and pulling errant weeds and grasses.  I've managed to wrangle it into some semblance of order, and took away two and a half 72 gallon garden bags full of debris.

 For my next trick, I'll work on the other side.

 What a mess.  

 Speaking of messes, I've been picking away at the bank in the backyard.  Although I love the Green Mountain mulch that I was buying by the bag, it soon proved to be a costly venture.  I ended up going to our local landscape supplier and was able to get a truckload of mulch at a much better price.  

 It's coming along nicely, and the squash plants have really taken off.  I've had to cut the surrounding grass a few times; if only it grew where I wanted it as lush and thick!

July 18th

 

August 4th

July 18th

August 4th

A few more truckloads should finish this project, and once the squash are all tucked safely into their mulch beds, I should be able to spread the rest with Li'l Red and save my back.  Won't that be nice?  

Although it's still bloody hot out there, the nighttime temperatures are - when it's not a heatwave - dipping into the mid fifties.  There is a distinct feel of autumn in those nights, and it's a signal to sow cool temperature crops for a fall harvest.  Once I've tackled the left hand mess of the hillside garden, I'll try again for peas, radish, and salad crops, all of which did horribly this spring.  I'll do a second sowing of carrots and beans, as well.  I regret not growing corn again this year; I have so much to learn about that particular crop.  And hopefully if the bank area is completed, next year I can grow a wider variety of squashes and pumpkins.  I guess gardening, whether vegetables or ornamental plants, is an exercise in always looking forward.