RAIN! – Please God Let It Count

Making the bed this morning, I glanced out the window and saw that the strawberry jar had been raided again by the birds. So, as soon as that task was done, I went out to the shed and got a chopped down tomato cage (Bob had thoughtfully done that for me years ago), and cut a length of bird netting. Then I covered the strawberry jar:

Not a pretty job of netting – but it will stop the marauding winged thieves. I just covered the jar with loose netting and secured it tight against the jar sides with plastic wrapped wire plant ties.

And as I was inspecting the veggie beds, I noticed I had 1 or 2 snow peas on the pea vine!

I also saw a teeny tiny yellow crookneck squash showing; but the veggie boxes are so saturated with the sporadic rains & scarce sunshine, that I think it will probably rot before it matures …

Turning to go back inside the house, I noticed there was a puddle of water in the bird bath that had accumulated overnight – hallelujah! I deliberately left it bone dry yesterday so I could gauge how much rainfall actually fell in yesterday’s on-again/off-again short sudden bursts:

It isn’t a lot of water, but it is enough to give me hope that putting the rain barrels in place was not wasted energy. So far, despite sudden rain bursts, the barrels have remained pretty much empty; there was not enough water falling from the sky to make a difference.

However: when I did check the rain barrels, I was still very much disappointed. Despite the rain fall yesterday, and the rain that fell through the night – as evidenced by the Froggie terra cotta bird bath – 3 of my 4 rain barrels WERE STILL pretty much dry ;-(

Rain Barrel 1: Just a little bit of noticeable water ...

Rain Barrel 2 was the fullest barrel. I AM encouraged, BUT I was expecting more.

Rain Barrels 3 & 4 held hardly enough collected to wet their interior bottoms. Very disappointing. It rained ALL NIGHT LONG! WTHeck???

While I was back inside, eating a bologna sandwich for lunch, and asking Elohim “Why?”, rain started coming down pretty fierce and hard around 11:30 ‘noon; and around 1:00 p.m. a little storm blew in off the river … so maybe, when I check the rain barrels again, I may actually have more in them than a handful of water. Hope, hope ...

Gusty winds accommodate incoming rain.

Please God! Let it matter.

While the rain pounded the windows, and the trees were whipped around, I watched a disturbing food doctoring video on FB that was posted by another gardener; it can be viewed at this link: https://www.facebook.com/RAVINDER9416483611/videos/2194851997275351/UzpfSTE1MjQ3NTk1ODEwNzE0MTU6MjI5NTU0MjM2Mzk5MzEyOQ/?eid=ARBwP616jAUjaVsfrGuh_GiOKDDJ2f3ePw0CZTNRzgVmndkKetFYT5FZv1rBBqY_hghTh2npgPGv0zQM. SEEING makes a BIGGER IMPACT than being told …

GROW POTATOES IN SHOPPING BAGS FOR EXTENDED HARVEST

I was too late getting potatoes started this year ... the Fingerlings I was after were already sold out :-(

But I am going to try this next year.

There is only me eating now, and I like baby potatoes anyway; so this method seems the best for my needs ;-)

ENORMOUS HARVEST OF CONTAINER GROWN POTATOES

RAISED BED GARDEN SECRET SUPER SOIL MIX

Bob, too, always got a bang out of watching his “little dirty girl” dive into the soil coming gardening season :-D

I mix my own gardening soil too - not this particular mix, but I do have my own preferred blend that I use when I need to refresh my gardening soil.

He was 6’2” and I am 5’3”: I was barely 5 feet when we married – I used to joke that pregnancy following our marriage stretched me in more ways than the obvious ;-)

LEAF ‘N FLOWER MIXED SALAD

SUPPER. Lasagna, Garden Leaf ‘N Flower Mixed Salad, canned White Peaches w-1 fresh Garden Strawberry

Today I mixed the fish emulsion fertilizer and started spraying my veggie beds with it:

While I was out there, yesterday’s forecasted rain started blowing in; by the time I reached my blueberry bushes, it had started drizzling, so it was time to get inside before I got too wet and invited a cold – the last thing I need right now is to get sick …

So, I put everything back in the shed and came back inside and watched the drizzle for a while. I am thinking I may have to start a few veggie beds all over again – it has been constant drizzle here and my raised beds are saturated … but my rain barrels are pretty much STILL empty as there has not been sufficient rainfall to fill them, though there is apparently enough rainfall to ruin the garden in certain beds.

And the sunshine is weird too when the sun finally decides to peek out of the gray clouds. There is not enough sunshine lately to dry anything out or to make my plants happy.

Strange weather :-(

At some point I slid into a short nap:

I never used to nap, but since Bob graduated, I seem to have taken on HIS sleeping pattern of getting up at the crack of dawn and going to bed around 9 or 10 p.m.; which means I usually end up taking a short 15-minute-nap around noon. IT is strange! All my life, until December 14^th, 2018, I have been a night-bird staying up into the wee early morning hours – sometimes falling into bed as the sun was dawning; and sleeping until noon.

Bob was a very understanding husband ;-)

When I eventually woke after my 15-minute-shut eye, I noticed the drizzle had fizzled, and the sky was beginning to lighten up …

Can you see me Babe? I love you. Always. ~OX

Time to go finish up outside ...

So, I pulled my boots on and finished up fertilizing the remaining veggie beds. Everything should be doing waaay better than they are – maybe the fertilizing this afternoon will help; so far, only the cababge family plants are doing well. Everything else is either stunted or limping along in water-logged soil and yo-yoing weather (between 70 & 45 daytime temperatures: insane overnight variances) with yellowing leaves. I am pretty sure the pepper plants are toast.

While I was out there, I got to thinking that a fresh green salad would taste good with my left-over lasagna for Supper (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/06/getting-stuff-done.html). But I wanted some color in my salad. What to do? The tomatoes have been set back with the weird weather patterns, so there would be no colorful tomatoes to add, and my onions haven’t matured yet either. Hmm. I looked around and remembered reading that nasturtium leaves and violas can be added to salad greens; so, tonight I am trying something new – new to me, anyway. I plucked a few pretty bicolored nasturtium leaves (to me, they smell a little spicy – not hot spicy, but kinda peppery), some fragrant little Johnny-Jump Up Viola blossoms, and pulled some chive leaves too. I snagged a lone strawberry on the way past the strawberry jar too ;-)

I had picked some mustard leaves & leaf lettuce the other day/washed it/stored it in the crisper; so while the lasagna was in the oven, I pulled that out of the ‘fridge and started adding my fresh additions:

Heart shaped Deer Tongue Lettuce leaf

I also opened my Weight Watchers cookbook and whipped up this quick and easy Basic Vinaigrette Dressing for the salad …

==BASIC VINAIGRETTE SALAD DRESSING ~Makes 4 servings

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Olive (or vegetable) Oil * 1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinegar * 1/8 teaspoon EA Salt & prepared Mustard

Combine all ingredients; mix well.

Per serving: 42 calories; 0 g protein; 5 g fat; 0 g carbohydrate; 78 mg sodium