Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, life has been quite hectic (active) for us here in Delaware. Along with keeping the garden going, time was spent updating our bedroom wall colors and once that was completed the master bath followed suit.
Meanwhile a number of trips down to Bethany Beach to help update my brother's beach house resulted in getting down on all fours and putting in 5 rooms of vinyl planking along with the two bathrooms.
Back at the garden, we had a very successful harvest to date, despite early lack of water and now lots and lots of rain. Plenty of veggies were collected and distributed among our neighbors and friends, while filling canning jars with cukes, pickles and tomatoes was a fun adventure. Here some photos from early June through early August.
We had some very nice broccoli plants early on. The second crop was a failure. I need to learn not to rely on inexpensive seeds.
Pizza making is getting better with each new attempt.
Bread making is also improving with time.
The 4th of July fireworks were great, despite the subdued celebration due to the virus.
Tomatoes growing up the netting. The bermuda grass at the base became a pain to handle.
First effort at growing gladiolas was successful.
The zinnia's also grew nicely and are still blooming.
A collection of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bread and blackberries.
A small sample of harvested potatoes, Norland Red, Yukon gold and a few German Butterball
The largest tomato of the season: 2 lbs 11 oz.
In another day, they all became tomato sauce.
Another collection of potatoes left in the garage to dry out.
First batch of tomato sauce.
A more recent collection of Best Boy, Yellow Brandywine and some Black Cherokee tomatoes.
The work at the beach house was lots of fun, although a bit tough on the knees. Here are some photos of the flooring done over the last month or so.
New grass for the front yard.
The first bedroom
The second bedroom
The master bedroom
The living room
The kitchen
Another view of the kitchen from the living room.
The hallway.
The hall bathroom.
The master bathroom.
The railings getting a fresh coat of paint.
This was the second year of our garden. Last year was pretty disappointing, as I didn't water enough, resulting in a low output of veggies. The garden was much more productive this year, as potatoes, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli all did very well. Carrots were a bust and I am still waiting on string beans. I also planted second crops of lettuce and peas.
The biggest problem was the Bermuda grass that has runners and underground roots that run very deep and sprout new leaders are nasty, to say the least. This grass is very hard to control and very difficult to kill. Even spraying with chemicals seems a tough undertaking, one I dislike to the extreme. I am hoping to cover up the entire garden area with cardboard and or special landscape covering to try and kill the grass. I might also try getting wood chips from our electric company and using them to hold down the growth.
My plan for next year is to widen the paths a bit more so that the tomatoes have room to grow and our little kids from next door can go up and down the rows and pick as they please. I am also going to limit the number of plants and varieties. The black kim and black cherokee are nice tomatoes, but they got so big that they split early on and ended up either being eaten by critters and bugs or just rotting away. The Best Boy and Beefmaster both did very well as did the yellow cherry tomatoes. Those are the sweetest cherry tomatoes I have ever eaten.
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