More sprinklers

Got a gift card from some old friends in Texas. Thanks to that, I am able to extend the irrigation system to the last dry areas of the yard. These areas have been dry and bare since I moved in, except for weeds. And bamboo in the beginning. 

So, I've added several new micro-sprinklers. Still have more which I haven't installed yet. Waiting to let the new ones run a few times and decide where more are needed. Going to plant some remaining flower seeds saved from last year in those spots later this week. Have to add another cycle to the timer for those spots, to keep the surface soil moist through the day until the seeds are established. Still trying to get more flowers to attract more pollinators and just for my daughter, who loves flowers.

Decent number of tomato plants are recovering from the multiple freezes. Waiting to see if more recover. I hope so, because the freeze wasn't hard enough to hit the roots. Really sucks that the largest ones are now smaller than they were before the frost.

The acid treatment kind of backfired on me. Looks like it made a lot of the weeds grow better instead of killing them. Guess that's a good sign of just how alkaline the soil is. Need to buy more acid.

Planted more watermelon and pumpkin seeds today. May seem early for planting pumpkin but I planted some giant variety and hope to have a chance for a few really big ones. Plus they form a natural mulch, which can help moderate soil temperature. I'm alternating rows of tall plants (mostly tomatoes) and rows of short plants. 

I broke down more gypsum board the other day and spread that into the trenches between rows. Though I should probably place some on top of the rows, at the base of tomato and pepper plants and beneath drip lines. The rest, I'm going to cultivate in. Loaned out the tiller the other day, so do that after I get it back. That should help it reach the root zones over time and break down. It will help this year but help even more in future years, as it breaks down more and gets tilled in. 

Going to get lots more tomato seeds started this week. Kind of late but not too late to see fruit this year. Still shooting for 200 in the garden this year. 

Dog damage

The forecast called for a light freeze couple nights ago. I was quite happy when I went out in the morning to find it never happened in my yard!

However, I came home Tue to find one of the dogs had managed to work their way under the gate, which wiggled the gate enough to open the latch. Then all of them must have gotten in the garden and went to town. Playing, chewing irrigation tubing, pulling up stakes, digging and possibly eating some of the tomato plants. I'm guessing I got home before this went on for too long. Took a little while to repair what damage I could but most things are okay.

Garden is still recovering from frost damage and I'm not certain how many tomato plants will recover. 

The bulb and deeper planted flower seeds are doing great now. Definitely going to have a larger assortment of flowers this year than last! 

Planted out more pepper plants yesterday, jalapeno and cayenne. Hoping they do better this year than past years. 

Sprayed a really strong acid solution on the weeds yesterday. It works well if I spray the weeds directly. However, if I spray the soil around them it actually helps some of them along. Have to hit the foliage. Big problem there is that so much lettuce is growing in the trenches (thanks to the dogs trampling the mounds a couple months ago, spreading the seeds). I have to be very careful to not spray the lettuce. I'm just letting it grow where it is, then harvest them from the trenches first. 

One negative to working out of town is that, when I have to clean up after the dogs, there is a lot to clean up. However. I have read many times how dog (and human) feces cannot be used for compost or fertilizer. That's not true, it just has to be composted for a long time or cannot be used for food crops if composted less. For flower beds, it's okay. So I buried all the dog waste in various planned flower areas yesterday. Those areas are currently bare. If I plant surface seeds and keep the area moist, by the time anything takes root, the waste should be decomposed. Once it's buried, there's no odor because the microbes start to work on it instantly. I'll keep doing that with remaining bare spots. Happy to say I don't have many of those left. 

More frost

Had another frost this week. Actually, a light freeze. Most of the tomato plants survived, though with significant damage. Going to take a while for them to recover. Others have either gone completely dormant or died off. Only time will tell which is true. 

Lettuce, spinach and onions survived well. Bulb flowers doing okay, shallow seed flowers not so much. Luckily, most of the seeds had not sprouted yet, so they'll probably still come up. Cucumber sprouts were wiped out. Glad I planted new seeds this past week. 

Lots of sunflower seeds sprouting! Apple tree has lots of leaves and flowers. Main trunk of the plum tree doesn't look so great but it's growing a secondary trunk from the base. Three rose bushes are looking really good for now. Two grape vines budding out well and forming new vines. 

Lots of Bermuda grass coming in. Not really sure how I feel about that, since it grows in such tight clumps. Be good if I can get those clumps to grow together, I guess. Kind of letting it go out of control at the moment, to develop deep roots and maybe go to seed and spread more, to cover bare spots. At least it's green!

Finally got the fertilizer/acid injector reinstalled today. Then ran acid through the lines. Once I knew it was in the lines, turned the pump off to let it sit for a few hours and dissolve some of the mineral scale. Have to do that every few weeks this summer both for soil treatment and keep scale buildup down. Though next time should be smarter and do that after running fertilizer. 

Had to repair more doggy damage. Dogs have repeatedly gone after and chewed up one certain micro-sprinkler. So, moved it up out of reach, weaving the stake into the top of the trellis. Not bad. Now it covers more area. Dogs also managed to pull one drip line under the trellis and chew it up. Fixed that. 

I really need to install an electric fence to defend against the dogs. 

