YerUnk Got His Ass Kicked Today........
By a Rototiller.

I went after the new/old garden area today with the rototiller. It's been about 6 years since that area has been worked.

Whoo! A lot like work there. But it's done and that's a good thing.

I have a shit load of Strawberry plants that need to be transplanted now.
It's amazing that last year I had about 2 dozen berry plants left over from the old patch. I transplanted them into 2 of the raised beds and nipped the blossoms off so they would set runners.

Worked better than I planned.

There's a shitload of nice plants, in the boxes and all around them too.

Damn things went crazy and spread all over.

Which is a good thing I guess.

I'll have plenty to put in the new area and lots left over to share with a couple of friends.
Speak up if you're close by and would like some, BTW.

About the only thing better than fresh picked Strawberries is a fresh picked Peach. Hopefully I'll get some of them this year too.

Here's the area that kicked my ass today.

Approximately 30x50 feet.

Damn. Doesn't sound like much but it took me 3+ hours to till it completely.
Ran through it lengthwise first and then went across it the other way to make sure it was all done nicely.

See all those leaves there? That will be mulch for later on. That shit is like gold. Keeps the weeds down, holds the moisture in when it gets hot and in the Berry patch will keep the berries off the ground so they don't rot.
I do like straw around berries better than leaves so I may break down and buy a couple of bales to use as mulch.
But leaves will do if you don't have anything else.

Just pile them deep so you get a good solid covering.

And leaves are free. The hell with burning them. Gather them up in the Fall and they will make a great mulch.

I'm behind the curve this year already as far as the garden goes. This has been an absolutely wonderful Spring so far. I really expected we would have more cold or snow so I've been holding off on doing much.

Maybe I was wrong. You never know here in Indiana. We could still get a snowstorm. It's just like that here and everytime I get in a hurry, the weather kicks me in the ass and laughs.

I don't have any real reason to be in a hurry. I didn't start any seeds inside this year. I haven't started any spinach or salad things in the HoopHouse either. I probably should have done that but I'm thinking of doing a major overhaul and move on the HoopHouse and having things inside will only be a problem.

Yeah, I learned a few things about having a HoopHouse last year that I need to correct and I'm thinking that I should move it from where it is and then correct the mistakes.
The Tomatoes I had in there last year got some G-d awful blight and I really can't put any Tomatoes back in there. I will have to clean the shit out of the 2 beds in there now and maybe sterilize the soil with a couple of years of plastic covering everything.

It was that bad. And funky crap like that will hang around and infect crops for years if you keep putting things that are susceptible back in the same ground.

Hell, the Old Testament had rules about crop rotation and laying ground fallow every 7 years just so they could avoid problems.

And it's not like I'm any smarter than that so it's best to just do what has to be done.

But that's all part of gardening. Sometimes things don't go quite how you plan it.
Last year was cold and wet all Summer. The Melons, Peppers and most of the Tomatoes didn't do well at all. The Roma Tomatoes didn't seem to mind that weather at all and we had a ton of them. Gave away a ton more.

Same thing with the Beans. I have 4 types out and all of them produced like crazy.

You just never know and that's part of the fun I guess.
I probably would have gotten a lot more done this year already except I've put over 1000 miles on the BigBluePlasticMotorcycle and you can't complain about that.

Here's a couple pictures of my son, DogBoy and his new Girlfriend sharing a cigarette in that afterglow time-

Damn good looking couple, 'eh?

Check out this fine looking thing.







And if you're wondering? No, it's not Photoshopped.

The little shit got that smoke into it's mouth without losing a finger.

Yeah, never a dull moment in that world.

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Evening-
Take the trash out. But be careful!