Oh, so you're in a real live desert. That'd be way too much work. I bet you have some beautiful natives growing out there. Sucks about the grasses, tho. I have enough trouble with bermuda grass, I can only imagine the problems from something that could be invasive in a desert
Daikon radishes. They grow in about anything and are especially good at clay busting. Grow a bunch then let them die back. Till them in and repeat until you get enough environment for the worms to take over the tilling. You can keep piling on radishes with something like clover and peas to add some nitrogen fixers. This is more a pasture revitalization technique, but if you don't mind being the weird radish guy for two or three years (depending on local conditions), you could do it on a smaller scale for a lawn
Anytime I think of John Romero, I think of Daikatana and their ad campaign
Well, I might have spoken too soon. I neen on vacation this week and just saw the second most haggard groundhog I've ever seen strolling through my beds without a care in the world. I bet you anything that's my critter
Hell yeah! That's been a long time coming. I bet it's gonna feel fuckin fantastic, but also don't think you gotta rush yourself. That'll get your hurt going for sure
The sunflowers are the top right. Top left was one half of my black beans. Some kind of pole bean that was given to me
I usually do stuff like marigolds and coneflower among stuff to keep them out, but I got lazy this year and they've been pretty merciful until the night before last
I had a cousin get thrashed by a buck in rut once. They have all the necessary bits to really do some damage
Since we're in a science-themed shitpost area, I'd just like to take this moment to be both pedantic and gross in reminding folks that llamas and alpacas don't just spit, they vomit into their mouths before givin' it that hawk tuah
They topped all my sunflowers, about 30 bean seedlings, mowed down one of my full-grown bush beans, and over-pruned one of my watermelon vines in a single night. I saw some spots where they nibbled at my potatoes as well. These suburban deer are a menace. With as many dogs as we have running around here, you'd think they'd stay away, but no, they don't care
I'm gonna have to build a fence next season
If I had a kid that asked for Newports, I'd just give em to them. Kinda curious to see where that goes
Beautiful! You really put some umph into this
This one feels different. That last panel looks like something from Alan Moore
Nice. Watch it start taking over in the next couple seasons
Nah, that's actually broccoli. The kale is right behind it. I do black magic kale and it is usually the last thing to start bolting. But! This is a good thing. I'm hoping to collect seeds this year, though I don't know where I'm hoping this particular broccoli is getting pollinated from. We'll see!
The plant is still small, but it's putting off a few here and there and man are they tasty. Looking forward to getting enough to actually do something next season
Trying to get in the habit of taking more pictures for work stuff. An abandoned sunflower bed that is gonna get planted with various squash. Hand weeded with a hori-hori and some shitty knee pads. I also forgot my gloves today
The heat is starting to climb, so the early season stuff is starting to struggle a bit. Looks like terra cotta beats plastic and big beats small. There you go, empirical evidence of a fact everyone already knew: plants prefer the expensive pots
Some kind of beautiful black widow, probably a Northern. Built her web on a bag of potting soil, so I had to scrooch her along. Absolutely gorgeous and huge! She was definitely well fed
Spent the day pulling honeysuckle vines out of a homesteader client's back fence. I turned a perfectly good set of pruning shears into beaters pulling all that stuff out, but this guy was just extra in every way
Corn is finally peeking out, but something has been digging it up and chomping seedlings, too. I shotgunned it, so I can afford the losses. More stuff in a comment to follow
Daikon goes boom. Pak choi is on the way up with it. Gotta solve my soil issues before I put these down. Speaking of soil issues, I probably gotta start over on my squash bed. Nothing looks too happy in there and instead of watching it die a slow death, I'm just gonna direct sow everything after I get some amendments in with it.
In the mean time, I'm just watching these guys revive some hope for a summer harvest
I got sick a week and a half ago, so things got a little messy. We're back on schedule, tho. Kale has been the hero this season. Couple broccoli doing what I ask. Slugs got all my first round peppers, so on my back foot there.
Herbs need to be moved out into the sun and a new round of starts there. Tomatoes in the ground, started a bunch of tubers (daikon, french breakfast radish, and beets). All of my pak choi is ded, which makes me worry for the ten million carrots I have coming up. Started like, 30 pak choi to make up for it (get em young, cut em in half and roast em with salt and pepper, finish with Lao Gan Ma. One of my favorite veggies).
Garlic and onions coming along, taters growing, put down some corn and spinach yesterday. Been having hard luck with the spinach. Had an unidentified rodent living in that bed picking off my seedlings as they sprouted. Took the cover off and let the ferals deal with it, so here we are again on a fourth round of direct sow and I STILL AIN'T GOT NO SPINACH.
Oh, I put some watermelon down, too. Makes an awesome cover along my walkway and the ferals love to hide in it. Also, watermelons, I guess.
Squash arch is archin, but I worry about my soil out there. Same mix I used for the hugel and the new beds and I'm having problems. Shouldn't have rushed to get them done, but hey, that's my problem now.
Doing a crop walk for one of my clients this morning. Air was real still, goats were only a little bit desperate for grain. Good start to the day
A bit ago I posted this image and a sharp-eye named Even_Adder (not sure exactly how attributes work on Voyager yet) saw that something was written to it. I dug around a little, but couldn't come up with the answer, so I figured what the hell and sent them an email. The Institute has responded.
Light the beacons! Or whatever we're supposed to do. Wait? I think it's wait. I'll post an update when we get an update.