More Puncture Vines

After breakfast we planted more wave petunias.  These are what I planted in germination trays several months ago.  Most were big enough to plant out.  A couple we still planted were very small.  They were planted in the flower bed north of Carol's bedroom window.   Some of the plants there look like the have been eaten by slugs or snails.

The picture above is of the nursery can full of puncture weeds.  I dug those up yesterday.

I went out again this morning and dug puncture weeds in north of the Miller's yard.  Another nursery can full of them.  I put both of them in the garbage.

We have a climbing vine growing in front of the door to the patio.  It has gotten so long that it started growing down.  I tied it to the top of the single trellis.

We drove to Fillmore buy some groceries.  I also got a window fan for the little bedroom window.  We will blow cooler outside air into the house.

In Fillmore I was going to buy a 3/4 inch ball valve.  I didn't buy it because I wasn't sure of the size.  When we got home I could tell that 3/4 inch was the right size.  I found one in house four that froze and broke.  It doesn't leak when it is all the way on or all the way off.  I shut off the water and installed it.  It is the orange handle on the left.  I need to hook it to the PVC pipe on the right side.  That is how I get water to the backyard sprinklers.

For lunch I made a salad.  Most of it comes from the garden.  The picture is a little blurry.

The are three native seedless cottonwood trees that I put in pots a couple of days ago.  I moved up to pad one which gets watered every three days.

There are a lot of dead plants full of weeds on pad one.  I moved to the east a bunch of them.  I hope to clean pad one a little bit every day.

This is the yuca that is ready to bloom, but is lousy with aphids.  I made a soap solution and sprayed them.  A lady bug dropped to the ground when I sprayed it.

These are tubes of Fremont Barberry plants.  There are thirty-five of them.  They were full of single leaf spurge.

The next project was to take the weeds out of the Utah Agave plants.  Most of the plants were dead.  I ended up with eight plants.

 I split the tube with a pair of scissors to remove the plant from the tube.  It is illustrated in the middle of the above picture.  The eight plants are shown on the left side. On the top left hand corner is an example of the dead agave.

Here are the eight quart pots with the final results.

 Comments and questions are welcome. 

Dreaded Puncture Vine

I went to the post office to pick up the mail and on the way home I noticed this tall yuca plant that is budded

I got my camera, smart phone, and took the above picture of the yuca.  The top buds were thickly covered with brownish aphids. The yuca stem is about five feet tall.

While walking over to the yuca, the Puncture vine, Tribulus terrestris, was everywhere.  Some where small seedlings and others had long vines with ripe seeds, called goat heads, with sharp points ready to cling a shoe or to the foot of some animal.

Using my heavy shovel I dug up all of them except for a few that were in part of the driveway that contained a lot of rocks.  l filled a large nursey can with the puncture vine.   

I walked to the row of green arrow peas to see how close they were to harvest.  There may be some ready for Sunday Dinner.

 I dug a lot of wild lettuce in and around the strawberries.  I threw a bunch of them into the chicken run.  The scared the chickens.  One hen flew up and got caught in the twine that I use to hang the lettuce.  I quickly took the above picture and removed the twine.

I worked for over an hour pruning the trees and vines just west of the hen house and the chicken run.

Comments and questions are welcome.

All Morning in House One

I started this morning in house one and worked there nearly to noon.

A couple of days ago these tomato plants were standing up.  They grew enough over the weekend to tip over.

It is not easy to see, but here I have hung them.  I pruned all of the branches on some of the plants.

I walked put and down the isles.  There is one plant that has tipped over and is partially blocking the isle.

This tomato plant has two clips.  The top of the plant is so heavy that it tipped over above the second clip.

Alisha's strawberry plants are beginning to bloom.  I am waiting to see how large the strawberry will be.

 After lunch I started watering the garden.  Above are the Green Arrow peas which are getting water.  The water kept braking loose and I had to watch it closely to keep the water running to the end of the row.

The above photo is showing the watering of the potatoes.  I was hoeing the weeds as I tended the water.

I filled up the back pack sprayer with weed killer and sprayed the morning glory.  I did not hoe out the morning glory, but hoed out the annual weeds.  I filled it up twice.

This Perityle stansburyi is getting prettier ever day.

The Prickly Poppy is looking pretty blowing in the wind.

I was showing Carol how to take a picture with my new smart phone.   She took two pictures of me.  I cropped the some.  The one above and the one below.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Hanging Cucumbers - Digging Weeds

The cushions for the patio furniture have been in the garage all winter.  I blew off the leaves and junk from the patio and brought out the cushions.  We haven't spent much time on the patio.

I worked in house one and six much of the day.  I hung all of the cucumber plants.  I cut off the branching and on one I cut the main stem thinking that it was a branch.  It had a real nice cucumber that I picked and wrapped with Saran Wrap and put it in the fridge.   The above picture is in house six and the one above it is house one.

I was recycling the twine by wrapping it on the  Toma Hooks. Twine with their weights were in a tangle mess.  I would get two or three short strings and tie them together for one long string.  Then I wrap them on the Toma-Hook.    I need a whole lot more for house six.

 This is Salvia pachyphylla with the wild rice growing in ti.

 Here is a closer look at a few stems of wild rye and Salvia pachyphylla.

This picture is after most of the wild rye has been removed.  It took quite a while to do this one.

We planted onions here last spring.  They were not worth harvesting.  Today they are almost ready to bloom.

A couple of years ago I planted a black walnut here.  I don't remember seeing it here las year but looks pretty good.  It is about twelve inches tall.  I gave it a good watering.

This a current bush that I planted here nearly ten years ago.  I see it each year.  It is really thorny.

The above plant, Skunk Bush, Rhus trilobata, is growing on the fence line has good color fruit and very pretty.  

Comments and questions are welcome.

Hot and Windy

Our chickens are doing quite a lot of flying now.  This hen flew on top of the hen house.  With a long stick I encouraged her to fly down.

Carol wanted me to take down the geranium basket so she could do some dead heading.  I took it down and put it in a larger basket, added more soil, and hung it back.

The corn in house two has been doing very well.  From time to time I would squeeze the ears to see if there were any kernels.  I could feel some and also feel places where there were no kernels.  I picked it today.  It was not ripe and there were a lot of places where pollination did not occur.  I gave it to the chickens, and they did not know what to do with it. 

The potato plants have little holes in the leaves which I thing were made by flea beetles.  I made a mix as described online.  One part rubbing alcohol, five parts water, and a tablespoon of liquid dish soap.  I put it in the sprayer and sprayed our two rows of potatoes.  It should have been sprayed a couple of weeks ago.

A home caregiver brought Carol a C-PAC.  She was here for over an hour explaining the breathing device works.  Water is used to maintain the humidity.   It required distilled water.  I drove to Fillmore and bought two gallons.  I also bought motor oil for the lawnmower, chicken scratch and lay pellets, and hamburger buns.

I weeded the strawberry patch.  Much of the weeding was on my hands and knees using my pocket knife cutting weeds close to the strawberry plants.  Most of the weeds were wild lettuce, crabgrass, and mallow.  The above two pictures are from the back of he garden looking east.

I have not planted any corn in the garden.  I made two rows for the sweet corn and was going to directly seed it.  Today I changed my mind and planted two seeds in each cell of this 1206 tray and I planted two trays.  They should be ready to plant out in a couple of weeks.  I covered them with potting soil.

At the end of the day, there was still time left before the 5:30 news.  I pulled weeds from several different pots.

This evening I had a little time to make these Toma Hooks.  I would call this photo a fistie instead of a selfie.

Comments and questions are welcome.

  

 

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