From sweltering heat to 2″ of cool rain, wonderful rains arrived late Thursday, persisting all weekend, with more rain to come over the next 6 days! We’re living and gardening in a magnificent green rainforest, with the wonderful petrichor wafting in through open windows… rain drenched slumbers making for wonderful sleep.
Oh… excepting when it worries the dogs.
CBD Oil to the Rescue
Devani’s dog Caspian (officially ‘Prince Caspian’), is terrified of thunderstorms. His little 7 lb Maltese body trembles violently, and when it rains at night, especially if there are thunderstorms, Devani is often awake much of the night with him and his frantic pacing, panting and restless anxiety.
Then she remembered the CBD oil that has helped our 14 y/o Cavalier King Charles spaniel—Zoya—end her tremors. Though Zoya’s tremors were a different cause than Caspian’s, (old age and not fear), it turns out that the CBD oil worked equally well for both! Yay!
It’s such a relief to find a healthy natural solution for the critters to lessen their suffering!
And for people! When it comes to sleep… it helps Coleman sleep if he’s had trouble, especially from aches and pains. Though it has the opposite effect on LeAura. Apparently, that’s not unusual, so if you try it for sleep and it doesn’t work, while that’s less common, it can happen.
We’ve written more about CBD and hemp vs marijuana in this article should you be interested in that.
Now… back to the garden!
Food Gardening
Upper Garden – at the Cabin
🌧Installed our new wooden rain barrels under rain chains.
🌧Flushed out our plastic rain barrels (Video from yesterday)
You can read more about the rain barrels in this article.
Upper Garden (continued 2)
🌧Put all drip lines on timers
🌧Set up 65 gallon water tank on the hilltop (can now water our plants from up there)
Upper Garden (continued 3)
🌧Cut old rain barrel in half to make planters
🌧Placed gravel on top of weed fabric between the raised beds
What was Planted in the Upper Garden
- Strung up tomatoes under cattle panel arch way
- Eggplant (Black Beauty)
- Romaine lettuce
- Tomatoes (Brad’s Atomic Grape in recycled rain barrel)
- 3 New ‘Fuyu’ Persimmon trees
Fuyu persimmons are the best, so we planted a total of 5 new trees this year.
Planting Fuyu Persimmon Trees
Staking Fruit Trees
We also have American persimmons on our cabin property. You can read more about those here.
Lower Garden Update
- Cage for Zucchini (concrete wire)
- Set up another string support frame
- Made containment structure (concrete wire) for second crop of beans (Purple Teepee and Romano Purpiat)
Lower Garden (continued)
- Added boards to make a deeper bed for tomatoes
Harvested from the Lower Garden
- Kale (White Russian)
- Swiss Chard
- Perpetual Spinach (Chard)
- Beet greens
- Purple basil
- Parsley
- Strawberries
- Mahonia (Oregon Grape Holly) berries
- Radishes (bottoms and tops-Saxo II)
- Several beans
Planted in Lower Garden
- Tomatoes (Dad’s Sunset, Rebecca Allen, Cherokee Purple and Golden King of Siberia)
- Orange Boy marigolds
- Lettuce (Walmann’s Green Leaf and Romaine)
Let’s hear how your garden is growing. Photos, comments, questions via Facebook or email are all welcomed here. The growing and learning cycle continues!
Oh, and we got a new magnetic cover for our ‘garden mailbox’. We use it to store garden tools, and the covers are a wonderful decorative cover up.
Let’s keep on growing!
G. Coleman Alderson is an entrepreneur, land manager, investor, gardener, and author of the novel, Mountain Whispers: Days Without Sun. Coleman holds an MS from Penn State where his thesis centered on horticulture, park planning, design, and maintenance. He’s a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and a licensed building contractor for 27 years. “But nothing surpasses my 40 years of lessons from the field and garden. And in the garden, as in life, it’s always interesting because those lessons never end!” Coleman Alderson