Water Games

You would think by my age, and with my amount of gardening experience (circa '87) that watering would be a no brainer for me. But no. I'm guilty of either over watering or under watering. I noticed a mid-day wilt happening in my herb and outhouse garden. I thought it was heat. I usually just sprinkle my plants a little every day. But I don't think it's saturating the crumbly clay soil. So I accidentally left the sprinkler on my outhouse garden for 20 minutes. I noticed that for the next 4 days my garden didn't wilt. But today it was wily again. So, yes this is probably so obvious, I need to do a deep watering at least every 3-4 days. Still, I thought a more even watering pattern was better for plants. I've also bought a 50' soaker hose to employ. Still, considering the fact that I didn't get to amend the soil as much as I would like to this season. Everything seems to be growing nicely, all be it slowly. I'm still waiting on my first tomato, and zucchini. And my watermelon have no interest in growing for some reason. The only other issue I seem to be having is with my peach tree and blackberry transplants. The peach trees are developing yellow leaves, and the blackberry doesn't seem too happy either.

The Second Longest Day of the Year

We've reached the first "official" day of summer, but the heat has been well under way since the start of June. These are the kiddie pool, and water fight days of summer. Necessary in order to survive the coming dog days, that my father in law so eloquently outlines in his poem. I'll post it for you when the dog days arrive July 3rd. 

My test plots haven't yeilded abountiful  harvest, but they have produced. So far I've had a few tasty strawberries, some delicious green beans, and Cherokee wax beans that my daughter quickly scarfs down. This is the whole point you see. To grow the foods we love, free of GMO, and pesticide activities. 

The first plot to spring forth was the herb garden. It's starting to get a little tired of its SW exposure. And the plants are showing signs of mineral deficiencies. So I added organic fertilizer, which smells like freeze dried cat poop. I'll just have to see if that helps. 

The next plot to show signs of life is the, "Pump house/Outhouse" plot. I originally was only going to plant wildflowers around it. But my love for edibles snuck in, and soon there was a variety of corn, squash, watermelon, and mustards in place. It does give the pump house a victory garden look. This plot had been looking really tired from the heat, so yesterday I let the sprinkler soak them for a while, and today they didn't even wilt in the sun. I need a soaker hose. I'm still learning.

The third plot is the SW corner plot in the yard. It's pretty close to a dying black walnut. So? You say. Well, apparently black walnuts produce a toxin called jugalone, that prevents other trees and certain vegetables like tomatoes from growing too close to it. It makes it's own Jugalos? Yes.

Lastly we have the 3 peach trees in place, 1 muscadine, and 1 Arapaho blackberry bush planted. As well as a few large bramble patches ripening, and a fig tree that I cleared around, pruned, and is setting figs. There is also 1 wild persimmon tree that is setting fruit too. As well as a few black cherry trees, but those cherries where too sour for me. The dewberries are ready, but most are in the neighboring property. The red mulberry tree gave me a nice little harvest that I froze and made jam with.

The nut trees are pecan, and bkack walnut. There are 7 pecans, and 3 black walnuts. All the pecans appear to be setting, but only 1 of the 3 black walnuts is holding onto it's, err, nuts, if you will. The other 2 are hollow, yet leafed, and started producing, but are now regularly dropping immature nuts all over the place. That's too bad. Black walnut trees are pretty valuable. So I'll have to focus on the young healthy one that is left. The ramains of a 4th black walnut lay near the barn in rotting sections. What a waste!

Today's Progress

Pop came to visit today, which was nice, so I didn't get tons done. But still made good progress in the barn. I dropped down some plants that can be used for raised beds or furntiture. Then put them on the lower level floor. I moved some rotted wood in the rot pile, and rearranged the drying hand hewn planks to get more air. 

Future goals:

I would like to strip all the paint off the original doors in the house to reveal the natural wood. I'd like to move the old door from the barn loft into the shed and strip the old paint on it. There's also another old door in the garage I need to move to the shed. Geeez, the house is only 1082 sqft. And already has 7 doors! Where did the other 2 go? Actually I know. One to the kitchen was removed but the frame is still there. I'd like to remove the frame and finish it out. And another went to the mud room. It was completely removed and finished out. The frame and door are in the garage.

Another thing I'd like to do is just wander the land with a metal detector like some crazy old retired person looking for gold on the beach. But I bet there's some interesting metal out here. Maybe some civil war stuff. Or old farm junk. I found a big metal gear by the garage. What was that for?

Rain and Drainage Problems, my Two Enemies

To say that the soil here is compacted clay with drainage issues, is well, just being polite. What I have  is a drainage nightmare. Though the sycamore tree, planted above the septic tank, and a little too near the house seems to love it. It sends out roots at an alarming rate, all heading under the house, where the moisture lives, sweats, and rots my house. I swear sycamores must be aggressive rooters. Why? Because I just dug up all the roots on the southwest side of the house and then haven't done anything out there for the past few weeks while I work on the walls in the bedroom. Today I went out to even the dirt out and grade it away from the house more evenly. When I dug I hit more roots. Where did these come from? Are they new? And the glass! Oh the glass! I've never seen so much glass! It's like people where throwing bottles at the house at one point. And nails, and all kinds of crap. Wow, can we say flip? What I need is a tiller, and mix in some sand and loam, to increase drainage. Hopefully this will help with the moisture issues with the house. Of course what the house needs is a dry crawl space. But with the vermiculite in the attic, we might not being staying here too much longer. Sad really.
Oh, so I was spray foaming a hole in the exterior wall where moisture and termites where getting in. I decided to check out the furnace house to see if it needed any ago sealing. Of course it does, all over. I got a closer look at where the duct work enters the crawl space. Looks like when they added the HVAC system 30 years ago, they just cut 2 rectangles out of the house and didn't seal those opening. OMG, this can't be good. There's a cold draft coming from under the cabinets on that side of the house where the furnace house butts up against the main house. As if having a separate house for a furnace isn't strange enough. I might need to get some foam board and close that up. But what is the draft? Is it from that opening? You'd think the furnace house would keep it warm. I can only imagine what critters have gained entry from those places. The cat goes right in when you open the door. She knows. There's lots of goodies to catch in the crawl space. Yuck. Lots of mouse poop on top of the furnace too. Great. But my kitty, she catches a mouse or rat or bird a day, so look out.
Also, another factor, which is good for farming, if I ever get to it, but not good for the house, it rains a lot here, it's one of the rainier spots in Georgia according to my USDA precipitation map.
I need to install some gutters, a rain barrel or two, maybe a drainage ditch with gravel around the house complete with drainage tubing, a real crawl space door, or maybe I'll open it up and let the kitty get in there and clean house, or crawl space if you will. I also need soffit vents, I really should have made the seller install them, now that I know what a mess it will be for me to do it. Vermiculite everywhere. Now I know why he didn't do or the mythical "roofer".
It's always something. Grandma was right, as always, renting is easier.