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The July 7th posted above is wrong, should be July 3rd. (post#86)





July 7th

• I got a little done this weekend, Friday after work I started digging out the pathway stones and a few inches of soil, we decided to put in a mini rain garden here. When it rains the water runs down this path and onto the patio towards the drain, I'm trying to catch some water and channel the water to the drain a little better.

• Saturday, Laura and I stopped at HD to Look at some flowers and once there decided to grab these. Our game plan was to look at what HD had then go to a nursery, but I was actually more impressed with HD's choices, thats pretty sad!

• I had Sam help me out, after all the rocks and soil were dug out I cut the lawn and had Sam rake the grass clippings in the rain garden, I then topped with a few small bags of peat moss and 5 gallon bucket of my compost and about a 1/4 cup of Blood Meal. I then mixed everything up with a few inches of the clay soil. Sam planted the new plants for me then mulched the top. The marigolds got beat up a bit when I separated them, I had quite a few up on the hill all growing in a clump. My only concern is this area gets 5 hours of sun from afternoon till evening, I'm hopping its enough. I tested the garden out with a 55 gallon drum of water 90 percent full. I pumped the water out in about 10 minutes and it caught at least half of the water before it went towards the drain.

I battled some Aphids on my Table Dainty plants but it appears I am loosing, Tried neem oil with a few drops of dish detergent, I guess I'm gonna have to go out and spray the leaves every other day. I also have been keeping up on my Zucchini plants with Bt spraying the stem and soil surface real good, maybe 2 or 3 times a week.

• I also wanted to try setting up another trellis from the deck. I want to grow Honeydew here next year, as a test I set it up and tossed in a few Cantaloupe plants from HD, This trellis is removable.

• I had these stakes left over from when I purchased some landscape edging for diverting the rain water on the patio, these stake the bottom of the trellis nicely.

Here are a few shots from the garden.

• The pepper plant bounced back. To be honest, I'm a bit confused as to what it is, I had it labeled as a Tabasco but I think it was replaced with a Corno di Toro Rosso?
  

• Turtle Guild (that's what I call it now, they love it here!)

• Artichoke, you really got to watch these guys, they start to open very quickly, I just got this guy in time.

• I am really impressed with the Spaghetti Squash plants, I think there are at least 6 Squash so far.

• This is what happens when the pepper is bigger than the plant, sunscald.

• These Poblanos are earmarked for some Chili Rellenos, woohoo!
  

Food break.... we got to enjoy a few of our tomatoes and I had asked Laura to make me some "jalapeno poppers", but there was a mis-communication... my fault. I sent her a list of ingredients and included Jalapenos in the list, so the poppers are not from the garden (sad face).

• It's pretty awesome when you are having a discussion with your spouse on where to go out for lunch and you both agree you would rather eat at home knowing there's some home grown veggies waiting.

• This morning I got a little surprise, my Koi pond was half drained, looks like I'm gonna be late for work today! The veggie filter outlets got plugged and the water was running out of the veggie filter underneath the pond, I usually have the pump that feeds the veggie filter higher up in the main pond just for this reason, somehow it had dropped to the bottom of the main pond. I fixed the problem and added half the water back, I'll top it off tonight and tomorrow so I don't shock the fish.