Almost As Busy As My Bees!

The last two weeks have been so busy for us!  The weather finally warmed up and we went from a so-so spring to HOT summer!  Harold and I have been "as busy as bees" planting and tilling and doing yard work and mowing.   I spend 8 hours a day outside working on our 3 gardens and greenhouse.  It's a good thing we enjoy this!

Things are growing nicely in the high tunnel greenhouse:

Lettuces, peppers, garlic and spinach are all growing well.

Another view looking from the other side.  I even have some potato plants growing to the right hand as you walk into the doorway.

I always wear my straw hat and "garden apron" outside, as well as a long sleeve white shirt over everything.   Spending all those hours in the sun, I need plenty of protection.   The garden apron sure comes in handy to carry seed packets, gloves, markers, a water bottle and a few hard candies, plus small garden tools, measuring tape and a hanky.

I won't win any fashion awards, but I dress for comfort while working and for sun protection.  I am wearing my garden apron, too. 

Here's a close up of my garden apron.  It has 4 huge, deep pockets and just ties around.

Look at this beautiful stand of romaine lettuce in the greenhouse!  In a couple weeks they will be market size!

I discovered something the other day - about 60 years ago - yes, that's 60 years ago - my Dad made these cement mushrooms for a rock garden our family had.  Over the years and several moves later, I discovered I still had these!  They need a new paint job, but here they are:

These cement mushrooms sure bring back memories of what my Dad made for a rock garden we had.  I will paint them up again, but for now they are part of the "decor" in front of my greenhouse.

Here's a view of one garden so far.   Nothing is really growing yet, and I have old bee boxes around young tomato and pepper plants to protect them from the winds.   But it is all planted up now!

We use old bee boxes for protection around plants.  This garden is 50 x 150 feet.

In my other garden I use old large tin cans for protection around cabbages.  Some of these cans have been in use for 8 years now!

I planted 75 cabbages the other day.  This garden is 30 by 125.

We have crops planted on the other end of the pasture, too.  Most of the pasture is planted with clover, and it is up and growing.  The other part of the pasture has hops growing, and winter squash and pumpkins.  ALL of our hop plants made it through the winter!  Some plants even put on new rhizomes!  In order to water all this - it is about 1/8 mile away - we use a hose and a large water tank on the back of one of our old pickups.

Harold is filling up the water tank we use to keep the pasture garden watered.

Today the township also dug up our road to put in new culverts!  Nobody could get into or out of our place until things were finished.   Good thing nobody required an ambulance!

The whole road was completely dug up across to lay drainage culverts in.

A worker adjusts the culvert.  This is the same fellow who did the excavating when we built our house back in 2005.

So that's what has been happening here on Honey B Farm.  Besides all the planting and mowing, Harold has had to fix tractor tires and lawn mower tires and tires on his black truck.    Harold's tractor loader has been a blessing for moving soil around and tilling up the pasture to plant the clover.

Harold's "work horse" - better to get along with than his Belgian horses used to be!