RE: Labor weekend

You really labored!!!  All my friends with horses say that they do take a
lot of work.

We finally got some cooler weather and great rain...the kind that softly
comes down for hours and really soaks into the soil...caught up about five
inches.  I put up some posts and rails along the veggie garden, did lots of
weeding, and am trying to catch up with pruning moving plants, and taking
up bulbs, etc.  I had planted a lot of kitchen mulch in some new garden
areas that resulted in volunteer cantaloupes...the hot weather before this
rain gave us some wonderful melons...large and sweet.  

My neighbor who has a large veggie garden said that her okra didn't do well
this year, too.

Today, I started digging up crocosmia...have some red and a sort of golden
orange if anyone wants some.


> [Original Message]
> From: Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
> To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
> Date: 9/6/2006 1:05:34 PM
> Subject: [CHAT] Labor weekend
>
> I finally got through all the mail you guys generated. Sounds like
> everyone had a pretty good weekend and there was even some rain where it
> was needed.
> We labored much over the Labor Day weekend but alas, not much of it was
> in the garden. Mostly we are adjusting to the new horse. Thursday we had
> corral fences delivered to extend the two stalls. After looking at the
> original installation we decided it didn't take as much space as we'd
> expected and we were able to give them more room, so we bought the
> extra. So, take down the old, move the horse out of the way, take down
> the cross-fence to allow in the delivery truck. All I can say is thank
> heaven the delivery guys were willing to install the new fences, because
> they were 24' long instead of 12' and correspondingly more heavy, and
> while I'm not weak I'm no match for guys - husband and I would have
> spent hours wrestling those things into place and instead it took maybe
> 45 minutes.
> Since we just gained so much time we then put up the fences for the 50'
> round pen. That was only a couple hours too. Of course it's getting hot
> by then so we collapsed in the hammock under the tree. But husband could
> not rest...he decided to start the concrete work under our vehicle gate.
> Between the back and the front there are several big gates, and this one
> had a long section of cattle panel - very heavy welded wire - over the
> ground to keep the dogs from digging out. We decided that we didn't want
> the horse walking on that and if we dug a trench and filled it with
> concrete right under the gate, it would work as a barrier. So off he
> goes with his shovel. It's dead of summer of course, this is the desert,
> so the ground was like rock. The shovel was discarded in favor of a
> pickaxe. After watching him turn beet red within seconds I figured I'd
> better help so there's the two of us, pickaxing away at a 12' long
> trench. Then we had to go get the concrete, 25 bags at 60 pounds apiece
> which we loaded into the truck. Then we mixed the concrete and filled
> the trench, and since he was mixing, I got to move all those bags again.
> And when we were done with THAT, I went for my 3 mile walk with my
> friend, who was getting snarky about me giving her all these excuses for
> not walking because I was busy with the horse.
> So that was Thursday. If you think that was a lot of work, why yes it
> was, thank you for noticing. :-)
> I'd also like to know why all that calorie expenditure didn't show up on
> the scale. Life is not fair. But anyway...
> The good part is that what we did on Thursday was my husband's entire
> to-do list for the weekend. He got a lot more little jobs done over the
> next few days so that was helpful. We worked the horse a number of
> times, quite educational for all of us. I picked bell peppers and
> stuffed them for the freezer, and I made pesto and froze it. I had to
> tackle a heck of a lot of grass in the herb bed to get to the basil, but
> the worst of it is out of there. The basil has gone to seed pretty much
> but I cut it back and with luck I'll get another few cups of pesto
> before it freezes in October. There are few zillion peppers, I have
> plans and just need the time to deal with them. Zucchini and cukes still
> producing but a massive attack of aphids has arrived - I sprayed with
> light oil, so we'll see if I did any good. Maybe I'll go in there with
> the hose and spray real hard in a couple days. I'm getting enough
> eggplant to make me happy, there are no tomatoes to speak of, and the
> melons are pretty much worthless. I'm not growing honeydew ever again -
> despite reading many descriptions I am having terrible luck guessing
> when they're ripe, either I get dry and tasteless or fermented melon
> bombs. I like cantaloupes better anyway. I'm surprised I am not getting
> much okra, I thought that was like zucchini in terms of mass production,
> but there are only a couple pods a day out of maybe six plants. Not
> enough water maybe.
> I had planned on digging and moving a lot of bearded iris but never got
> to it, that needs to be done. The dry garden still has russian sage,
> salvia greggii, germander sage and the desert willow blooming. I haven't
> seen the zauschneria blooming yet and I'm kinda curious why not. There
> are a few roses and the sedum is making big blossom heads but they are
> not open yet. Liriope looks very nice this time of year with its purple
> spikes, I should start dividing some of the bigger clumps.
> At our fair I talked to a guy from one of the local conservation
> districts, he has native California juniper available. I have been
> looking for that for my back fence so next month - if I remember - I'll
> drive that way and see if I can get one or two. He said they grow slowly
> but I'm hoping with a little extra water I can speed it up. He also said
> that they are pretty hard to germinate which may explain why I never see
> any seedlings around the one in my yard. I am sure having a time getting
> stuff to establish back there. But I have two mesquite planted this
> spring that look pretty good, another two saltbush, and even the
> manzanita is not looking too bad. The elderberry all croaked, oh well,
> and one each of mesquite and saltbush didn't make it. Well...another ten
> or fifteen years I guess before it looks good...then no doubt we'll
> decide to move.
>
> Cyndi
>
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