Saturday, May 22, 2010

So its Saturday and my weekend of planting is delayed yet again. The land is still heavy with water. Combine that with a bit of rain and we are still playing the waiting game. It seems that because the land has been fallow for so long, it is taking a long time to dry out enough to till. If the weather man is right, hopefully that will happen some time this week. And then its hoeing up the rows and then planting like a madman. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants will go in right away followed by the direct seeded stuff. It is frustrating to sit on my hands and wait so we are going out tomorrow to set up a few things and see what if anything we can do to be prepared to go the moment the fields are ready.

Try to imagine tilling your 20 acres of unbroken prairie grasslands with this pulled behind a horse!?!? This was John Deere's highly innovative "Grasshopper Plow". Invented in 1837 this was a huge improvement over all previous plow and in only a few years he was selling 10,000 of them a year. Film buffs can check out " The Plow that Broke the Great Plains". an interesting bit of propaganda / history.

The Tomato Refugee Camp

Hiding from the noonday sun.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

refugees

I had hoped to get some rows built and some of the planting done last weekend but a heavy rain on Thursday completely soaked the fields. The fields look dry on top but still muddy underneath. It just clogs up the tiller. We finally got a stint of sunny dry weather in the last few days so the fields should be tilled by tomorrow. Which is great but I did have a bit of a panic from the intense sun yesterday. My seedlings have been outside for a few days but i guess some of them where not ready for a hot summers day yet. I had them in and out several times but that stint of cold when they had to stay in doors must have set back the hardening off process. Another lesson I need to remember for next year. Some plants lost a few leaves and I had to race around moving things into the shade. I can't haul them all back into the house so I checked online for a solution. A floating row cover to protect them from the sun is the solution, unfortunately we don't have any yet. Thankfully Lainie has some Saris that seem to fit the bill. So although our yard looks like a tomato refugee camp, I am confident that the seedlings will weather today's hot sun in style. Thanks again Lainers.
I have a few pics but blogger isn't letting me upload them right now. i will post them later hopefully.
Prairie Boy