Tag: gardening

Holey Work

When we bought the place we live in 2012, we had a yard hydrant that was seized and couldn’t be turned on. With a new garden plot on that side, near the barn. That would have proven to be inconvenient, had we not had more than our share of rain this summer.

I have been working lately to dig up the offending hydrant to replace it with a new one. Here in Iowa, the “extreme” freeze line requires the water lines to be five feet deep to avoid having your water freeze up on the coldest winters.

The rusted, formerly galvanized pipe, leads me to believe this hydrant has been in the ground a long time!

I can tell you tonight I am feeling every shovelful of dirt I have thrown out of the hole. We bottom two feet was definitely still plenty wet (and heavy and gummy) from the earlier rains.

The block structure is a previously used well pit. The blocks are merely stacked and not mortared. When the water was converted to supply by the local rural water supply, the metered water was connected in the existing pit and the well was retired (I was told the well was sulfurous, which might explain the bad drain and waste yard hydrant). There are cut-offs in the pit, which I will need to access when the new hydrant is installed.

Right now I am looking for a source for a stainless tee than can insert into the poly pipe and provide a 3/4″ NPT (normal pipe thread) to attach the new hydrant.

These hydrants have a drain hole near the bottom that allow them to empty when shut off so they don’t freeze in winter. It seems to me the four-inch drain tile and handful of rocks (still on the ledge next to the block wall) was a pretty poor installation, given that the level of the drain hole is in a pure clay strata.

At Least …

… the moles are happy.

Beneficiary

It seems in my life; I am often the beneficiary of the love and grace of others. Does it go without saying that I have unfathomably received of the love and grace of God? How can I let such a gift pass without a thank you?

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Romans 5

Thank you, Jesus!

The picture at the head of this post is of some garlic that I was gifted by my friend Cheryl last fall to plant in our garden. I harvested the results the middle of August. I needed a way to hang it to dry, as I understand one is supposed to do that.

That brings me to another gift that I was given. Another friend had an unsuccessful political campaign years back and had a lot of heavy wire sign frames, of the type that typically are used by stretching what is essentially a printed plastic bag over the frame, which is then poked in the ground. This friend figured since I was politically active, that I could make use of them. Frankly, political signs are always provided with new wires frames of one type or another. Still, I seem to have found a near endless array of things I could make from the heavy steel wire. Which brings me to this picture:

It occurred to me that if I had a really big heavy needle, I could use it to run a string though the stalks of the harvested garlic. So, with a bolt cutter I cut off a length of steel sign wire. I clamped it in a vise for my drill press and used a Dremel tool cut-off wheel and a steady hand to grind a slot through the wire, halfway on each side. I sharpened one end on my bench grinder and polished the rust off with a wire wheel. Viola! A needle!

And the result, hanging in the pole barn.

By the way, some pieces of that same sign wire became S-hooks to connect the string between some shelving units, via a simple loop tied on each end of the string.

The very presence of mature garlic from little cloves planted in the ground prior to winter is still one more example of my status as beneficiary.

26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; 27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. 28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. 29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. 30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? Mark 4

God made all these mysterious things to work according to His design to sustain and keep us. I am thankful to Him! Praise His holy name!

P.S. I have been pretty occupied with things this summer and posting here has certainly suffered. But all is well.

Sweet Potato Saturday

Looking North in the garden.

Got forty sweet potatoes in the ground today. Have been propagating slips from four sweet potatoes in front of a south facing window since mid-February. The red-skinned potatoes are behind me. They are up as of two days ago.

Sweet Potatoes, April 1

Sweet Potatoes, South Facing Window

South-facing Upstairs Window. Waiting for the last unpredictable Iowa frost to venture outside.

Potting medium: 50% potting “soil”, 25% Scott’s garden soil, 25% sand.

Potatoes 2022

Today is the 25th of September. It was a lovely day with the afternoon in the mid seventies. A stiff breeze was making a rustling noise in the fields of drying Iowa corn. I decided to dig my red-skinned potatoes. The vines had given their last hurrah mid month.

Some had asked me about storage through the winter. I have knocked together a rack (on casters) in the basement that uses large restaurant bus tubs for shelves.

I have found potatoes keep better if one doesn’t wash them before storage. I just rub off the excess soil when I dig them. I Sort them for size and (some for condition). I throw a mover’s blanket over the rack to minimize light. I have the rack in a basement room where the lights can be kept off most of the time. There is a small east-facing window, but we keep a heavy drape over it.

Lest you think they all look like they came from the supermarket in a bag…

Small Potatoes

The box contains small potatoes that will probably go in stews or the crock pot without being peeled. The dozen or so in the foreground were damaged by marauding thirteen-line ground squirrels. They will probably be used first as mashed potatoes after paring away the damage.

Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

Think he looks innocent? Think again!

Sweet Provision

Thinly Sliced Sweet Potatoes from the Garden in the Deep Fryer

The thermometer read 20 degrees outside this morning. In here, it reads 390.

Post Potatoectomy

Post Potatoectomy

The patch was deep turned with a spading fork during harvest. It took a lot of passes with the tiller to return the resulting clods of Iowa clay loam to a friable condition. It took good nights rest to return me to normal.

Harvest Today

Lord, I am grateful for a good potato harvest and the satisfaction of manual labor.

For the past couple of years, I have been raising some redskin potatoes in our garden. My approach has been to till in a fair amount of composted manure to prepare the plot. Potatoes are heavy feeders, so the manure really helps. I rake a shallow trench for a row in the newly tilled soil and place the seed potatoes, eye up. Then I rake the soil back over to just cover.

My approach is much easier than the common approach of placing them in a 6″-8″ deep trench; easier to plant and easier to harvest. The deep-trench method is designed to keep the potatoes covered as they grow. I followed the traditional approach three years ago and found it backbreaking work. When it came time to harvest, I damaged many trying to dig them up in the tight Iowa soil.

Potatoes exposed to the sun will turn green and be toxic. (Potatoes belong to the Nightshade family.) I avoid exposure of the tubers to the sun by deeply mulching them with clean straw or even grass clippings. When it comes time to harvest, they can be carefully exposed with a rake and digging will be minimal. The fork may still be necessary to free tubers that end up a little deeper (on their own). It is best to dig further away from the vine and pry up the soil to loosen.

I wash off any dirt that clings to the potatoes. This year, I filled the wheelbarrow with water and allowed them to soak for a couple of hours. Most didn’t require any extra cleaning.

After allowing them to dry in the driveway, I pack them in open tubs in layers of straw for storage in the basement.The straw prevents the potatoes from packing too closely together and improves storage. I usually have usable potatoes right up to planting time and can provide seed potatoes from last year’s harvest.