Going to wait until next weekend and plant out more tomato plants. These last two frosts were predicted while I had to be out of town during the day for work. Prediction came after the start of the week. So, not taking another chance. Still shooting for 200 tomato plants this year but not sure I'll make it. 

After I get paid, need to get a few more micro-sprinklers and some tubing for some bare spots in front and back yards. I know the pump will handle it because right now I have to keep the pressure scaled back to those zones. Otherwise I blow the top off the micro-sprinklers and plugs pop out of the tubing. 

Overall, things are looking good. Hope I can still say that in a few weeks!

Late frost

We had a late frost here a few nights ago. Did some damage. Wasn't a hard freeze, so damage was rather minimal but still set things back by weeks. There was nothing I could do because I was out of town before it even came up on the forecast.

So, basically all the cucumber vines died off. So did most of the flower seedlings I had recently planted out. 

Most of the tomatoes lost their leaves and flowers. I don't think there was any long term damage to most of them, so they should bounce back quickly. 

On top of that, any flower plants where the dogs can access have been torn apart by the dogs. 

Yesterday, I went to Family Dollar and got a whole bunch of inexpensive flower seeds and planted them directly in the flower beds. Then direct planted a bunch of cucumber seeds right along the drip lines by the trellis. 

Lettuce and spinach are still going. Still rather slowly. At least the weather is warming gradually and there are still a few more weeks left at decent temps for them before they're likely to bolt. May still yet have a good crop.

There are still flower seeds coming up, such as marigold and sunflower. Frost was light and short enough that anything directly at ground level wasn't affected much. Flowers that daughter and I planted bulbs for are coming up. That's in a problem area which I worked hard on earlier this year to correct. So it's good news to see things growing there.

Going to go pick daughter up in a couple of hours. Before that, going to plant out some tomatoes getting too large for containers. Maybe some peppers, also. Get some watermelon seeds in the ground. With warm daytime temps and lots of sunlight, the soil temps stay warm enough for many of those things to get started now. They may not thrive just yet but they will sprout and develop good root systems. May is when I really expect to see some botanical progress here. 

39 plus 15 plus..

Up to 39 tomato plants in the ground. This would probably be easier if I had started everything all at once but I am limited by space indoors. 

Have my first tomato flowers of the year! Not bad for first week of April! 

Aside from the tomato plants, I'm extending the planting to different areas and items as I get irrigation in place. For one thing, some seedlings were getting quite stressed in their cramped conditions.

I planted out 15 cucumber vines yesterday. Their roots had already wrapped in circles at the bottom of their containers. Plus 4 watermelon vines. Then planted out hundreds of flower seedlings. 

I've had really rotten luck with flowers here. Truly hoping that turns around this year. Last year was the best to that point but still far short of what I had hoped for. 

Beneficial insects are arriving or waking up in climbing numbers. I've seen butterflies, ladybugs, bees and wasps. Plus the birds love the pile of branches next to the compost pile. All the water from the irrigation system seems to be drawing things in. Still hoping to have bats this year, too. 

I was beginning to worry about the grape vines for a while. I had pruned the oldest and largest back severely this winter. Hoping to encourage larger grapes out of it. Plus the neighbors put up a new wooden fence and in the process had completely removed another grape vine which had produced for the first time last year. (Why the hell would you do that?!) I wasn't sure if hey had done anything to this vine. However, on close inspection yesterday, I found it is forming new vines and buds. The one on the other side of the yard is right over the compost pile, so should produce some really good grapes this year. I trimmed it back a lot this winter, also. 

Okay, if I'm going to get things done, have to get moving.

Moving ahead

Got the irrigation system set up for the year in the front yard and the south and southwest back yard. Got the main lines for the main garden in place. Going to take some time to get the lines laid out to the individual rows but should have it done this week.

Got about a dozen more tomato plants into the ground this evening. Brings the count over 30. Have more which I can plant out by this weekend. I was questioning whether I would have space for over 100 but it's looking like I will be able to manage about 200. Long as I can get that many seedlings going soon.

Good sign! It seemed like every single shovel of soil had earthworms today! That's quite a change. The first year here, daughter and I found exactly one earthworm. The number has rather slowly increased but this year has jumped dramatically. Of course, that does not include the entire yard and garden but the more there are in some areas, the easier to increase the numbers elsewhere as the soil improves. 

Lettuce and spinach are growing but agonizingly slowly. Sadly, it's seeming like by the time they grow a decent size, they'll bolt very quickly. 

First 20

Got the first 20 tomato plants in the ground! Only about 10 are large enough to need stakes yet. However, I'm hoping that they will now take off, since the soil is warm enough, roots have more space and the moisture more consistent than in the small containers.

For the most part, I'm moving to planting straight into the soil from the large styrofoam cups, instead of gradually moving up to larger containers and then into the garden. Less need for the extra step now and I just don't have enough large containers.  

Cucumber vines are getting pretty big, so going to have to plant them out this week. Soil temp should be warm enough for them. Just hope ambient night temps aren't still too cool. 

I have to get the drip system set up this week. Going to take a few hours to finish. 

I have small random plants coming up here and there in the garden. Seeds which remained in place from last year. I'm going to just let some of them grow where they are. I like the randomness. In some cases, it also lets me know those crops will germinate at this point. And definitely lets me know the soil is improved!