Lost a day

This is the sweet corn.

7/3/08 Thursday
It’s been a long time since I lost a whole day. I did manage to go into Midland to buy the parts I need to put in the drip feed irrigation. The stores were confusing to me and as happens at times like this the array of choices was baffling. I bought some parts at Lowe’s and then went to Tractor Supply where I found them for a little less. All in all I spent sixty dollars and didn’t get everything I need. I’ll start putting this together today and that will give me a better idea of what else is necessary to finish the job.



I think these are green beans. Not doing too well as you can see.


The temperatures have been nice for several days. Nice being close to ninety degrees versus a hundred. It’s frustrating to have such great weather and not get out and work on the garden. Hopefully today will be better. I forced myself to go out and water last night and could see so much that should have been done days ago. The corn is at the point it’s developing ears. It is pretty ragged because sweet corn doesn’t do well in high heat. Perhaps next year I’ll get it planted in March or April. Next year should be better because I’ve spent so much time preparing the garden plots. That is a whole lot less work to do next year, at least I think it is. We will see.









These tomatoes aren't doing too bad, at least not the first half of the row















I’m learning, as I often must. I suppose that holds true for all of us. Anyway, after looking at the plants again I broke down and decided I must spray for insects. I got out the Sevin insecticide I bought last year and took the new backpack sprayer we got such a good deal on at Sam’s off the wall. This will be the first time I’ve used it so was looking forward to it. It holds four gallons so I mixed four gallons up. The mixing directions showed everything in fluid ounces. I don’t have any “fluid ounce” measuring cups but found one mention in the directions that three table spoons was approximately one and a half fluid ounces so came in the house to figure it out. There are four tablespoons in a quarter cup so that equals four fluid ounces. I think.










I don't know what kind of critter is doing this but it's hitting everywhere. Maybe a gopher, maybe something else.




With the four gallons mixed and put in the sprayer came the next task. Putting the sucker on. Four gallons is heavy. I finally had to stack five gallon buckets and put the sprayer on top so I could carefully slide my arms into the straps. Then it was time to spray. The sprayer works fantastic. I was careful to spray so the wind carried it away from me. It didn’t take long for this weight on my back to start generating a lot of pain but I gritted my teeth and carried on. I sprayed everything except the blackeyed peas because those we are harvesting. After it was all done I was glad to take the sprayer off. First lesson, all I used was a gallon so there was no need to mix up four. Next time I will do it one gallon at a time, if nothing else to save my back and neck. I came in, took a pain pill, and laid down for an hour to let the pain subside.








More critter damage











The garden is in rough shape. I went out and took a bunch of pictures to show what’s going on.











One of the potato plants, once the healthiest plants I had.























Most of two rows of potato plants. Pretty sad




















This is the two hundred foot strip I'll be planting cantaloupe in. There will be 80 hills with three to five plants in each one. You can see the half inch tubing that will be the base of the drip irrigation








The blackeyed peas are doing great. Them, melons, and spaghetti squash are the best survivors of my gardening efforts.