This weekend, Memorial Day Weekend, was supposed to be dreary and wet.  It ended up being the first significant stretch of dry weather we have had since Michelle and I planted the garden (rain, rain, and more rain) so we haven’t really been too worried about the moisture in the ground.  Well, now we are.

We finally got the grass dry enough to mow (couldn’t bag the grass because it was too wet before), so I spent all day on the tractor mowing the orchard, the yard, and the rest of the property.  I left a good stretch of grass around the bee hive so as to not disturb their colony and building progress.  I took all of the bagged grass and dumped it onto the walking paths in the garden.  I have read that it keeps the weeds down in the walking paths, leeches nutrients into the soil as it decomposes, and keeps you from compacting the dirt as much when you walk on it (allows for more root expansion).  I don’t know if all of that is true, but as I have nothing better to do with the grass, I figured I would go ahead and try it.

I also went into the forested parts of the property and cut down all of the dead trees and Michelle helped me drag them all to the burn pile.  I was a volunteer at the fire department for six years, so I am acutely aware of fire dangers around the property.  I use that awareness to determine what should be burned and what should be left.  Keeping trees healthy requires some maintenance and getting rid of the smaller and mostly dead trees will keep fire dangers to a minimum, allow more room for the other trees to grow, prevent nutrient leeching by the trees that will likely not make it, and provide me with more park like area where I can play with my dogs (who love running through the forest and weaving in and out of the trees).

Michelle spent the day weeding and power washing the house, which had a thin layer of moss growing on it.  The house sits in a good amount of shade, so moss is a real issue here. There were also a significant number of weeds growing in the flower beds around the house.  Michelle was like a weeding machine! We ended up throwing a bunch of them in our “Tea Pot” which is a 55 gallon barrel with water in it.  We use the organic material infused water as a nutrient booster for our plants. It’s really amazing what you can do with a lot of the stuff you are trying to get rid of around the house.

The last thing I did was to try and get some water on the garden.  We bought these soaker hoses that are usually for smaller gardens, but we figured it would cut water use to a minimum while still giving our plants the water they need.  We bought 400 feet of it, then realized that we are going to need about 700 feet more.  Originally, I had measured the garden at 70 feet by 40 feet.  That was before I got a hold of the tiller implement for the tractor.  Now, the garden measures around 90 feet by 70 feet.  Basically, each row of plants takes one length of hose.  We have eleven, 90 foot rows of plants (three still need plants in them, but theoretically…).  Anyway, with the four rolls of hose I had, I got some assistance from some friends that were over for the weekend and laid them out.  I’m not sure if it is a pressure issue, a flow issue, a resistance issue, or a hardware issue in the soaker hoses, but it took probably twenty minutes for my hose coming from the well to generate the dripping I was expecting to see on each of the four soaker hoses.  Granted, that is a lot of hose to fill up with water and it did eventually get all of them going.  I’m thinking that I may have to do four rows at a time for a few hours each evening or morning just so the water supply can keep up.  We’ll see how it goes once I get the rest of the hose.  At any rate, the water is now flowing and my plants are growing.  I saw some onion shoots coming up and some lettuce sprigs protruding from the ground, yesterday.  I can’t wait for all of these plants to start providing us with something to eat!