Recover the garden season Sunday, 09-Jun-24 22:50:19 CEST

Removing polystyrene Sunday, 23-Jun-24 20:06:09 CEST

Sunday, 16-Jun-24 22:35:21 CEST

Salvage the garden season

This week, we were recapturing the garden initiative to salvage the season.

Monday 10 June

Today, it rained the whole day. I have not seen such continuous rain for a long time. Usually, I see short bursts of heavy rain. You don't notice the other rains because they are so gentle.

I worked from home. I was busy with a complex algorithm that did not want to be solved. That makes me think of a colleague I had many years ago. Lars Møllebjerg. He always said, "Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back." It was a quote by Piet Hein. Lars liked that a lot.

After work, I updated this site's security certificate. This time, I had notes on how to do it, which made the process very easy. I could switch to free certificates, which update automatically, but I think I am too lazy, so I keep the yearly paid security certificates.

We accepted the offer of the shed! The salesperson thought it would take 20 weeks before the building can start.

In the evening, it stopped raining. I measured that 21 millimeters of rain had fallen.

Tuesday 11 June

Today, I went to the office. DW celebrated her sabattical.

We had a bit of accidents today. DW had a sore knee, and later in the evening, I got a lumbago in my back while filling the dishwasher. It is unclear whether this is a full-blown lumbago or a warning shot. I will take it easy if I can. I taught myself to lean on things, and this worked very well. I could stand upright without holding anything.

This possible lumbago thing put a sore feeling in my mood. I went to be wondering how the night would be and tomorrow.

Wednesday 12 June

I stood up from the bed with a lurking, lousy feeling inside my back. This was not a real lumbago, but I was acutely aware that it could be a real lumbago at any moment. I got to the shower with grace, and I showered. I held on to things with my hands to be sure I did not, by accident, strain anything in this sensitive situation.

It was as if my back had the beginning of a torn something. The tear was there, but it was not finished. There was a feeling of being wounded, but as long as I did not tear up more, the situation was controlled.

I could make the breakfast smoothie, albeit with caution. We had a checkup of the garden. I took a garden tool to lean on.

Today, I worked from home. Sitting on a chair was working fine. DW went to a wool event.

After lunch, I was feeling even better. I went out with beetroot plants that I transplanted to the raised bed. I also transplanted an Ola Gabriela courgette. It got to live behind the sea container. While weeding that area, I concluded that the soil needed more sand. I added compost and manure to the soil, but it was still rather sticky. I even weeded with my newly acquired back condition.

Would it not be nice to go to the hardware store and get a couple of bags of sand? That would be the ultimate test of how my back was doing. It could fail spectacularly; in that case, I would become a lumbago patient. Hence, it was nice that DW followed me to the city. She went to a second-hand shop. I went to the hardware store and picked up three sandbags and two soil bags. The sandbags were 25 kilograms each. It worked out well!

DW found a cutting board.

When we came home, I stored two bags and spread one bag. I hope it has the desired effect of making the soil less sticky. I tried to weed the area that I sanded, and it was crumblier. I think I have to see the result after heavy rainfall before knowing if it works properly.

Thursday 13 June

Today, I went to the office. It was a regular day. In the afternoon, I repotted and moved plants at the office. I am a member of a plant maintenance team, and we are preparing the plants for the office move.

In the evening at home, my energy was still with me, and I took out the brushcutter and cut the grass we sowed in at the old compost heap area. The weed behind the sea container was urgently cut to prevent seeds from spreading. I tried to use our chipping machine for the weed, but that did not work. The machine works for wood branches that have been lying for a year. No fresh stuff.

The garden is doing fine, but it has to become a little warmer before things take off.

Friday 14 June

I noticed a creature had nibbled on a leave of an Ola Gabriella courgette plant. I could not see any slug in the slug fortress. The edge was rougher than it usually is with slugs. I concluded that it was rodents. Hey, ho, another threat to the harvest. This is going fine.

At work, it was a regular day. Another colleague stopped and had his goodbye ceremony. The plant commission continued consolidating more plants and prepping them for the move.

We got the final offer from the shed builder.

	We will not have any plants like this. This area will stay open.

 

We noticed that the bathroom was left out of the plan. For the rest, it looked promising.

In the evening we had pizza!

Saturday 15 June

Since last Saturday, the sheep have been munching along the west and north edges of the property. Today, we moved the sheep to a new area: The house's east side and the property's east border. That is where the shed will be standing. We have four nets in total and two nets in use. It rained from time to time; it was not fine.

At one moment, the sun came, and our neighbors came home. We told them about our plans for the new shed, and they thought it was a good idea. The neighbor's wife concluded that the area behind the house would be less windy, which would suit her plants.

At lunch, the sun had returned. Merida conquered the cat-scratching posts and sat there looking down on us while we ate. She had an expression on her face, saying, "You eat, and I get nothing?".

For the rest of the day, we prepared for guests coming in the evening. We went to the grocery store and tidied up the place.

Our guests arrived, and it was a lovely evening. We did not do so much garden work, though.

Sunday 16 June

The sheep loved the new area. It is lovely to see them munching happily. They will hopefully stay happy for one week.

We did not have many large tasks planned at home, so we pottered around in the garden. It was not especially warm in the morning. Gradually, as the day progressed, it got warmer.

When we went to the grocery store yesterday, we bought a color mix of chard. There were red, yellow and purple chard in the package. DW had a bed she had more or less given up on. I could seed the chard there. I had one and a half hours for the task.

I sowed the chard more than twice as dense as recommended on the package. The idea is that no slugs will eat the chard, but we will be happy if half the chard survives in our garden, so twice as much was feeling good.

I also removed failed plants and sowed chard there. Two are in the raised bed, and a couple of places are in front of and behind the sea container. If we don't eat it or are selling the chard, it does not matter. I was thrilled by the idea that the chard has different colors.

We got a visit from our neighbors and their friends, with a daughter. She wanted to look at sheep. We could fix that! The girl was thrilled about it.

Then we went to the PILs. I brought with me the puzzle. It will be assembled at the PILs. I wonder if they find it a challenging puzzle, but I don't think so.

On the way home, we stopped halfway. There is a proper dyke with water around.

	A photo through binoculars!
	Windy here.
	I wish I had my telelens, but unfortunately, I do not.

It was such a delightful evening when we came home that I had no energy to finish this week's blog.

There you have it. Another week passed. Emotionally, this week was about getting revenge on the failed start of the garden season. I hope that what I have done so far has given us reasonable results.

Next week, cutting back a little on the garden stuff will be necessary. I want to start working on the plates along the house's foundation. We will accept the offer of the shed.