Wednesday, May 31, 2023

So hot. So dry

This week’s post will be quick. Heck’s a-poppin’ here, and I have approximately one million things to do. My motivation is limited by the hot-as-hell, humid weather. It is like, as Bailey White has written, “air that has already been breathed.” I was out weed-whacking (or weed-whipping or string-trimming—whatever) this morning for an hour, with a break for reinstalling line. I was dripping with sweat after 10 minutes. After I come inside and dry off, my skin is covered in salt as if I have been swimming in the ocean. And it’s not even June yet.

Also, in spite of the humidity, it is dry, dry, dry. If we get measurable rainfall this afternoon, (the weather forecasters are hesitant to make promises), it will be the third driest May on record. If not, it will be second. I can’t complain too much. We have most of the garden on drip lines. I can almost feel all the prayers for rain rising from the neighboring farms. If we don’t get something soon, there’s going to be a lot of dead corn out there.

Spring continues apace. New blooms this week include irises,

Irises

Geranium,

Wild geranium around the trillium, which are fading

Columbine

The columbine is especially floriferous this year.

And shooting star, one of my favorites.

Shooting star

While I was out one morning taking pictures, I saw this lovely little fir cone, so intricately scalloped and delicate. I did not know they were so beautiful when first formed.

A delicate fir cone, about an inch tall.

The chicks are getting their feathers. We have quickly switched from keeping them warm to keeping them cool. Heat is hands-down more dangerous. The meat chickens are, as usual, rapidly outsizing the layers. Here’s one of the Ameraucana, which fits nicely in my hand,

A petite Ameraucana

As does a golden Wyandotte.

A similarly sized Golden Wyandotte

A Big Red Broiler can hardly be contained. Already the feet are impressively large.

Meat chicken with giant feet

The chicks scurry to the corner every time I peek in at them. This picture shows an Ameraucana (dark) side-by-side with several meat chickens (red-gold).

An Ameraucana, left, with a passel of meat birds for size comparison

Much of my time these past days has been taken up with getting rootbound seedlings in the ground before they die. One Project from Hell that I undertook this week was planting 38 wickedly expensive native rain garden plants. Since we’d had no rain, the ground was hard as a brick. My first task was to lay out a plot that had an area of 75 to 100 ft2. Next, I took of the top layer of vegetation with a shovel.

Top layer of plants and soil removed from 92 ft2

Because the soil has so much clay, I spread sand and grass clippings over the top to lighten it up. Then I spaded it into the ground. I covered the ground with cardboard to act as a weed barrier and keep in whatever soil water was left.

Spading in soil amendments

Having learned my lesson about spacing the plants apart (the first garden assortment I planted is WAY too crowded, and I have lost several of the species), I made sure to spread the plants evenly throughout the recommended space, in this case, 4’ x 23’, or 92 ft2.

Planting and watering

I planted, watered each plant thoroughly, and covered the cardboard with sand and the dried out turf I’d removed to weigh it down when the heavy rains come, and the area floods again. Hope springs eternal.

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