Ugh! I can’t remember when was the last time I have been in so much pain. I just had a 3-day long weekend (simply because I wanted to), spent all 3 days on garden chores, and still, not much got done.
On Friday, I spent the morning at the dentist office getting a 6-month cleaning and check-up for my teeth before getting so food and more PVC pipes for the garden projects. Once I got home, instead of working on the removable frames on the greenhouses, I installed insulation on the 2 remaining rain barrels. Now, hopefully, my rain barrels will be okay outside for the winter. The internet said rain barrels need to winterized but how does one do that when it’s full of water? It rained so much in October that the barrels got filled a few times over. Anyway, I guess that’s a small task done.
In the afternoon, I pulled out the last of the sweet potatoes. There wasn’t much of a harvest, just a couple of sweet potatoes surrounded by lots of spring flower bulbs. I will need to find another way to plant the sweet potatoes next year that doesn’t involve me digging a foot into the ground searching for sweet potatoes like it’s gold because it’s not doing any favors for my legs nor my back.
I wanted to replant the flower bulbs I dug up when I harvested the sweet potatoes in another bed but ended up unearthing more bulbs. I’ve already given away a box of bulbs and at this point, I wonder if I should just plant as many as I can and compost the rest. Anyway, I chopped the sweet potato vines into bits and pieces and laid it on top of the soil, hopefully when spring comes, the soil will be dark and rich.
On Saturday, I tackled another project – insulating the garage. The garage has always been the hottest and coldest place in the house, making storing food and seed starting a challenge. So after some research, I decided to buy a kit to insulate the garage door, to help with the temperature fluations. So far, I’m only noticing a degree or two of difference. Maybe it’s a long-term thing.
In the afternoon, I chop-and-dropped one of the tomato plants in the front raised beds, not to the entire thing. It turned out, tomato plants are not day-length sensitive and will grow and produce until the first freeze wipes it out. The first freeze keeps getting delayed this year and it’s right now scheduled for Thanksgiving, I guess we’ll see.
So, in two days, 4 tasks done and none of those was what I wanted to get done.
On Sunday, I spent the morning harvesting radishes. The Purple Plum radishes and the French Breakfast radishes have been ready for weeks but I’ve been procrastinating, as always. I’m still finding ways to eat them. For some reason, I can’t find myself to like them. I’ll probably not grow them again.
Somehow, I found myself in the back garden pulling weeds near the side of the house. After pulling those weeds, I went over to a patch with cover crop growing and chop-and-dropped them. I’ve never been able to grow much of anything in this bed because of the clay soil, so hopefully, the cover crop will rehabilitate the soil. I also chop-and-dropped a bunch of sweet alyssum and dumped most of them into the little planter box next to the cherry tree. Hopefully, it will compost down and feed the tree.
Finally, after enough procrastination, I turned my attention to the removable frames. Lo and behold, I finished them all 6 frames! Now, all I have to do is install the window screens onto the frames and attach them to the greenhouses. Then, guess what, I have one more greenhouse to build and hopefully, I’ll be able to complete that before Thanksgiving. Yikes!
