With all the weeds this year I decided use a shovel to dig my garden, and get rid of the weed's roots rather than rototilling the garden and chopping up the roots for them to regenerate. Using the measuring wheel I got at the Creston auction I found my garden size is 32' by 76'. 2432 sq ft. That's a lot of digging.
Of course I didn't continually dig as burning tree stumps, fence work, and cattle and whatever else intervened. Lately it seemed my "digging enthusiasm" waned as I would dig only a small portion every few days, with each new day's portion dug getting smaller. The weeds in the undug portion were colonizing the area faster than I could dig. There's a forest over there! Also the pressure was off slightly towards the end as I already dug and planted the part of the garden that will grow from seed. I only had to now dig an area for my indoor starter plants.
My remaining starter plants were watermelon, cantaloupe, and pumpkin. The cantaloupe, and especially the pumpkin plants, were spreading long vines and starting to take over the front window area in my living room. Good thing the "Little Shop of Horrors" movie doesn't scare me so I was able to relax and watch a little TV when sitting next to my plants.
The pumpkin plants were putting out blossom after blossom to no avail, other than to make me feel guilty. I had to be very careful in untangling them and removing their grabber tendrils from the furniture when I moved them outside.
Earlier I had transplanted four watermelon plants, and out of all the starter plants I had transplanted outside earlier, these four shriveled up. Not from lack of moisture but from the sun. I hadn't prepared the plants earlier by slowly introducing the plants to the outside sun so my solution was to shade the plants in the garden with boards. I guess the watermelon plants needed more than a few days of shade.
I won't make the same shading mistake this time. I even added boards to shade the plants from their northern side and not just the southern side. This time of the year the sun rises in the far NE and sets in the far NW.
Okay, the blossoms are there... bees do your stuff!
It looks like most all my seeds have sprouted. The lettuce seems patchy for some reason.
You think I am done digging in my garden? Think again! The earliest dug parts are sprouting weeds. *sigh* It never ends. This year I plan to get right on them before they get unmanageable (like last year). That is, once it stops raining.
My raspberries are doing great this year. The best since I planted them three years ago. Of course not having cattle munch on them for desert helps. They are sending up plenty of suckers and filling out the area I dug last year in an effort to plant more. Each time I see walk by my raspberry plants, large and small bees are buzzing around their blossoms. I can't wait to eat raspberries this summer! Eating fresh raspberries is almost as good as sex. Maybe even better than sex.
Speaking of bees, Grant's hives are "humming" right along. He says one stack is doing great and I see he has added a super to it. The other stack has a queen who apparently is not all that into sex. (Do I need to give her some raspberries?) She should be laying lots of brood to expand the hive but is doing a lackluster job.
Grant says the bees are still excitable and get easily annoyed. I haven't had any problems when nearby looking for Goat's Beard weeds. One day though I visited with Grant at his pickup along the road. One bee had followed him from the hive across the field to his truck and "wouldn't let it go".
My strawberry patch... oooh! Last year I faithfully weeded it. This spring there were no weeds. Yesterday I turned my attention to weeding the strawberry patch. Where are the plants? There were so many weeds and even clumps of grass I had trouble finding the plants. Oh, there were lots of strawberry plants growing. The other thing I didn't get to this past fall/spring was to thin my bed. I believe the oldest plants should be removed as it has been three years now. Man, I hope my strawberry patch won't collapse on me. These plants are fantastic plants. (Thanks Mary!)
I have three rhubarb plants at one end of the strawberry patch and they are humongous. If I had enough strawberries - and the time - strawberry/rhubarb jam. Or the equipment - and the time - rhubarb wine.
The strawberry plants are expanding under the rhubarb leaves - or is it the rhubarb leaves are expanding over the strawberry plants?
My initial weeding was slow and delicate as some weeds were coming up through the strawberry plants themselves. Later I realized that if some plants also got uprooted, so what, that was a way to thin them.
I got less than half the patch weeded before the rain chased me away for good. We had quite the thunder and lightning storms and heavy rain last night! At one point during my weeding, before the rain came for good, it got very light all around and then I heard a sizzle above and nearby before the light faded. Kind of an odd sound. Not quite like water on a hot griddle, and not quite like tossing a shovelful of light dirt on dirt, but a combination of the two sounds. I was glad I was on my hands and knees weeding at that moment. (Insert smiley face with hair standing on end).
I found lots and lots of strawberries: ripe, unripe, overripe, way overripe. It wasn't just weeding that slowed me down. With all the robins around this spring I was surprised they didn't eat all my strawberries. Guess my patch was too full of weeds even for them.
Guess what I found under one rhubarb leaf? A pile of fresh dirt from a pocket gopher!
That's right - they are back in my garden area again this year. Ironically earlier in the day I walked the garden/fruit tree area looking for fresh piles of dirt and was satisfied there were no pocket gophers. I was concerned they were in the garden/fruit tree area as I now am back at the fence line between the hayfield and the house trapping lots of pocket gophers. *sigh* 
I had this section of the hayfield cleared way early last fall. Where are they coming from? My only guess is the field across the road. Baby factories are in full production and the young migrate across the road (the border) in search of a better life in my fields.I quickly set a trap under the rhubarb. After a rain shower passed I checked the trap. In the 40 minutes since I set the trap the pocket gopher had come out and covered the other end of the trap with dirt to seal its hole. I cleared the dirt and reset the trap. This morning between rain showers I checked and I got him... her... it. A young one. It left its home to make its way in the world and unfortunately came across the "mean old rancher" and met a tragic end.
I tell you what - I am not having any pocket gophers in my garden again this year!
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