Pulling Garlic & Weeding

I started pulling the garlic here at my home last night after dinner.  Original plans of mine had involved planting a following crop in the garlic bed, but I must have had multiple original plans, since I planted vining squash all around the garlic bed as well.  Getting it all pulled took some careful effort to not damage the myriad squash vines and it is entirely likely that I missed a few heads in there.  <grin> Suppose I will find them when they sprout in the spring.

Patti worked through the rainstorm that didn’t happen at our home yesterday, weeding in the front garden.  The lake split the storm, and it went north and south of the house here.  Oh well.  At least it is easy enough to water here.  The front yard looks pretty with all of the flowers and tomato plants.

This morning at first light I finished up the garlic pulling here at the house, and by 615 am I was headed out to the Ness farm with just Piper for company.  I had to be back by 9 am to pick up the kids to take them to a birthday party but I weeded the tomatoes I have out there, planted a 30 foot row of Daikon radishes (still wondering what I will use them for, but have wanted to try growing them for years) in the one last spot I had out there I could fit something in.

My last effort out there was weeding out the long row of Amish Pie Squash (C. Maxima) which led me to a disappointing discovery.  Squash vine borers have gotten to them, and all but one is suffering from it.  I hilled the bases of the plants up, and buried the vines in as many areas as I could.  Hopefully they will put down some additional roots and survive but I was not happy to see this.  It is not that I am going to be short of squash.  It is just that I really wanted 60 to 80 pound smooth skinned processing squash for this fall.  Oh well.  Maybe I should just know by now to stick with what I know works here for me.

After dropping the kids off I headed to the Minnetonka garden.  Frank got a lot of work done in there on a break between his fishing trips.  The tomatoes and peppers look great.  All I did was pull the garlic, dig up the garlic bed, rake it smooth, and put in three 15 foot rows of Earliana green beans.  They will be ready to pick late August through early September, and will help rejuvenate the soil after how much nutrients the garlic plants pull out of it.  The popcorn ears are filling out really nicely and the squashes are growing well.

My last stop before heading home was David’s house to pull the garlic I planted for him there last fall.  It was enough to cover his picnic table and he was tickled pink about it.

By the time I got home I was a tired, dusty, dirty, sweaty dirtball.  The heat of the day was arriving with temps and humidity pushing 90, which is well outside of my comfort zone.  I scrubbed up a bit and took a nap.  6 hours outside working in the dirt takes it out of me.  Hope to get some more time in outside this evening when the temps drop.

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