My Garden Trials and Errors This Year... Just Keepin It Real

 Hi friends! 

Today I thought I'd document and share a few things I've been dealing with 

this season.  It's always fun to look back on year to year what happened;

what worked; didn't work; and even unforeseen events like

straight line winds knocking your corn patch down.  Remember when

that happened and three days later it all started standing back up? haha 

It's true... that really happened here. Resurrection corn.  So... today I'm sharing struggles 

I've been having .... so far.  

Life is far from perfect.... and while often you see photos of lovely flowers and 

harvests.... there's ALOT of muck and mess and fails in the thick of it all.  

So here we go.... 

To start with... I once upon a time planted tiger lilies in front of the 

potting shed.  Year after year;  you know how it goes... those cute little black seeds

fall off and land and root in crazy places.  Like ... too close to my 

walk ways.  Of course by the time I discover them... they're already two feet tall 

and I just let it go...   I mean what can it hurt right?  Uhuh.  

Beautiful when I'm ducking and dodging them to mow around and under 

because you know how it really is:  they are rustbuckets and will stain

you and your shirts for life. ha  Okay maybe not life but .. I've ruined some 

good tshirts.  I ducked around them all day yesterday and thought I was doin good.

Yep... I had those things figured out and then bam... I forgot to duck.  My best...

favorite ... terra cotta tshirt... now has a darker terracotta stain all over it.  So did my arm until

I scrubbed the hide off it last night in the shower.  :) 

Ohhhh well... I'll live.  And I'll be dodging and duckin at least another week by the looks of things. 

 Next:  The beetles have arrived.  

Are they june bugs?  I dunno... I dunnocare! 

I just wanna kill them all DEAD.  

And I tried to  yesterday.  

I even got great pleasure from squishing them. 

I wonder how they'd work as fish bait? 

Hey... we may be onto something there.  

 Then let's talk paths. 

I love this path.  Well; ... It was a path once.  

But now plants from both sides have stretched ...

mainly the chocolate mint out into my pine bark mulch. 

Please don't write me how invasive mint is and wag your finger... coz I love it and 

because of that... I know am dealing with this I know.... I get what I get.  

--My biggest fear tho  is getting snake bit and this path

I am constantly tackling to pull mint and try to make it just a little 

wider where I can tiptoe through the center to my picnic table. 

I have a friend of a friend who was weeding and reached down into 

her plants and wam... got snake bit.  Could you imagine?

And how many times do we do that?  Just reach in... omg.  The 

hair on the back of my neck is rising.  Heebiejeebies. 

Just this week I saw a big snake about ten feet from this path... 

It was only a black snake but still... we are not  friends.  

Here we have a lot of copperheads.  I've gotta clear 

this path much better.  I gotta. 

 And then there's this.  

It's the side of my big raised bed ... and between it 

and the next row... I have a couple nice tomato plants in there if you squint real hard

you might can see them through the forest of weeds.  

It's another thing I need to tackle that I've put off. 

In there somewhere are about 6 empty flower pots too... so I'm scared.  

You know; the snake thing... and then oh yeah... the ant thing.  

Not to mention chiggers.  

Insert big eyeballs here. 

I think I see a flower pot back there do you?  

Look at all the weeds and lovely morning glory taking hold too. 

nice.  

not. 

shrugging my shoulders coz... I really don't wanna get in there.  

Maybe if I set off some firecrackers in there first? 

Maybe I'll just leave it.  

:)

 Let's not forget this...

the diseased zebrina .

I cut it all out.  

It's coming back and looks nice but ...

who knows if it will get sick again.  

And this... is my cucumbers in the big raised bed this year. 

What the heck?  It's making nice cucumbers still but it's got somethin goin on.

I didn't get much extra soil put in there and if you'll remember it's the dirt 

that we got from near the river.  It's too silty ... so I'm thinkin that's the problem there.

I'm so ready to pluck it all out... but waitin  for the last cukes.  Thankfully there are more

cucumbers planted up at the big garden that don't look like this.  

 Speakin of the big garden here we are.  

We got weeds there too... but ooooh baby look at that corn comin on.  

Up there we are embracing our weeds.  

The squash and corn is doing amazing... but... weird thing

and I forgot a photo... which Ill try to get today. 

The tomatoes up there?  They are making tomatoes but the leaves on 

the tomato plants keep curling.  Not in a curl like it was 

tainted by herbicide but... something other than that?  

I mulched it last night better... with old hay that was definitely not 

sprayed with herbicide ... so something else environmentally is doing it.  

We'll see how the tomatoes do... I hope well coz I mean... we need tomatoes.  

I've been pining for them... like  sweet love.  

Is there anything better than a vine ripened tomato?  

I mean ... hello bacon lettuce tomato samich!  

with extra mayo. 

Don't forget the xtra mayo. 

Oh yeah and let's not forget the ants. 

I already shared the ants with yall. 

Taking my beds back from the grass growing in them. 

I weed eated it all to the dirt... and then put black plastic down.

And eventually got both beds cleaned out.  

Just imagine the ants under the plastic tho.  

Oh well they don't attack near as bad on top of the black plastic.  

So... 

Those are the things that have been the biggest challenges this year. 

 When you see  photos of flowers like this  here 

at the shabby olde potting shed... you know 

there's alot of weeds, critters and challenges within them.  

I used to feel so bad when I'd plant something and it croaked; but

not anymore.  It comes with the territory.  

You never know how something is gonna go.  And just because it didn't work out 

this year doesn't mean that same plant won't do alright next.  And sometimes it will

fail again... but oh well... 

We keep planting.  

Keep growing.  

And documenting it all does help.

We still have tomatoes, corn and potatoes to harvest.  

Right here tho outside of the potting shed window is mostly flowers now.  

And they are almost to the point where I will just let them go and have their own way. 

When the temps here stay around a hundred and the humidity is super high... you know

big hair weather....that's when I say... yall just have your way.  I'll still water them...

but fretting over weeds ... naw.  

Alright... hope yall have a great day. 

Until we meet again,

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