Almost Finished - June 6 & 7, 2025 @goldenoakfarm

On Friday morning I was up at 5:15AM and out in the gardens by 6AM. The first thing I did was finally get the lima beans planted. Next I weeded the green bean row, the Swiss chard, and the parsnips. I also had to thin the parsnips. Then I planted the green beans.

It was a good thing it had taken me so long to do the parsnips as they had taken a while to get big enough to thin.

My helper friend arrived at 8AM and he started planting and mulching the cabbages.

I got the new carrot seed and 3 more calendulas and planted the calendulas at the ends of all the carrot rows. I restarted, for the 3rd time, the 2 little carrot rows, and put the boards back on.

By then my helper friend had broadforked the long carrot row and I sat and planted them. We got that row mulched and the boards on. Now I have to remember to take them off in a timely manner…

From top: cabbages, carrot row, celery, unplanted basil row

I went over to get the parsley for the next row, but there absolutely wasn’t any. I had not started enough. But there was a half a tray of celery so I put that in instead, as celery was being planted nowhere else. I was short 3 plants so I put a couple of bachelor’s buttons at the end by the quince.

At some point, I also weeded the broadcast Mesclun bed and was delighted at how few weeds had come up in it, not more than a couple good handfuls.

We finished this Big garden about 10:15AM. The only thing left to do in it is plant the basil next Tuesday. The spots/row are all ready and have been mostly mulched.

We cleaned up the equipment and went inside for a break. Sitting outside in the mosquitoes, which were particularly bad, was not restful. I made notes and updated the garden map to the changes.

We took a couple sleds and pruners and went out to the New Herb garden to start weeding that for an hour. I worked the first row and half of the second and he worked the other half of the second and half of the 3rd row. We made it nearly halfway down these rows by 11:30AM when it was time to quit.

The Senior center has had this speaker on Thursday afternoons for months now. As my helper friend comes on Thursday afternoons I have not been able to go to any of his talks. But for some reason this one was on Friday and I was bound and determined to go AND stay awake!

I had an hour to get a shower and lunch before the van arrived. I was ready and off I went.

It was really interesting as he’s a very good teacher. He’s a professor at Smith College. He had been doing a series on the cosmos and universe and this was the first of this type of subject.

It was touch and go but I did (mostly) stay awake and followed his line of reasoning and explanations of various terms. Someone asked him to speak on time and entropy next time, and I asked he do it on a Friday. But he’s off on vacation for July so won’t be back until August.

When I got home, my general helper was back in the area and she has been working on converting her van into a camper/living place. She needed tools and a space to cut the plywood for the floor, so she used the workshop for a couple hours. It was really good to see her, and I was glad to give her a cool place out of the mosquitoes to work.

More rain, 3” this time

I had closed the house up and taken my pansy umbrella with me to the event. It did its work and it never started to rain until late afternoon. But when the thunderstorms rolled through, the rain was pretty intense for a while. My brother said he had a bit of a time getting out of the hilltown where he works due to huge trees/branches down in the roads.

It was due to rain during the night and most of Saturday. I got up about 7AM and got my post for Thursday up and was working on the one for Friday when I was suddenly taken sick. And that’s how I spent Saturday, either in bed or on the couch while it rained.

South Herb garden – rain wrecked peony

We ended up with 3 more inches of rain, bringing it to 7 inches for the week.

On Sunday I need to try to get all the little jobs/chores done that I’d planned to do on Saturday plus I have to mow the yard but not at the barn. It’s to be in the mid to upper 70’s and cloudy. I’ll probably have to put bug spray on to keep the mosquitoes off.